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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.

6 of 169 comments (clear)

  1. what next by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    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?

  2. What the hell is going on the world? by Brett+Buck · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

  3. Re:yay cheaper young blood for me by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

  4. The other angle by Tablizer · · Score: 5, Funny

    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.

  5. It's Safe by locopuyo · · Score: 4, Funny

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

  6. Re: yay cheaper young blood for me by jpaine619 · · Score: 4, Informative

    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.