#360 He Takes 105 Pills a Day to Reverse Aging - Reviewing Bryan Johnson Supplement Stack

Siim Land (0:00)

Bryan Johnson is the world's most qualified person. He spends nearly two million dollars a year trying to reverse his biological age. I've made a few videos about his routine in terms of diet and exercise, but Bryan Johnson also takes many different kinds of supplements. In fact, he takes up to 105 different pills per day. So in this video, we're going to take a look at his supplementation routine, and I'm just going to give my own thoughts and opinions about what he's taking.

So Bryan Johnson's blueprint or the protocol that he's following is actually publicly available. It's at blueprint.brianjohnson.co. So here's the supplement. Like I said, he takes about 105 different pills per day, which is quite a lot upon waking. After waking up, he takes a Carbose 200 milligrams, which is a prescription, let's say, diabetic drug. And mostly it's done to regulate blood sugar levels and reduce hemoglobin A1C. And the mechanism by which a Carbose works is through slowing down carbohydrate digestion. From a longevity side, of course, reducing blood sugar levels and hemoglobin A1C is quite important. But there are like some mouse studies as well showing how the Carbose can actually result in increasing median, at least the males, median lifespan by 22 percent and in females by only five percent. So there's a much significant lifespan extension effect in male mice compared to female mice. A lot of these different longevity supplements and interventions actually have a much more significant effect in males than in females. And so this is not the only one, actually. But the Carbose also has potential negative side effects. And one of the main ones is actually that you can decrease muscle mass and muscle function in patients with type two diabetes. Now, of course, people with type two diabetes already are at a risk of higher sarcopenia and muscle loss and frailty. But apparently, based on this retrospective cross-sectional study, they found that a Carbose treatment was associated with decreased muscle mass and strength. This is something that everyone has to think if it is worthwhile for them to take a Carbose. I personally am not taking a Carbose decrease in muscle mass and strength, hand grip strength, et cetera, and gait speed. Actually, all those things are one of the biggest predictors of longevity and reduced mortality in humans. If you are a diabetic, then of course, it's better to manage your blood sugar and manage diabetes with prescription drugs. But if you are like someone who is Bryan Johnson who doesn't have diabetes, I personally don't see a practical benefit of taking something like Metformin or a Carbose. And of course, there's also some other less dangerous side effects. So a Carbose as well as Metformin, they can have like some gastrointestinal side effects. At least in this study, they found that a Carbose led to mild or moderate intestinal symptoms in 50 percent of the patients within the first four weeks, but in only 13.8 percent of the patients within the last four weeks. So initially, there appears to be like some sort of adaptation period that initially you get some gastrointestinal symptoms. Next supplement on the list is going to be Ashwagandha 600 milligrams. It does have a lot of these adaptogenic effects. So it helps to improve stress resilience, reduce cortisol levels. And there is actually a pretty solid evidence that it does help to raise testosterone levels as well. There is, however, some like a segment of people online that I've noticed who share their anecdotal experience, that they experience this under under anonia or this somewhat of a serotonergic effect that it makes them a bit more dull and makes them a bit more, let's say, less in touch with their emotions. Now, personally, I am I'm not taking Ashwagandha B complex vitamin B complex. So if you don't know, then Bryan Johnson is eating like, oh, yeah, 99 percent vegan diet. The only animal protein that he consumes is collagen peptides. So he takes 10 to 15 grams of collagen peptides in his morning shake. So the B complex makes sense. Brocumax. So this is a sultherapin booster. I do think that sultherapin supplements are pretty powerful as a way to boost glutathione. Now, he's eating a lot of cruciferous vegetables already. I'm not sure if it is like or how much of an effect would adding a sultherapin supplement twice a day even for him have because, yeah, he's eating already a lot of cruciferous vegetables and all these meals are pretty much packed with all these antioxidants from these plant foods. So, yeah, I would like to know, like, if he knows, like, how much of a difference does this actually play for someone like the average person who is eating like the standard American diet, then a sultherapin booster probably have a much bigger effect. Vitamin C 500 milligrams or same question. He's eating plant based. He's getting a ton of vitamin C. So I don't know what's the effect size that he's expecting to get from this vitamin C because antioxidant supplementation alone hasn't been found to have any lifespan extending effects even in animal models that much. And in some animal models, inhibiting the antioxidant defense mechanism actually extends their lifespan. So it's not that you need to reduce the oxidative stress and inflammation all the time. And in some studies, they find actually that antioxidant supplementation like vitamin C, vitamin E and vitamin A is actually associated with increased mortality risk. So I personally believe that not all oxidative stress and not all inflammation is bad. You do need actually some of the inflammation oxidative stress to turn on your body's own antioxidant defense systems like glutathione. But vitamin C in smaller doses, good for collagen synthesis. So vitamin C is actually the nutrient needed to initiate collagen synthesis. So a person who is under like chronic inflammation and chronic oxidative stress, for them, 500 milligrams of vitamin C might make sense. But for someone like Bryan Johnson, I would suspect that he would be getting away with even like 50 milligrams, which is enough for the collagen synthesis. So next up is calcium alpha-glutalate. This is actually one of the like a new superstar in the longevity supplement sphere, because this 2021 study found that rejuvant, which is the calcium alpha-glutalate, it did result in eight years reduction in biological age in humans after an average of seven months of use. And this is actually quite profound results. Of course, this is the only human study we have right now. In other animals, the calcium AKG does extend their lifespan as well. And this human study at least supports that it does reduce the biological age based on this test. But the issue with these tests is that it doesn't really tell you your biological age. It only tells you one specific aspect of your biological age, which is the DNA methylation. So DNA methylation measures your epigenetic changes. But there's also like, you know, nine other hallmarks of aging that matter, like senescence, telomere length, mitochondrial function, etc. So it's not that this one particular biomarker, the DNA methylation, immediately tells you your entire age. So that's a bit misleading. And I talked with Matt Kaverland as well on my podcast, and he agrees with that, that these epigenetic biological clock tests, they only measure like one specific aspect of longevity and aging. So it's a viable biomarker for sure. It can be used similar. You would use like blood work or telomere length, etc. But it doesn't tell you your overall biological age. When I did do the DNA methylation test that measured your epigenetic age, then it did show that I was nine years younger. When I did the test, I was 25 and my results were 16 Coco flavanols, 500 milligrams, cocoa, dark chocolate, raw cacao powder is actually very good for the polyphenols. In 2022, the COSMOS trial, they used the cocoa supplement, which showed that cocoa extract supplementation, it didn't significantly reduce total cardiovascular events among older adults, but it reduced cardiovascular disease death by 27 percent. So of course, death is the final outcome that you want to avoid. Although it didn't reduce the events of cardiovascular disease, but they did reduce the amount of deaths by 27 percent, which I think is still obviously a good win. But I do take dark chocolate and cocoa flavanols as well every day. D3, vitamin D3, two dozen I use. I think that's a good baseline dose to take. And vitamin D3 supplementation is associated with reduced mortality. You don't get all the benefits of sunlight from the D3 supplement. So you still want to get exposure to actual sunlight.