Young Blood Transfusions For Seniors, Dangerous Scam, Warns FDA

Young blood transfusions, aka, taking blood from young people and injecting it into senior citizens to make them feel young and vibrant, is a dangerous scam-warns the FDA.

Earlier this week, the Food and Drug Administration issued a warning to everyone, and specifically to senior citizens, to refrain from getting a blood transfusion with blood harvested from young people.

While this idea and procedure sounds off the wall and indeed-something like a reverse Frankenstein; it actually has happened. A controversial startup was charging $8,000 per bag to fill senior citizen veins with young blood. The FDA warned the company to immediately stop selling this service. Although the FDA did not publicly name the company, it did refer to them as “unscrupulous actors“.

Here is the press release from the FDA:

We have significant public health concerns about the promotion and use of plasma for these purposes. There is no proven clinical benefit of infusion of plasma from young donors to cure, mitigate, treat, or prevent these conditions, and there are risks associated with the use of any plasma product.

Today, we’re alerting consumers and health care providers that treatments using plasma from young donors have not gone through the rigorous testing that the FDA normally requires in order to confirm the therapeutic benefit of a product and to ensure its safety. As a result, the reported uses of these products should not be assumed to be safe or effective. We strongly discourage consumers from [pursuing] this therapy outside of clinical trials under appropriate institutional review board and regulatory oversight.

Courtesy Regenexx

Young Blood Transfusions: What’s Going On?

With the new warning, any companies pursuing this controversial and not scientifically supported practice are on notice. The best-known company in the field, Ambrosia Medical, began its own trials for young blood plasma transfusions back in 2017. The new FDA warning took direct aim at the company.

Reports indicate that Ambrosia initially skirted regulations by depending on the fact that blood transfusions are FDA-approved, even if the company’s actual anti-aging applications are not.

Earlier this week, Ambrosia Medical’s website displayed this message: “In compliance with the FDA announcement issued February 19, 2019, we have ceased patient treatments.

There are two major problems here. First, no FDA sanctioned clinical trials were ever done. Second, blood transfusions without government sanction and oversight is extremely dangerous. There is the danger of  blood-borne pathogens and the risks that come with dosing.

The FDA also made it very clear that plasma is not FDA-recognized or approved to treat conditions such as normal aging or memory loss. It certainly is not recognized to treat Alzheimer’s disease or dementia.

In addition, dosing the plasma infusions can be extremely dangerous. Dosing involves administrating large volumes of plasma that can contain infectious, allergic, respiratory and cardiovascular risks.

In short, plasma transfusions that are not approved by the FDA are high risk. Manufacturing is uncontrolled and the protocol has not been subjected to rigid clinical trials.

For those senior citizens who want to feel young again, do it the old-fashioned way. Eat healthy, exercise, get enough sleep, and keep busy.