The 3.5 Million-Year-Old Bacteria That Could Be the Answer to Eternal Life
By: Andrei Tapalaga
Tags: Health, History, Science, Life, Medicine

The 3.5 Million-Year-Old Bacteria That Could Be the Answer to Eternal Life

Are we meant to live eternally?

Ancient bacteria from 3.5 million years ago also known as Bacillus F strain (Source: MIMS)

For centuries, humans have been in the look for a source of eternity or a potion that can bring you back to your youth. Many legends and stories from ancient histories most probably inspired by witches show the possibility of becoming younger. In our philosophy, we see aging and dying as a natural phenomenon that is meant to be the way it is.

However, some people are simply thirsty for eternal life. So much that they would even risk injecting themselves with this bacteria. Over the 21st century, there have been two recorded cases, of people injecting themselves with this bacteria as well as claiming that they are feeling younger and healthier.

But before we go into these cases, we must have a look at what does this bacteria actually presents itself to be as well as it’s believed origin.

Bacillus F

This bacteria, known as Bacillus F was discovered in 2009 by researchers from Mammoth Mountain in the northern Siberian region of Yakutsk. From the analyses done by the University of Moscow, the bacteria seems to originate from around 3.5 million years ago, around when mammoths were alive. The bacteria has been closely studied and from the read on the DNA it presented, it seemed to have the potential of giving the injected organism longevity of life and an increase in fertility.

The first organism to be tested with the bacteria was a couple of mice. The results were quite clear, all the mice that had been injected with the bacteria presented a longer lifespan. What is even more interesting is that the mice were also still fertile at a very old age.

Epidemiologist Viktor Chernyavsky, who took part in the study mentioned that the bacteria gives out biologically active substances during its long life cycle or as long as the organism keeps it alive. As an expert, Chernyavsky had positively confirmed that the bacteria did give longevity within mice as well as enhanced the fertility within the mice tested.

The first person to be injected with the bacteria

Even if the tests showed that the bacteria does not harm the mice of an organism, it still was considered dangerous to have it introduced into a human organism, at least until more research was done. However, someone became impatient and wanted to know if this was the “elixir of life” as it was nicknamed by some of the scientists within the field.

Anatoli Brouchkov (Source: Vice)

Anatoli Brouchkov was from the department of geocryology, the department which focuses on the study of glacier regions and regions that have been permanently frozen. The scientist wanted to know the truth about the bacteria so bad that he injected himself with the bacteria with no permission from his higher-ups.

Brouchkov knew that the bacteria wasn’t going to harm him as it can be found in the water from where it has been extracted in Siberia. This region has some secluded villages from which people have gathered and consumed the same water infested with the bacteria for years without causing them any harm.

In an interview with Jordan Pearson from VICE, Brouchkov mentioned that the bacteria never affected him in a negative way, only positive. He mentioned that he wasn’t getting younger from a physical appearance, but he was feeling less tired as if he was younger and much healthier. We all know that with age, it is common to not only get tired much quicker but also get sick more often.

Besides all this, the most interesting claim that Brouchkov made was that he didn’t suffer from any sort of sickness or illness for more than two years since injecting himself with the bacteria. Besides this virus being quite primitive for its age, the biological mechanism is extremely complex, making it very difficult for scientists even with the state of the art technology to understand the way it affects the organism it inhabits.

Brouchkov ended his media appearance by stating that he does truly believe that the Bacillus F bacteria is the key to immortality. Besides this bacteria, there are many others that have been in a state of permafrost for hundreds of thousands of years with remarkable complexity. Many scientists define these bacterias to have been the cause of our ancestor’s great immune system and long lifespan.

Another person taking the “elixir of youth”

A more recent case was recorded in 2017 by a German actress know as Manoush. The only difference, in this case, is that Manoush took more doses over a period of three months. Since 2015, the research team from the University of Moscow had been able to unlock the DNA code of the bacteria, gaining even more information on its eternal abilities, but also confirming that the bacteria can live forever.

Photo of Manoush and injection with the bacteria, 2017 (Source: Daily Mail)

She claims that since taking the vaccine she has not only felt younger but is getting younger from a physical perspective. Although the idea of getting younger from a physical perspective is a bit more difficult to believe in her case due to all the plastic surgeries she had undergone in the previous years. There is still a possibility from a scientific point of view.

The actress also mentioned that her skin feels much softer and what is most important is the fact that she would get hay fever every year (something common in many people). Since taking the bacteria she didn’t have hay-fever anymore, in fact, no type of illness or sickness just like in Brouchkov’s case. Scientists asked for blood samples from her every month during the three month period she injected herself with the bacteria.

She has the desire of living until the age of 100 in a “fully functional body”. As there are no adverse effects from the injections with Bacillus F, she continues taking the bacteria.