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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.
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?
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 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.
Table-ized A.I.
I've been doing it for 3000 years. It's perfectly safe.
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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.
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
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)
Hire a Linux system administrator, systems engineer,
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.
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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.
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.