Ryan J. Rossner, PhD

These are my working definitions, open to feedback about them 🙂

• Longevity: Combined metric incorporating both quantity (lifespan) and quality (healthspan) of life. When I say “longevity-optimized,” that means my efforts are targeted at increasing the number of years I can live in good health. A fairly common misconception about aging/longevity research is that the goal is to drag out the frail, terminal phase of life. THIS IS NOT ANYONE’S GOAL.
• Biohacking: An approach to biology inspired by the following approaches:
  • Engineering: solution-oriented as opposed to formal process-oriented
  • DIY: finding and/or creating accessible, cost-effective methods
  • Hacking: specifically exploiting system weaknesses by any ethical means to achieve a goal
  • Evidence-inspired: as opposed to formal, evidence-based methods. The FDA, for example, is important to protect consumers, but it’s very very slow and not always perfect. Biohackers, I think, generally prefer to operate according to their own risk calculations, as long as the resulting actions don’t impose risks without consent on others.

This is pretty accurate, will update monthly or so or as major changes take place.

Olfaction/smell/scent is super-ancient and interesting for numerous reasons. I think it’s undervalued as way to improve quality of life, and it may have some performance and/or health benefits. For two fun reads related to scents, I highly recommend Perfume by Patrick Suskind, and Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins (also about longevity!).

Budget ingredients:

• Travel spray bottle (Walmart, $1)
• Essential oil(s) (Amazon, usually <$5 per oz. –> cents per drop). Blends I use:
  • amber + vanilla + cherry + almond + honey + coconut (social)
  • orange + spearmint + cucumber + rose (pre-workout, lighter social scent)
  • lavender (sleep)
• Carrier oil – I use liquid coconut oil from Walmart. $13/bottle –> ~$0.50 to mostly fill a spray bottle
  • coconut oil is also good for your skin, so I spray my palm and rub it on my face 🙂

I actually had the (dis)pleasure of working with two of the worst-smelling chemicals known to humanity in the Kaeberlein lab:

• Trimethylamine: responsible for the small of rotting fish
• Hydrogen sulfide: responsible for the smell of rotting eggs

I also personally acquired a small bottle of putrescine from a pretty awesome olfaction scientist. Putrescine, along with cadaverine, is a polyamine molecule for the smell of decomposing human flesh. So, I smelled the “essence” of human death. Morbid? Yes. Fascinating? Also yes. More on polyamines in another article, probably more on olfaction soon…

This is a list of seminal and personal favorite longevity articles. A lot of these correspond with dates outlined in the “Longevity Timeline” post. This list will grow and change regularly. Just hoping to provide guidance for early-career scientists and non-specialists hoping to approach the literature!

• 2013 “Hallmarks of Aging” Cell
• 2013 Horvath methylation clock
• 1993 daf-2 Kenyon
• 1988 age-1 Klass and Johson
• 1955 Harman
• 1920s Pearl rate of living

Bought these blue light blocking glasses from Walmart for under $10! Hopefully they work, haha, any scientific feedback welcome… I put them on each night around 8pm 🙂

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Equate-Adult-Blue-Light-Glasses-Green/161582636

The figure below is from my PhD defense. The y-axis on the graph is pubmed citations. Most search terms on pubmed probably follow a similar trajectory, but I think the graph is still indicative of growth in the field of aging research. The categories described are painted with very broad strokes, and are intended to help people understand the history of the field. Apologies for any inaccuracies or omissions.

Steve Austad told me that (paraphrasing) “for 50 years after DR extended rat lifespan, the field was trying to figure out how that worked.” The yellow phase, “Genetic Breakthroughs,” is when the field figured that out. Genetic screens in model organisms like yeast, worms, flies, and mice showed that DR worked through a handful of major genetically-encoded signaling pathways.

Always worth remembering that we only figured out what DNA was around 1955. We’ve come really far, but we’re still in the early stages of tremendous knowledge. Aging/longevity isn’t necessarily a difficult problem- nature just never had a reason to solve it in humans.

Updated regularly…

• Alex K. Chen’s longevity suggestions: https://forum.longevitybase.org/t/guide-to-living-longer-alex-k-chen/125
  • Alex is a really bold thinker who is extremely devoted to longevity. I really enjoy reading/hearing his thoughts.
• Nathan Cheng: https://nathancheng.xyz/
  • Nathan is a great facilitator of connections and is involved in developing longevity startups. He’s also really thoughtful and passionate about aging, a self-described “Longevity Evangelist.” Having met Nathan, I would strongly consider joining his Longevity Church haha 🙂
• https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/PhXENjdXiHhsWGfQo/lifestyle-interventions-to-increase-longevity
• https://longevitylist.com/about/
• Maria Konovalenko’s Longevity Cookbook
• Laura Deming Longevity FAQ: https://www.ldeming.com/longevityfaq
  • Excellent intro and overview of longevity.
• Nintil Longevity FAQ: https://nintil.com/longevity/
  • Another excellent intro and overview.
• Peter Attia: https://peterattiamd.com/
  • I learn more per unit time about longevity and fitness in 2022 from Peter Attia than anyone else and it’s not really close. Attia is an MD and former elite endurance athlete who has given up clinical practice to focus on longevity. Subscribe for $20 a month, it’s worth it and then some imho.
• examine.com
  • Invaluable resource providing aggregated peer-reviewed evidence about supplements. Scores supplements based on both effect magnitude and consistency of effect across studies. Anyone who takes supplements should make an account here.
• Bryan Johnson‘s (BCI guy) blog: blueprint.bryanjohson.co
  • BCI guy optimizing for longevity- excellent insight and detailed reports
• reddit.com/r/longevity
  • Pretty good community with regular posting of articles, news, and some high-quality discussion
• reddit.com/r/aging
  • Very very small community but decent resources page
• lifespan.io
  • Rejuvenation Roadmap is particularly valuable.
• fightaging! https://www.fightaging.org/
  • good resources page
• Longecity https://www.longecity.org/forum/
  • Forums and more.
• ergo-log.com
  • Informal site with interesting, detailed posts about sports performance, longevity, and methods of improving both.
• Lifeboat Foundation: lifeboat.com
  • Lifeboat Foundation, extensive association of humanist-futurists
• Josh MItteldorf: https://joshmitteldorf.scienceblog.com/
  • Inactive but thought-provoking
• American Aging Association (AGE): https://www.americanagingassociation.org/
  • Premier US (probably worldwide) association for molecular biology of aging research. Even if you’re not a researcher, highly recommend joining and attending a conference if you’re interested in longevity.
• Kaeberlein Lab, University of Washington http://kaeberlein.org/
  • Matt Kaeberlein was my research mentor for years. He’s a deeply thoughtful, highly competent leader who does a lot to move aging research forward. He’s a highly credible representative of aging research, a field that has long been hampered by fringe associations. Matt also gives a lot of opportunities to people through his lab, myself included 🙂
• Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence (SENS): https://www.sens.org/
  • Pioneering and ambitious if at times controversial among academics.
• Altos Labs
• Calico
• NIA

This week (Sun 5/22 – Fri 5/27) I’m eating 1500 calories per day, with 2g/kg bw protein (200g), and very low carbs (<50g).

My daily food intake is as follows:

• Black beans no salt (Walmart, $0.72)
• 2x Tuna in water, pouch (Walmart, ~$1.25 each)
• Sardines in water (Walmart, ~$1.00)
• Pumpkin seeds 1/4 cup
• EVOO 2tbsp
• 4x whey isolate scoops (Walmart, ~$0.75 each)
• Collagen protein scoop (Walmart, ~$1.00)
• Metamucil scoop (Walmart)

This adds up to ~$8.00 total, 1500 cal, 200g protein, ~50g fat (mostly EVOO and sardines), and ~50g carbs, mostly fiber.

SO FAR:

• SUN: bw 213, feel good
• MON: bw 211, feel good apart from slight muscle tightness / lack of fluidity / during cardio, which is more difficult than usual
• TUE: bw 208.9 (first time I’ve been under 210 in probably >10 years!), energy a little low, same cardio issues

The Bigelow Institute for Consciousness Studies (BICS) sponsored a $500k essay contest for essays offering the most convincing scientific evidence supporting the existence of an afterlife. Essays are published here

This infographic shows timelines by order of magnitude, i.e. 100 years, 1000 years… 1,000,000 years, and so on all the way to the universal scale (~10B years). I think some interesting perspective emerges from looking at timelines in this way.