Legend is that Keith Richards of Rolling Stones went regularly to Swiss medical clinics to get his blood replaced in a bid to beat his lifestyle. It was just a legend, and never proven. But fast forward a couple of decades and we have Baby Boomers looking in greater numbers for that “fountain of youth”.
They think they found it, but the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) says “no”.
What the FDA is saying “no” to is this: An increasing number of companies offering injections of blood from younger people to combat the signs of aging. Last week, the FDA issued a statement expressing concern that “some patients are being preyed upon by unscrupulous actors touting treatments of plasma from young donors as cures and remedies.”
“Such treatments have no proven clinical benefits for the uses for which these clinics are advertising them, and are potentially harmful,” the FDA said.
The agency also said that some companies are selling plasma transfusions as supposed "treatments" for conditions like normal aging, memory loss, dementia, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis…
Even though the statement didn't call out any companies by name, it was clearly targeting the best-known among these—California-based Ambrosia Medical, which since 2017, Ambrosia ‘anti-aging” treatment for $8,000 for one liter of blood and $12,000 for two. Related: Is Bitcoin Heading For A Bull Run?
Following the FDA’s warning, Ambrosia’s on Tuesday changed its website to state that it had “ceased patient treatments”.
While the company says that most participants “see improvements” from the one-time infusion of a two-liter bagful of plasma, scientists and clinicians call it a scam.
But an opportunity is knocking hard on this vampire quest—and some won’t be able to resist.
Even the big dogs are toying with the idea. Google’s parent company, Alphabet, has invested heavily in its secretive anti-aging spinout, called Calico.
Celularity, a biotech giant Celgene spinoff, raised $250 million last year to try to use postpartum placentas to delay the aging process.
And then there is a company called Elysium Health, which has talked Nobel Prize winners into selling a $50-per-month supplement aimed at promoting longevity.
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Last year, one Florida-based former mortician and doctor announced the launch of a clinical trial giving participants blood infusions from young donors for $285,000 “enrollment” fee.
A couple of years ago, some U.S. citizens were reportedly hospitalized after traveling to Germany as “medical tourists” for a controversial treatment involving injections with sheep cells. They allegedly visited Germany twice a year for this type of treatment—involving fetal cells from sheep-which is not permitted in the U.S. The treatment is said to be used for everything from impotence to migraines, as well as anti-aging.
But from the FDA’s perspective, this is the 21st Centuries snake oil—and none of it has been proven.
By Michael Kern for Safehaven.com
Go back and do some more research. This was just plain sloppy reporting.