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Anti-Aging Start-Up Is Charging Thousands of Dollars for Teen Blood (vanityfair.com)

Posted by msmash on from the meanwhile-in-Silicon-Valley dept.

An anonymous reader writes: A startup called Ambrosia is charging about $8,000 a pop for blood transfusions from people under 25, Jesse Karmazin said at Code Conference. Ambrosia, which buys its blood from blood banks, now has about 100 paying customers. Some are Silicon Valley technologists, like Thiel, though Karmazin stressed that tech types aren't Ambrosia's only clients, and that anyone over 35 is eligible for its transfusions. Karmazin was inspired to found Ambrosia after seeing studies researchers had done involving sewing mice together with their veins conjoined. Some aspects of aging, one 2013 study found, could be reversed when older mice get blood from younger ones, but other researchers haven't been able to replicate these results, and the benefits of parabiosis in humans remains unclear. "I think the animal and retrospective data is compelling, and I want this treatment to be available to people," Karmazin told the MIT Technology Review.

9 of 243 comments (clear)

  1. Bogus Health Claims by Luthair · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Why isn't the FDA shutting this down.

    1. Re:Bogus Health Claims by avandesande · · Score: 4, Insightful

      My objection is that blood transfusions are a significant disease vector and should only be done when necessary.

      --
      love is just extroverted narcissism
    2. Re: Bogus Health Claims by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Proper medical treatment should never be held hostage to market forces, something much of the world understands. But America is determined to be a third world.country

    3. Re: Bogus Health Claims by omaha393 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Really can't emphasize enough here the differences in aging between human and mice models: metabolism, neurological health and cardiovascular health are so variable between the two that attributing one phenomenon as translatable to another is irresponsible at best (especially considering lack of replicable results). Healthcare isn't a typical consumer service where a buyer-beware approach is acceptable, one bad study leading to a hyped up pseudo-treatment is bad news for everyone. On a sidenote though ambrosia is ragweed, that horrible allergenic pollen. So at least the company name is fitting.

  2. Teen blood? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    More like 43 year old homeless drug addict blood. But how would you tell?

    A little hepatitis never hurt anybody...

  3. Meh by interkin3tic · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I say go for it. Millenials and whatever the younger generations are have been screwed over by boomers. If boomers want to throw peanuts to the younger generation in exchange for something they can easily regenerate, fine, it's better than the financial vampirism they've already done to education, social security etc.

    Plus, as long as you match up the blood types and keep things clean, it doesn't hurt anyone. Unlike the stem cell superstition clinics currently targeting people with more money than ability to understand medical advice.

  4. I know absolutely nothing about this by holophrastic · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Sounds like the dumbest and riskiest thing to do with blood. I'd bet that there are huge risks with blood transfusions.

    Long-term things like immune-system fatigue,
    big things like contamination, and
    small things like whoops-wrong-blood-type.

    When you're severely injured, and in a hospital, and doing it rarely, those risks are certainly and obviously worth undertaking.

    But voluntarilly taking those risks, in the hopes of a very-long-term benefit, well, how many of those risks need to go wrong before you've made things worse instead of better?

    I'm thinking the answer is only one.

  5. Re:No Blood For You! by spire3661 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    ' If rich old people are willing to pay for young blood, then some of that money can go to the donors. The market can solve this."

    This screams 'i have never had any resources of my own, so its ok to just take someone else's'

    --
    Good-bye
  6. Re:No Blood For You! by Moof123 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I have never been paid for my blood donations. I found the use of my freely donated blood for cosmetic surgery to be unnerving, but acceptable. Now that profiteering has decided to dip into the game, I want a cut. Why should I give away my valuable life blood for a mere T-shirt (and I haven't even gotten one of those is over a decade)?

    Creepy stuff.