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.

Comments

yay cheaper young blood for me

[Anonymous Coward]

Hopefully this will lower young blood prices, been awhile since I've had a good drink.

Re:yay cheaper young blood for me

[ShanghaiBill]

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.

Re:yay cheaper young blood for me

[mysidia]

2. If there is a shortage, the obvious and immediate fix is to raise the price.

That's no good, when the product's primarily donated to save lives,
and the people who need it need it or they'll die --- and either Insurance will absorb whatever the cost was, or they can't afford it, because a unit of the donated plasma costs multiple thousands of $$$ .

The rich folks, however, who are willing to plunk down $10k to try it as a new aging fix, on the other hand, aren't going to be affected much by a price increase ---- price increases hurt primarily the folks in need of life-saving care who are out-of-network, whose insurance covers 80%.

Re:yay cheaper young blood for me

[ShanghaiBill]

a unit of the donated plasma costs multiple thousands of $$$ .

A donor typically gets paid about $50. So 95% of that cost is due to other factors.

The only result of paying donors is WAY more plasma available. Enough so that America can supply much of the world.

Europe's ban on payments is idiotic. They do it on health grounds, because supposedly "free" plasma is healthier (based on no evidence), but they get so few donors, that they end up buying plasma from paid donors in America. How does that make any sense?

Re: yay cheaper young blood for me

[jpaine619]

In the US, you might get $50 for each of your first few "donations"........... By law, you're limited to two bleedings per week.

No... While your statement regarding two "bleedings" per week might be valid for some jurisdictions, you specified the US as a whole, and your data is wrong.

California limits you to one bleeding per MONTH.

In California, you are only allowed to donate plasma every 28 days. If you are 16, you are only allowed to donate two times in a 12-month period.

Re: yay cheaper young blood for me

[jpaine619]

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.

what next

[Anonymous Coward]

Government needs to keep their nose out of my business. What next, are they going to tell me I shouldn't eat the hearts of my enemies to gain their powers?

What the hell is going on the world?

[Brett Buck]

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.

Re:What the hell is going on the world?

[stinerman]

It's a brave new world, no doubt.

Re:What the hell is going on the world?

[bug_hunter]

So the traditional food pyramid is actually a lot more bunk then people realise, but also you can say that without being the worst kind of creature on the internet.

The other angle

[Tablizer]

I take geezer blood. I can kick kids off my lawn so fast now they're dizzy when they land. And my COBOL coding is faster.

It's Safe

[locopuyo]

I've been doing it for 3000 years. It's perfectly safe.

Re:Risks

[rahvin112]

Plasma is the stuff in blood that's not red blood cells. It's basically everything else other than the oxygen bearing red cells, this includes minerals, salts, proteins, sugars and vitamins along with blood clotting factors anti-bodies and a ton of other stuff. Any blood born pathogens are in the plasma, NOT in the red blood cells themselves (you can count on one hand the number of pathogens that could be inside a red blood cell).

The plasma is also the area where things like antibodies and immune system components are contained. Usually the centrifuge that removes the red blood cells also takes the white cells out too but the risk of a allergic reaction is still high because of all the other components that are unique to the person that generated the plasma.

Apparently you are under the misguided impression that the red blood cells are the only thing in blood and that is where pathogens are. This is not the case, red blood cells have pretty much a single purpose and that's to move oxygen. Everything else is moved in the plasma surrounding the blood cells.

Hemochromatosis

[RyanFenton]

If folks really find this 'treatment' beneficial, find someone with hemochromatosis, and offer them a low payment for regular donation.

For those that don't know, it's a condition where a persons gut is sort of out-of-control in terms of how much iron it absorbs, leading to a slight excess of iron. This slight extra iron can build up to unsafe levels if not removed for several decades- and the most convenient option for removal is simple: Draining about a blood donation worth of blood twice a week, until the levels are 'normal', then less frequently to maintain.

The body replaces the blood just fine, and the blood is perfectly find for almost every use, since a slightly elevated iron level is rarely an issue for 99% of cases.

Unfortunately, lots of blood organizations refuse to draw blood from folks with this condition for free - and want to charge for the regular blood donation as 'treatment' - and will even pour the blood out rather than use it to help anyone, with no clear reason other than unmentioned greed as motivations.

So, if this 'treatment' becomes fashion, then I hope it leads to a less crazy situation for folks with that condition - though it is still crazy to use blood this way too. Perhaps in this case, two crazy situations make a sane result?

Ryan Fenton

Simpsons Did It

[Etcetera]

Am I the only one who thinks this sounds like the sort of comically evil plot Montgomery Burns might try, sending Smithers to tap kids' arms while they sleep?

You're probably subconsciously thinking of this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_Feud_(The_Simpsons)

Mr. Burns falls ill with hypohemia (a fictional life-threatening condition in which the body starts failing to produce enough blood, though it is akin to a real condition called hypovolemia) and needs a blood transfusion. His blood type, double O negative, is very rare, however, and none of the employees at Springfield Nuclear Power Plant have it. Homer discovers that Bart has double O negative blood and urges his son to donate, promising that he will be handsomely rewarded. Bart reluctantly agrees and his blood donation saves Mr. Burns' life. Mr. Burns is rejuvenated by the blood and he sends the Simpson family a thank you card. Enraged at Mr. Burns' paltry gesture, Homer writes an insulting reply, but Marge convinces him at the last minute not to send it. The next morning, Homer discovers that the letter is gone as Bart has mailed it.

Bart explains that he knew Homer would probably change his mind, and decided to send the letter before that could happen. Homer desperately tries to prevent the letter from reaching Mr. Burns, but fails. Mr. Burns becomes furious and demands that Homer be punished. However, Smithers calls off the beating on the grounds, meaning that it's no way to thank the man who saved Mr. Burns' life. But soon, Mr. Burns soon realizes the favor Homer did for him was something good, and comes to his senses. He shakes hands with Smithers and tells him not to punish Homer, but to reward the Simpsons instead.

This is just silly

[93 Escort Wagon]

Plasma infusions don't make you youthful. For that, you have to drink the blood while it's still warm, fresh from the source.

Doing so might make you very sensitive to sunlight, though.

Re: This is just silly

[Opportunist]

You can tell by where the word comes from, politics, as in poly, greek for many and tics, as in little bloodsucking critters.

(yes. It is a joke. A bad one. I know. Don't make me whoosh you!)

Not really surprising

[Solandri]

Medical quack cures during the middle ages spread via word of mouth among the clueless masses.

Modern social media is a way for the clueless masses to quickly spread (mis)information via word of mouth.

During the interim period, we had broadcasting - a few people communicating to many, via books, newspapers, radio, and finally TV. These forms of communication cost money, so they were only available to people or organizations willing and able to pay for it. That meant what they were saying usually had to first go through some sort of vetting process, to make sure it wasn't wasting their time and money.

Then the Internet happened. It's given us lots of great things, but it's also led to a regression of information dissemination. Social media costs nothing to use, meaning that the rumors and hearsay spreading among the masses are once again able to drown out the volume of information from authoritative sources.

People keep championing censorship as the solution (companies and organizations doing "fact-checking" and deliberately squelching info they deem to be incorrect). While that can work, it's incredibly risky. All a wannabe-dictator has to do is replace the fact checkers with people sympathetic to his cause, and the whole thing gets re-purposed into a system to control and subjugate the masses. The proper solution is to educate people, so they're better able to decide for themselves what's true and what's quackery. Unfortunately that's a lot harder than censorship, so lots of people who really should know better are advocating trading off some of their freedom for better security against quacks.

I don't know . . .

[bigdavex]

It definitely worked for the Skeksis.