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Comment by kingkongjaffa | Hacker News Reader

I’ve researched his work quite a bit.

Its mostly taking a huge stack of supplements, diet and exercise.

There’s peer reviewed evidence for most of the stuff he is taking but barely anyone has done _all_ of the things together in concert like he is doing.

There’s things we can learn from his work (optimising for the kinds of training to ward off common aging issues), like weightlifting to help fight off losing bone density. Targeting things like fall resistance and grip strength (things we lose fast as we age)

Avoiding the sun to avoid aging and skin cancer.

There’s lots of good things we could be doing (the western diet is really poor in fibre and healthy fats) to stay healthier for longer.

Afaict the whole “nation of immortals” thing is just marketing from this author not anything that they (Johnson) said they wanted to do.

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I don't know how "avoiding the sun" qualifies as "healthy." To me, the idea that one should avoid being outside is indicative that whatever you're doing, it's not culturally healthy.

The concern with the Sun is that UV rays are damaging the elastin and collagen proteins in our skin - so the real goal is to avoid the direct UV radiation as much as realistically possible, not to never see the sunlight. :)

In fact, sunlight exposure is very important for other crucial mechanisms in our body like melatonin regulation and D vitamin production.

You still can have all the benefits and fun by simply being more active in morning and sunset, avoiding midday exposure (which is already part of the culture in many sunny regions), and wearing the sunscreen and proper clothing to protect your skin. Of course, how much UV exposure do you need for you body to function normally and not let sun ruin your skin depends primarily on where you live, is it summer or winter, etc. It all comes down to limiting how much UV radiation you'll get. If you're dark skinned it also helps - the melanin in your skin acts as an additional layer of protection against UV rays.

"Avoiding the sun" does not mean "avoid going outside" Long sleeves, hat, sunglasses go a long way to prevent burns and skin cancer. Sunscreen, too, but something tells me this guy doesn't do sunscreen.

source: married to a dermatologist.

There’s increasing evidence you need the UV, eg https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5890609/

It's almost impossible to run a good UV exposure association study because going outside correlates with health. Everything clever you can do to get around that (UV-B areas are what the article chooses) runs into issues with introducing even more uncontrolled variables.

I'm getting a bit jaded with vitamin D and UV studies and it's possible that one will come along and prove me wrong, but thus far they've generated a lot of hype but failed when experimentally tested.

To note, this advice is probably moot for people with high enough melanin living in low to mid sun exposure areas. Sunscreen becomes useful only when receiving sun doses that exceed skin's natural absorption capacity.

Isn’t the key to simply avoid burning, rather than cover up so much as to avoid exposure with the associated benefits?

He’s mostly taking a shit load of vitamin D and E to offset this and wearing sunscreen religiously. He doesn’t literally not go outside but he is ghostly pale.

Vitamin supplements are not adequate to replace direct sunlight exposure. It has other beneficial effects including stimulating nitric oxide production. Everything in moderation.

I don’t think that something being physically healthy necessarily means it is mentally healthy.

there's some evidence that sun exposure reduces risk of hypertension via nitrogen signalling pathways, but if you already keep track of your blood pressure levels and they are healthy, unprotected sun exposure for longer than short periods is unequivocally a bad thing - at the very least, if your objective is to not look like a tanned leather sheet in your 40s onwards

Rick Rubin gets a lot of direct sunlight exposure and his skin looks pretty good for 60.

https://youtu.be/GpgqXCkRO-w?si=b_pJPs1tIMLD5Shx

Rick Rubin is looking good for his age. I postulate that he has very low stress levels and added that he surfs, he's got something good going for combatting age.

and my grandad was a chain smoker yet did not die of lung cancer. the question is do you want to gamble where you will be on that distribution?

Considering the many health benefits of sun exposure, yes I absolutely want to gamble (within reasonable limits). It's disingenuous to compare that to chain smoking.

what? UV radiation is clearly bad in anything more than enough-to-get-enough-vitamin-D doses.

depending on where you are in the world, sunblock might be enough to keep you on the good side, elsewhere (e.g. Australia) there are elaborate cultural rituals to reduce radiation exposure to safe levels (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slip-Slop-Slap).

Because to me, pumping yourself full of various supplements and hiding inside is just about the opposite of what I'd call a mentally healthy person, and is more indicative of how disconnected from reality parts of contemporary Western culture have become.

The link between wearing long sleeves, sunscreen, and a hat when outdoors for any length of time in high UV environments (e.g. anywhere near the hole in the ozone layer when it's not midwinter) and "how disconnected from reality parts of contemporary Western culture have become" is tenuous at best.

So you think this guy is "contemporary western culture"? He's catering to a bunch of dimwits, not contemporary culture anywhere. This is just AI cultism.

> parts of contemporary Western culture

I guess that's fair. Sorry

Toss in the blood boy stuff and it starts to look like a form of modern era vampirism.

Or you can just use a sunscreen everyday and get the best of both worlds :)

As soon as I hear supplements, I get wary. It's a lot of work to figure out if each supplement is in fact legitimately what you are paying for.

If you buy supplements on the NSF Certified for Sport list then you can be reasonably confident that you're legitimately getting what you are paying for.

https://www.nsfsport.com/

In decades of being in athletics and lifting I had never come across this before. Thank you for posting this.

Thanks!

> weightlifting to help fight off losing bone density. Targeting things like fall resistance and grip strength (things we lose fast as we age)

Rock climbing. You're constantly lifting your own weight + gear. You fall a lot (especially bouldering) and need to learn to do it efficiently to avoid injuries. I don't think I need to say anything about grip strength here. :P

Yeah bouldering is a great strength/flexibilty/problem solving/impact sport.

I try to go bouldering a few times a month.

I'm more of a sport climber myself.

I enjoy the longer time on the route, the mental job of keeping my wits when my arms are about to give up and I can't figure out the next clip...

Plus it's a lot easier on the joints!

I still boulder a few times a month though, I especially enjoy the social aspects which tend to be more present than on sport sessions.

Strength/problem solving/impact I can agree on. But flexibility has to be added to your routine.

I was thinking more of the inverse, I actively do flexibility/mobility work so that I can be a better climber.

True, I just think pure climbing is a poor flexibility training. But flexibility training is indeed very useful for climbing.

Climbing can help with flexibility/mobility of some parts of your body but I agree it requires to be added on for others.

Johnson's whole schtick is "Don't Die", so "nation of immortals" is a logical consequence of that.

See, for example, his book he wrote: https://protocol.bryanjohnson.com/DONT-DIE-by-Zero

Or a NYT piece from earlier in the year which was heavy on that slogan: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/12/business/bryan-johnson-lo...

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