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FDA Warns Against Using Young Blood As Medical Treatment (cnn.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNN: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned Tuesday against using plasma infusions from young blood donors to ward off the effects of normal aging as well as other more serious conditions. Plasma, the liquid portion of the blood, contains proteins that help clot blood. The infusions are promoted to treat a variety of conditions, including normal aging and memory loss as well as serious conditions such as dementia, multiple sclerosis, heart disease and post-traumatic stress disorder.
"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," FDA Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb wrote in a statement Tuesday. "The reported uses of these products should not be assumed to be safe or effective," he added, noting that the FDA "strongly" discourages consumers from using this therapy "outside of clinical trials under appropriate institutional review board and regulatory oversight." Gottlieb said that "a growing number of clinics" are offering plasma from young donors and similar therapies, though he did not name any in particular.
"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," FDA Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb wrote in a statement Tuesday. "The reported uses of these products should not be assumed to be safe or effective," he added, noting that the FDA "strongly" discourages consumers from using this therapy "outside of clinical trials under appropriate institutional review board and regulatory oversight." Gottlieb said that "a growing number of clinics" are offering plasma from young donors and similar therapies, though he did not name any in particular.
>" FDA Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb wrote in a [statement] Tuesday. "
At this time, that link for the statement is broken.
Do be warned- there are, indeed, serious risks with infusing foreign blood. All kinds of blood-borne diseases can be transmitted, as well risk of injection site infections. You can also have severe allergic or other auto-immune reactions. At those *crazy* costs ($8k for just a single treatment of 1 liter), one would think you would be blood typed matched carefully to blood products that have been thoroughly tested and screened and all equipment is sterilized properly. But, who knows.
And there is no proof it does anything at all. Not yet, anyway. And I doubt such profit-motivated "desperation clinics" are performing any controlled studies to help change that.
One ridiculous medical quack cure after another, this one is from the *middle ages*, for God's sake.
Eat from the food pyramid, get some exercise, take medicine only when necessary, and you will maximize your chances.
a medically unnecessary waste of precious lifesaving bodily tissues...
This is just silly. There is no shortage of plasma. There is only a shortage of incentives for people to donate. If Peter stops his injections, it is not like that plasma is going to someone else.
paying blood donors should be illegal anyway.
Blood donors are not paid. Plasma donors are.
Payments for plasma are illegal in most of Europe. The obvious result is that they buy plasma from America where it comes from paid donors. America is, by far, the world's biggest plasma exporter.
Lesson from economics 101: Incentives work.
I donate things all the time. Time, money, and more. I do it without expecting any compensation because I'm not some emotionally stunted libertarian crank.
You're surrounded by civilization, maybe give it a try sometime and see if you like it.
Ah yes, the good old "Everyone who ever expects to be paid for anything I disagree with is a nazi, libertarian, asshole, meanie face.
It's good to see your donations are not altruistic. If they were you wouldn't be using them like clubs to beat shame into those who want to be paid for their time.