Bryan Johnson Posts Lab Tests for Blueprint Capsules… But They’re OUT OF SPEC!

Bryan Johnson, known for his longevity experiments, just revealed that his Blueprint Essential Capsule supplement tested way out of spec.

The supplement industry has an ongoing game of tug of war. Consumers want increasing amounts of transparency and published lab testing, but lab tests can present challenges. Simply put, some products don’t contain what they say they contain – either ingredients are underdosed, as we saw with the lab tests on creatine gummies published by NOW Foods, or the products contain adulterants like heavy metals that may pose genuine danger to consumers.

There has thankfully been a growing impetus in recent years for rigorous testing, and in some cases it makes the inconsistency issue dramatically apparent. This is the case of Brian Johnson’s Blueprint Essential capsules.^[1]

Blueprint Essential Lab Tests Published! But with Several Out of Spec Ingredients

Brian Johnson is a big name in the health industry for his controversial personal experiments and philosophies on longevity. He’s a man on a mission to decrease his biological age – a revolt against entropy. This quest has yielded him a great deal of attention, and from that attention has sprung his own line of supplements, such as the Blueprint Essential Capsule.

To his credit, he had his product tested.^[1] Not only that, but the company released the results of their own volition – which is quite a statement given how egregiously out-of-spec the product is.

Analyzing the Blueprint Capsule Spec Sheet

According to the spec sheet, these

And for the most under-spec ingredients:

• Spermidine: 72.7% under spec
• Vitamin B1: 69.09% under spec
• Vitamin B9: 65% under spec
• Vitamin B12: 100% under spec (not detected!)
• Biotin: 100% under spec (not detected!)

The most expensive ingredient (spermidine), the most underdosed?

It’s wild to see spermidine so underdosed — this is a key anti-aging ingredient, and is likely a major reason why consumers buy it. Spermidine is an expensive ingredient, too — is Bryan’s manufacturer pulling one over on him?

Not Detected: Vitamin B12 and Biotin

Others, like B12 and Biotin, were not even detected by the test!

Some ingredients well over spec

Additionally, there were even more over-spec ingredients:

• Selenium: 203.57% over spec
• Vitamin E: 122.88% over spec
• Vitamin D3: 86.87% over spec
• Nicotinamide Riboside Chloride: 43.79% over spec
• Glucoraphanin: 48.38% over spec
• Vitamin B5: 75.67% over spec
• Vitamin B3: 56.27% over spec
• Vitamin B6: 53.57% over spec

Many of the ingredients – like Selenium and Vitamin D – are above spec, which can make a big difference when it comes to vitamins and minerals. There are some concerns of excess vitamin D causing calcification,[CITATIONS] especially when not paired with vitamin K and/or geranylgeraniol, so this large dose could be a concern to some.

It’s also worth noting that Nicotinamide Riboside (NR), another anti-aging ingredient, has quite a bit of overage — this is another premium anti-aging ingredient like spermidine (although we prefer NMN or plain niacin as nicotinic acid).

Heavy metal content: within spec

The spec sheet provides heavy metal content for a 2.559g serving of the supplement:

• Arsenic: 0.154mcg (15mcg / day USP limit)
• Cadmium: 0.064mcg (5mcg / day USP limit)
• Lead: 0.289mcg (5mcg / day USP limit)
• Mercury: Not detected (15mcg / day USP limit)

Based on these comparisons, the heavy metal content in this supplement appears to be well within acceptable limits. The levels of arsenic, cadmium, and lead are all significantly below the USP’s daily exposure limits, and mercury was not detected at all.

The lead content, while still well below the limit, is the highest relative to its daily limit at 5.78%. However, this is still considered safe according to USP standards. But for those who are taking briefcases full of supplements every day, there’s a very good chance you’re getting far more heavy metals than you’re bargaining for.

Pre-Blending: Not all manufacturers are built equally

These tests also show how great of a challenge it is to combine very low-dosed ingredients (like selenium, in the microgram range) with ingredients in milligram levels. The solution to this is a process known as pre-blending.

Blending is one of the most important parts of dietary supplement manufacturing. After all, if a product isn’t blended properly, it could cause serious adverse events! Imagine if all of the caffeine in a pre-workout supplement ended up in one area at the bottom.

It’s critical to get this right, and it doesn’t seem like Bryan’s manufacturer has it quite nailed.

Inconsistency is a big problem

Bryan Johnson, the founder of Blueprint.

In order for consumers to have faith in the industry, they need to know what they’re consuming. Labels have to mean something – they have to provide certainty within a reasonable allowable deviation that you’re getting what the label says you should be getting (the code allows for 10% deviation). These are, after all, consumables meant to support health. Nothing is more important to get right.

Beyond the consumer, inconsistent claims by actors in the industry threaten to unleash the heavy regulatory hammer that would end up putting counterproductive guardrails and hurdles around the industry, which nobody wants.

The only way to avoid this fate is to do better, and keep exposing it when it’s not right. This requires everyone in the industry to keep each other honest. To Brian’s credit, he published this report.

Further, the risk increases every time another ingredient is added to one of these complex supplements. This is why we’re cautious of multivitamins, and prefer to supplement the bare minimum of what we need. More isn’t always better, and if it were up to us, a product like this would be split down into smaller, stackable components that will have a greater chance of lab testing success.