Bryan Johnson, a 45-year-old biotech founder, hopes to rewind the clock of his body a few decades through a program he started, called Proje...
- Bryan Johnson is a 45-year-old multi-millionaire who is attempting to slow down his aging process.
- His latest venture involves getting blood plasma from his 17-year-old son, Bloomberg reported.
- Johnson also gave blood to his own father, completing the trigenerational-blood exchange.
It's not often that a parent asks for a huge favor from their teenage kid. Sure, washing the dishes may be well within the abilities of a 17-year-old — but what about spending hours at a wellness clinic donating blood for your dad?
The ultra-wealthy tech entrepreneur Bryan Johnson, 45, recently recruited his 17-year-old son, Talmage, and his 70-year-old father, Richard, to join him in a trigenerational-blood exchange, Bloomberg reported.
In April, the trio visited Resurgence Wellness, a futuristic-looking medical spa in Arlington, Texas. Talmage Johnson got a liter of his blood removed — about a fifth of the blood in his entire body — and separated into parts before the plasma was reinfused into his father.
Bryan Johnson then donated a liter of blood products to his 70-year-old father — and no one donated blood back to the 17-year-old. One can only speculate about how Johnson pitched the idea to his kin, who seemed to be up for the task.
The tech entrepreneur is known for his expensive antiaging routine
This isn't the first time Bryan Johnson has made headlines with wild antiaging ideas, though as far as we know, it's the first time he's brought his son, who isn't old enough to buy a pack of cigarettes, into his theories.
Johnson made his fortune as the founder of Braintree, a web and mobile-payment company that acquired Venmo and was later sold to PayPal.
Nowadays, he's better known for spending at least two million dollars a year chasing the fountain of youth.
According to a Bloomberg Businessweek article, Johnson's newest venture, "Project Blueprint," involves doing everything possible to reverse the aging process. This includes following strict dietary guidelines, a rigid schedule for sleep and exercise, frequent medical exams, and following the advice of a 29-year-old doctor who finished medical school right before the pandemic.
To top it off, it appears his quest to stay young now also involves infusions of "young blood" — a practice that is so far scientifically unproven, and which the FDA does not recommend.
Some studies in rodents have suggested that older mice that share blood and organs with their younger counterparts may experience a reverse-aging effect, though these studies are also controversial. But there's no evidence to suggest that such an exchange would work in humans, and researchers have previously told Insider that the practice could have dangerous side effects, such as a strong immune reaction.
Bloomberg reported that the entrepreneur had visited the wellness clinic several times to receive blood plasma from a young, anonymous donor whose health data was screened before deciding to get blood from his son instead.
Plasma donors normally receive $100 in gift cards for the procedure though it costs roughly $5,500 to complete, Bloomberg reported.
But Johnson didn't put a price tag on his son's plasma, at least not to our knowledge. In this case, all Talmage got was fatherly love — and the knowledge that he's putting the rest of our Father's Day gifts to shame.
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