How billionaire Bryan Johnson is trying to ‘live forever’

American billionaire and entrepreneur Bryan Johnson has made a number of headlines recently for pouring millions of dollars into his efforts to "live forever".

Johnson, 47, is known for his obsession with longevity. On 1 January 2025, he released a Netflix documentary titled Don’t Die: The Man Who Wants to Live Forever, which details his anti-ageing crusade.

Speaking to The Independent, Johnson explained how he arrived at his goal of trying to become 18 again. When building his startup just over 10 years ago, he struggled with "self-destructive behaviours" due to depression and the challenges of being a founder and a father.

"I would routinely commit self-destructive behaviours, and specifically in the evening at seven o’clock, I would try to soothe my stress by eating food. And that caused me to gain a lot of weight, and that caused me to not sleep very well, which then caused me to not feel very well in life."

This served as the catalyst for Johnson to change his life, and he decided he wanted to create a system "that takes better care of me than I could of myself". He built a medical suite in his home in California and hired a team of 30 doctors to look after specific areas of his health.

Since then, Johnson claims that his biological age has been reduced by five years. Here’s everything we know about all the ways Johnson is trying to live forever.

Bryan Johnson’s restrictive vegan diet

Johnson is a proud member of the "5am Club", a concept introduced by leadership expert Robin Sharma and adopted by a number of entrepreneurs who believe waking up at 5am or earlier makes them more productive.

He then gives himself a small five-hour time frame to eat all his food for the day, between 6am to 11am.

On X, fans asked him to clarify whether his last meal of the day really takes place at 11am or if it was a typo on Blueprint, Johnson’s company which he launched in 2021. He wrote back: "My final meal of the day is at 11am. I eat between 6-11am."

Within this period, Johnson has said he starts his day with a "Green Giant" drink, which consists of supplements such as creatine, collagen peptides and chlorella. He then typically eats a "Super Veggie" blended dish that consists black lentils, broccoli, cauliflower, mushrooms, and more, followed by a "Nutty Pudding" that includes macadamia nut milk, walnuts, chia seeds, flaxseeds, berries, and cherries.

For his third and last meal of the day, Johnson chooses between an asparagus, almond and beet salad, an orange fennel salad, or a stuffed sweet potato. Each dish is 500 calories, according to his Blueprint website.

Perhaps more important than his food are his supplements. Johnson takes a huge number of supplements at different times of the day. These include 20 pills when he wakes up and 11 more pills with his "dinner".

Some supplements are more recognisable than others, such as glucosamine, zinc, and melatonin. But many come in the form of mixes and blends under Johnson’s Blueprint brand.

Bryan Johnson’s exercise regime

Exercise is a huge priority for Johnson, as he carries out a variety of strength training, high intensity interval training, and endurance training exercises six out of seven days a week.

Detailing his daily workout programmes, Johnson said that exercising everyday "is one of the most powerful things you can do for health and longevity".

He starts his week off with 20 minutes of strength training and 25 minutes of moderate intensity exercises like brisk walking or slow jogging, cycling, swimming or elliptical. The next day, Johnson focuses on high intensity interval training combined with moderate intensity exercises.

The following days involve a combination of these exercises. On the seventh and last day of the week, he practices "active recovery" which involves 35 to 50 minutes of gentle yoga or stretching and mindfulness meditation.

Bryan Johnson’s anti-ageing treatments

According to reports, Johnson spends US$2 million a year on his mission to stop ageing, putting himself through numerous treatments and experiments, from using his teenage son’s blood plasma to injecting "300 million young Swedish bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells" in order to de-age his joints.

Last week, Johnson came under fire for sharing his "nighttime erection data" and comparing it with data collected on his 19-year-old son, Talmadge. Writing on the platform X, formerly Twitter, Johnson said: "His duration is two minutes longer than mine. Raise children to stand tall, be firm and be upright."

Numerous X users were mortified that Johnson shared data about his son’s nighttime erections. One person wrote: "Bro, delete this. This is not a thing that normal people post." However, in a post on his own X account, Tamalge defended his father and said he is "grateful for the way my dad has raised me".

Johnson’s most recent experiment is to carry out what he calls a "total plasma exchange". Posting a photograph of himself on X holding a large bag full of yellow-ish liquid, he explained that he is "no longer injecting [his] son’s blood]" and instead plans to replace the plasma in his body.

On top of plasma exchanges and stem cell injections, Johnson also regularly undergoes blood tests, MRIs, colonoscopies, and ultrasounds to monitor his vital signs and get more insight on what goes on in his body.

He also focuses on his appearance, using an all-over skin laser treatment to reduce his skin age. Johnson told the BBC he has successfully reduced his skin age by 22 years.

However, not all of Johnson's experiments have been successful - with some proving to be dangerous. He said his efforts to swap plasma with his son did not have any effect. Meanwhile, last November, Johnson admitted that an attempt to inject fat into his cheeks resulted in an allergic reaction that left him unable to see.

Johnson said he had lost so much body fat that his face appeared gaunt, so this was an effort to gain a more youthful appearance. In "project baby face", he injected fat from a donor, but his body rejected it.

"Immediately following the injections, my face began to blow up," he wrote in an Instagram post. "And then it got worse, and worse, and worse until I couldn't even see. It was a severe allergic reaction... Seven days later my face was back to normal. We were back in the trenches reformulating plans for our next attempt."

Read more about longevity:

• Richard Branson reveals why he won't use the word 'longevity' (Yahoo Life UK, 3-min read)

• Longevity expert urges people to make three simple changes to ‘add years to your life’ (SurreyLive, 3-min read)

• Secret to long and healthy life more down to genes than diet – research (PA Media, 4-min read)