(Photo: Bryan Johnson: Hubert Vestil/SXSW Conference & Festivals/Getty Images; Uphill runner: Fond, Magnus/Getty; Design: Ayana Underwood/Canva)
Bryan Johnson, the tech millionaire who has spent a reported $2 million per year trying to reverse his own aging, announced last week that he has been diagnosed with autoimmune gastritis. He described it, with the bravado that has made him famous: “My stomach is eating itself.” He is 48 years old, has said he hopes to reach 160, and stated earlier this year that his goal by 2039 is immortality.
As a doctor, I read the announcement from a specific vantage point. I study longevity science and work as a hospital-based physician, which means I spend part of my week working on how to give people more years and the other part at the bedside when the years run out. Johnson’s diagnosis itself is manageable and well-studied. What interests me is the story Johnson told about how he got it, because the science tells a different one.
Autoimmune gastritis (AIG) is a chronic, progressive disease in which the immune system attacks the stomach cells that make acid. “‘My stomach is eating itself,’ is not exactly accurate,” Dr. Supriya Rao, a board-certified gastroenterologist and assistant professor at Tufts University School of Medicine, told Outside. What actually happens is slower and more specific—the immune system attacks the stomach lining, shutting down acid production and the intrinsic factor needed to absorb B12. The lining thins over time, in a process called atrophy, and can turn into intestinal-type tissue that no longer works like stomach cells.
Johnson traces his diagnosis to childhood sugar consumption and a hard, stressful decade. But the arc runs backward. He already had autoimmune thyroid disease diagnosed at 21, a sign his immune system was primed to turn on itself, and 30 to 40 percent of those patients show early immune signs of stomach involvement. The susceptibility predated the diet and the stress he blames, and the subsequent health “optimization” may or may not have changed the disease’s trajectory. He has assembled one of the most measured, calculated bodies on the planet, and the diagnosis still hid from him for years, only to arrive anyway. (This high level of control extends beyond his biology, too. Employees have accused him of workplace misconduct, but the NDAs his companies require, reportedly even of romantic partners, keep those accounts private, per The New York Times.)
From where I sit, the belief that we can fully control our own fate is a powerful engine that funds real research, so I am reluctant to dismiss it. But there are limits that no protocol overrides. There are things we can do at the outer margins, but none of them buy an exemption, and the elaborate pursuit of one is mostly reserved for people who can afford it. Rao put the limit plainly: strict tracking is “a privilege of the wealthy,” and even for those who can afford it, “paying attention to your body is more valuable than tracking any specific number.”
The better news is that what actually works is available to almost anyone. Those methods, though, are unglamorous, well-studied, and mostly free, which is exactly why they get drowned out by everything that isn’t. But it’s my job to remind the public that they do still exist and are effective. Here they are, in no particular order, because they all matter:
The people I have watched leave this life with the most peace were rarely the ones who fought hardest to stay. They were the ones who cared for the body they were given, listened to it, and accepted that this was always the arrangement. The unshowy things on this list that require daily investment are the part that is genuinely ours, and they are enough to build a good life on, which was the point all along.
Dr. Ingrid Yang, MD, JD, E-RYT 500, C-IAYT, is an internal medicine physician, longevity doctor, and bestselling author. She previously practiced law before venturing into the medical field. Dr. Yang is also an integral member of Outside’s Medical Review Board. When she’s not treating patients, you can find her doing yoga, meditating, or traveling.
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