Billionaire biohacker Bryan Johnson recently revealed that a visit to Australia to meet his girlfriend’s parents seemingly aged him by 13 years because he deviated from his rigorous anti-aging regimen.
The 48-year-old from the United States, who invests millions annually in efforts to decelerate the aging process, traveled from Los Angeles to Brisbane last month to be introduced to the family of his 30-year-old partner, Kate Tolo.
Johnson, a tech entrepreneur based in California, has gained international attention for his controversial efforts to prolong life. Reports suggest he spends around $2 million each year on various treatments, tests, and lifestyle modifications aimed at not just slowing down aging but potentially reversing it.
One of his most talked-about experiments involved a three-generation longevity trial in which he received blood plasma from his teenage son and subsequently donated his own plasma to his elderly father.
However, Johnson claims that his trip to Australia disrupted his anti-aging progress. The journey across seven time zones, along with straying from his strict vegan diet and meticulously structured daily routine, inflicted what he called a ‘biological insult.’ This setback reportedly took weeks for his body to overcome.
The couple, who share an 18-year age difference, have been in a relationship for over three years. They first met when Tolo became the chief marketing officer for Johnson’s Blueprint anti-aging venture.
He said the trip to the north Queensland sugar cane town Mackay forced him to abandon many of the habits he relies on to maintain his health and longevity.
‘I decided to live in her mum’s world. I ate everything she prepared, including meat, bread, and pasta, and embraced the discomfort of being an introvert in a week-long marathon social interaction with the entire extended family,’ Johnson said.
Multimillionaire biohacker Bryan Johnson flew to Australia with his girlfriend Kate Tolo to meet her parents
Mr Johnson said the trip was a ‘nail biter’ with him forced to abandon his strict vegan diet and be in the sun despite his worries about aging and sun exposure
The couple travelled to Mackay in Queensland to attend Ms Tolo’s brother’s wedding
‘We spent time in her garden and she fed me stevia leaves, peppers, celery, chives, peanut berry, grapefruit, and starfruit.’
Johnson described the experience as a ‘nail biter’, admitting he wasn’t sure whether Ms Tolo’s parents would approve of his lifestyle and strict routine.
‘I experienced a huge spike in food noise when in Australia,’ he said.
‘The desire to eat continuously even though I wasn’t hungry, and even full.
‘The seven time zone shift shocked my circadian rhythm which then altered my hunger hormones.
‘Leptin stopped signalling that I had enough stored energy.
‘Ghrelin ran elevated all day instead of only before meals. Blood glucose spikes from bread and carbs, that I ate to be in family ritual, triggered emergency hunger signals in my brain.
‘Sleep deprivation weakened my prefrontal cortex’s ability to override the urge, making me feel helpless and controlled by impulse.
‘That noise has been absent for years as I’ve dialled in habits of sleep, nutrition and exercise.’
Ahead of the trip, Johnson predicted the travel would take a toll on his body.
After returning home, he said it took two weeks to restore his sleep quality, nine days to normalise his cortisol levels and five days to recover his grip strength.
‘It takes your body over two weeks to fully recover. It’s a big price tag. One international trip per quarter is a reasonable balance,’ he said.
‘The body understands time zone changes as trauma.
‘If you’re budgeting your international trips: I’d suggest no more than once every three months. Evidence shows you need one day per time zone to re-entrain, and east is worse than west.’
A photo from the trip shows Johnson cowering under an umbrella from the Australian sun.
Johnson said he is now testing new protocols to accelerate recovery from jet lag, including taking slow-release caffeine in the morning to ‘anchor the body’ and melatonin before bed to bring the ‘sleep phase earlier’.
The trip came weeks after he posted a photo of Ms Tolo undergoing an internal ultrasound
Johnson’s rigorous biohacking regimen has radically transformed his appearance
The California tech guru says a long-haul flight to Australia aged him 13 years
Johnson’s rigorous biohacking regimen has radically transformed his appearance.
The trip came weeks after Johnson posted a photo of Ms Tolo undergoing an internal ultrasound while he stood at the foot of the hospital bed watching the examination.
The photo showed Ms Tolo being examined for suspected endometriosis – an incurable chronic condition Johnson has vowed to conduct more research into.
Johnson has previously revealed Ms Tolo has one of the ‘top one per cent of vaginas’ after sharing details of her vaginal microbiome report online.
‘The lab found nothing bad to report (no gardnerella, Candida, STIs, opportunistic pathogens, aerobic vaginitis markers). This is linked to lower risk of (bacterial vaginosis), UTIs, yeast infections, HPV persistence … preterm birth and improved IVF outcomes,’ he said.
‘A vaginal microbiome is downstream of everything: sleep, glucose control, stress, gut health, sexual health, immune function, what you eat, and what you put in it.’
The couple publicly confirmed their relationship in December through a lengthy social media post and YouTube video.
Johnson said they had known each other for five years but chose to keep their romance private while determining whether the relationship would last.
‘We needed time to stabilise, mature, and assess whether this was short or long term. It took time to bridge our worlds,’ he said.
Johnson is worth an estimated $300million to $400million.
He amassed most of his fortune after founding the mobile and digital payments company Braintree, which was sold to PayPal for $800million in 2013.
