Billionaire biohacker Bryan Johnson has revealed a devastating health blow despite spending millions trying to slow ageing and extend his life. The 48-year-old entrepreneur says he has been diagnosed with an incurable autoimmune disease, admitting that "immortality" may not be within reach after all.

Johnson, who has become famous for his extreme anti-ageing routine, shared the news with followers on social media. "Bad news #1: I have an autoimmune disease. My stomach is eating itself," he wrote. "Bad news #2: 2–5% of people have this, too. Likely more, because it hides."

The American businessman said he had no idea he was living with the condition until this year. Although there are treatments to manage its symptoms, there is currently no cure. Refusing to give up, Johnson vowed to tackle the illness head-on. "I'm going to try and solve it. Will share all," he promised.

Johnson has built a global profile through his ambitious "Project Blueprint", an intensive longevity programme designed to reduce his biological age to that of an 18-year-old. He spends roughly $2 million (£1.5 million) every year on the project, covering doctors, medical testing, therapies and treatments.

His strict daily routine has attracted worldwide attention. He takes 54 supplements each day, eats all his meals between 6am and 11.30am, follows a rigorous exercise programme, sticks to a vegan diet of around 1,977 calories daily and goes to bed at 8.30pm while continuously tracking his health data.

Around 30 physicians oversee his programme, with regular MRIs, ultrasounds and detailed biomarker analysis forming part of his routine. In 2023, he even underwent six monthly one-litre plasma transfusions, including one using plasma donated by his son.

In a lengthy post on X, Johnson reflected on his health journey. He admitted that as a child he regularly ate fast food and drank sugary drinks before enjoying "a few healthy years" in his twenties.

He said the pressures of building a business while becoming a father eventually took their toll. Within a few years, he said, he had fallen into a deep chronic depression.

Looking back, Johnson now believes that somewhere during that period his immune system began attacking both his thyroid and the lining of his stomach. He revealed he had been diagnosed with hypothyroidism, or an underactive thyroid, at the age of 21 and successfully managed it with standard treatments for nearly three decades.

However, he increasingly suspected another health problem was being missed. In May this year he was finally diagnosed with autoimmune gastritis (AIG), a chronic immune-mediated inflammatory disease affecting the stomach lining.

Johnson said he does not know how long he has lived with the condition. He explained that AIG causes irreversible damage and can lead to nutritional deficiencies, anaemia and an increased long-term risk of cancer.

He now believes the illness explains why his ferritin, a protein that stores iron, remained unusually low for 11 years. Despite changing his diet and taking vitamin supplements, he said nothing successfully raised his iron levels.

According to Johnson, many of those warning signs were dismissed while other possible explanations were never fully investigated. Only after completely restructuring his medical team to support a planned $1 million-a-year longevity programme called "Immortals Care" did doctors revisit his health from the beginning.

That fresh investigation included extensive testing. A colonoscopy produced unexpectedly positive results, with Johnson saying his gastroenterologist described his colon as healthier than more than 95% of those seen in men.

The clear findings ruled out concerns about slow bleeding caused by colon cancer or pre-cancerous polyps. Doctors then carried out a bi-directional endoscopy alongside blood tests, which revealed elevated anti-parietal-cell antibodies associated with autoimmune gastritis.

A stomach biopsy later confirmed that the lining of his stomach had weakened, providing the final diagnosis. Johnson said he and his team will continue monitoring the condition closely while carrying out additional research into AIG.

According to the Global Autoimmune Institute, autoimmune gastritis affects an estimated 0.5% to 4.5% of adults worldwide. The disease causes the body's immune system to attack acid-producing stomach cells and is frequently misdiagnosed because symptoms are often vague and non-specific.

Johnson argued that modern medicine has accepted too many chronic illnesses as conditions to manage rather than cure. He said many medical assumptions date back decades and should be challenged using advances in artificial intelligence, multiomics and modern biotechnology.

He insisted that no disease should automatically be considered incurable simply because nobody has yet tried to cure it with today's scientific tools. He ended his message by urging people to care for themselves, others, animals and the planet, calling life "the most precious gift there is."

While many aspects of Johnson's routine, including regular exercise, consistent sleep, stress management and calorie control, are supported by scientific evidence for healthy living, his more experimental treatments remain unproven. Experts have also questioned whether current science is capable of delivering the extraordinary longevity goals he is pursuing.

For now, the billionaire remains determined to continue his search. Even after receiving an incurable diagnosis, Johnson insists the hunt for a cure has only just begun.

Billionaire trying to age backwards has incurable disease

Strange world.........my mother never did a days exercise in her life, smoked 4/5 cigarettes a day, drank regularly, but not heavily......I don't recall her ever taking any kind of supplements. Her diet was very basic........ beans on toast, cheese on toast, egg and chips...............died quietly at 97 with never having been to hospital or suffered anything more than a cold.

He never looked 30 let alone 18