Startup Will Give You Blood Transfusions from Young People to Reverse the Aging Process Zach Schonfeld - Newsweek
go to original June 11, 2017

Donor blood tests are pictured in the laboratory of the 'Bayerisches Rotes Kreuz' blood transfusion service in Munich, Germany (Michaela Rehle/Reuters)

If you give a mouse a cookie, he's going to ask for a glass of milk. But if you give a mouse a transfusion of blood plasma from a much younger mouse, you can improve his cognitive and neurological functions - and reverse the effects of aging.

The scientific studies are fairly remarkable. In 2014, researchers at Stanford University demonstrated that infusion of young blood plasma in mice "is capable of rejuvenating synaptic plasticity and improving cognitive function." In other words, blood helps keep mice young.

Can this work on humans, too? Jesse Karmazin, a 32-year-old physician and graduate of Stanford University’s medical school, says yes. Karmazin is the founder of Ambrosia LLC, a company that is charging adults $8,000 to be injected with blood plasma from young people (ages 16-25). It's part of a clinical trial to test the anti-aging benefits of plasma transfusions. The trial passed ethical review, but you have to be 35 or older to participate.

And, Karmazin insists, it really works. He told me that the treatments contribute to heart health and brain health, and that his customers (most of whom are healthy and around retirement age) seem quite satisfied. Karmazin went so far as to compare his procedure's effects to The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - the story of a man who ages in reverse.

Some scientists are more skeptical. Stanford neuroscientist Tony Wyss-Coray told Science Magazine that the trial is "abusing people's trust" and said there's "no clinical evidence" to support the benefits. Ambrosia's informed consent form doesn't guarantee any results or improvement of age-associated diseases, but does state that there's "abundant data from mouse studies suggesting rejuvenation of the heart, brain, inflammation levels, and other organs."

Read the conversation with Karmazin about blood plasma transfusions, vampire movies and why this whole thing makes some people feel weird at Newsweek

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