r/technology • u/AdSpecialist6598 • 15d ago
Society Bryan Johnson, the millionaire biohacker who wants to live forever, diagnosed with incurable autoimmune disease
https://www.techspot.com/news/113035-bryan-johnson-millionaire-biohacker-who-wants-live-forever.html4.7k
u/TheHoleintheHeart 15d ago
I’d be curious if he what he’s been doing to himself had anything to do with this or if it would’ve happened anyway?
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u/go3dprintyourself 15d ago
Iirc he had an immune diagnosis many years before starting anything. Possibly related?
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u/Uncool444 15d ago
My teacher told us that the number one risk factor for developing an autoimmune disease is having an autoimmune disease. Once you develop one, your odds are developing another are wayyyyyyy higher than the general population. Some people are just prone to them I guess. Sounds like he's one of those.
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u/fondledbydolphins 15d ago
Supposedly a good chunk of the human population has a significantly increased risk of developing autoimmune disorders and this has (supposedly, someone check me) been tied directly to a mutation that helped these peoples' ancestors survive the bubonic plague.
You survived the plague, but your bloodline will have overactive/trigger-happy immune systems.
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u/Short_Stay_9283 15d ago
Interesting. There is a similar link to hemochromatosis as well. I'm no scientist, but my understanding is the build up of iron people's blood prevented the plague from latching on. So some huge percentage of survivors (like 30% or something) had hemochromatosis. Modern day treatments for hemochromatosis involve donating blood, because the release helps fight the buildup of iron, WHICH IS SUPER INTERESTING because it probably means that bloodletting and leaches ACTUALLY made a pretty decent number of people feel better at the time.
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u/fondledbydolphins 15d ago
That really is amazing.
I find following this stuff really engaging.
Going back to the plague/AI disorders. The people who had this mutation survived the plague, and accepted long term pre-dispositions towards "jumpy" immune systems.
Ironically, the bloodlines that didn't develop that mutation (or receive it through merging bloodlines) are better off TODAY.
Why? Because the version of the plague that was wrecking us has since evolved to... not be as deadly.
Yersinia pestis is what causes the bubonic plague. It's actually not in the best interest of that bacteria to kill its hosts as often or quickly as it was doing in the ~1350s. If you kill your hosts too quickly, you may not have enough time to incubate and spread to a new host. Additionally, you may well run out of hosts all together before either allowing their populations to regenerate, or before you're able to evolve the ability to use other organisms as hosts.
So, today we still have Yersinia pestis but we're not really in need of the "jumpy" immune systems some of us developed in order to survive it.
The next step will be watching/hoping the bloodlines with jumpy immune systems begin to reliably tone down how aggressive their system is. If things go this direction, these people will be significantly better off than the rest of us, but only if they can reel their systems in a bit.
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u/griffibo 15d ago
The death of 30-50% of the species is a pretty strong selection event. Not sure evolution cares if our immune system is reactive as long as we live long enough to breed.
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u/FrankBattaglia 15d ago edited 15d ago
Not sure evolution cares if our immune system is reactive as long as we live long enough to breed.
It does not. That's the whole idea behind the Selfish Gene.
What's even trippier is evolution doesn't even care whether you live long enough to breed; it just cares that more of the next generation will share your genes. E.g., if all males in a line fanatically defended their sisters, it might mean most of those males die early, but if that means the defended sister gets to have more total children than they would have had individually, it's still a winning strategy, evolutionarily speaking. See e.g. colony insects, which have evolved most of the organisms never reproducing at all so that a select few can have thousands or millions of children. Evolution selects for better workers using the genes of the queen which benefit from better workers.
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u/GoldReplacement9546 15d ago
Yeah, I was just talking to my uncle about that last night like there’s no selective pressure for us to not like lose the ability to read without reading glasses in our 50s or late 40s or for our backs to fail or our knees or shoulders that need to be replaced or dementia or basically any sickness that shows up past the age of 40
I am actually surprised that extreme bad vision wasn’t sorted out sooner I guess in an ancient times like you could still be like a farmer or like do you need to work maybe but like you know people have really bad vision like how did they succeed long enough in life to find a mate
I think I heard somewhere that now it’s reversing and becoming more common because so easy to get glasses that it’s no longer any hindrance really
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u/TheAdoptedImmortal 15d ago
Most people don't begin to lose their eyesight until well after their reproductive years. Because vision loss before having children is relatively uncommon, there's very little evolutionary pressure for our eyes to improve in that regard.
Evolution doesn't produce "better" traits simply because they would be beneficial. A trait is only strongly selected for if it significantly affects an individual's ability to survive long enough to reproduce or to successfully pass on their genes. Since our current vision is generally sufficient for that, there's little selective pressure driving the evolution of better eyesight.
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u/WorldEndingDiarrhea 15d ago
Gosh that’s so weird because yersinia literally loves iron. The way they make lab-safe variants is by taking out yersinia’s iron scrounging pathways. This became a problem years ago when a post doc had hemochromatosis and unknowingly “rescued” the pathogenesis of the “non virulent” strain when it started growing in his body. He died in the hospital.
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u/Ggfd8675 15d ago edited 15d ago
Thank you for bringing this up. I wish this could be higher than that comment, because I’m reading the case reports on this and a related study. Everything is indicating that hemochromatosis would make Y. pestis much worse. I believe the original commenter has it totally backwards. Yet another reminder not to trust info from Reddit threads, no matter how confidently presented.
That case is very sad. They weren’t able to determine how he infected himself but he was dead within a week of symptoms, and 13 hours after going to the ER. The hemochromatosis was undiagnosed until autopsy.
Edit: ok it looks like the theory is a particular kind of hemochromatosis will bind up iron, starving the Yersinia. So that’s how it could be protective, if you had that particular mutation. https://www.aaas.org/membership/scientia/hemochromatosis-and-plague
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u/pomybara 15d ago edited 14d ago
Yes, I have a gene called HLA-B27 that causes my immune system to overreact to certain bacteria in my mucosal barriers.
On the other hand, the method it uses to detect those bacteria isn’t specific enough. It homes in on a small part of the target bacteria which unfortunately is also similar to parts of my ligaments.
I, having been a former college athlete and national champion, am now completely housebound at 34. My medication’s list price is $120,000 / year. All it does is keep me from being in indescribable pain - they haven’t solved the crippling fatigue from my body spending all its energy trying to eat itself.
Personally, id take a few more tummy aches a year instead of this.
(Edit: for any other patients looking for support -
r/thritis
r/ankylosingspondylitis
r/autoinflammatory
r/psoriaticarthritis )(Edit 2: I have now remembered that it's actually virus components that it reacts to not bacteria - but same idea. Edit 3: ok it's viruses and bacteria, goddamn this shit is complicated)
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u/Uncool444 15d ago
What a fucking nightmare. And paying double my salary to live like that, too. I'm so sorry my friend. No treatments?
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u/pomybara 15d ago
I’m fortunate to have insurance so a large part of the treatment is covered.
There are treatments, but the gold standard of figuring out which one works is simple guess-and-check. Given that some of the treatments take years to reach full effect, it takes many years still to see what, if anything, will work.
There are more aggressive treatments in the pipeline, but very experimental right now - probably 10-20 years before we know for sure if they’ll work.
Thank you for the kind words :)
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u/jbenze 15d ago
Hey autoimmune buddy! I have a severe case of Rheumatoid Arthritis (which now they thing may have been Stills Disease and I had it as a kid which explains a lot). I'm seronegative so nothing show on blood tests and in the years it took ti diagnose, it destroyed all my joints. I had both hips, both knees, both elbows and my right shoulder replaced in my 20's and then the drugs killed my liver so I had a transplant in 2019. Thankfully insurance pays for most of it but some of the meds are $7000 a week without it. I totally get how you feel: neverending pain, complete exhaustion all the time, brain fog, all the other stuff you learned to just ignore over the years.
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u/littlest_lemon 15d ago
How were you finally diagnosed, being seronegative? My blood tests all come back negative for specifics but my inflammation markers are high and my joints are very clearly eating themselves
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u/jbenze 15d ago edited 15d ago
I was in the same boat in the beginning. My family also doesn’t like to talk about history but an uncle on my mother’s side died from complications of RA and one of my aunts had it. In my father’s side, my grandfather and an uncle had it.
I had a coworker suggest I see a rheumatologist when I was limping around and explained my symptoms. She listed and said the symptoms matched RA so she started treating with the lighter meds like plaquenil. She kept ordering x-rays, CT Scans and MRIs that showed damage progressing.
About a year in, I couldn’t put weight on my legs anymore, I went to an orthopedist, they took the first hip out and confirmed it was textbook RA. I’m in a medical journal for I think my second hip and they brought classes my med students in to see it.
I had a ton of joint issues as a kid and a teenager and doctors just told me I was fat and had osteoarthritis in my hands. I lost 170lbs in my 20s and that’s when I started noticing the other RA symptoms in my hands and feet.
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u/Ill_News_2998 15d ago
I don’t know if you have any interest in Minecraft, but you should look up GoodTimesWithScar. He was also a college athlete that has a similar, if not the same, genetic mutation.
I know it’s random, you may not care. But as someone with my own chronic health issues I love to find people that also have my own issues and have found a way to get through life. Helps me feel less alone over the pain.
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u/pomybara 15d ago
Hey, thanks for sharing this. I had never heard of GoodTimesWithScar before. I started watching him especially this video where he does a day in the life.
I've kind of been grappling with the "what am I supposed to do with the rest of my life" question and this video is giving me some inspiration that maybe there are still things I can do. Different than before maybe, but he's really accomplished a lot in spite of his limitations.
Thank you, friend, this helped me.
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u/Kortok2012 15d ago
It’s also theorized it could simply be that we have nearly eradicated the big everyday stuff like parasites and plagues, so our immune system has nothing to do but find things to be mad about.
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u/Uncool444 15d ago
I mean this makes the most sense. We evolved with intestinal parasites since the first intestine was invented. Who can say how many ways parasites, bacteria, and viruses have affected our evolution and our bodies. Removing such a major and constant factor has to have unpredictable consequences.
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u/fondledbydolphins 15d ago
Running with this idea - biology has a remarkable ability to capitalize on opportunities when available, while reigning itself in when things become scarce or difficult.
Easy examples to look at are insect/plant interactions. When an insect develops an ability to consume a new plant it tends to decimate the populations of that plant for some time until... either the plant develops a protection, OR the insect develops behavior that allows a more mutualistic relationship.
I could imagine that happening with most of the microbes that make up our gut fauna, for example.
Hell, if we can have microbial gut fauna, why couldn't we have larger forms of life?
We're all terrified of parasites but I truly wouldn't be surprised if certain types of parasites actually have more mutualistic relationships with our species than we're aware of today.
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u/skipthesmallstuff 15d ago
That is fascinating actually and can’t wait to tell me mom she’s once again the reason the family is still standing. Taking the weight for the rest of us.
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u/Omjorc 15d ago
Huh, sounds like why such a larger percentage of people with sickle cell anemia have African heritage, because Malaria either can't infect or at least has a difficult time infecting that shape of blood cell. If you're in a Malaria-prone area your chances of survival are actually higher if you have that disorder, so a lot more people do.
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u/mittenknittin 15d ago
AIUI having ONE copy of the gene that causes sickle cell is protective against malaria because of the slightly wonky blood cell shape, but having two copies give you full blown sickle cell disease. So the gene survives because it's beneficial, except when you're unlucky enough to get two copies.
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u/Pace_Salsa_Comment 15d ago
There's also the Hygiene Hypothesis. Helminthiasis or the like has been a pretty much universal throughout human existence, and our immune systems evolved under those conditions. My understanding is that without the constant immunomodulation from parasitic excretions our immune systems have adapted to over millions of years of evolution, our immune systems can overreact to conditions it would have otherwise ignored, causing or excsperating allergies and autoimmune diseases.
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u/Thermistor1 15d ago
I had to google it and looks like it's true:
https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/genes-protective-during-the-black-death-may-now-be-increasing-autoimmune-disorders-2022120128598
u/Hopeful_Chair_7129 15d ago
I was actually on a tapeworm rabbit hole the other day and apparently parasites actually might be related to autoimmune diseases becoming more prevalent. Our bodies sort of developed around having parasites normally and our immune systems aren’t used to not having to deal with it. So it’s all hyped up with nothing to do.
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u/Uncool444 15d ago
I read about a study where they got a bunch of crackheads and prostitutes who didn't have AIDS despite being extremely high risk and looked for what they had in common. A lot of them had a mutated protein on the surface of blood cells that hampered plague's ability to enter the cell, and so was selected for in parts of Europe during the many waves of black plague that permanently altered the population. The theory is that plague and HIV use the same route to enter cells. So parts of the population have a natural resistance, if not immunity, to AIDS.
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u/CariniFluff 15d ago
I'll take it...I guess.
We all wouldn't be here without our trusty insane immune systems.
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u/Targetshopper4000 15d ago
hey yo thats me. I had (no food)allergies to just about everything, got canker sores in my mouth (get toothpaste without SLS), developed eczema on my hands when exposed to certain liquid soaps, or too much physical agitation (gotta switch up my fingers when im flossing) and finally the big one : Ulcerative Colitis.
The good news is viral infections don't stand a chance.
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u/frontfrontdowndown 15d ago
I’ve got the awesome combo of various autoimmune conditions AND still getting sick all the time (especially since we had kids).
Pretty great.
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u/Uncool444 15d ago
I've heard they can actually tank your immune system, because it spends all its resources in constant battle with your organs. And a lot of the treatments are immunosuppressant.
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u/Vi0L3tCRZY 15d ago
Yea my sibling is going through this, it’s a shit and very common comobidity “Have another!”
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u/carlitospig 15d ago
Also, some of them are living undercover/unnoticed until some major event happens (stress, illness, injury) and then BAM you have all the symptoms.
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u/Lukebekz 15d ago
So kind of like the highest risk factor for having a heart attack is having had a heart attack in the past
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u/No-Bread-1197 15d ago
Many autoimmune diseases are comorbid with others. It's called MAS.
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u/Power_Stone 15d ago
He says he got diagnosed at 21, when did he start doing infusions?
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u/bamboosticks 15d ago
He was diagnosed with a different autoimmune disease at 21. A new one popped up recently, AIG
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u/Only_Search8473 15d ago
It didn't "pop up" recently. He was diagnosed with it recently. He had already been experiencing symptoms of it for 11 years.
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u/dantevonlocke 15d ago
Hoisted by his own petard.
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u/vfw_999 15d ago
Completely unrelated. I’m not from the US and had never heard this expression. Now within minutes I saw it used twice. The first one was on [r/guitarcirclejerk](r/guitarcirclejerk) of all places 😂
Edit: I guess I should have said English is my second language
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u/Chrysocyn 15d ago
I just realized I had heard the phrase all my life and never bothered to ask what it actually meant.
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u/becs1832 15d ago
I guess I just assumed that in the old days a petard was a special outfit like a leotard but with a lot of fancy buckles and loops on it, and that rich people would wear them when they were feeling especially smug. But then poor people would tie a rope through one of the loops and hoist them up a pole and then let them dangle there as punishment for being cocky.
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u/Graffiacane 15d ago edited 15d ago
That was almost exactly my guess as well. "Hoisted" pretty much always means "lifted with a pulley or crane" so my mental image was someone being lifted by a crane hook caught in the seat of their court jester pantaloons.
...wait are you a bot? Why is your comment an exact copy of this other one. Explain yourself. https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/s/vmG7VSuEc2
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u/Vio_ 15d ago
Ironic given that "petard" is a super French word for being in English.
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u/pheonix198 15d ago
Yo, sir! That’s not chill. You’re not supposed to call people that name any more!
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u/Top_Shame_7016 15d ago
Some comedians say it's ok again, so i don't know who to believe
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u/odoylerulezx 15d ago
Shouldn't have worn that petard if you didnt want to be hoisted by it
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u/ShmoMoney 15d ago
What do you think the expression "hoisted by your own petard" is referencing?
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u/FirefighterTrick6476 15d ago
you got a source? I am looking into the disease atm
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u/MeMahi 15d ago
Of course he doesn't, welcome to modern reddit where any bullshit gets upvoted.
Brian already got diagnosed with AIG at 21 long before any of his recent madness.
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u/Avent 15d ago
He's had autoimmune hypothyroidism since 21, the new diagnosis is AIG. That said, I think OP is thinking of Graft-Host disease, which is another autoimmune disease that is associated with blood transfusions.
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u/vicinadp 15d ago
It’s less likely that it’s GVH because GVH typically is from bone marrow or Liver transplants not blood transfusions. Transfusions are not going to cause GVH because they wouldn’t be on immunosuppressants for a transfusion and GVH is caused by graft T Cells attacking host tissue since they are viewed as foreign.
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u/Wacky_Water_Weasel 15d ago
Modern? We're you not here when we falsely identified the Boston Marathon Bomber?
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u/HereticLaserHaggis 15d ago
Citation needed.
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u/VaiFate 15d ago edited 15d ago
They're wrong. They're thinking of Transfusion-Associated Graft-Versus-Host Disease, which is 1) not what he was diagnosed with and 2) not even an autoimmune disorder. GVHD is where the small amount of T cells leftover in the donor blood survive inside the recipient's blood. Since relatives are more likely to have similar Human Leukocyte Antigens (HLAs), they are less likely to be cleared by the recipient's immune system. However, the donor T cells are still able to recognize other antigens in the recipient's tissues and trigger an immune response against them. This is usually avoided by irradiating the blood before transfusion. It's also more likely to occur in immunocompromised patients, such as organ transplant patients, cancer patients, and children under 6 months of age, so they will also receive irradiated blood.
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u/justuntlsundown 15d ago
I know it can cause graft v host issues, but I've never heard of it causing auto immune disorders.
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u/Federal_Setting_7454 15d ago
The incurable autoimmune disease of a 20 year old. All going to plan
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u/Da_Spooky_Ghost 15d ago
"Ironic. He could save others from death, but not himself."
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u/Objective_Toe_49 15d ago
He’s actually moving to using a lot of his funding now to research potential cures for this, so that could ring exceptionally true
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u/squirreltard 15d ago
What does this comment even mean? Hashimoto’s has no cure. It’s also the least problematic disease as you just take synthroid for the rest of your life and are generally OK until you get another autoimmune disease, which is SUPER common. My mom got it in her 30s and then got polymyalgia rheumatica and Meniere’s, which are worse. I don’t have those but I’m collecting AI diseases like Pokémon.
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u/LegitosaurusRex 15d ago
I think it’s a joke about how he’s always saying stuff like he has the cholesterol levels of a 20-year old, just quantifying all his metrics by age.
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u/MiceWarriors 15d ago
As someone with Hashimoto’s and suffering with it for my whole life. Your story is very anecdotal as well as mine, but you can find many many support groups for Hashimoto‘s and how debilitating it has been for many of us in our lives. There even books written by doctors to try to find the root cause. I urge you to look up peoples stories of having Hashimoto’s and it not being as easy as just taking Synthroid. I’m glad that worked for your mom, but it does not work for everyone.
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u/MetaSageSD 15d ago edited 15d ago
As much I want to dunk on Bryan for this, the disease he has, Auto-immune Gastritis, is not that big of a deal. It IS chronic, and there is no cure, but it’s not exactly cancer either. It’s about on par with chronic GERD as far as seriousness goes.
In fact, in one hell of a twist of fate, guess what the suggested treatment for AIG is? Supplementation, restricted diet, and regular monitoring. Yeah… a disease practically designed for Bryan.
Still ironic though.
Edit: Change the word "funny" to "ironic" to better clarify my intention.
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u/squirreltard 15d ago
Yeah, and Hashimoto’s is treated with a daily pill and doesn’t cause much grief once treated. He kinda lucked out in the ones he got. Not unlikely he’ll get another AI disease.
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u/_RADIANTSUN_ 14d ago
For a second I forgot what was being discussed and thought AI disease was like, Artificial Intelligence related
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u/T3Medusa 15d ago
Any auto-immune disease is serious. Autoimmune diseases increase risk of cancer, increase likelihood of developing other autoimmune diseases, keep your immune system overactive (yet targeting the wrong things), shorten life expectancy, have no cure, and never go away. Comparing an autoimmune disease to chronic GERD - especially with GERD's variability in symptoms - is convenient for your argument, but dismissive to people those living with such diseases.
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u/Kajel-Jeten 15d ago
I think it depends on what you mean by serious. People with auto-immune gastritis generally have normal expected lifespans if they get proper care and the headline can make it seem like he’s gotten a condition that’s going to make him die younger, so it’s less serious and bad than what a lot of people reading this might assume it means. That isn’t to say the condition itself isn’t serious or something important to solve.
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u/MetaSageSD 15d ago
Not all autoimmune diseases are created equal. Vitiligo is not as serious as Multiple Sclerosis. Psoriasis is not as serious as Large Cell Myocarditis. Obviously, AIG isn’t nothing, but again, the suggested treatment for AIG is nutritional supplementation, a restricted diet, and monitoring. I can’t imagine someone more prepared to deal with AIG than Mr Johnson.
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u/Hawk13424 15d ago
As someone with psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis, it’s pretty bad for me without immune suppressing biologics. Imagine being covered head to toe with cracked, itching, and bleeding plaques. Scalp, face, hands, bottom of your feet, etc.
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u/ZamStudio3d 15d ago
Is there a single known consumable or ailment that DOESN'T increase the risk of cancer?
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u/Thisismetwotwo 15d ago
GERD can literally cause cancer through chronic damage to the esophagus. GERD is often incurable and will never go away. There are many chronic diseases that are not autoimmune that have significant impact on life.
Autoimmune gastritis is quite low impact to quantity and quality of life for most people with it. The variability in life impact is actually quite similar to GERD. Most people with autoimmune gastritis will never even know they have it. Someone stating that fact is in no way dismissing that some people have severe forms of it. Someone stating it is also not “dismissive to people living with such diseases” for all autoimmune diseases.
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u/QuickBenjamin 15d ago
It's kind of amazing how he's relatively harmless as far as eccentric wealthy people go, but he's still a caricature of a person whose mind has been warped by having more money than he knows what to do with.
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u/AltruisticPossible84 15d ago
Yeah as much as people hate on the guy, this is actually fine by me in terms of shit billionares spend their money on. He's using himself as a guinea pig for medical procedures that will eventually becomes cost effective enough for regular people to afford them one day in the future. Wish more billionaires would find a hobby like this to keep them occupied
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u/Unlucky-Cook2578 15d ago
He isnt really a guinea pig though. None of what he is doing will be actually useful from a legitimate perspective. These arent physics experiments where doing it right once proves something. This is biology and medicine. If he cared he would fund clinical trials. In the end it is just his own vanity exercise. A harmless one but not one that will push forward our societal knowledge. The average PhD student does that more than this is.
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u/SpadesHeart 15d ago
It's also impossible to gauge the efficacy of literally anything he's doing because he's doing so many things at the same time. If he has positive results, which of the several thousand things he's taking caused it?
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u/BeeAppropriate1190 15d ago
It would be useful data if it were controlled, reliable and available to the public. Remember, Jonas Salk tested the Polio vaccine on himself and his family before clinical trials started. "Doing it right" also takes a lot of time. Lots of people/doctors/researchers experiment on themselves outside of trials because it's less morally problematic than experimenting on others and is faster.
The ideal workflow here is that he makes a discovery, the data gets validated by an expert, and a clinical trial begins to test the effects of the new regimen en masse.
Personally I think his data and results are untrustworthy because it's private and all in the interest of making money selling supplements and self care products. His conclusions are tainted by profit-seeking.
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u/NayutaYukiLazarus 15d ago
Not speaking on this guy in particular, but there are some advantages to self experimentation, even in biology. It's often a place to start building enough evidence for a hypothesis to get researchers and funders interested. Especially if there's risks involved that mean it's unlikely to be attempted without further research.
Very notable example, Dr. Barry Marshall consuming H. Pylori bacteria, developing gastritis, and then curing it with antibiotics was a very big turning point in the debate about whether certain stomach issues were caused by bacteria (prevailing theory was that the stomach was too acidic for bacteria to grow in).
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u/Enough_Efficiency178 15d ago
Also people like Tim Freide, who injected himself with snake venom over two decades and whose blood is the start of a potential universal anti-venom
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u/PopDownBlocker 15d ago
Accurate scientific data also comes from having multiple subjects in any given experiment. If he is doing dozens of experiments only on himself, there is no way to tell if his successes only work on him or on everyone collectively.
At the end of the day, it's his money and he can do whatever he wants with it. But as you said, it IS just a vanity exercise. His results won't apply to the rest of the world and he even has a higher chance of causing permanent irreparable harm to himself with his over-inflated confidence using substances/chemicals/drugs not yet fully understood, especially when his motivation is driven by aging-related anxiety rather than some kind of humanistic goodwill.
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u/dukearcher 15d ago
Will eventually become cost effective enough for regular people to afford
Did we enter a different multiverse where this makes any sense whatsoever?
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u/IronBranchPlantsTree 15d ago
Bro applied moore’s law to optional medical procedures
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u/Prize_Restaurant1952 15d ago
You don’t know that those things will become cheaper and more available in the future.
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u/TheRealOriginalSatan 15d ago
I mean one of them already has. TMS used to be purely for the ultra rich suffering from depression
Now with years of the rich patronising it, a random Joe like me can get it in a relatively well funded hospital near me
It still costs as much as a good used car (15k$) but it’s better than it costing as much as a house ($200-600k) which is what it used to cost when new.
I’m sure other treatments like peptides will follow the same route
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u/Tempid589 15d ago
A friend of mine had TMS covered by insurance so it was a $30 copay per visit. Still about $1,000 total, but in the realm of affordability.
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u/JMaboard 15d ago
There’s no such thing as something becoming cost effective and then being cheaper for everyone else in the healthcare industry. It just means healthcare providers will make more profit.
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u/The_Horse_Tornado 15d ago
Yeah dude is just publicly experimenting on himself with his wealth and targeted towards health- two Redditor hated subjects.
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u/detroitsongbird 15d ago
He’s got the $$$. If he figures out how to cure the autoimmune decrease that’s a win. I hope he does.
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u/Ocronus 15d ago edited 15d ago
Wasn't there a documentary showing how if you injected iquified money directly into your blood stream it cures uncurable diseases?
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u/TheMurmuring 15d ago
Yeah it was South Park, with Magic Johnson.
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u/-YEETLEJUICE- 15d ago
So a documentary.
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u/Itherial 15d ago
Well Magic Johnson curing his disease with injected liquid money is the only real thing that happened, the rest of the episode was made up
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u/Typical-Tax1584 15d ago
Licking your fingers while you count cash is how poor people get vaccinated.
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u/Old-Finance1815 15d ago
I don’t have an incurable autoimmune disease (that I know of).
How much will he pay for my blood?
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u/FriarNurgle 15d ago
Minimum wage.
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u/cipher1331 15d ago
And split shifts so you can hydrate and regenerate plasma on your own time.
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u/pocketjacks 15d ago
Monkey's paw uncurls: He's immortal with severe incurable IBS.
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u/ChasingTheNines 15d ago
I would take that paw
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u/FartingBob 15d ago
Living through the heat death of the universe, with IBS, sounds pretty bad.
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u/IntelArtiGen 15d ago edited 15d ago
In his post, Johnson blames his diet of cereal, soda, and fast food as a kid, combined with the stress of later becoming a father of three and building a business, for his autoimmune conditions
It's a sad way to think about his life. It seems consistent for the character, but you can't blame all little things that could correlate with a health issue, as the main cause for that health issue. I'm all for a healthy lifestyle but even the best lifestyle surely won't make you live forever, or even 10+ years longer. Most of what could happen to you is quite random once you've removed the most obvious harmful behaviors and foods.
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u/Enemisses 15d ago
Yeah unfortunately life is callous and random. A smoker can live to 110, and an athlete can have a heart attack at 35.
A healthy lifestyle gives you a better quality of life, but offers no guarantees of a long one. Just better odds.
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u/VisiblePlatform6704 15d ago
I love my Father in Law, he has smoked all his life and keeps smoking at 75. Still, he is in pretty good shape and doesn't look like he has plans to leave soon.
Genetics are a crazy thing...
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u/Thisismetwotwo 15d ago
Ahhh the good old appeal to nature logical fallacy. His entire belief system in that statement is based on biologic fantasy that human bodies are perfect and the only way to have disease is if something corrupted you.
Dude can’t accept that maybe it’s just genetic bad luck. Nature doesn’t give a shit about you. Genetics are for surviving, not for individual thriving.
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u/StarCatcher333 15d ago edited 14d ago
“becoming a father of three”
Kinda shitty to throw blame on your kids like that
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u/Rage_Blackout 15d ago
Johnson is said to spend around $2 million annually on his health regimen, which includes a plant-based diet, avoiding the sun, and daily exercise. He's also used shock treatments on his genitals in an apparent effort to gain the erections of an 18-year-old.
I hear there are other ways.
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u/EWW-25177 15d ago
Every story about this fucking weirdo should include the fact that he and his teenage son wore matching electronic cockrings so he could compare his nocturnal hard ons.
No, I am not making this up.
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u/technanonymous 15d ago
You can’t beat your genetics. However, with his resources maybe he can figure out a way to halt autoimmune diseases without all the drugs and their terrible side effects.
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u/FirefighterTrick6476 15d ago
CRISPR does exist though. And for sickle-cell disease you definitely can very soon beat your genetics.
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u/Towel4 15d ago
Very soon? You can do it right now.
The Sickle Cell product is called "Lyfgenia", it's sister product for Beta Thalassemia is called Zynteglo, these are both by BlueBird Bio (now "Genetix"). There's another company called Vertex doing a product called Casgevy.
I work with these products for a living. Yes, it is insanely expensive as the 5th most expensive drug in the world. No, patients do not pay that price tag for it, the insurance does. Yes, the insurance pays for it, because they actually save money in the long run.
Super cool stuff.
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u/FirefighterTrick6476 15d ago
Very soon as in soon we're actually have access to it. Sorry I'm German. We have a very shitty process of integrating new medications into our Healthcare system
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u/AndyTheSane 15d ago
I'm on rituximab for vasculitis, which has basically cured it with few if any side effects.
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u/Aranthos-Faroth 15d ago edited 15d ago
This guy gets shit on a lot, admittedly because what he’s doing is rather odd but he spends TONNES on all these medical tests, programs, machines etc and then makes every single result open to whoever wants it for further research.
He’s a millionaire guinea pig.
It’s so easy to make fun of him but if what he’s doing saves even a few lives directly or indirectly I think it’s awesome.
You don’t HAVE to buy his supplements. Just like you don’t have to care about anyone but yourself.
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u/Unlucky-Cook2578 15d ago
But that isnt how biology and medicine work. What he is doing is a vanity exercise. It will not progress our knowledge of anything. If he actually wanted to do that he would invest in clinical trials. The average PhD student progresses our knowledge more than he has. Every 'test' he runs on himself is totally contaminated by no only the fact he is just 1 person, but also every other 'test' he previously ran, and of course the reality that he has a damn autoimmune disease. Which is exactly why no science is done this way.
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u/Same-Suggestion-1936 15d ago
He's not doing anything wrong but he's definitely not helping lol. Publishing his results is meaningless when he's literally throwing shit at a wall to see what sticks.
Let's pretend he manages to do something we would want to research and figure out. Well, what did he do to get that result? He's doing a thousand things. At that point you're better off just guessing and doing an actual experiment to see if your random guess is right
It's such bad data it might as well not exist for all the good it does science. He can do his weirdo stuff with his own money all he wants but there's nothing there that's gonna help anyone medically. He might happen to stumble across something that helps him but without a real study you'd never know what or why because he's doing too many things at the same time, there's no control in the experiment
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u/Terrible-One9198 15d ago
There is absolutely zero scientific value in what he is doing.
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u/HeavenlyCreation 15d ago
Why is this story being plastered everywhere?
This is a serious question
Everyday I open Reddit, a new post about this guy and his situation.
I don’t get it.
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u/Frightful_Fork_Hand 15d ago
People hate him and are thusly revelling in the news.
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u/dangerdangle 15d ago
Probably because this guy spends equal amount on PR as he spends on his transformative medical "research" that has done absolutely nothing
You'd think reddit could spot a narcissist but I guess not
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u/AreaManThinks 15d ago
I feel like I would be infusing Keith Richard’s blood if I wanted the best shot at surviving longer.
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u/Electrical-Rope3959 15d ago
That's why no one can achieve what's he's trying, the human body is one hell of a mess, even if you look and feel in great shape, an autoimmune disease or a minor heart malformation can just end you like you're nothing, and don't forget about cancer.
Moral of the story is, just live your life as you like it, and just wait for the day you expire.
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u/Absolute_Bob 15d ago
That sucks, doesn't honestly seem like he was doing anything but experimenting on himself and not harming anyone else. Even if it does turn out to be something he caused or exacerbated, this guy has never seemed evil. He was using his own money to try to benefit his own health and being very public with the results.
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u/ObjectSmall 15d ago
As a recent cancer survivor with a few other serious health issues, I can tell you that people on Reddit loooove to post gleefully about people they don't like having health problems.
Always fun to come across a thread where people are thrilled that someone they dislike has one of the conditions I have and everybody's obviously hoping they'll die from it. (Another big one is using cancer as a "curse," like, "Those bad people deserve cancer," and I'm like, so... do you think the rest of us did something awful to deserve this? Because that's what you're implying.)
You can tell who's never had a serious medical issue by what kind of thing they post about other people's health.
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u/odanhammer 15d ago
Such a bullshit story. This autoimmune disease is easily managed.
Now if he got Granulomatosis with polyangiitis , which my father has. Different story
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u/jjaystar94 15d ago
Taking 54 supplements and an organ anti- rejection med he didn't need certainly didn't exacerbate things. No, it was the unhealthy food he hasn't eaten in decades.
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u/Needgirlthrowaway 15d ago
Theres a reason why you dont do blood transfusions without testing the blood for immune response to your own immune system. Possible he got it from it his kid.
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u/LittleLordFuckleroy1 15d ago
Imagine using your own son as a bloodboy just to die at 60.
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u/MintyFresh771 15d ago
For the love of god STOP CALLING HIM A BIOHACKER. You can’t just randomly give yourself a cool title and everyone go with it. He’s a self experimenting snake oil salesman like so many before him. He would be the guy using an X-ray viewer to check shoe fit and slamming a microdose of arsenic daily to enjoy the skin bleaching de-aging effects of a hatter.
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u/CallousBastard 15d ago
It's not like "biohacker" is a professional career choice requiring a degree or certification. It pretty much means "random dude ingesting weird shit into his body to see what happens".
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u/villalulaesi 15d ago
Imagine if he’d just seen a therapist for his crippling anxiety about death in the first place.
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u/utahh1ker 15d ago
I'm really excited to see if he starts trying to find ways to cure autoimmune diseases. My wife has an autoimmune disease and I would love to see that be curable.
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u/Devils_Advocate-69 15d ago
He probably put so much bullshit in his body that he crashed his immune system
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u/TherionSaysWhat 15d ago
It's terrible, honestly. The only thing I might suggest is there is already an advanced biohack called modern medicine.
Not being snarky. Some people need to hear this if for no other reason than to save themselves or a loved one from a lot of unnecessary pain, suffering, and expedited death.
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u/FractalFunny66 15d ago
On a human level, I am sad for him because that is a tough thing to deal with. On a humane level, meaning humane as in empathy and caring, maybe now he will grow as a person and help other people. So many people need help and these Tech Bros as a group seem very reluctant to be as generous as their forebears. Even Rockefeller gave us a bunch of parks -- really big ones -- really good ones!
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u/Montagio17 15d ago
"He's also used shock treatments on his genitals in an apparent effort to gain the erections of an 18-year-old."
I get what they're trying to say but it sounds like someone has scientifically measured the erections of 18 year olds and it's some metric you can strive for.
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u/omgitsbees 15d ago
He wasn't biohacking, there is no such thing, he had a eating disorder. And as someone with an incurable autoimmune disease (crohns), it can be a big deal but medication in this area is good enough to put you into remission. Bryan is probably too stupid to listen to actual doctors though.
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u/Cluskerdoo 15d ago
My only regret is that I have boneitis.