‘My stomach is eating itself’: Biohacker Bryan Johnson reveals incurable illness
Updated . First published at
An American biohacker who is looking to “defeat death” has revealed he has been diagnosed with an incurable autoimmune disease.
Bryan Johnson, a tech entrepreneur who is trying to reverse the ageing process, revealed in a lengthy post on social media that he is suffering from autoimmune gastritis (AIG), where the immune system mistakenly attacks healthy cells in the stomach lining.
Bryan Johnson said he discovered the disease, where cells accidentally attack the stomach lining, in May. Magdalena Wosinka
“My stomach is eating itself,” Johnson said last week.
He said he had discovered the condition in May and that it can lead to long-term health impacts.
“AIG causes irreversible damage: nutritional deficiency, anaemia, and over a long horizon, elevated cancer risk,” he said.
“When AIG is discovered today, standard medical care concedes defeat, stating that nothing can be done except managing the condition, no matter how awful or lethal the effects.”
He claimed the disease impacts two to five per cent of people around the world; a 2025 study said around eight per cent of Australians, around 2.24 million people, have the condition.
According to the Global Autoimmune Institute, AIG has non-specific early symptoms, such as abdominal pain, bloating, and heartburn, which means the disease is often missed or misdiagnosed for something else.
This can lead to the disease being diagnosed at a later date, making it more difficult to treat.
Johnson claims he and his medical team will attempt to manage the disease in a way that is different to “current medical standards”, including levels of treatment he said are based on “investigational preclinical evidence at best”.
This includes resetting the cells that are attacking his stomach lining, and using AI-designed antibodies to destroy the rogue cells.
Johnson has amassed a huge following on social media as he shares his biohacking exploits. Magdalena Wosinka
Johnson claimed part of what led to his diagnosis of AIG and other autoimmune diseases, including iron deficiency and autoimmune thyroid disease, were caused by habits he had as a child and earlier in adulthood.
“As a kid, I ate sugar cereal, drank sugary soda, and gobbled down fast food,” he said.
“I had a few healthy years in my early 20s but then became a young father of three and began building a business.
“Juggling that stress and grind, I let my health slip and gained 40lbs [18 kilos]. Within a few years I’d fallen into a deep, chronic depression”
Johnson founded the e-commerce company Braintree, and sold it to PayPal in 2013 for $US800 million.
He has used the money to find methods to reverse the ageing process, and even to defeat death itself.
He has built a huge social media following, amassing 1.5 million followers on X, 2.6 million followers on Instagram and 2.1 million subscribers on Youtube.
Johnson launched Project Blueprint as part of his anti-ageing efforts, and he claims to have reduced his speed of ageing by the equivalent of 31 years, according to the biography on his Youtube account.
He has an Australian girlfriend, Kate Tolo, who was a co-founder in Johnson’s biohacking journey and Project Blueprint.
Johnson’s goals were chronicled in a 2025 Netflix documentary called Don’t Die: The Man Who Wants to Live Forever.
Share a tip-off, video or photo with us
