1. He seems to have an awful lot of referral links - $60 for a bottle of olive oil? 2. He has not posted why is his regime like that - e.g. "Here is a paper about iron deficiencies, so I'm taking an iron supplement". 3. 90% of his website is "look at how dense my bones are", "look at how healthy my liver is" - bro I just wanted to see the actual regime, and you can't even post that.
Looks like just another scam artist to sell stuff
Personally, I try not to throw out accusations about people when I'm this unfamiliar with their background. I'd encourage you to consider a similar habit :)
How does that background translate to any kind of scientific competence? Because his website is heavy on the buzzwords and the Silicon Valley "glorious future"-talk and remarkably light on anything resembling responsible science.
He clearly doesn't want to advance knowledge about longevity, he wants to be the world's top longevity marketer and salesman. It's just a business long shot to him. And yes, that is perfectly congruent with his background.
It seems that Jobs is way more successful than him. Should we follow his fruit diet?
Personally, I have taken few things from his routine and double-checked it with other sources and more importantly found much cheaper products/things locally than the ones that are advertised (even though, most of them are fine anyways such as in Skincare he uses standard Cerave stuff).
Do note that this is -one- guy trying basically everything that seems plausible. It would likely result in frequently switching up things that are not researched well.
His website is full of "look at my amazing results!", which makes for good marketing talk but does not good science make and is not good nor helpful for people who are trying to separate what works from what doesn't - but is great for Mr. Johnson' budding supplement business's baseline.
Any you feel comfortable sharing?
Overall I think he's legit, but also weird. It could be "rich guy weird" or "on the spectrum weird", doesn't really matter. Either way, I'm mostly taking him seriously now, with caveats.
The biggest caveat being, of course, that it's a study with a sample size of 1. A very in-depth study, but the applicability is limited. For example if you look at the list of supplements, there are quite a few which are obviously there because he's a vegan.
This is also related to why his protocol isn't explained in detail - it's ongoing and result-based. He may try something, see if it works, and stick it in the protocol. Supporting studies are useless for this modus operandi - he's not trying to convince you that particular supplement is good for you. All he's doing is risk-benefit calculations for his particular case. Which means that yes, he'll have a bunch of stuff which maybe work for everybody, or maybe work for him, or maybe random noise just made them look like they work for him but are actually useless. Or worse, stuff which can be actively harmful, but he was lucky or just very healthy otherwise and didn't see the damage.
This is clearly a man who wants a cult-like mentality to form around him.
If he were just going ridiculously in-depth with his self-research and being open and honest about this, I'd actually admire him a lot, but it's all the grandiose talk about "Zeroth principles thinking" and "Aligning with what the 25th century would want" together with implying his detractors must be weak, scared and lacking in self-control that turns me off heavily.
https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fnetstorag...
What is he doing?
For non-invasive skincare he does daily face-wash, moisturizing creams (face and body), application of creams containing Vitamin C, E, B3 and more. Personally, it is enough to apply some moisturizer (for face and body) and UV-protective cream. If you want really smooth/clean face then you can look into getting some retinol/retinoid - the stronger the better the effect as long as your skin can tolerate (so requires experimentation). Stick to proven brands such as Cerave, Eucerin and few other big ones.
For more invasive procedures he does microneedle and laser procedures. Both operate on principle of basically causing controlled damage on the skin to force your body to repair it. I used to have some stretch marks that were repaired using CO2 laser. Before trying to do any of this - consult your local dermatologist if you have something that bothers you on the skin, however. These procedures can be costly, requires after-care and obviously should be performed by certified professionals.
He also does microbotox injections to clear any pores. In my opinion this is now veering off more to cosmetic enhancement with fillers and the like.
1. First of all is that he talks significantly more about the supposed results of his program than he does about why his program is like that or even what does his actual program consist in. You will notice that nowhere at all is the actual "program" explained or even described in its entirety. As has been mentioned, all of his content is about "wow, look how amazingly strong I am" or "wow, look at my amazing metabolism" but none of it is actionable content beyond telling people to buy his shit.
2. Speaking of "telling people to buy his shit", once you get beyond the amazingly extensive wall of "wow, look how amazing my results are", his website looks remarkably like every single other unproven supplement peddler out there. I am looking at his website right now as I write this and the number of supplements he sells himself has, in fact increased greatly. He has gone from the $60 olive oil which was his original product to a branded line of spreads, drink mixes, and whatever else to the point that he's starting to look a lot like the Liver King (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKpmAGZQetc), if more "creepy 50 year-old trying to look like a teenager" than Liver King's "creepy 50 year-old trying to look like a jacked piece of salami"
3. While I admire Mr. Johnson's willingness to self-test unproven treatments supposedly in order to figure out if they actually work for himself, his website is remarkably light on warnings on which treatments are actually unproven and which might actually carry some level of danger. The amount of warning on unproven and unlicensed therapies in his website amounts to a single footnote very well hidden under a gigantic wall of "wow, look how amazing my test results are and how impressive my wall of supplements is!"
4. Speaking of his test results, early on Mr. Johnson actually used to talk about challenges, things that went wrong or even just "not so great". As time went on, it's all rah-rah "look at how amazing I am! My measurements are better than an Olympic athlete!!". And while I truly do hope Mr. Johnson's (unexplained, just-so) protocol is just that great, it does seem a lot like peddling his olive oil and whatever else would suffer if he were to say that anything he did was anything beyond perfect.
5. Oh god, the "philosophy" parts. I really want to talk as little as possible about this one, because it's all vapid bullshit and even talking too much about it helps it spread - in fact Mr. Johnson is well-known for actively courting Twitter drama as a way to strengthen his brand. (It should be a well-known fact by any human being living in the 21st century that controversy will make grifters stronger in the short run). His rant on how he is somehow going from "First Principles thinking" to "Zeroth principle thinking", which is "the base of genius" can compete with anything written by any "motivational guru" who talks about "quantum healing" to large audiences... Including a part where he says that anyone who doubts him and his protocol must be weak, miserable, scared of being left behind, afraid of change, and lacking self-control. Wow.
6. Now, let's look at what all this high-minded philosophical talk builds up to. Well, it seems that somehow Mr. Johnson's protocol will help you resist "corporate profiteering at your detriment" and also stop us from "destroying the biosphere" by "aligning us with what the 25th century would value". Huh. Ok, seems pretty great. How can we get there, Mr. Johnson?
It would have been hard to predict the books that would be written with the introduction of the printing press; or what the internet would enable. The same principle applies to what the human race can become when paired with the torrid wave of technological and scientific progress. We can take baby steps as we work on stretching our imaginations:
Week 1: drink the Green Giant (GG) daily.
Week 2: GG + Super Veggie (SV) daily.
Week 3: GG + SV + Nutty Pudding (NP) daily.
Week 4: GG + SV + NP + supplements daily.
I rest my case.
Part of his protocol is caloric restriction coupled with very specific exercise and intermittent fasting. According to his published health data he is extremely healthy! His YT channel [1] is also pretty interesting, if mildly cult-like.
[0] - https://protocol.bryanjohnson.com/ [1] - https://www.youtube.com/@BryanJohnson/videos