My Current Longevity Stack
Two speakers discuss their personal longevity and biohacking stacks, converging on surprisingly conservative approaches centered on sleep, exercise, and diet. They explore more experimental interventions like rapamycin, ketone esters, and ibogaine, while also discussing brain stimulation as a promising frontier. The conversation emphasizes caution around poorly understood mechanisms and perverse medical incentives.
Summary
The conversation opens with a reflection on how the biohacking and quantified self movement has grown from a small 2008 meetup to tens of thousands of self-described biohackers, much of it characterized by noise and nonsense. The first speaker admits his personal stack is relatively minimal, collapsing largely into foundational lifestyle factors: sleep, exercise, and diet, with vitamin D and creatine as the primary supplements he'd endorse.
The second speaker, described as more experimentally inclined in earlier years, describes himself as now surprisingly conservative. He references early experimentation with first-generation Dexcom continuous glucose monitors in 2008-2009 and articulates a guiding heuristic of 'no biological free lunch' as a useful filter against risky interventions. He is currently experimenting with ketone esters and salts for potential cerebrovascular and neuroprotective benefits, given a family history of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. He also flags obeticholic acid (obetropib) as one to watch, and expresses genuine interest in rapamycin with significant caveats around its immunosuppressant properties. He describes a potential self-experiment combining Norwegian 4x4 interval training with pulsed rapamycin dosing to measure volumetric hippocampal changes.
The discussion broadens to mitochondrial health, with interest in urolithin A, intermittent fasting, and occasional 3-7 day fasting or fast-mimicking diets informed by Dr. Dominic D'Agostino, aimed at promoting autophagy and mitophagy. The concept of a biological 'reboot' is introduced, with the first speaker raising the idea of anesthesia or nerve-freezing procedures like stellate ganglion blocks.
The second speaker pivots to ibogaine as one of the most compelling reboot-like interventions he's aware of, particularly for opiate addiction via flood dosing under medical supervision. He cites research from Nolan Williams' lab showing pre- and post-dosing MRI changes in veterans with traumatic brain injury, including possible reversal of brain age markers potentially linked to GDNF (glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor). He also raises concern about general anesthesia, arguing it is frequently overused due to financial incentives, and that its mechanisms remain poorly understood despite widespread use — a broader critique he extends to many commonly prescribed medications.
The conversation closes with the second speaker expressing strong conviction in bioelectric medicine and non-invasive brain stimulation as one of the next great frontiers — not just for psychiatric disorders but for performance enhancement — arguing that the 'why now' conditions are genuinely compelling for this field, with potential outpatient procedures delivering meaningful neurological effects.
Key Insights
- The second speaker argues that rapamycin is genuinely interesting for longevity but carries serious risks as an immunosuppressant, and describes a planned self-experiment combining it with Norwegian 4x4 interval training to measure hippocampal volumetric changes via MRI.
- The second speaker contends that ibogaine flood dosing — under medical supervision with co-administered magnesium to reduce cardiac risk — can give opiate addicts a window free from physical withdrawal symptoms, and cites Nolan Williams' lab showing post-dosing MRI evidence of potential brain age reversal in veterans with traumatic brain injury.
- The second speaker argues that general anesthesia is frequently administered unnecessarily due to financial incentives, that its mechanisms are poorly understood, and that some patients experience lasting personality changes or memory impairment afterward — he personally opted for local anesthesia for a recent surgery.
- The second speaker frames GLP-1 agonists as an early demonstration of system-wide behavioral rebooting — noting that people taking them for weight loss sometimes spontaneously reduce smoking or drinking — suggesting pharmacological interventions can have broad, unexpected effects on impulse control.
- The second speaker expresses strong conviction that non-invasive brain stimulation and bioelectric medicine broadly represent one of the next great frontiers, arguing the 'why now' conditions are genuinely compelling, with potential for outpatient procedures that achieve meaningful neurological effects without drugs or IVs.
Topics
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