4.5 Years Younger In 8 Months

LifestyleJanuary 25, 20216min read

Bryan Johnson with Kernel helmet on his head. Practicing the blueprint protocols for reverse aging

What Is The Blueprint Project? 

Bryan Johnson’s Blueprint project is designed to provide insights into his achievements in attempts to reverse aging. The sleeping, eating, food supplementation, and exercising patterns Bryan and his team built, aim to examine his 70+ organs and slow down aging. The philosophy behind the Blueprint project is to achieve the cognitive state where your autonomous self draws your “unified goals” for your body and mind.

Bryan Johnson is the founder of and CEO of Kernel and OS Fund. He is also the CEO and founder of Venmo which PayPal bought in 2013 with $800 million leaving Bryan with a pocket full for future ventures. In 2014, October, Bryan created OS Fund designed to invest in companies aiming to develop machine learning and AI (artificial intelligence). 

His goal is to find the cure for many genetic and neurodegenerative diseases using modern technology, bright brains, and the vast availability of information and knowledge.

In 2016 Bryan founded Kernel. The company designs hardware making it possible to connect to the human brain and examine each activity of it. Bryan aims to achieve cognitive perfection by understanding how the human brain works, and how our thoughts and decisions lead us. 

While he believes that by measuring our calories, steps, and sequencing our genome we can slow down aging, the mechanisms of our cognitive functions stay undiscovered. Thus, by bringing the human brain to the digital space, Bryan hopes to find the onset and the cure for Alzheimer’s disease, aging, concussions, and strokes.

As many scientists and futurists suggest, the 21st century is full of challenges for future generations. Our generation is witnessing huge technological, scientific, and even genetic changes with every new year. And when the time is running fast we do not want to lag behind. We are more than responsible for developing the future our ancestors were creating myths about. 

But there is a question you might ask yourself: How are we going to embody that complex picture of the future?

How To Prepare For The Future?

Your body acts according to your brain’s orders and excuses. Taking control of your actions will help you align your autonomous self with the future. Bryan’s Blueprint project aims to measure his 70+ organs allowing your body to decide when and what to eat for slow aging.

Bryan shows how with 100 and more measurements you can raise the authority of your body to decide on a genuinely designed routine. He believes that body and mind are inseparable, and our plans towards healthy living may be misconducted because of our inner selves.

Besides the 7 step plan for the future of humanity, Bryan Johnson suggests his approach to achieving cognitive perfection through healthy eating and sleeping habits.

The idea that there are several selves in us should not scare you. But help to shut them out anytime they devastate your healthy lifestyle. Hence, Bryan lists his inner selves, calling them to an imaginary meeting, and fires the ones who destroy his mental, and physical health. 

Each one of Bryans has a role, and if you investigate yourself you may detect them as well. The first and most important act was firing Evening Bryan who used to decide what and when to eat (mostly in the evening). The decisions of Evening Bryan would ruin the sleeping habits of Deep-sleep Bryan who in his turn would get 85% less rest and rejuvenation.

Firing Evening Bryan was hard, and the new but temporary authority for deciding what and when to eat was Sleep-and-will-power Bryan. But after a few mistakes, he got fired and Decide-what-to-eat Bryan was elected to control the eating schedule. But his employment was also short due to deleterious-for-health decisions. Next, Out-with-friends Bryan was killed living with no feeling of FOMO and shame for missing the family and friend gatherings around tables filled with food and drinks.

After a long meeting with All-Bryans, there was confusion about who is going to lead a healthy life for Bryan. Then, all of a nowhere Heart-rate-variability Bryan ran into the room with an idea to hire Biomarker Bryan to draw the longevity plan based on numbers. The Body can speak in the language of blood, urine, and saliva analysis, and only Biomarker Bryan could understand.

Bryan Johnson's meal for reverse and slow aging via healthy food

Bloomberg.com

Several meetings passed, and the Body as a whole of All-Bryans was given the authority to decide what to eat and fill in the grocery list. The plan for a healthy future was the following:

  • Blood test every 90 days to detect diet-induced inflammations.
  • Micronutrients test. This was to understand the insufficiencies in the body and how to address them with supplements, vitamins, and food
  • Microbiome analysis for gut health
  • Blood glucose measuring 
  • Neuroendocrine panel 
  • Extensive testing must be done every 6 and 12 months for checking cardiovascular health, bone density, and to detect oxidative stress, cancer environmental toxins.
  • The eating schedule must be planned by Deep-sleep Bryan. 
  • One meal a day until 12 am

The surprise of All-Bryans was unmeasurable when there were no inflammations detected in the body after this analysis and interventions. 

The most nutritious diet was designed by the autonomous Body. It has simple recipes for Super veggie and Nutty pudding. Bryan Johnson shares them in his Blueprint project. These are super nutritious bowls of vegetables, black lentils and hemp seeds, nuts, fruits, and berries. The eating routine consists of:

  • Breakfast at 7 am
  • Dinner 11 am 
  • No caffeine
  • No liquids after 4 pm to avoid waking up at night
  • 60 minutes of meditation and HRV

Bryan has a list of food supplements that include NR (Nicotinamide Riboside) 375mg, Vitamin B complex (Folate/folic acid) 0.15 pill/day, and Ginger root as a strong antioxidant.

Sleep Bryan Plans The Reverse Aging

Later on, Sleep Bryan took control of the sleeping plans. In the study with the Kernel device, the scientists could demonstrate how deep sleep affects the willpower of making the right decisions. Better cognitive functions and deep sleep are correlated as much as soundly sleeping and diet. 

For this reason, Bryan created another schedule for getting deeper sleep:

  • Complete darkness
  • No coffee, alcohol, or other energetics 
  • No liquids after 4 pm
  • Screen brightness optimization for dark hours
  • Blue light blocking glasses from 7 pm
  • 1 hour of wind down before bed
  • Up to 10 minutes of meditation
  • 67 F/19 C room temperature
  • Bedtime until 9:30 (may differ from person to person)
  • No alarms to avoid artificial stressors
  • Hemp/CBD oil 5 minutes before sleeping
  • Deep wave sound machine

Bryan Johnson wearing Kernel. Participating in the sleeping study

Future Literacy

Bryan’s day starts and ends with this Blueprint project. Obesity, which is related to sleep deprivation was cured through this protocol resulting in healthy weight loss. After 8 months of collecting the data from biomarkers, Bryan and his team reported a new record of reverse aging. His biological age before the Blueprint project was 47. But after hard work and consistency in a healthy lifestyle, he managed to reach a world record of reversing his age from 47 to 42.5.

The Blueprint project is one of the examples of how consistent intervention protocols and measurements, a healthy lifestyle, and self-discipline can slow down and even reverse the aging process. The key to longevity is the action and choices we make on daily basis toward our healthy lifespan.