Dave Asprey claims he invented biohacking, and after spending two and a half million dollars over 20 years on everything from stem cells to gene therapy, he’s learned something surprising.
The most effective longevity protocols don’t require a fortune.
In fact, Asprey has created what he calls a complete anti-aging protocol for just $5 per day—and most of it is exactly what he still does himself, despite his massive budget.
The father of biohacking, who transformed from a 300-pound computer hacker to someone whose lab tests suggest he’s decades younger than his 53 calendar years, is sharing his evidence-based longevity stack that won’t break the bank.
Jump to:
- The Most Expensive Item: Omega-3 Fatty Acids
- The Powerhouse Combination: GlyNAC
- Sleep Enhancement: Magnesium Glycinate
- The Muscle and Brain Protector: Creatine
- The Hormone Masquerading as a Vitamin: Vitamin D
- The Stress Buffer: L-Theanine
- The Shockingly Cheap Interventions: Light Control
- The Free Interventions With The Strongest Evidence
- The Final Tally and the Million Dollar Question
The Most Expensive Item: Omega-3 Fatty Acids
Topping Asprey’s list at 65 cents daily is omega-3 supplementation, and for good reason. It’s the only intervention on his entire list that has actually moved a biological aging clock in a randomized trial.
A study of 777 people over age 70 found that taking 1 gram of omega-3s daily slowed epigenetic aging by up to 4 months over 3 years. While that might not sound dramatic, Asprey points out it’s cleaner evidence than anything else in his multimillion-dollar biohacking arsenal.
If you want something simple that actually works, this is one of the most effective tools I’ve used to build strength, conditioning, and endurance without needing a full gym setup.
- Full-body training with one weight using swings, squats, and presses
- Solid cast iron build that feels stable and lasts for years
- Comfortable grip that makes high-rep workouts easier to handle
There’s a critical catch, though. Most fish oil capsules advertise 1,000 mg on the label, but only contain about 300 mg of actual EPA or DHA—the beneficial omega-3s your body needs.
Hitting the real dose takes three capsules a day of most brands, not one.
Asprey recommends finding reputable brands with third-party testing, noting that rancid fish oil is unfortunately common. A quality bottle running about $20 for 30 days fits the budget.
The Powerhouse Combination: GlyNAC
If forced to choose just one intervention, Asprey says he’d bet on GlyNAC—a combination of glycine and N-acetylcysteine (NAC). Together, these affordable amino acids cost just 51 cents daily when bought in bulk.
These two compounds are precursors to glutathione, often called the master antioxidant. Glutathione protects mitochondria from damage during energy production, but production drops significantly with age.
When researchers gave older adults glycine and cysteine for 16 weeks, remarkable changes occurred. Glutathione levels returned to youthful ranges, and oxidative stress plummeted.
But the benefits extended far beyond antioxidant status:
If you want something simple that actually works, this is one of the most effective tools I’ve used to build strength, conditioning, and endurance without needing a full gym setup.
- Full-body training with one weight using swings, squats, and presses
- Solid cast iron build that feels stable and lasts for years
- Comfortable grip that makes high-rep workouts easier to handle
- Mitochondrial function improved
- Muscle strength increased
- Walking speed accelerated
- Blood pressure normalized
- Waist circumference decreased
- Inflammation markers dropped
- Insulin resistance improved
- Cellular senescence decreased
These are the hallmarks of aging. In fact, the hallmarks I listed in my New York Times best-selling longevity book. They all moved in the right direction at the same time in humans for 51 cents a day.
Asprey acknowledges these trials are small and come from a single research group, but emphasizes the mechanism is well understood and the cost is trivial.
Sleep Enhancement: Magnesium Glycinate
At roughly 30 cents per day, magnesium glycinate is Asprey’s sleep optimization weapon. Generic versions cost about $25 for 80 days of supply.
The key word here is glycinate. Most drugstore magnesium is magnesium oxide, which the body poorly absorbs. What doesn’t get absorbed becomes a laxative.
Magnesium glycinate actually gets into your system and is bound to glycine, which has calming properties on its own. Clinical trials show people fall asleep approximately 17 minutes faster when taking magnesium glycinate.
17 more minutes of deep sleep, which doesn’t sound like much until you count up the nights you’ve spent lying in the dark wide awake getting more pissed off by the minute.
Sleep represents your body’s repair window, making anything that accelerates sleep onset a form of passive longevity intervention.
The Muscle and Brain Protector: Creatine
At just 15 cents per serving, creatine might seem like a supplement for gym-obsessed teenagers. In reality, it’s one of the most extensively studied compounds in existence, with over 680 clinical trials involving more than 12,000 participants since the 1970s.
If you want something simple that actually works, this is one of the most effective tools I’ve used to build strength, conditioning, and endurance without needing a full gym setup.
- Full-body training with one weight using swings, squats, and presses
- Solid cast iron build that feels stable and lasts for years
- Comfortable grip that makes high-rep workouts easier to handle
After age 60, muscle mass becomes one of the strongest predictors of longevity. Creatine helps preserve that critical tissue.
But creatine isn’t just for muscles. Your brain—comprising only 2% of body weight—burns approximately 20% of total energy. Creatine serves as an energy buffer that helps cells rapidly regenerate ATP.
Cognitive effects appear most pronounced when the brain is energy-deprived: during sleep deprivation, stress, aging, or in vegetarians who start with minimal creatine stores.
Asprey offers a zero-cost optimization tip: dissolve creatine in hot liquid. Heat raises plasma levels higher than cold water, maximizing absorption and effectiveness.
The Hormone Masquerading as a Vitamin: Vitamin D
Vitamin D costs approximately 12 cents daily for a year’s supply—more when combined with vitamin K2, which Asprey strongly recommends.
Despite its name, vitamin D functions as a hormone. Your body synthesizes it from sunlight and fat, and receptors exist throughout every major tissue.
If you want something simple that actually works, this is one of the most effective tools I’ve used to build strength, conditioning, and endurance without needing a full gym setup.
- Full-body training with one weight using swings, squats, and presses
- Solid cast iron build that feels stable and lasts for years
- Comfortable grip that makes high-rep workouts easier to handle
Deficiency doesn’t present as one symptom but manifests across multiple systems. Even wealthy individuals who fly private planes to Asprey’s concierge longevity practice arrive with inadequate levels.
Most people who think they’re fine are not fine. In Unlimited Life, my concierge VIP longevity practice, where people fly their own planes to our medical clinic, they’re all deficient in vitamin D. I haven’t found one person who had their levels high enough.
Genetics determine how efficiently your body produces and utilizes vitamin D. Sunlight alone proves insufficient for everyone Asprey has measured.
Vitamin D also synergizes with omega-3s. The biological clock trial that tested omega-3s found the best results came from combining omega-3s, vitamin D, and strength training together.
The Stress Buffer: L-Theanine
At 8 cents daily for 200 capsules, L-theanine is the compound in green tea that creates a completely different experience than coffee, despite both containing caffeine.
L-theanine removes the jittery edge from stimulation without sacrificing focus. Caffeine provides sharpness, theanine eliminates twitchiness. The result is alertness without anxiety.
Asprey admits L-theanine doesn’t belong on his list the same way other interventions do—there’s no aging clock study, and the best human trial involved only 30 people.
If you want something simple that actually works, this is one of the most effective tools I’ve used to build strength, conditioning, and endurance without needing a full gym setup.
- Full-body training with one weight using swings, squats, and presses
- Solid cast iron build that feels stable and lasts for years
- Comfortable grip that makes high-rep workouts easier to handle
I could sit here and build you a stress and cortisol argument for why it belongs on an anti-aging list, but honestly, it costs 8 cents. I like it. And this is my list.
Given that lowering stress hormones supports longevity, the negligible cost makes inclusion worthwhile.
The Shockingly Cheap Interventions: Light Control
The supplements total $1.81 daily. But Asprey’s list includes interventions with even stronger evidence that cost almost nothing.
Blackout Curtains
Quality blackout curtains cost about $30. Amortized over a year, that’s 8 cents daily. Since curtains don’t expire, they’re essentially free after year one.
This might sound trivial, but researchers attached light sensors to 85,000 people’s wrists and followed them for 8 years—capturing 13 million hours of light exposure data.
People with the brightest bedrooms at night showed a 53 to 67% higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes. This association held independent of genetic risk.
The researchers ran it against polygenic risk. And they found the difference in diabetes risk between people with bright nights and dark nights was about the same as the difference between having low genetic risk and moderate genetic risk of diabetes.
Your curtains deliver approximately the same protection as favorable DNA—and unlike genetics, you can change your curtains this afternoon.
If you want something simple that actually works, this is one of the most effective tools I’ve used to build strength, conditioning, and endurance without needing a full gym setup.
- Full-body training with one weight using swings, squats, and presses
- Solid cast iron build that feels stable and lasts for years
- Comfortable grip that makes high-rep workouts easier to handle
Red Bulbs After Sunset
Two red bulbs costing about $15 work out to roughly 4 cents daily over their decade-long lifespan.
Specialized sensors in your eyes detect light quality to signal your brain what time of day it is. Blue light—from the sun or electronic screens—signals daytime. Throughout human history, blue light never appeared at night except during a full moon.
Red light, like firelight, allows you to see at 10 PM without convincing your brain the sun returned. You maintain visibility without disrupting circadian rhythm.
Blue Light Blocking Glasses
Asprey invented modern junk light blocking glasses called TrueDark, which he includes at approximately 5 cents daily when amortized over years of use.
Standard blue light blocking glasses don’t work particularly well for sleep. TrueDark filters the specific wavelengths that control sleep timing, backed by a published study showing measurable brainwave changes.
These aren’t primarily for eye strain—they’re for wearing after sunset to signal your brain it’s dark, even when you’re staring at bright screens.
If you want something simple that actually works, this is one of the most effective tools I’ve used to build strength, conditioning, and endurance without needing a full gym setup.
- Full-body training with one weight using swings, squats, and presses
- Solid cast iron build that feels stable and lasts for years
- Comfortable grip that makes high-rep workouts easier to handle
Together, these light interventions cost about 17 cents daily and rest on 85,000 participants and 13 million sensor-hours of data. The best part? Buy once, benefit forever.
The Free Interventions With The Strongest Evidence
After spending two million dollars, Asprey discovered something frustrating: the two most powerful longevity interventions cost absolutely nothing.
Walking
Not intense training or zone two cardio—just walking.
Researchers analyzed 57 studies covering more than 160,000 adults, comparing people getting 7,000 steps daily against those getting 2,000.
The 7,000-step group showed:
- 47% lower risk of all-cause mortality
- 25% reduction in cardiovascular disease
- 28% fewer falls
- 38% lower dementia risk
The famous 10,000 steps daily target? Marketing fiction created in 1950s Japan. Seven thousand steps hits the sweet spot.
If you want something simple that actually works, this is one of the most effective tools I’ve used to build strength, conditioning, and endurance without needing a full gym setup.
- Full-body training with one weight using swings, squats, and presses
- Solid cast iron build that feels stable and lasts for years
- Comfortable grip that makes high-rep workouts easier to handle
Nothing I’ve ever bought did so much for this cost, which is nothing in this case. And you get it by walking to the end of your street and back, which honestly kind of pisses me off, but that’s science.
Morning Sunlight
The same wrist sensor research that connected bright bedrooms to diabetes risk examined daytime light exposure and found the opposite pattern.
Brighter days correlated with lower risk of dying from heart and metabolic disease.
Asprey’s prescription is simple: go outside for 10 minutes each morning. No excuses, unless you live in Canada.
Fiber Intake
Target 25 to 30 grams daily. The evidence base is staggering: 185 observational studies, 135 million person-years of data, plus 58 clinical trials.
People consuming the most fiber showed 15 to 30% lower all-cause mortality compared to those eating the least.
The challenge lies in tracking fiber content and avoiding anti-nutrients found in common sources like beans. Asprey recommends acacia fiber—a fully soluble prebiotic fiber available as powder.
If you want something simple that actually works, this is one of the most effective tools I’ve used to build strength, conditioning, and endurance without needing a full gym setup.
- Full-body training with one weight using swings, squats, and presses
- Solid cast iron build that feels stable and lasts for years
- Comfortable grip that makes high-rep workouts easier to handle
Sleep
Cut a single night to 4 hours and your body’s glucose handling crashes the next day. One night.
Sleep costs nothing, sounds boring, and ranks as probably the most important intervention on the entire list.
The Final Tally and the Million Dollar Question
Asprey’s complete longevity protocol costs $1.98 daily, or roughly $60 monthly. Bryan Johnson spends $5,400 daily. Asprey himself spends about $100 per day.
This list is approximately 2,700 times cheaper than Johnson’s protocol—and contains interventions Asprey actually uses himself.
So why spend two and a half million dollars if the affordable stuff works so well?
The most expensive thing in longevity is repair. Longevity is cheap when you’re 20. It’s expensive when you’re 50.
Stem cells, gene therapy, cellular reprogramming—the advanced interventions Asprey offers through his concierge practice—address damage already done. These become necessary when people spend their health building success, then need to buy back their biology.
If you want something simple that actually works, this is one of the most effective tools I’ve used to build strength, conditioning, and endurance without needing a full gym setup.
- Full-body training with one weight using swings, squats, and presses
- Solid cast iron build that feels stable and lasts for years
- Comfortable grip that makes high-rep workouts easier to handle
Asprey’s massive expenditure bought back things he wouldn’t have lost if someone had shown him this list decades ago. Profoundly sick as a teenager and throughout his twenties, he faced disability insurance discussions, psychiatric visits when his brain stopped working at Wharton, three knee surgeries, and arthritis since adolescence.
If someone had just told me this list and I would have done it, I probably would have saved a half a million dollars on that list. If I just slept in a dark room, if I would have gotten in the sun, gone for a walk every day, and just known how to eat real food, I think my life would have been different.
Someone had to explore expensive frontiers to determine what works. Asprey could afford to be that person. Now you don’t have to repeat his costly experiments.
His goal isn’t for you to need stem cells—it’s for you to be so healthy you might want them for optimization, not repair. Pay for curtains now instead of cellular reprogramming later.
Starting as a 300-pound patient receiving unhelpful medical advice, Asprey realized neither his doctor nor insurance company would save him. He decided to hack his own biology, eventually investing millions as he became successful in tech and biohacking entrepreneurship.
Everything he shares represents what he wishes someone had told him at 19—information that would have prevented years of suffering.
This $2 daily investment in supplements, plus free interventions backed by millions of research hours, offers everyone access to evidence-based longevity protocols that previously required either extensive research or expensive trial and error.
If you want something simple that actually works, this is one of the most effective tools I’ve used to build strength, conditioning, and endurance without needing a full gym setup.
- Full-body training with one weight using swings, squats, and presses
- Solid cast iron build that feels stable and lasts for years
- Comfortable grip that makes high-rep workouts easier to handle
The curtains cost pennies. What you’re really buying is decades.
