You’ve heard of biohacking buff Bryan Johnson. Now meet this fresh face.
Dr. Jonathann Kuo runs Extension Health, a Manhattan longevity clinic specializing in pricey age-defying therapies, such as $12,000 plasma exchange sessions and $5,000 sex-enhancing treatments.
Fans include biohackers, CEOs, stars like Justin Baldoni, athletes like Troy Aikman, and even royalty who have cash to spare for cutting-edge care.
Kuo, 46, started the pain clinic Hudson Health and eventually shifted his focus from pain management to regenerative medicine and cellular health after having a close encounter with Father Time.
“Despite being a doctor, I was overweight. I was pre-diabetic, I had brain fog. I couldn’t focus,” Kuo told The Post. “I was really sluggish, and this was, like, in my late 30s. I was like, ‘What’s going on?’”
The father of two traveled the world, consulted other doctors, tested novel technology and devised a biohacking plan about six years ago.
Now trim with chiseled features and a boyish face, Kuo practices what he preaches at Extension Health, 160 7th Ave S, which officially rebranded last summer as a rejuvenation destination.
“There’s no other place in New York City, or honestly, even around the world that I know of that has all of these newest therapeutics,” Kuo said.
He plans to roll out a $250,000 annual membership covering the “most advanced testing and therapeutics available.” Two “affordable” tiers will start around $10,000 a year. Services now are à la carte.
“You can spend anywhere from several hundred dollars to tens of thousands of dollars. There’s a price point for everyone,” Kuo said. “My goal is to make this accessible for as many people as I can.”
Frequent flyers
The cozy and plush West Village space, featuring a lush wall of greenery that symbolizes growth and vitality, typically draws two types of patients.
There are those with chronic illness — people suffering from Lyme disease or longtime mold exposure who have been “failed [by] the traditional medical system,” Kuo said.
And the other half are biohackers, millennial celebrities and mid-life CEOs looking to reboot their bodies, even jetting across the world for days or weeks of treatment.
Recent acolytes include multi-hyphenate La La Anthony, 45, “It Ends with Us” filmmaker Justin Baldoni, 41, Tesla director (and brother of Elon Musk) Kimbal Musk, 52, and football great Troy Aikman, 58.
“Some of these are very healthy 50-year-olds, 60-year-olds with nothing wrong,” Kuo said of his patients. “But they’re just very interested in what’s out there, what’s next?”
New beginnings
New patients undergo a thorough evaluation and share their health goals. Consultations start at $400.
“Most patients these days, they complain about anxiety issues, sleep issues, brain fog issues, energy issues — and traditional medicine really does not have great ways of addressing that,” Kuo said. “And so I’ve come up with all these little protocols and peptide therapies and procedures that can help with that.”
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) hasn’t approved any drugs to treat aging because the agency doesn’t consider aging a disease, but doctors can still prescribe medications “off-label.”
Kuo aims to optimize three key body function indicators — metabolism, hormones and inflammation.
His $999 comprehensive diagnostic package includes a DEXA scan to reveal body composition and bone density; a VO2 max test to highlight aerobic endurance and cardiovascular fitness; a 3D postural alignment scan; a test to determine the number of calories burned at rest; bloodwork to assess biomarkers, hormone levels, inflammation and metabolic markers; and a consultation.
“That’s a really good deal because you are really getting all of the basic information that you would need to make a plan,” Kuo said.
The basic diagnostic package, which doesn’t include the bloodwork, costs $699. Patient insurance may cover some lab work, but not much else.
‘Pep’ in the step
At the base level, Kuo targets diet, sleep and exercise for improvement.
“Without those three fundamental pillars, you’re really not going to get anywhere,” he said.
Level 2 therapeutics are peptides, supplements and medications. Peptides are short chains of amino acids that influence a cell’s function by binding to receptors on its membrane.
In anti-aging treatments, peptides can stimulate collagen production to reduce the appearance of wrinkles, protect the skin from environmental stressors and function as antioxidants. They can be administered via injections, pills or topical creams.
Peptides can cost over $300 a month — some patients take several of them.
“You can do so much with peptides and hormones,” Kuo said. “You just can really optimize someone metabolically, hormonally, get their inflammation levels down, get their weight down, get their insulin resistance nice and high, just make their systems function better. At the end of the day, it comes down to cellular health.”
Retired hairdresser Craig Linsley, a patient of Kuo’s for more than a decade, said he takes three peptides to keep his arthritis at bay. He estimates they collectively cost around $5,000 a year.
“I just feel stronger and more sturdy,” Linsley, 67, told The Post.
Have no fear
Level 3 is the more advanced regenerative medicine — gene therapy, plasmapheresis (removing, treating and returning blood plasma to the body) and resets of the autonomic nervous system.
Kuo is known for these “neuro resets,” which are supposed to recalibrate the fight-or-flight response, boosting focus, memory, brain function, sleep, digestion and immunity. The 10-minute procedure is meant to relieve anxiety, stress and PTSD.
Kuo injects a local anesthetic into nerves in the neck to temporarily block signals to the brain’s fear center and injects fluid around the vagus nerve to relieve pressure and promote relaxation.
“I’ve done thousands of these cases,” Kuo said of the neuro reset. “Not to brag, but I see several heads of state in the Middle East and royal families [who come to] New York for this kind of treatment.”
The neuro reset is $1,500. The “complete neuro reset” with ketamine therapy is $2,000 — some people do four neuro resets a year.
In fact, Kuo tends to see patients quarterly to repeat scans and blood tests to track their progress.
Luke Morong, 37, said he visits Extension Health about once a month.
He was initially trying to avoid surgery for a herniated disc in his neck — and he found relief with peptides, exosomes (tiny packets of RNAs) and platelet-rich plasma therapy (using his own blood to promote healing) to the tune of $20,000 to $30,000.
He’s since “gone down the rabbit hole” by experimenting with other treatments.
“The balancing act is a lot of it gets expensive pretty quickly,” Morong, who works in real estate private equity, told The Post.
What’s next
Besides launching membership packages, Kuo is interested in setting up an online destination for longevity medications like metformin and rapamycin, a controversial immunosuppressant the death-delaying evangelist Bryan Johnson, 47, recently dropped from his regimen.
Kuo, who collaborates with Johnson, has been taking rapamycin for nearly a decade for its anti-aging powers. He noted that there’s no “one size fits all” path to a longer life.
As Extension Health’s lead guinea pig, Kuo is constantly exploring new drugs and approaches — he’ll soon test a blood filtration treatment in the clinic — and brainstorming with fellow youth chasers.
He’s in a “very active group chat” with 200 longevity doctors from across the US.
“I want to separate out the noise from what’s real and be able to offer that to our clients,” Kuo said.
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