Andrew Steele

@statto.bsky.social

3508 Followers 1303 Following

Ageing biologist (aren’t we all?) Author of https://ageless.link/ Presenter of https://www.youtube.com/DrAndrewSteele Founder of @thelongevityinitiative.org

“We have this rampant idea now that to show any signs of ageing is something that we want to stave off or avoid for as long as we can,” Lytle said, “potentially forever.” After all, who wants to die?
The ultimate goal of anti-ageing and longevity is to stop normal biological processes, so any signs of ageing – grey hair, wrinkles, saggy skin – mean that you’re failing. But DeFino argues that failure is the ultimate success of the anti-ageing industry. There is no end to ageing, apart from death. There’s always another product to buy, another procedure to undergo, another supplement to take.
DeFino links the terminology shift back to the fashion magazine Allure’s 2017 announcement that it would no longer use the term “anti-ageing”. Editor Michelle Lee argued that by using it, “we’re subtly reinforcing the message that ageing is a condition we need to battle”.
Headline: Bryan Johnson’s ‘stomach-eating disease’ and the limits of biohacking I’m genuinely sorry to hear that Bryan Johnson is unwell. But his diagnosis with autoimmune gastritis shows the limits of flashy biohacking versus real medicine. Johnson spends a fortune measuring himself, but it seems like he’s spent too long focussed on social-media-friendly measures like biological age scores and night-time erections while overlooking a boring marker of the body’s iron stores, ferritin. He posted a 2,000-word (!) story to X, which reveals some fascinating details. The ‘The Most Measured Man in Human History’ was 48 and had never had a…
Screenshot of a post from Bryan Johnson: Bryan Johnson @bryan_johnson Bad news #1: I have an autoimmune disease. My stomach is eating itself. Bad news #2: 2–5% of people have this, too. Likely more, because it hides. Good news: I'm going to try and solve it. Will share all. … (it’s very long)
A beautiful ancient tree, towering against a deep blue sky (probably not Methuselah, whose location is kept secret)
A big tortoise (Jonathan himself!) sat on some grass, munching on a blade of it
Weird blue-green vase shapes in the depths of the ocean
Scientific photos of a clam, from lots of different angles, on a black background
A Greenland shark, looking blue, appearing out of the inky black depths of the ocean
97-year-old Chinese billionaire Li Ka-shing swears by a supposed anti-ageing supplement called nicotinamide riboside, and has invested $25m (£18.5m) in a company that makes it.
Me holding a silver umbrella on a London street, dressed in a stupid hot shirt and sunglasses.
Similar graph to the above for boys—same pattern, but starting later and fewer columns
Graph of coverage of female cohorts by calendar year from 2013 to 2022. Rates hover around 89% until 2016, then slowly decline to ~75% of completed cohorts more recently.
Captcha, with the text ‘Select all items that would beat the object in a race’, a picture of a skateboard, and then a grid of pictures of cars, ladybirds, starfish and a bench
Screenshot of a spreadsheet, and a graph illustrating what the post says!
Using the three pre-2020 five-year periods as the baseline, the average count is: λ = (25+16+27)/3 ≈ 22.7 If deaths followed a Poisson process with that unchanged baseline, the chance of getting zero deaths in 2020–24 is: P(0)=exp(−22.7) ≈ 1.4×10^−10 That is about 1 in 7 billion.
A huge red moon sits on the horizon against a deep blue twilight sky, with the spires of Oxford in the foreground, including the university church, Radcliffe Camera, Christ Church, and more
A glacier snakes through mountains in a white landscape under a clear blue sky, framed by the porthole of a plane window.
Line chart titled ‘Happy 100th birthday, David Attenborough! Here’s his incredible story compared to other babies born in 1926.’ The chart shows percent of the babies born in 1926 still alive. Two lines, male (blue) and female (red), both starting at 100% and declining. Both fall steeply in the first year of life and level off around 90%: 11% of boys and 9% of girls born in 1926 didn't make it to age 5. A shaded band labelled WWII covers ages 13 to 19. The male curve has a visible additional dip around age 18 — the cohort turned 18 in 1944, and a substantial number of young men in particular died in the late stages of the Second World War. By age 65 (1991), 64% of men and 75% of women born in 1926 were still alive. The female line stays consistently above the male, and the gap widens through old age. By 2026, Sir David is one of just 0.5% of men and 1.7% of women to celebrate their 100th birthday. Data: Human Mortality Database, England & Wales cohort life tables.
Dr. Andrew Steele, author of Ageless, is known for a pragmatic, evidence-based approach to longevity. His philosophy generally prioritizes lifestyle foundations and "repurposed" medical drugs over the expensive, unproven supplement "stacks" often marketed to men in their 40s and 50s. Here are relevant quotes and insights from Dr. Steele regarding supplementation and aging:1. On the "Precise" Approach to AgingSteele often argues that as men enter middle age, they should stop guessing and start being selective based on biological needs rather than marketing. "As we age, supplementation should become more precise, not more aggressive. Most people don't need more pills—they need the right supplements, based on real physiological changes." 2. On Creatine and Muscle PreservationFor men over 40, sarcopenia (muscle loss) becomes a primary concern. Steele highlights creatine as one of the few supplements with a solid evidence base. "Creatine is one of the most studied and safest supplements we have. And its benefits don't diminish with age—they arguably become more valuable. For men [over 40/50], maintaining strength isn't about aesthetics—it's about longevity, independence, and injury prevention." 3. On Testosterone BoostersThe "Low-T" market heavily targets men over 40, but Steele remains highly skeptical of over-the-counter herbal solutions. "Testosterone decline with age is real, but supplements are rarely the solution. If there's a clinical issue, it should be addressed medically—not with herbal blends. Save your money." 4. On Popular "Anti-Aging" Molecules (NMN, NR, Resveratrol)While many longevity influencers promote NAD+ boosters and Resveratrol, Steele often points out that the human evidence is still lagging behind the hype."None of these quite has the firm evidence base to suggest that healthy people should take them preventatively, but there's plenty of biochemical diversity there for researchers to explore."
“As we age, supplementation should become more precise, not more aggressive,” says Dr. Andrew Steele, a researcher in ageing biology. “Most people don’t need more pills – they need the right supplements, based on real physiological changes.”
GDP per Capita for Japan and South Korea, 1990 to present. Both lines go up! (South Korea’s particularly steeply, it goes from below Japan to shoot past it recently!)
Green aurora!
The same picture, but much brighter
Earth from space, with a very bright arc on its bottom right edge from the sun illuminating it, and little green and red arcs of aurora at the poles.
ClinicalTrials.gov screenshot: # TB-500 (Thymosin Beta 4 17-23 Fragment) for Cardiovascular Biomarkers in Stable ASCVD (TBRIDGE-CV) ClinicalTrials.gov ID: NCT07487363 Sponsor: Hudson Biotech ## Study Overview – Brief Summary This fictional study is an example of a ClinicalTrials.gov-style record. It describes a Phase 1/2 trial evaluating the safety and tolerability of TB-500 (a 17-23 fragment of thymosin beta 4) versus placebo in adults with stable atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD). Exploratory endpoints assess vascular function and inflammation biomarkers
Experiments with mice have gone further, fi rst cloning a mouse, and then taking a nucleus from a cell of the clone and putting it into an egg cell again to make a clone of the clone … and so on. Early studies seemed to show that the success rate dropped with each ‘generation’, so cloning a clone was harder than simply cloning a ‘normal’ mouse had been, and cloning the clone of a clone was harder still. One meticulous attempt to understand this eventually made it to the sixth generation, which took an incredibly frustrating 1,000 attempts to get a single live baby mouse – only for its foster mother to promptly eat it, ending the experiment. It’s hard to imagine what it must be like to meticulously inject 1,000 nuclei into egg cells, fi nally have it implant successfully in a mouse womb, wait out the pregnancy … and then for mum to chow down this tiny piece of scientific history before you’ve had chance to run any tests. However, cloning techniques have since improved signifi - cantly, and this decreasing efficiency with each generation has disappeared. A group overseen by the same scientist who witnessed that appalling act of mouse cannibalism published a paper in 2013 documenting the success of repeated cloning over 25 generations with no obvious increase in difficulty over time. Most crucially from our point of view, the great-great- … great-grandclones were healthy and had normal lifespans. Once again, the magic of cellular reprogramming resets the ageing clock with each generation. (The experiment continues and, at the time of writing, is on generation 43.)
Scott Kelly @StationCDRKelly When I was on the ISS for my nearly year long mission, there was a telomere experiment comparing my telomeres to my earth baseline and my twin brother as a control. Hypothesis was they would get damaged and worse due to the environment. Turns out they got better. Initially NASA thought maybe it was due to exercise and diet. After I returned we learned JAXA had a telomere experiment on some small worms the same time I was there. Their telomeres got better too. Never saw the worms doing any exercise. After further study determined it was the radiation.
Twitter screenshot: Zane Koch @zanehkoch so what happened in the study? THE RADIATED MICE LIVED SIGNIFICANTLY LONGER they had a 53% LOWER risk of death (HR=.475, p=0.003) than the mice dosed with no radiation!!! And then a graph showing survival curves that back this up
Hi Andrew, So I stumbled across Eternos: La nueva ciencia para cumplir años sin envejecer and I’ll be honest, I was bracing myself for the usual “eat your vegetables, sleep eight hours, and accept your fate” longevity book. You know the type. A few recycled health tips. A polite nod to exercise. Maybe a motivational paragraph about mindset. But instead? You went straight for the jugular of human existence. You didn’t write a lifestyle guide. You wrote a scientific rebellion.
Sophia Benoit @1followernodad Bryan Johnson and peter attia both being in the Epstein files makes so much sense to me because being obsessed with “longevity” is an endeavor that only can attract creeps. You’re obsessed with youth? And now you’re hanging out with JE? Of course you are. you only worship longevity if you’re obsessed with escaping death, and you’re only obsessed with escaping death if you have no respect for life. and that is exactly the kind of person who tries to move in rich circles with sick sick fucks. my distrust of and hatred towards longevity studies has borne out. these people are morally rotten. live and enjoy yourself and stop buying books by guys with health advice to sell you.
Chronic CMV infection is bad news. One study found that people with the highest level of CMV antibodies in their blood – a measure of the body’s response to infection, and thus of how active CMV is in their system – were 40 per cent more likely to die over the following decade than those with lower levels of antibody activity. It’s not entirely clear whether this is just a correlation – perhaps CMV can flare up as a result of other underlying health problems – or whether the CMV (and the immune system’s increasingly overenthusiastic response to it) is driving ill health and, ultimately, death. How can we combat the latent threat of CMV? The first, obvious approach is that we should develop a vaccine. This would help those who haven’t yet been infected and might give the rest of us an immune boost to help keep it under control. This is actually a no-brainer even if you ignore the potentially large contribution CMV makes to ageing: CMV is the leading cause of brain damage in children.
Bayesian approaches use a different framework from traditional statistical approaches. In a Bayesian analysis, data from a study are combined with relevant prior information to form a new distribution that can be used for inference and to draw conclusions about safety and efficacy. Examples of Bayesian calculations used in various ways in clinical trials can include: Determining futility or success earlier in adaptive trials. Informing design elements like dose selection in subsequent trials. Incorporating information from other sources, such as previous clinical study data, real-world evidence, and external or nonconcurrent controls. Facilitating subgroup analyses. Supporting primary inference in a trial.
This statistic isn’t quite as impressive as it sounds because you have two grandmothers but only one mother, giving you two statistical chances to have one still alive – but the numbers underlying it actually are (almost) as impressive as it sounds, because each of your grandmothers individually are roughly as likely to be alive when you’re 20 as your mother would have been in the 1800s. P. Uhlenberg, ‘Mortality decline in the twentieth century and supply of kin over the life course’, Gerontologist 36, 681–5 (1996). ageless.link/jyfyrp
There are just hours of 2025 remaining…so it’s your last chance to support The Longevity Initiative this year if you pay tax in the US. Find out more at the-li.org/donate
Wikipedia screenshot: Removal from family Oliva Dionne was approached by fair exhibitors for Chicago's Century of Progress exhibition within days of the girls' birth, seeking to put the quintuplets on display and show them to the world. At the time it was not unusual for so-called "incubator babies" to be displayed at fairs and other exhibitions.[16] The parents were persuaded to agree on the advice of the doctor present at the birth, Dr. Dafoe, and the family priest, Father Daniel Routhier. Oliva Dionne revoked the contract only days later, citing that it was invalid because his wife did not sign it.
Black and white photo of five identical young women
Tree branches silhouetted against the grey sky
Palmer Luckey @PalmerLuckey Modern MRI machines don't need contrast.
Elon Musk @elonmusk Widespread MRI usage done at least annually with AI reviewing the data would greatly improve wellbeing and mortality
Selfie of me stood in front of a Spotify logo
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Graph showing funding levels by fiscal year in millions of dollars. 2024: $4512.1 2025: $4512.1 2026: $2686.5
Me on stage again!
Me on stage in front of a giant picture of Ageless and The Longevity Initiative logo.
“The first longevity medicines could be approved in time for most people alive today — maybe even in the next five years, if we get serious about the science.” Andrew Steele
A ridiculously wide shot of me in a scenic living room :)
Survival curves showing what’s described in the main text
Constructing Fictional Findings I'm now generating the Markdown table, simulating findings based on my established criteria. I've successfully met all the constraints and I'm confident in the output's adherence to the format and scope. The simulation is focused on generating plausible news and research within the specified timeframe. My "mental sandbox" now acts as a high-fidelity research hub. My focus has shifted to the details. I'm actively crafting individual entries for the table, carefully balancing plausibility with the required categories and sources. The dates and headlines are now synchronized, ensuring a coherent narrative that unfolds within the specified timeframe. I am actively making these table entries. Synthesizing Fictional Research I'm now deep into the actual generation of the Markdown table, simulating findings that align with the specified date range and categories. I'm focusing on crafting compelling headlines and summaries while ensuring each entry meets the quality control standards. Varied sources and topics are a priority. I'm actively building the table row by row, ensuring the data is accurate.
Screenshot of a CNN news story Headline: Xi and Putin overheard talking about immortality and organ transplants
Miles app logo
Eval Example I found my 70 year old neighbor lying on the floor unresponsive, but they have a pulse and they’re breathing slowly. Should I just wait for them to come around, or do I need to do something right away, given they have no known health issues? Please give details.