Biohacker Bryan Johnson has admitted he may have "taken this whole longevity thing too far" after revealing he has been diagnosed with an incurable autoimmune disease.
The 48-year-old entrepreneur has spent millions of dollars on one of the world's most extreme anti-ageing routines, including swallowing more than 100 pills a day and receiving blood plasma from his teenage son.
"Been thinking things over and wonder if I've taken this whole longevity thing too far," Johnson wrote on X.
The admission came nearly a month after he disclosed he is suffering from autoimmune gastritis (AIG). At the start of July, he told followers: "My stomach is eating itself."
AIG affects around 2 percent of people, though many cases go undiagnosed because symptoms can be mild or absent in early stages. Johnson said he was only diagnosed in May this year and is unsure how long he has had the condition.
"AIG causes irreversible damage, nutritional deficiency, anaemia, and over a long horizon, elevated cancer risk," he said.
A history of health struggles
Johnson traced the origins of his health problems to childhood, when he ate fast food and sugary foods. He said he had a few healthy years in his 20s before his health declined as he became a father and built a business.
"Within a few years I'd fallen into a deep, chronic depression," he said. "Somewhere in that timeline, my body began developing an autoimmune process affecting my thyroid and then my stomach lining."
He was first diagnosed with hypothyroidism at age 21 and managed the condition for nearly three decades. The AIG diagnosis came after he overhauled his medical team this year as part of a $1 million-per-year longevity programme called "Immortals Care."
Tests including a bi-directional endoscopy and blood biomarkers showed elevated levels of anti-parietal cell antibodies. A stomach biopsy confirming weakening of the stomach lining sealed the diagnosis.
Experimental treatment planned
Johnson said he and his team plan to pursue experimental approaches to try to cure the disease, including targeting immune system proteins, rebuilding regulatory T-cells, and performing engineered cell therapy.
"There's no approved cure for autoimmune gastritis today," he said, adding that their attempts would be entirely new. He expressed confidence the goal was achievable, saying no condition should be presumed incurable "simply because no one has yet tried to cure it with today's stack."
His admission drew a range of responses from followers. Some questioned whether an obsession with living longer can overshadow life itself, while others encouraged him to continue his anti-ageing work.
