Biohacker Bryan Johnson's anti ageing drug just might have accelerated his ageing: "Irony hunts me"

Bryan Johnson is a tech entrepreneur-turned-biohacker on a mission to reverse aging and achieve peak human performance. Best known for founding Braintree (which acquired Venmo) and selling it to PayPal, he now spends millions annually on his intense health experiment called Blueprint. With over 100 daily supplements, constant medical monitoring, and a strict plant-based regimen, he aims to make his body function like that of an 18-year-old. Johnson’s radical pursuit of longevity has made headlines quite a few times.


However, this time, Bryan Johnson has made a chilling confession- in his efforts to slow down his aging, he might have accelerated it.


Bryan’s journey with a unique drug


Bryan Johnson in his latest YouTube video opened up about why he stopped taking one of the most talked-about anti-aging drugs: rapamycin . In a new video, he explains how the same drug he once believed could slow aging may have actually sped it up.

Back in 2009, a landmark study showed that rapamycin extended the lifespan of older mice — by 14% in females and 9% in males. Later studies in younger mice, especially when rapamycin was combined with drugs like acarbose, revealed even greater benefits. These findings gave researchers, and Bryan Johnson himself, a reason to hope. For five years, Bryan carefully monitored his dosage, testing whether the benefits seen in mice could work for humans too.

But Bryan’s experiment started showing cracks. In his video, he breaks down the side effects he experienced: mouth ulcers, slow-healing wounds, cholesterol spikes, rising blood sugar, and the biggest red flag — an elevated resting heart rate, a metric he considers crucial for sleep and recovery. It was this data-driven approach that led him to question whether the drug was doing more harm than good.
Bryan explains that rapamycin works by inhibiting mTORC1, a growth pathway linked to aging. Normally, this can be regulated through lifestyle choices like fasting, calorie restriction, or exercise, but rapamycin does it directly. That’s what made it so appealing to Bryan in the first place.

However, he also points out a critical issue: rapamycin doesn’t only affect mTORC1 — it also hits mTORC2, a pathway involved in blood sugar regulation, metabolism, and immune function. Bryan didn’t just read this in studies; he felt it in his body.

More alarmingly, the drug also suppresses NK cells, which help fight cancer. For someone like Bryan — who’s built his whole protocol around optimizing health — this was a deal-breaker.

Then came the final blow: a preprint study released in October 2024 — just a month after he stopped taking rapamycin — found that the drug actually accelerated biological aging in humans, based on 16 epigenetic clocks.

“It’s important to talk about both”- Bryan Johnson

https://www.instagram.com/p/DGN_xWbsqIZ/ https://www.instagram.com/p/DGN_xWbsqIZ/

Bryan shared this openly, even joking in his video: “To those of you laughing at home, I’m laughing with you.” But behind the humor was a serious message. Rapamycin wasn’t helping him stay younger — it might have been aging him faster.

Despite the disappointment, Bryan remains undeterred. He’s continuing to test, track, and share every part of his longevity journey — successes and failures. As he says, “It’s important to talk about both.”