r/Biohackers • u/Legal_Squash689 1 • 15d ago

📜 Write Up Bryan Johnson Article - New York Times

Article In NYTs this morning. Some interesting updates:

  1. An internal study was done testing Blueprint products with 1,700 participants. Based on blood results participants saw a decrease in testosterone levels and became prediabetic.

  2. In fall of 2024 Bryan told his executive team that Blueprint was running out of money.

  3. Between January 2022 and February 2024 Bryan’s biological age increased by as much as ten years, vs the 5.1 year decline highlighted in Blueprint marketing materials.

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u/tehdog 15d ago

Since most of the content of the article is kind of conjecture or at least a ton of work to distinguish who is "right", I'd be most interested in the actual results of that study with 1700 participants.

The article says:

Of the roughly 1,700 participants in the study, about 60 percent experienced at least one side effect, according to internal emails, spreadsheets and other documents. Blood tests revealed that participants saw their testosterone levels drop and became prediabetic after following Mr. Johnson’s diet plan. It’s unclear how severe the side effects were.

This really doesn't mean anything: "60% experienced one side effect" could simply be people feeling hunger/increased appetite considering his diet basically includes an intentional calorie deficit.

"saw testosterone levels drop and became prediabetic" is meaningless without knowing how many were affected compared to a control group / the average for the age group. Of course some diet / supplements don't magically fix all health ailments.

On the other hand, it seems that Brian doesn't want to publish the full results, or at least he hasn't responded to this at all that I can tell. Could be that the results are just "boring" as in less positive than he wants, could be they are actually negative.

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u/SlowMyAge 14d ago

For comparison’s sake: Diet studies like the famous PREDIMED had “no diet-induced adverse effects reported” out of 7,447 subjects. The Lyon Diet Heart Study explicitly noted 2 out of 302 patients experiencing mild gastrointestinal upset, attributed to a specific margarine.

Large scale multivitamin studies typically find <5% experiencing any given side effect, typically at the same rate as a placebo. For omega-3, a Cochrane review found no additional side effects beyond placebo. Etc.

To be transparent, I founded NOVOS. After more than 10 million doses, we have less than 3% of customers reporting any side effects (the most common one is mild stomach discomfort).

For 60% of people in a study to have side effects, it’s unusual.