Nick Norwitz challenges Bryan Johnson's advice to stop taking statins, saying Johnson misread a study and ignored statins' real risks like insulin resistance and muscle loss. Norwitz argues the decision needs personalized analysis, not blanket recommendations, and points to longer content for details.
Definitely don't stop statins. Those were the exact words of famous plant-based centimillionaire biohacker Bryan Johnson in an exchange with celebrity entrepreneur Chamath on X. Now, I kind of get why Bryan said this. He wanted to caution Chamath to stop him from making an impulsive decision based on media input. But ironically, Bryan himself made an impulsive overstep with his media input. The truth is Bryan is not informed on this topic.
I'm also on 10mg of atorvastatin. Okay. Huh. So how come statin over like something more benign like a PCSK9 inhibitor or— I don't remember the rationale on what they decided on why. I'm not the best person to, to make these arguments because I'm not the team, I'm not the expert. Fair enough.
He also makes some strange errors in his post, including citing a study where people with extremely low cholesterol died early. Extremely low was his terminology, except if you read the actual paper, extremely low means 201 milligrams per deciliter. Odd, or below. More importantly, he overlooks and misinterprets key ideas like personalized cost-benefit analyses when taking powerful pharmaceuticals, and the broader effects of statins on whole body physiology—worsening insulin resistance, reducing GLP-1 levels, potentially causing muscle mass loss, and more. Now, I have no beef with Brian, and not just because he's vegan and we couldn't share a steak. But since he's chosen to not respond to public feedback, this overstep requires a check. I hope we can turn this into something productive—a dialogue. And if you truly want to learn more, if you don't want just short-form content, check out the long-form content. You won't be disappointed.
