Member-only story
This Scientist Tried 15 Viral Life-Extension Hacks So You Don’t Have To
Humans have been searching for a fountain of youth for millennia. But recently the search for eternal youth has moved from the realm of quack healers and quixotic quests into more mainstream discourse. Suddenly everyone seems to be talking about longevity hacks and anti-aging interventions.
Much of this is thanks to the high-profile efforts of tech entrepreneur Bryan Johnson. His anti-aging regime of experimental procedures, extreme deprivation, and endless supplements was catalogued in a recent Netflix show.
No wonder many people have been asking themselves: Should I try any of this stuff?
Is the gain worth the pain?
The routines of longevity obsessives like Johnson certainly sound unpleasant. He eats a near starvation diet, goes to bed at 8:30 p.m., and generally looks like death warmed over. But if there is anything worse than early nights, it is an early death. If all the interventions pushed by Johnson and his imitators worked, they might be worth it.
But do they work? Scientist John Tregoning is the ideal man to answer this question. A professor at Imperial College in London, he has been researching how the human body responds to disease for 25 years. As a certified middle-aged guy, he has skin in…
