It’s that time of year when we all make unlikely promises to ourselves about healthy new lifestyles.
Most of us will have made half-hearted promises to lead cleaner, healthier lives. However, some folk go to the extreme in an effort to beat the ever-ticking clock, even attempting to achieve immortality.
Here’s a reminder of some other people who’ve tried to live forever. They include fascinating figures from over the centuries who tried, or are trying to find the secret to eternal life…
Life hack
You’ve got to hand it to Bryan Johnson. He put his money where his mouth is. The tech entrepreneur and biohacker – star of Netflix doc Don’t Die: The Man Who Wants to Live Forever – apparently forks out $2m a year to evade the grip of the Grim Reaper. At one point, Bryan, now 48, attempted to freeze his biological clock by using blood plasma transfusions from his teen son.
(Image: Courtesy of Netflix)
The elixir of life
More than 2,200 years ago, Qin Shi Huang – the first Chinese emperor – tasked his subjects to uncover the elixir of life. His quest led him to consume cinnabar, made up of mercury sulfide, in a desperate bid to live longer. By no means a winning, or Qin-ing, formula, this might be what killed him in the end at the age of 49. Irony has never been so cruel.
(Image: Heritage Images/Getty Images)
Holy moly!
No wonder folk had a cross to bear against Pope (not-so) Innocent VIII, a rascal religious figure who reportedly (ahem) Pontiff-icated about the virtues of drinking children’s blood. In 1492 he fell seriously ill and was fed the claret of pre-teen boys. The poor lads were sacrificed for no reason as the Pope met his maker just days later anyway.
(Image: Bettmann Archive)
Drop dead gorgeous
Diane De Poitiers, a 16th-century French noblewoman and lover of King Henry II, perished in her pursuit of everlasting beauty. She guzzled drinkable gold (gold chloride mixed with diethyl ether) to remain forever young. Centuries after her death, at 66, experts found metal traces in her hair, suggesting she died of chronic intoxication. Carat-and-stick, indeed!
(Image: Corbis/VCG via Getty Images)
Ballsy move
Scientist Charles-Édouard Brown-Séquard provided the blueprint for truly bizarre experiments. At the top of the scrotum, sorry, totem pole was his belief that the ageing process could be avoided with the help of dog and guinea pig testicles, extracts of which he injected himself with. The bonkers brainiac hit the sack – permanently – aged 76 in 1894.
(Image: Wikimedia Commons)
Bloody hell
Russian revolutionary and physician Alexander Bogdanov thought he had found the fountain of youth. The boff claimed that blood transfusions, using the red stuff of younger peeps, rejuvenated his appearance and also improved his declining eyesight. However, in 1928, ol’ Bog pegged it after being infected with the blood of a student who had malaria and tuberculosis.
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