Would you pay R110,000 for a litre of young blood?

17 January 2019 - 10:54
By Staff reporter
A new procedure infuses plasma from people aged 16-25 into people older than 30.There's no scientific evidence to suggest that the treatments could help anyone and several experts have raised red flags.
Image: 123RF/alexmit A new procedure infuses plasma from people aged 16-25 into people older than 30.There's no scientific evidence to suggest that the treatments could help anyone and several experts have raised red flags.

An American startup called Ambrosia charges $8,000 (R110,000) to top up your veins with a litre of the blood of young people.

Business Insider reports Ambrosia is now accepting payments for the procedure via PayPal. Two options are listed: one litre of young blood for $8,000, or two litres for $12,000.

There's no scientific evidence to suggest that the treatments could help anyone and several experts who spoke to Business Insider have raised red flags.

The Ambrosia website says, "young plasma treatments are intravenous infusions of plasma from young donors, who are in the age range of 16 to 25. For this reason, we treat patients who are 30 or older".

"Young plasma is the result of research into the science of blood. Experiments in mice called parabiosis provided the inspiration to deliver treatments with young plasma."

Parabiosis, the procedure of joining two animals so that they share each others blood circulation, has revitalised the concept of blood as a putative drug.