The Millionaire Tech Weirdo Who Says His Biohacking Will Grant Him Immortality Finds a New Way to Weird You Out

A couple of weeks ago I spoke casually about supplementing potassium. A commenter chided me for speaking about taking a supplement that could lead to hyperkalemia, which at high enough levels can be fatal. Or just cause you neurological damage.

I also have been watching Elementary and noticed someone was murdered by an injections of potassium chloride, which caused a heart attack.

So... don't take much potassium as a supplement. There's a reason the pills you can buy only have 3% of the USRDA of potassium.

On to the story:

This is the guy with a full scientific/medical lab in his house who does multiple analyses of his blood and biological fluids every single day.

His theory is that science is approaching the point where it could reverse aging, so if he can just extend his life to, say, 120, he will become immortal. He's said something to the effect of "these will be the last generations to know death." Or something like that, less poetical.

Among his tests: He wears some kind of a genital cuff around his dong at night because nighttime erections have been linked to longevity.

His "girlfriend," who seems nearly as weird as he is, wants in on this too.

So she tracks her own "nighttime erections" with an electronic tampon.

I'm staring to think this guy might be a flake.

A device that measures nighttime female "erections" to gauge longevity? Now that's a biohacker's wet dream.

Every night, Kate Tolo inserts a $15,700 "research grade erection device" into what her boyfriend and business partner, biohacker Bryan Johnson, famously called her "top 1%" vagina.

In fact, both of them wear an erection tracker nightly. Johnson says he's looking to maintain healthy erections, which some experts agree is a predictor of longevity for men.

And Tolo -- despite not having a penis -- wants in on the action.

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Tolo says women get "erections" too -- and it's possible that tracking them could give ladies similar longevity insights.

I'll spare you the details but the science says the Little Man in the Prow of the Boat stands up a couple of times per night.

"The light sensor inside my probe is the same kind smartwatches use to read your heart rate," she explained.

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Tolo's vaginal "erection" data is not easy to get. Her device costs $15,723.68 and is like "lab equipment in my bedroom," she said.

"I insert the 5cm probe [and] tape a wire to my leg that is plugged into a machine and a laptop. The laptop can't fall asleep or we lose the data. I sadly learned that through experience."

Meanwhile, Johnson's can be bought online for $275 and connects to a smartphone.

"I've tracked my nighttime erections for years ... It's one of the best signals I have for vascular health, and it costs $275," Johnson said. "The gap in our devices sums up the current status of female health.

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Tolo has been outspoken about the disparity in research on women's health.

This year, she created "the female protocol" to measure 1,900 biomarkers across blood, urine, stool and vaginal microbiome, while holding diet, sleep and exercise constant.

The happy couple is all smiles as they show off their genital probes:

On to some health-related stories:

Commenters have pointed out what they believe is the explanation for Talarico's Dozen Days of Disappearance.

Sexually-transmitted diarrhea.

You don't have to be a pioneer on the Oregon Trail to catch the bug that causes dysentery.

Nowadays, the infection is spreading more through sex -- and evolving into something that's "close to untreatable," one expert said.

Shigella bacteria infect nearly half a million people in the US every year -- causing diarrhea with blood or mucus (the hallmark of a dysentery infection), stomach pain, cramps, fever and vomiting.

Scientists are learning more about why the disturbing disease is spreading so quickly, and why it's developing a resistance to treatment.

Shigella is a nasty illness that causes more than uncomfortable doo-doos. It can become life-threatening by dehydrating and depleting bodily fluids including blood, causing bacterial and septic shock, neurological complications, and internal bleeding and infection.

The bacteria spreads through infected poop that gets into the mouth because of ill-washed hands, or swallowing tainted food or water. A minuscule amount -- as few as 10 organisms -- is enough to get you sick.

The population most likely to get infected are children under 5, who catch it at day care and schools from other kids who are just starting to learn about keeping themselves clean. Travelers to places where sanitation standards are lower, and people experiencing homelessness are also at higher risk.

Are normal incandescent light bulbs coming back?

The swap from incandescent to LED bulbs became mandatory, thanks to a 2007 energy bill signed by George W. Bush. With a simple pitch that left little room for argument, the efficiency rules in the bill quietly dimmed the incandescent bulb out of existence, clearing the way to replace it with LED bulbs....

Indeed, the concern over LED light is mainstream and growing. Dr. Glen Jeffery at UCL's Institute of Ophthalmology has found that the blue-heavy light from typical LEDs lowers the membrane potential in our mitochondria, thus impacting the electrical charge that lets our mitochondria produce ATP, the energy currency of the cell. Along with that, blue light in the evening suppresses melatonin and disrupts circadian rhythms, which in turn affects sleep, hormone balance, and overnight cellular repair. And studies on animals reveal that blue light causes retinal damage. Eye damage is significant because half of the human brain is wired, either directly or indirectly, to process what it receives through the eyes. Stare too long at a device and, yes, your eyes are wrecked. Think about it. The notion that it was safe to rewire the light--swap out the bulb--in every home, school, office, street, and so on, and see absolutely no biological cost is absurd.

Dr. Jack Kruse and others in the holistic world have been warning us about this for years. Kruse maintains that light, not food, is the master signal for human health.

Good news for those who try to get 10,000 steps per day -- 7,000 steps (which is much more achievable, as you get 2-3000 just by normally puttering around) delivers most of the benefits of 10,000.

But according to a recent Lancet Public Health study, which analyzed data from more than 110,000 people, taking 7,000 steps offered the same health benefits as 10,000 steps, including a lower risk of all-cause mortality, reduced cardiovascular risk, and even a decreased risk of developing dementia.

This made me question everything. Was I overdoing it for no reason? And where did the 10,000-step rule even come from?

As it turns out, the 10,000-step benchmark wasn't based on science. It originated in Japan in the 1960s, when a pedometer company called Yamasa created a product named "manpo-kei," which translates to "10,000-step meter." The catchy number stuck -- and so did the idea that 10,000 was the gold standard.

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I didn't realize how obsessed I'd become with the number on my watch until I started skipping the gym on days when I hit my 10,000 steps early. I'd feel like I'd done enough just because my step count was high -- even if I hadn't lifted weights in weeks or eaten a proper meal.

This kind of tunnel vision is what Ogden cautions against.

"Fitness isn't one-dimensional," she says. "Just because you're active doesn't mean you're well-rounded in your routine. Are you working on your strength? Your mobility? Your cardiovascular health?"

She often sees clients who walk 10,000 steps a day but can't carry groceries or struggle to get off the floor. "That tells me there's a gap in functional fitness," she says. "Movement needs to support your life, not just your metrics."

Strength-based exercises like planks are a key part of long-term fitness and longevity.

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In other words, if swimming, yoga, or pilates fits more easily into your lifestyle, and are more enjoyable, those activities may provide greater benefits than forcing extra steps just to hit 10,000.

Speaking of strength training: a mouse-based study found that just seven days of strength training triggered fat burning and weight loss.

The study, published in the journal Life Sciences, isolated the biological impacts of exercise from the secondary changes triggered by dropping pounds. Researchers fed male mice a high-fat diet to induce obesity, then divided them into a sedentary group and an exercising group. Both groups continued eating the high-fat diet to ensure physical activity was the only difference between them.

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The experiment also included a group of mice fed a standard diet. To simulate strength training, the exercising animals climbed a staircase 70 centimeters, or about 28 inches, high with weights attached to their tails. They trained at 70% of their maximum carrying capacity, completing 20 climbs per session with rest intervals of 60 to 90 seconds. In total, they completed seven sessions over seven days.

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The researchers focused on mesenteric adipose tissue, the fat surrounding the intestines, which Moura describes as a primary counterpart to human visceral fat. The exercised mice had less of this tissue and smaller fat-storing cells, called adipocytes, than the sedentary obese mice.

In obesity, adipocytes can become so enlarged that they experience chronic stress and release inflammatory substances into the bloodstream. These substances can disrupt metabolism throughout the body, helping explain why excess visceral fat is more harmful than subcutaneous fat beneath the skin. The team interpreted the smaller cells as a sign that the tissue was becoming less inflamed and metabolically healthier.

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Exercise affected fat production as well. The trained mice showed lower activity of Scd1, a gene involved in making fat molecules. The researchers interpret that decrease as a sign that the body may become less likely to store calories from food as fat.

Exercise can also help in pain management:

Researchers at Adelaide University analyzed 157 systematic reviews covering 2,736 randomized controlled trials and 221,279 participants. Across that evidence, exercise was associated with reductions in both acute and chronic pain, making the study the most comprehensive synthesis to date of exercise as a pain treatment.

The results challenge the assumption that harder or longer workouts are necessary for pain relief. Lower intensity and shorter duration programs produced greater reductions in pain, while meaningful benefits were also seen in programs totaling less than two hours of exercise per week.

Anyone got any gains?