ray kurzweil

Google Futurist Ray Kurzweil Hacks His Body With These

By in Lifespan-Extending Treatments, Vitamin Supplements

Summary: Ray Kurzweil wants to live forever. Here’s a list of the nearly 100 of the pills that Kurzweil takes daily in a bid to achieve his goal of immortality. [This article first appeared on LongevityFacts under the title ‘Google Futurist Ray Kurzweil Takes 100 Pills Daily To Live Forever,’ and was last updated on 2/28/2018. Author: Brady Hartman. ]

Google’s futurist, Ray Kurzweil wants to live forever. He thinks taking 100 pills a day can help him.

The 67-year-old Kurzweil gulps supplements by the handful for “heart health, eye health, sexual health, and brain health.”

Futurist Famous For Bold Predictions

Ray Kurzweil has become a celebrity for his bold theories about The Singularity, a future event in which man and machine will converge, creating hyper-intelligent, immortal beings that will live forever.

Being a futurist isn’t easy. As a saying attributed to physicist Niels Bohr goes,

It’s hard to make predictions,  especially about the future.

Futurist Ray Kurzweil in 2009.
Ray Kurzweil in 2009, two years after predicting nanobots. Credit: JDLasica / CC BY-NC 2.0 (via Flickr).

Ray Kurzweil – Crackpot or Prophet?

Ray Kurzweil has many followers. Some call him a prophet, others label him a crackpot.

Over a decade ago, Kurzweil predicted that, within decades, we will have medical nanorobots, now called nanodocs, swimming through our veins keeping us healthy. In a 2007 essay in the Guardian, Kurzweil made the following prediction:

“Within a couple of decades, we will have ‘nanobots’ in our blood stream, basically small robots the size of blood cells, that will keep us healthy at the cellular and molecular level.” Kurzweil later added, “These devices will be a billion times more powerful than they are today in 25 years, and will continue the accelerating path to radical life extension.”

Ray Kurzweil made that prediction back in 2007, and his prophecy is becoming a reality, at least in the treatment of solid-tumor cancer. According to a recent report on bacteriobots, a physician in Montreal may be the first to treat cancer patients with tumor-killing nanorobots.

Futurist, Heal Thyself

Kurzweil was diagnosed with high cholesterol and type 2 diabetes when only 35. The diagnosis of type 2 diabetes was a wake-up call for Ray, so he read up on the latest nutritional research, went on a diet and cut his fat intake. All that hard work paid off for Ray Kurzweil, who says he reversed both his diabetes and high cholesterol, losing 40 pounds in the process.

Immortality Isn’t Easy for Ray Kurzweil

As reported by the Financial Times (FT.com), the futurist used to eat 250 pills a day. Now, he’s down to 100.  In an interview a few years back, Kurzweil told the Financial Times’s Caroline Daniel that he spends “a few thousand dollars per year” on vitamins and supplements. According to press reports, Kurzweil also spends one day a week in a doctor’s office, receiving intravenous longevity treatments in a bid to live forever.

In addition to taking vitamins and supplements, Ray also eats a healthy diet, rich in plant compounds called phytonutrients.  According to Caroline Daniel, his breakfast includes berries, dark chocolate infused with espresso, smoked salmon and mackerel, vanilla soy milk, porridge and green tea.,

If the supplement plan doesn’t work, Ray Kurzweil has a backup plan.  The outspoken futurist has signed up to for cryonics. Kurzweil joins other notables such as SENS Foundation’s Aubrey de Grey on the member list of the cryonics firm Alcor. Ray Kurzweil has arranged for the cryopreservation of his body shortly after death, with the hopes of being revived when medical science has found a cure for whatever felled him.

Ray Kurzweil’s Supplement List

Most of the items on this list come from Kurzweil’s book, Fantastic Voyage: Live Long Enough to Live Forever, published back in 2005 when Ray was taking 250 supplements a day. The list has been updated to include the supplements vinpocetine, vitamin D, and alkaline water, recently added to Kurzweil’s list, based on current press reports. Here’s the list of 80 of the 100 supplements that Ray Kurzweil reports taking.

Anti-Inflammatories
Blood Thinners
  • Aspirin
  • Lumbrokinase
Blood-Vessel Health
  • Arginine
  • Choline
  • TMG
Brain Health
  • GABA
  • Glyceryl phosphatidylcholine
  • Melatonin
  • Nextrutine
  • Quercetin
  • Phosphatidylcholine (Intravenous) – Brain health/cell membrane health
Chelation Therapy (detoxification)
  • DMPS
  • EDTA
Digestion
  • Acidophilus bifidobacteria
  • Betaine HCL
  • Fish protein
  • Fructooligosaccharides
  • Gentian root
  • l-glutamine
  • n-acetyl-d-glucosamine
  • Peppermint
  • Pepsin
Eye Health
  • Bilberry extract
  • Lutein
Testosterone Boosters
  • DHEA
  • Chrysin
  • Ginger
  • Indole-3-carbinol
  • Nettle
  • PtC
  • Testosterone (prescription)
Inhibit AGEs

Note:  AGEs or advanced glycated end products form when sugar corrupts a cellular component, such as a protein molecule, causing macromolecular damage. Anti-aging researchers called geroscientists link the build-up of AGEs in our aging bodies to a variety of diseases.

  • Alpha lipoic acid
  • Carnosine
  • Quercetin
  • n-acetyl-carnitine
Reduce Homocysteine Levels
  • Vitamin B-6
  • Folic acid
Stress
  • Beta-sitosterol
  • Green tea extract
  • L-theanine
  • Phosphatidylserine
Type 2 Diabetes
Cholesterol
  • Grapefruit powder
  • Guggulipid ( aka Gugulipid  or Guggul)
  • Lecithin
  • Oat Bran
  • Plant sterols
  • Policosanol
  • Psyllium
  • Atorvastatin (prescription) – To lower LDL cholesterol
  • Vitamin B-3 (Niacin) – To raise HDL cholesterol
Vitamins / Nutrients
General Health
  • Bilberry extract – antioxidant
  • Lycopene – antioxidant
  • n-acetyl-l-cysteine – antioxidant
  • Resveratrol – antioxidant.
  • Silymarin (flavonoid) – Liver health benefits.
  • Grapeseed extract – Cardiovascular benefits / anti-oxidant.
  • Echinacea – Immune support.
  • Garlic – Multiple health benefits.
  • Various Herbs.
Miscellaneous
  • Vinpocetine
  • Alkaline Water
  • Glutathione (Intravenous) – Liver health
  • Saw palmetto complex – Prostate health
  • Antioxidant skin creams – Skin anti-aging

How Not To Live Forever

As reported in a previous article, large doses of some vitamins can cause harm.  A few of the supplements on Ray Kurzweil’s list could ruin his health or shorten his life, notably the vitamins B-3 and B-6. Recent research on vitamin B-6 shows that taking more than 100 milligrams of the vitamin over an extended period can cause a form of nerve damage called neuropathy. Research shows that taking excessive vitamin B-3 lowers cholesterol, but can also harm the liver.

Department of Redundancy Department

There’s redundancy in Ray Kurzweil’s longevity regimen.

Ray takes EPA/DHA fish oil supplements. Studies show that when compared to omega-3 supplements, whole fish is a healthier source of these oils. Ray Kurzweil should stick to his salmon.

Kurzweil has a healthy diet, rich in fruit and vegetables. He doesn’t need that many supplements. Ray Kurzweil is going overboard.

I’m puzzled by Ray’s  testosterone-boosting regimen. Kurzweil takes many supplements that increase testosterone. At the same time, Ray takes the drug itself.

The best thing to boost testosterone is testosterone itself.

Bottom Line on Ray Kurzweil’s Regimen

On the plus side, Kurzweil has an otherwise healthy lifestyle. He takes prescription drugs for legitimate reasons, such as aspirin for the heart, metformin for diabetes and statins for high cholesterol.  Some of the medicines have dual purposes. Metformin has been shown to prevent cancer, and it’s a general anti-aging drug to boot. Cholesterol-lowering statins are also proposed for anti-aging purposes.

On the other hand, while justification can be found for some of the items on his list, it seems as if the futurist is taking too many overall. A recent report published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) suggests that vitamin supplements aren’t all they are cracked up to be. Instead, the JAMA article recommends that people obtain most of their vitamins and minerals through a healthy diet. The report suggests that those people with specific conditions or at certain life phases might consider vitamin and mineral supplements. Furthermore, two of the B vitamins that Ray takes are shown to be harmful to the health when taken to excess.

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References

[Cover Photo: Ray Kurzweil in June 2017 video. Screenshot courtesy of Singularity Hub.]  

Ray Kurzweil, Terry Grossman. Fantastic Voyage: Live Long Enough to Live Forever. September 27, 2005. Link.

Caroline Daniel. Breakfast with the FT: Ray Kurzweil. The Financial Times. April 10, 2015. Link.

Disclaimer

Diagnosis, Treatment, and Advice:  This article is intended for educational and informational purposes only and is not a substitute for qualified, professional medical advice.  The information and opinions provided herein should not be used during any medical emergency or for the diagnosis or treatment of any medical condition.  Experimental therapies carry a much higher risk than FDA-approved ones.  Consult a licensed and qualified physician for the diagnosis and treatment of any and all medical conditions. Call 911, or an equivalent emergency hotline number, for all medical emergencies. As well, consult a licensed, qualified physician before changing your diet, supplement or exercise programs. Photos, Endorsements, & External Links:  This article is not intended to endorse organizations, companies, or their products. Links to external websites, mention or depiction of company names or brands, are intended for illustration only and do not constitute endorsements.

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