Welcome to TMZ Now. I'm Charlie Naff. Bryan Johnson has become one of the world's most recognizable faces in the quest to slow aging, spending millions of dollars measuring, testing, and optimizing nearly every aspect of his health. But now, the longevity influencer has revealed despite all that data and intervention, he's been diagnosed with a chronic autoimmune disease that has been silently damaging his stomach for years. Joining me now to talk about his diagnosis is Bryan Johnson. Welcome, Bryan.
Bryan, you are one of the most closely monitored people in the world. What was your reaction when you learned you had been living with autoimmune gastritis for years and you didn't even know it?
It was kind of two things. One is like, 'Oh, of course that's how this puzzle fits together.' Then also like, 'How did we miss this?' So, a lot of people look at this and they say, 'That is insane. You're the most measured person in history. How could you possibly miss this?' And I think there's something helpful for other people. So, I've had low ferritin, low iron for 11 years now. And when doctors see that and they see normal levels of hemoglobin and hematocrit, they can say, 'That's okay, cuz you're not anemic.' But it really shows something else is going on. And so, I revamped my medical team earlier this year. We took a fresh look at everything. And my doctor said, 'This is low iron and you've been doing a lot of stuff. It hasn't corrected. Let's do a bidirectional endoscopy. That is a colonoscopy then also down the throat.' And then plus a biopsy, then we found it. So, there were a bunch of pieces that had to fall together, but it's a hard one to find. It's why a lot of people, millions of people have this and it's undiagnosed.
So, you mentioned that you had low ferritin, um but your team couldn't explain why. Looking back now, do you think there were clues that were missed or was it something that genuinely couldn't be detected?
So, that's the thing is definitely there's clues because I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism when I was 21 years old. And the thyroid and the stomach go along together in immunology. So, when something is wrong with the thyroid, you want to take a look at the stomach. And then you pair that with 11 years of iron deficiency where I tried all things to correct for it. I ate meat, I took supplements, but nothing would change my levels of iron. And so, when my new doctors came on staff, they said we for sure need to get a colonoscopy immediately because you could have a polyp in your colon or even cancer. Like that could explain the inability to raise ferritin levels. And so, we did that, and even then, my doctor came back and said, it's perfect, it's pristine, there's no issue. It was only when we biopsied the stomach and looked at the tissue samples we said, ah, there it is. So, it is a very hard thing to diagnose.
And how long ago were you diagnosed?
Uh last month. So, I've potentially had this, you know, cooking in my stomach for a decade, two decades, somewhere around there, and we just found out last month. So, I'm very... a lot of people treat diagnosis as bad news. I think it's great news. I'd rather know. Like we all have things wrong with our body that we can't prevent. You like, we can be as healthy as possible and still bad things are going to happen. So, I'm very grateful we found it.
So, you said your stomach is eating itself. Can you explain what you mean by that?
So, in your body, you have trillions of immune cells. And so, think of each immune cell like a soldier. And it has a specific key to target a bacteria or a virus to kill it. What happened with mine is a few of my immune cells, my soldiers, went rogue, and they got confused, and they started attacking my stomach lining. So, instead of attacking a foreign object, it started attacking myself. Now, this slowly degrades my stomach lining, and in time, makes my acidic environment different, so I can no longer absorb iron or B12 or other micronutrients. And so, over time it can cause, you know, lack of nutrition, but also can lead to cancer. And so we need to... we have now set our sights on trying to cure this. It is an incurable disease. No one has ever demonstrated a cure. We are fired up and we want to have a go at trying to cure this.
How has this autoimmune disease affected your day-to-day life?
So not at all. I have experienced really no symptoms. I've had... my thyroid medication has been off, we haven't figured out, and then my iron levels have been low. And so I guess I've experienced some fatigue. Lack of iron also affects hair... lack of iron affects everything. So I guess like I've had these residual symptoms for a long time. So long that I just have normalized them. So now I've got my iron levels that are restored via an iron infusion and my thyroid medications are back on point. So I'd say that I'm feeling so much better, but it wasn't like I had egregious symptoms that were life-changing. It was very subtle.
So you've showed on social media your day-to-day routine, which is very thorough. Has this affected that routine at all or changed it?
No, not at all. I mean this morning I did my normal six-hour morning routine. I woke up at 3:00 a.m. I did all my protocols. You know, I honestly a lot of people will say two things. One is they're like, you've done all these things for your health and still you have this diagnosis. I would say like on the flip side of that is I'm so grateful I've been doing this for the past five or six years because I could be a lot more severe. Like the situation could be really bad. So I'm very happy I've done what I have. And then two, no, I mean I'm more fired up. Like if don't die is the goal, getting an incurable disease is a rite of passage. Like it had to come at some point. And so if we're going to cure disease to solve death, like we better get going to work and like I guess it's my turn.
So you're all about knowing your body, knowing the science of your body. Did this diagnosis at all shake a little bit of your confidence?
None at all. It actually increases my confidence because it showed to me like what we've done for the past five years, we've tried to improve the basics of health, sleep, diet, exercise, nutrition. Now, we're on to disease resolution. Like when you get a diagnosis of autoimmune gastritis that I have, the standard of care says, 'So sorry, good luck.' Like, you know, even if it's going to kill you, it's like, 'But we're going to manage things well until it kills you.' And in this day and age in 2026, you no longer need to concede to death. We don't need to say, 'I'm just going to take it.' You can actually... like we're going to solve it. And so we are in a different place than we ever have been as a species. So, I'm emboldened. I'm excited. So, weirdly, I'm celebrating the diagnosis that this just makes me more engaged in this project. Like we're going deeper in the science and technology, and I think it'll be a good bridge for us.
So, there's a little bit of irony in the situation. You know, someone who spent millions trying to optimize health discovers a disease that's been quietly progressing anyway. How do you make sense of that?
