Does being healthy really need to be expensive?
I saw a meme this week that said ‘Choose your fighter: Bryan Johnson versus Old Italian Man’
In case you didn’t know who Bryan Johnson is, he is a venture capitalist currently aiming to derail the ageing process as much as humanly possible.
Every decision he makes during his day is a calculated, evidence-based component of his anti-ageing protocol. He has optimised his sleep schedule, diet, supplement stack, exercise routine, hobbies - even his friendships and relationships are meant to facilitate his longevity and well-being (according to his website).
It is estimated that Bryan Johnson spends $2 million a year on his anti-ageing protocol.
2 million dollars.
Most of this money is apparently spent on meticulous testing to monitor every single biomarker possible, as frequently as possible. Johnson has also been reported to have swapped blood with his teenage son as part of his pursuit of eternal youth.
He strictly avoids processed foods and alcohol, and takes over 100 different supplement pills each day. Meanwhile, an old Italian man who chain smokes cigarettes every day, hasn’t exercised since World War 2 and doesn’t know what a calorie even is, will end up living to 112.
And this itself raises a damn good point - imagine spending all of that money and sacrificing all spontaneity in your life, for the sake of… living slightly longer than the rest of us?
I’m all in favour of following science to guide your choices when it comes to improving your health - and perhaps Johnson sees himself as a scientific experiment. The thing I take issue with is the idea of health being something only accessible to extremely wealthy people who basically live in a bubble.
Whilst Johnson is at least being frank about the cost and level of commitment he’s invested into his well-being, the people who follow in his footsteps won’t always be. They’ll tell you that they eat a healthy diet and exercise daily - but they’ll avoid mentioning the thousands of dollars they might spend on everything else.
It reminds me of Paris Hilton’s private, at-home Sliving Spa™, which includes a hypobaric chamber, a cryotherapy room, an infrared light bed and a lymphatic drainage massage chair. It’s a hugely frivolous display in the name of ‘looking after your body’. Oh - you can’t afford that? What a shame!
The rise of this obsession with wellness gives a new meaning to ‘keeping up with the Joneses’. We used to peer over the fence and observe our neighbour’s new car or new boat - now we might meet for coffee with an old friend and wonder how their arms suddenly look so toned or how their skin appears so poreless. It’s a more subtle way to display status to defy the effects of ageing than it is to flaunt a new designer handbag - mostly because it’s so easy to pretend that you didn’t spend any money to look that way, like it could be achieved by anyone willing to show a little discipline.
Just like Kylie Jenner denying that she had lip filler for years (oh, you just put a bottle neck around your lips for a minute), the message of ‘exercise is free’ and ‘healthy eating doesn’t need to be expensive’ is everywhere. But we’re ignoring the lengths that some people are going to, including whether or not they have an at-home cryotherapy chamber.
I have zero issue with people wanting to look or feel better, and how much they spend on it. But it begs the question, how far is too far?
Maybe we won’t end up spending $2 million a year, but we can easily fall victim to the idea that there’s always room to further ‘optimise’ our well-being. This is a huge amount of pressure, and it takes away from being able to enjoy our lives. And shouldn’t that be the point of wellness anyway? To feel healthier, so that we can have a better quality of life?
I’m an advocate for keeping things simple, accessible and realistic. If it gets too out of reach, we’ll eventually think, ‘What is the point?’ and give up completely.
The optimal self-care routine, in my opinion, shouldn’t add extra stress to our lives, nor should it affect our quality of life - it should do the opposite.
We can focus on improving the way that we eat, exercise and live without being puritanical about it. It’s not pointless just because we aren’t taking 100 pills each day as well.
Perhaps the reason why some chain-smoking Italian man might live so long is because he lives a pretty darn good life at the end of the day and isn't bogged down by all of the stress the rest of us deal with.
Which fighter would you choose?
I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Talk soon,
Lx
