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Bryan Johnson, the American tech entrepreneur who spends millions of dollars yearly on anti-aging treatments, has revealed he has been diagnosed with an incurable autoimmune disease.
Johnson, 48, disclosed this in a lengthy post to his 1.6 million X followers on June 30.
The popular biohacker, known for his ‘Don’t Die’ longevity project and for chronicling extreme health interventions online, said he has autoimmune gastritis (AIG), a condition in which the immune system attacks the stomach lining.
“Bad news #1: I have an autoimmune disease. My stomach is eating itself,” Johnson revealed.
He said the diagnosis came in May after months of tests to investigate persistently low iron levels.
According to him, a colonoscopy ruled out cancer, and an endoscopy with biopsies confirmed early-stage autoimmune gastritis.
He further disclosed that the disease affects an estimated 2-5% of people and can lead to nutritional deficiencies, anemia and, over time, an elevated cancer risk. There is currently no cure.
Johnson, who has said he spends around $2 million a year on health protocols, attributed part of the illness to diet and stress earlier in life.
“As a kid, I ate sugar cereal, drank sugary soda, and gobbled down fast food,” he explained.
He added that after becoming a father and building a business in his 20s, he gained 40 lbs and “fell into a deep, chronic depression”.
The diagnosis was made as part of a new $1 million-a-year longevity initiative called “Immortals Care”.
Johnson said the condition had likely gone undetected for years, noting he had low ferritin for more than 11 years despite trying supplements and dietary changes.
“When AIG is discovered today, standard medical care concedes defeat, stating that nothing can be done except manage the condition,” he stated.
Despite that, Johnson said he intends to tackle it scientifically.
“I’m going to try and solve it. Will share all,” he posted.
His team plans to monitor iron and other biomarkers and run additional tests.
Johnson first rose to prominence after founding payments company Braintree, which was sold to PayPal for $800 million.
In recent years he has documented a strict daily regimen, a team of more than 30 doctors, and past experiments including plasma exchange with his teenage son.
Doctors say autoimmune gastritis occurs when the immune system mistakenly attacks the stomach’s acid-producing parietal cells.
The damage impairs absorption of iron and vitamin B12.
Johnson said he was previously diagnosed with hypothyroidism at age 21, and believes his body “began developing an autoimmune process affecting my thyroid and then my stomach lining”.
