In This Story
Bryan Johnson, the tech entrepreneur who once had his son’s plasma infused with his blood in an attempt to extend his own life, recently spent $25,000 on stem cell injections intended to rejuvenate his middle-aged joints.
Johnson, 46, has gained increasing prominence due to his highly publicized efforts to live forever — or at the very least slow the aging process. He only eats between 4:30 and 11 a.m., consistently goes to bed at 8:30 p.m. and takes more than 100 pills each day.
Despite these medical interventions, however, Johnson continued to feel the inevitable knee aches and pains that come with aging. In an effort to alleviate this issue, he traveled to the Bahamas last month for his latest experimental procedure, according to a Business Insider report.
Young Swedish volunteers provided Johnson with the requisite mesenchymal stem cells for his knee injections. The procedure generally costs $16,500 per knee, but Johnson paid $25,000 for a package deal, according to Business Insider (INSI). The procedure’s effectiveness wasn’t immediately evident, but Johnson attributes that to overall good health.
“My health biomarkers are already in the top 1% as far as muscle, fat, metabolic health, cardiovascular health, et cetera,” Johnson told Business Insider. “So it’s pretty difficult for my subjective feeling of wellness to improve.”
Stem cell therapy is still in an experimental phase and has not received FDA approval. Experts caution that a flawed stem cell treatment can result in side effects including infections, blindness and potential tumor development. There is also limited long-term research on how stem therapy impacts patients over time.
Johnson, no stranger to experimental procedures, believes that the risk of engaging in these types of treatments is comparable to the risk inherent to being alive.
“Something could of course go wrong, but that’s just life and something could go wrong anyways,” he told Business Insider. “The risk is a nuanced conversation. It’s not clear that this is the higher-risk path. It may in fact be a lower-risk path.”
