Longevity entrepreneur Bryan Johnson shared some bad news on social media recently. “I have an autoimmune disease. My stomach is eating itself,” he wrote on X. The good news? “I’m going to try and solve it.”
The disease in question is autoimmune gastritis, a chronic inflammatory condition in which antibodies destroy acid-producing cells in the stomach, which prevents people from absorbing iron. It’s not in itself a fatal disease, but it is linked to an increased risk of stomach cancer and, eventually, to deficiencies in vitamin B12, which in turn causes anemia and neurological complications.
Autoimmune gastritis affects an estimated 4% of people worldwide, but it may be more common than we know: Experts say the disease is notoriously difficult to diagnose, and that gastroenterologists often fail to recognize it in patients. Now it’s in the spotlight thanks to Johnson, an unexpected spokesperson for any kind of disease, given the extreme measures he takes to protect and maintain his health. A 48-year-old multimillionaire biohacker whose Blueprint startup sells supplements, red-light laser therapy baseball caps to reverse hair loss, and other longevity-related wares, he’s also the founder of what he describes as a religion called Don’t Die. In recent years, Johnson has accumulated millions of social-media followers and grabbed national headlines with his longevity efforts, at one point getting blood plasma transfusions from his teenage son.Johnson’s announcement is a reminder that no matter how much anyone strives to optimize their health, “you really can’t biohack your way completely out of disease or death,” said Jennifer Dowd, a professor of demography and population health at the University of Oxford.
