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Millionaire injects himself in attempt to ‘age backwards’. His face then ‘blows up’

By Benedict Smith

A millionaire on a crusade to age backwards has suffered a “severe allergic reaction” after injecting another person’s fat into his face.

Bryan Johnson, the 47-year-old known for embarking on outlandish health treatments to regain the body of a teenager, had his face “blow up” to the point where he “couldn’t even see”.

After his diet left him looking gaunt, Bryan Johnson injected fat into his face only to see it “blow up”.

After his diet left him looking gaunt, Bryan Johnson injected fat into his face only to see it “blow up”.Credit: IMAGE SOURCE INSTAGRAM @bryanjohnson_

Photographs posted by the former tech mogul on Instagram show him squinting out from puffy eyelids, with the rest of his normally chiselled face swollen and balloon-like.

Johnson wanted to restore volume to his face to counteract his strict vegan diet of 1950 calories daily, which had left him looking gaunt.

“People thought I was on the brink of death,” he claimed. “It didn’t matter how good my biomarkers were if I didn’t have face fat.”

Johnson, who made $800 million from selling a payments processing company in 2013, was apparently too lean to supply the fat for the injections, and turned to a donor instead.

“Immediately following the injections, my face began to blow up,” he said, admitting that “Project Baby Face” had not gone to plan.

“It got worse, and worse, and worse until I couldn’t even see. It was a severe allergic reaction.”

It took seven days for his face to return to normal, Johnson added.

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He was scheduled to meet a journalist from The New York Times later that day, warning him in advance: “So that you’re not alarmed, you may not recognise me today.

“I think I’m OK. I hope I’m OK. If I’m not OK, are you by chance trained to perform life-saving actions?”

Johnson’s ultimate goal is to reverse biology and make each of his organs – including his brain, heart, lungs and kidneys – equivalent to those of an 18-year-old.

He spends $2 million a year employing a team of dozens of doctors on his anti-ageing procedures and says that his overall pace of ageing has slowed by 24 per cent.

His diet involves more than 1000 daily supplements and, monthly, more than 30 kilograms of pureed vegetables.

The 47-year-old millionaire has claimed to have the heart of a 37-year-old, the skin of a 28-year-old, the lung capacity of an 18-year-old, and the gums of a 17-year-old.

In a previous experiment, he used blood transfusions from his teenage son, Talmage, in an attempt to reverse age-related cell damage.

Johnson eventually ended the procedure because it delivered no health benefits.

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Original URL: https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/millionaire-injects-himself-in-attempt-to-age-backwards-his-face-then-blows-up-20241116-p5kr5j.html