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A number of clinics are using a so-called “young blood” infusion treatment being marketed to older people that claims to reverse aging and age-related conditions, but the FDA warns that such claims are unproven and pose significant risks.
In the novel Dracula, Bram Stoker’s vampire character states that “the blood is the life.” While blood may give vampires immortality in fiction, the same can’t be said for human beings in real-life. Instead, such treatments can be dangerous.
But apparently, that is just the angle that some treatment centers are using to encourage older people to use infusions of “young blood” with the promise of a type of “fountain of youth” that these clinics claim can reverse the effects of aging.
The blood is donated from younger people to treat age-related conditions via a form of blood plasma treatment that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is calling unproven and one that presents “significant risks.”
There are a number of problems with blood plasma treatments that the FDA is warning can present “significant risk.”
Among the risks associated with this type of treatment are infections, allergies, or respiratory and cardiovascular reactions.
Many clinics are making claims that “young blood” infusion treatments can reverse aging and improve things such as memory loss, dementia, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, heart disease, Alzheimer’s or posttraumatic stress disorder.
But according to the FDA, such claims are unproven.
“Simply infusing plasma is not a benign intervention and should not be used in such cavalier fashion,” said the FDA’s Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, adding, “We have a lot of public health concerns. This is not an appropriate use of plasma.”
Any treatments allowed to enter the market in the United States go through FDA reviews and scrutiny, reviewing data performed in testing before it is made available to the public.
The FDA said of such blood plasma treatments that there is “no compelling clinical evidence on its efficacy.”
“The FDA does not recognize plasma to treat aging, memory loss or other diseases. Therefore, consumers should not assume them to be safe or effective,” Gottlieb said.
The Commissioner added that the agency may pursue enforcement actions against companies who are offering these infusions. However, such enforcement may take months to get underway, and in the meantime, the FDA has begun its enforcement by warning consumers because the agency has immediate concerns over the risks that such treatments present.
