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Super Human: The Bulletproof Plan to Age Backward and Maybe Even Live Forever

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From Bulletproof creator and bestselling author Dave Asprey comes a revolutionary approach to anti-aging that will help you up your game at any age.

Dave Asprey suffered countless symptoms of aging as a young man, which sparked a life-long burning desire to grow younger with each birthday. For more than twenty years, he has been on a quest to find innovative, science-backed methods to upgrade human biology and redefine the limits of the mind, body, and spirit. The results speak for themselves. Now in his forties, Dave is smarter, happier, and more fit and successful than ever before.

In Super Human, he shows how this is level of health and performance possible for all of us. While we assume we will peak in middle age and then decline, Asprey’s research reveals there is another way. It is possible to make changes on the sub-cellular level to dramatically extend life span. And the tools to live longer also give you more energy and brainpower right now.

The answers lie in Dave’s Seven Pillars of Aging that contribute to degeneration and disease while diminishing your performance in the moment. Using simple interventions—like diet, sleep, light, exercise, and little-known but powerful hacks from ozone therapy to proper jaw alignment, you can decelerate cellular aging and supercharge your body’s ability to heal and rejuvenate.


A self-proclaimed human guinea pig, Asprey arms readers with practical advice to maximize their lives at every age with his signature mix of science-geek wonder, candor, and enthusiasm. Getting older no longer has to mean decline. Now it’s an opportunity to become Super Human.

352 pages, Hardcover

First published October 8, 2019

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About the author

Dave Asprey

55 books543 followers
Dave Asprey is a Silicon Valley investor, computer security expert, and entrepreneur who spent 15 years and $250,000 to hack his own biology. He upgraded his brain by >20 IQ points, lowered his biological age, and lost 100 lbs without using calories or exercise. The Financial Times calls him a "bio-hacker who takes self-quantification to the extreme of self-experimentation." His writing has been published by the New York Times and Fortune, and he's presented at Wharton, Kellogg, the University of California, and Singularity University.

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5 stars
694 (31%)
4 stars
774 (34%)
3 stars
560 (25%)
2 stars
146 (6%)
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52 (2%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 219 reviews
1,762 reviews54 followers
August 23, 2019
I received this book, for free, in exchange for an honest review.

I had mixed feelings about the author prior to reading this book so I am a bit biased. I feel that Dave is cutting edge and has communicated many important health practices. That being said, he often feels kind of like Dr. Oz or similar personalities in that he often recommends things that seem to benefit him via his product lines. This book did have a bit of that which my cynical mind was looking out for (he suggested rinsing with XCT oil even though I'd imagine most people would do just as well with coconut oil for 100th of the cost). The bigger failure I saw was that this book had less actionable takeaways than other works including his previous books and his podcast. Additionally some of his ideas seem to be high hanging fruit (or whatever the opposite of low hanging fruit is) that unless you are in great health, used up your other rather limitless options, and have a good deal of money are probably not reasonable. That being said, he has novel ideas that aren't covered well elsewhere so this is worth checking out.
Profile Image for Sheila.
285 reviews1 follower
December 25, 2020
Reading this book made me a little sick. It wasn't the useful information, like not eating fried meats, sugar, white flour and junk food, eating organic, etc---all stuff you can find online and in many other health food books. What turned my stomach was the narcissism of the author. I'm sure Asprey would decry the fact that 23,000 people die every day of starvation, but this book is all about him. Him and people who are rich enough to jet around doing extreme things so they can live to be 180 and look like they are 25. (And btw if his plan is so good, why is his hairline receding?)

I'm more interested in reading about a plan that will extend the lifespan of, for example, Native peoples who live on Us reservations where the average man dies at age 45. Or, the people of color who are dying from COVID-19 at a rate 2 or 3 times higher than whites in the US. The author makes his living advising rich people how to live longer. Do I really care if Jeff Bezos lives to be 180? In fact, I hope he doesn't. Because the rich enjoy good, healthy lives by sucking the life and labor out of the working masses.

They are also destroying the environment. The corporations bringing all that grass-fed beed into Whole Foods, the companies making collagen for plump middle class skin---they are responsible for burning down the Brazilian rainforest to create pastures for grass fed beef. All that organic coffee is grown on land where Indigenous people used to grow food. Ditto palm oil

A good nutritional plan for the world has to include giving the land back to the people so they can grow their own food. If you are not sure how it came to be that the 1% owns almost everything and billions of people are hungry, read "Capital" by Karl Marx, or "Empire of Cotton" by Sven Beckert, or "Coffeeland" by Augustine Sedgewick. Restoration of indigenous crops and animals has to include thingking in terms of "we" instead of "I." The men responsible for the slaughter of 50 million buffalo in the 19th century (yes, organic, grass-fed, paleo) consciously set out to destroy the Native idea of "we." That is the missing ingredient in this self-centered book.
Profile Image for Kenny Parnell.
200 reviews7 followers
October 14, 2019
Some great content, and the chapter summaries were very helpful. I would have loved to see a ranking of bio-hacks at the end given there's such a large number of things to try and the variable costs involved. Something like "If you can only afford X..."
Profile Image for Michelle.
33 reviews3 followers
November 27, 2019
I'm a big fan of Bulletproof coffee and Dave in general but I take the information he shares in this book with a grain of salt. I say this only because Dave is not a doctor nor a scientist. I can't agree more with cutting out sugar and carbs to help you live longer but some of the supplements suggested is what makes me skeptical. There are A LOT! If you want to do exactly what Dave is doing to live until you're 180 years old, you have to have A LOT of cash and no aversion to needles. It seems that Dave likes poking himself with needles. Yeah, no thank you. I especially found the part about injecting stem cells into your man and lady bits off-putting. I'll probably implement some of the suggestions in the book because I would love to at least feel young as I age. I do look forward to major progress in the field because I honestly don't want to get or be old. Does anyone? Fairly interesting read with a few parts that bored me.
108 reviews2 followers
March 14, 2020
Full disclosure ... I could only read the first half of the book. You could really get by simply reading the one page chapter summaries. That said, there are some realistic ideas that can benefit, and be relatively easily implemented by, the average person. The second half goes into what seem to border on recommendations that some may consider to be irresponsible. Lots of single study & somewhat experimental hacks that I would not act on even if I could afford to. He’s basically a human guinea pig. The author is also constantly selling and I found that to be troublesome.
252 reviews
April 15, 2020
I wish people would write books like this without having things for sale. I'm always skeptical of everything anyway, but when I know you sell a product (and you make it abundantly clear in your book), I barely believe anything you say. Especially if you're touting how much better your product is than another.

At any rate, this was a fun read for biohacking. I'm not sure 90% of this book is anything but pure story -- most of the evidence for whether or not something worked was whether or not this one guy felt better after taking it that time or two. He doesn't get into how it no longer gives him that same rush or whether anything else was happening in his life when he felt so good after taking some supplement or performing some experimental procedure. I mean, there's a reason it's called hacking and not science.

So I'm pretty sure Dave won't make it to 160 or 180 or whatever it was that he was claiming he was going to live until, but he might live longer than me. He exposed me to several things I had never heard of that I will look into further to determine if it's something I want to incorporate in my own life.
Profile Image for Alex.
388 reviews15 followers
September 10, 2021
I deeply love Bulletproof coffee and adore Dave Asprey's enthusiasm. He is willing be a guinea pig for health experimentation. I respect that level of gusto. His thinking is progressive and ideas 100% pragmatic.

His first Bulletproof book and cookbook were fabulous and doable. With each published book, his ideas and suggestions become a little more out there and unattainable to the regular people of the world.

Honestly, I can barely find the time to make Bulletproof coffee, let alone try all these other wack-a-doo suggestions. I know they work and I wish I could, but realistically, here's a list of his suggestions I have tried, can continue doing, or am willing to try:

1. Heavy Metal Detox
2. Red LED lights outside and some inside
3. CoQ10
4. L-Theanine
5. Cucumin
6. Neurofeedback
7. No electronic near or around bed.

I looked into getting the Prolozone injections for my arthritic hand joints. $750 per hand. Back burner. I looked into getting a personal ozone machine and that purchase was back burnered as well. UPDATE SEPTEMBER 2020: Just found out California, the state I currently reside, has outlawed ozone machines. Therefore, I must now purchase an ozone machine and contraband it into my SoCal home. I don't care the cost. Tell me I can't do something, obviously, I must now do it. Also, contraband is now a verb.

I would love a race horse laser therapy device, Vielight, blue light filtered glasses, Piracetam, Modafinil, He Shou Wu, and yellow light therapy, but probably not going to happen.

Dave Asprey was on Dr. Mark Hyman's radio show. Great interviews that I recommend to everyone with a wandering health eye. (Dr. Mark has a YouTube channel and podcast)

One last tidbit of info: neurofeedback shows great success for autism.
Profile Image for Donna.
4,125 reviews114 followers
June 29, 2022
William Shattner is my favorite narcissist. I love reading his plethora of autobiographies. He is amusing. Now after reading a couple of Dave Asprey's books, I think he is my second favorite narcissist. He is completely obsessed with achieving the utmost when it comes to longevity. He has tried some pretty strange things for the sake of optimal health. I can appreciate his passion for his obsession. I find it amusing plus, there is some really valid and doable takeaways. So 4 stars.
Profile Image for Dogukaan Satir.
6 reviews50 followers
January 7, 2020
TL DR: The advice given in the book doesn't give trust because of the author's commercial style, didn't finish.

Generally says the key to reducing aging focuses on improving mitochondrial health and efficiency, his blog posts and the core advice are given in this book are conflicting.
Keeping in mind he promotes his products the advices he gives in this book didn't give trust.

No doctor would say eating 4 scoops of protein powder daily is healthy, too much protein consumption causes inflammation in the body which conflicts with the books pro stance in anti-inflammation.

The part about the trigeminal nerve was good:
clenching your teeth while sleeping could be causing your stress levels to rise by stimulating your trigeminal nerve. Thus it would be beneficial to use a bite guard.
244 reviews3 followers
January 26, 2020
The latest book wherein Dave details his quest for longevity, which I and many others share, does not disappoint. The book has an engaging narrative, sure, but what's best are the specific action items. Think about taking x of this x times per day. Dave is careful not to offer any specific medical advice, because that would be both illegal and unethical, but he offers plenty food for thought, and a huge amount of notes to allow you to follow the research trail, if that's what makes you tick.
I bought it in hard copy, so I use the index a lot. I wish I had bought the Kindle edition, to follow the links more easily, and to use search instead of the index.

Add this to your library. Then, email me in a hundred years to let me know how it's working for you.
Profile Image for Khôi Trần.
9 reviews
December 29, 2019
I was amazed by his belief of living to 180.
He's so confident in his method that it brings him the audacity to reverse aging and achive longevity.

In overall to become a centenarian, basically you need to:

+ eat well: listen to yourself, do not eat anything that your body cannot absorb, because that is the seed of cancer.

+ sleep well: track your sleep habit, nail it at least 7 hours in your 20s. Could be 6.5hrs if you are in your 30s and afterwards.

+ excercise: just pick a sport to follow along and you will get the recommended level of exercise for both interval and high intensity.
82 reviews8 followers
February 11, 2020
It's a useful read, but I think it would benefit from some comparative critical reviews. A lot of the subchapters toward the end of the book read like the marketing copy for supplement or chemical - everything is awesome and everything worked out great.
Author 1 book
November 11, 2019
Summary of his best work

For those that are familiar with Dave and his work, this book may seem a bit redundant. However, it offers an abundance of resources that are neatly organized. Best of all, he gets directly to the point and empowers you to do your homework on the subjects that you are interested in.
180 reviews2 followers
April 17, 2020
Lots of lists drugs and supplements to take to make yourself feel better.
Profile Image for Eric Lee.
Author 9 books30 followers
August 30, 2021
Dave Asprey is famous (in some circles) as the guy who invented Bulletproof Coffee, which is both a concept and a business. A Silicon Valley entrepreneur, Asprey seems to be one of the first — if not the first — of a new breed of bio-hackers. As a young man he was quite sickly, showing many signs of premature ageing including arthritis. He decided to try out a few things — actually more than few things — which range from the reasonable to the completely bonkers. Some of these seemed to work. In this book, he has decided to share what he’s learned over two decades of using his own body as a guinea pig.

While the book seems to be evidence-based and heavily footnoted, Asprey is not a doctor and this is not credible medical advice. That doesn’t mean it’s not interesting: much of it is. The least-crazy things he suggests (like using a sleep monitor app on your phone, or taking Vitamin C supplements) are things I quickly adopted, at no risk to my health. Some of the later stuff is a bit too edgy for my taste.

I do however agree with his core idea that humans need not become decrepit in our 70s or 80s, and that we absolutely need to die by the age of 120. The ‘maybe’ in the title of his book shows that he’s not convinced that immortality is an option — and his own personal goal is a 50% increase over what is now believed possible. In other words, he wants to live to 180. I wish him luck, and I salute his optimism and ‘can-do’ spirit. I hope he’s right.
102 reviews1 follower
February 29, 2020
I love learning about ways to lead a healthier, more fulfilling and better life, which is why I was so intrigued when I heard about this book on Jay Shetty’s podcast On Purpose. I immediately went online and purchased it. That being said, I have some mixed feelings about this book. It was definitely very fascinating to learn about all of the techniques, supplementation, and methods that Dave Asprey uses in his quest to live more than 180 years and even age backward. I admire his commitment to his project and I have to say it requires so much effort and willpower. From a reader's point of view however, it sometimes feels like he is just trying to promote his products. I understand that he wanted to describe every possible detail you can do to become “ superhuman”, but I got bombarded with so much information and so many different possibilities that in the end I was quite confused and failed to remember many things. I have to give credit to Dave Asprey though for really doing everything in his power to try and achieve his goal and set the path for others to live healthier and longer lives as well. Overall definitely a very interesting read.
Profile Image for Taylor.
15 reviews11 followers
October 22, 2019
So much promise on many techniques and supplements that it's exciting to apply preventatively for a healthy amazing life. So called biohacking is a great approach to fill the gap in a system where doctors are not incentivized to truly get to the root of issues and get beyond what the book refers to as average. It's a great resource for what's on the edge as a starting point.

This covers a lot of good stuff to try that's emerging and not part of our focused on disease and not performance focused medicine. Very quick and short more like a newsletter language and less in depth than a solid well researched blog post on the items.  I absolutely hate when he and tim Ferris make exaggerations like "you'll feel like a teenager"; maybe but I call bullshit (placebo effect?).

Honestly it should be organized as a flow chart categorized by issue and color coded by study results strength with direct buy links.  Not everything should be a text book. I listened on audible and now I'm trying to google Chinese Herbs I can't find.
Profile Image for Mindaugas Raguotis.
49 reviews4 followers
January 22, 2023
I would recommend reading this book to understand how far some people can go to feel/look/be younger.

I liked the part about sleep and I would use some of the food supplements that are mentioned. But this is it.

Self-prescribed hormone therapy, injections, and some crazy interventions to the body. I think this book can be evaluated as a futuristic prediction, something can work and some things can turn very bad for your body.

I did not liked the writers' opinion, that his experiment on his body works almost 100 percent and should be tried by almost everyone. I would think, that all these things separately and combined should be treated with caution and advised by professionals.

In my opinion, scientists and medical communities should be the leading voice of longevity.
Profile Image for Kymbo.
189 reviews9 followers
January 10, 2021
Extraordinary read about different ways you can bio hack your health to live a healthy, longer life. This book is rich with many things to change, alter & try from sleep hacks, diet modifications to supplements, injections and bio hacking hardware. Definitely food for thought and worth popping back through the chapters to pick a few methods and give this bio hacking thing a crack. Some of the things are a bit extreme and quite costly while others are certain to help an aging body feel a bit younger on the inside.
Profile Image for Meredith.
137 reviews1 follower
October 21, 2020
Great starting point for being healthier. I have to admit that after section one on how to stop the bad habits we typically have that are causing us to age, I tended to lose the thread. I’m going to have to improve those habits (some of which I hadn’t even thought of, or at least not in this way) before I come back and attempt any of the supplements or therapies the author suggests to reverse aging and “age like a deity.”
Profile Image for Michelle Bartlett.
37 reviews6 followers
February 25, 2020
An interesting take on biohacking. I appreciate his rigorous research and the fact that he actually tries almost everything he talks about. Some of the advanced methods he suggests are beyond what most people have access to, but he comes from an informed place. I can also acknowledge that it’s up to me to do my own due diligence before blindly accepting everything in a book.
17 reviews
February 9, 2020
Interesting, but a lot of limited-study, and single-anecdote "evidence" ultimately rather disappointing and unconvincing. Still, some interesting ideas and discoveries make it worthwhile.
34 reviews
February 4, 2020
Love, Love, Love this book. Ideal for those wanting to inprove their long term health and longevity. I have read and reread this book.
Profile Image for Teresa.
179 reviews32 followers
April 26, 2020
Lots of good information and hacks for living longer. I definitely plan to incorporate a number of the suggestions to repair damage to my body and to make way for a longer more healthier lifetime. His research has been long, deep and wide from his early teenage days of trying to fix his body that had suffered from living in mold conditions to his now over 40 years old current objective to live to 180, to his understanding of how the body functions and its properties, and his search for solutions that has spanned the entire globe. I figure he's done the work and I can benefit from it - who doesn't want to live longer with a more vital body, and improved brain power?
Not everything suggested is for everyone nor is it widely accessible, and that is one of the reasons DA wrote the book - to bring awareness and to increase demand for many of these products that are either not approved, highly regulated or simply not available to the average person - but he gives enough suggestions that even the someone not intent on investing in an array of supplements and treatments to help battle dying of the 4 Killers - heart disease, diabetes, alzheimers, and cancer.
I have the book, but I found that the audiobook was a much better way to digest the information - the book is a great reference, but with all the biological info throughout - for me, a very non scientific type, I could absorb it all much better.
Profile Image for Петър Стойков.
Author 2 books299 followers
March 6, 2021
Както казах и относно другата му книга, авторът е мултимилионер от много млад и от тогава нищо не е постигнал. В личен план се опитва да "оптимизира" здравето си посредством разни "хакове" и тайни практики, на които учел другите милионери в силициевата долина. Пълни глупости, подходящи за другия подобен тъпак и лъжец: Тим Ферис.
Profile Image for Yousif Al Zeera.
251 reviews83 followers
November 2, 2023
Whatever is your view on this guy: brilliant or insane, Dave is a game-changer. He invented the 'bio-hacking' concept (if not the founding father literally, then the main person to popularize it) and made it a lifestyle to follow.

This book (Super Human) showcases some of the ingenious lifestyle changes (or hacks) he discovered or advocates for to reverse your ageing. His hacks cover very specific ideas in food, lighting, jaw alignment, toxic materials, supplements, ozone therapy, excercise, sleep and many more. Your mind will get blown out by some of the seemingly outrageous hacks but the guy is on a mission.
Profile Image for Susan.
652 reviews
April 13, 2020
Wow! Just wow! This book is jam-packed with information, all backed with scientific research. But more amazing is the fact that a vast majority of it was also self-tested by the author himself. Either he is the sickest person in the world or the healthiest.... lol. Since I read this as an audiobook, a lot of the information passed me too quickly to fully absorb so I plan to read the hardcopy book as soon as I can get my hands on one.
4 reviews
January 15, 2022
Very Educative. The best book l have read so far, health wise. Definitely be reading it again. It’s one of those books you can read over and over again cos the info it contains can’t be digested on one read only.
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