Sean Kelly may have been born almost five decades ago, but he claims he’s actually only 27 years old thanks to his extensive supplement routine that he says turned back his biological clock.
The California-based entrepreneur takes more than 40 supplements a day to achieve this feat, he said in a recent thread on X, which has more than 10.5 million views.
Kelly states that supplements are necessary to turn back time and that food alone is not enough to obtain the nutrients necessary for optimal health.
But many are skeptical, with X users commenting: “Total bullshit… The body can handle this on its own” and “Fix your diet if you need so many supplements.”
And people point out that his biohacking advice may not be purely altruistic. A disclaimer in his tweet states that the company he works for, The Family Fund, is an investor in two of his recommended products, a biological age testing kit and a line of supplements, apparently giving him a financial motivation. to promote claims that experts say are not supported by science. .
Popularized by millionaires like Bryan Johnson, more and more people are interested in trying biohacking, which involves rigorous daily exercise, strict diet and sleep routines, and is measured by blood tests, sleep trackers and, in some cases, heart rate trackers. erection.
Sean Kelly, a 41-year-old California-based entrepreneur, has been investing in and founding wellness companies since at least 2008.
In this photo shared on
Kelly uses over 40 supplements and acknowledged in the thread that it’s easy to buy poor quality supplements, but she promoted one company, Momentous, as one of the only brands she uses.
Mr. Kelly’s venture capital firm, Family Fund, invests in Momentous, according to their website.
He also wrote that a company called Lifeforce performs blood tests four times a year. According to the Family Fund websitethe company also invests in Lifeforce.
For a biomarker blood test, a telehealth visit and a clinical report, Lifeforce users pay $549, although the company offers a membership, which costs $349 upfront, plus $129 per month.
Membership includes retesting every three months and a discount on the company’s products, including supplements.
For testing, people can prick their finger at home or go to a lab to have blood drawn or provide saliva samples.
Kelly said she gets four blood tests a year and sends them to the company, which gives her a score out of 100 based on how biologically healthy her blood appears.
His score, he says, is 93/100, which is equivalent to the score of a 27-year-old.
Mr. Kelly founded a health food vending machine company in 2008. Since then, he has worked at several food and wellness companies. He is a general partner of a venture capital fund that also invests in these types of products.
As biohacking becomes more popular, more companies offer ways to test your biological age, although they often cost hundreds of dollars.
One company, TruMe Labs, offers a one-time biological age testing kit using your saliva for $110. GlycanAge announces its unique blood test for $348.
The tests look at epigenetic changes, which are microscopic signs of aging that accumulate in cells over time, like rust on a nail or scratches on a CD. This is called an epigenetic clock.
Epigenetic clocks were originally identified by scientists as a way to determine how much damage a cell has suffered over its lifetime.
Since then, the markers, known as epigenetic clocks, have become a standard measure for determining whether a person’s longevity is in sync with their actual age.
Although scientists use epigenetic clocks in laboratories, the measurement is still experimental and therefore not yet useful for people at home, said Dr. Daniel Belsky, associate professor of epidemiology at Columbia University. The New York Times.
“I guess you could say that the best (biological age tests) are not completely useless,” said Dr. Belsky, who studies epigenetic clocks.
He added: “But these are not proven clinical tools yet, so they are more for the curious.”
Some research has even shown that biomarkers fluctuate over a 24-hour period, meaning you could get different results depending on the time of day you have your blood drawn.
It’s not that it’s a bad measure, it’s just that it hasn’t been perfected yet, so people could be getting misleading results, experts say.
Even if it were a perfect measure, scientists have not reached any consensus on what to do about advanced aging.
There are no proven anti-aging techniques, despite what biohackers claim, said Dr. Charles Brenner, a biochemist at City of Hope, a nonprofit research center in California.
He told the guardian that someone who uses anti-aging routines “can say they have put themselves on a better aging trajectory, but they cannot say they have reversed or eliminated aging.”
‘There are people who aged remarkably well and lived between 110 and 122 years. None of those people had very regimented practices.
The supplement brand Kelly had promoted is Momentus, chaired by neuroscientist and wellness guru Andrew Huberman.
However, Huberman has been accused by former partners of irresponsible behavior, including allegedly spreading sexually transmitted diseases during an affair, leading doctors to question his experience.
Huberman “fills his podcast with confident demonstrations of pseudoscience,” Dr. Andrea Love, a microbiologist and immunologist, told Slate.
He added: “It contains grains of truth, but those grains of truth are exaggerated beyond the point of usefulness, even to the point of distancing us from the truth.”
This, Dr. Love previously told DailyMail.com, could extend to its supplements. “They say it’s backed by science or has evidence or data behind it; they’re extrapolating a nugget of truth.”
Nutrition experts almost universally disagree with Kelly’s claim that the body cannot get enough nutrients from food alone.
And statements like these have led many to believe that they need to spend money on pills that don’t do much, Dr. Pieter Cohensaid an internist and associate professor at Harvard Medical School.
“The idea is that taking these pills can somehow improve your health or protect you from disease,” Dr. Cohen said.
He added: “While some people may need specific vitamins or supplements to help with deficiencies, for the average healthy person, eating a diet rich in fruits and vegetables provides all the essential vitamins and minerals.”
