In Western legends, blood is always given a mysterious color, and in people's cognition, blood seems to contain some kind of magical power, believing that blood exchange can cure various diseases.
01 More than one study shows that young blood or "fountain of youth"
As early as the 1st century AD, in the Colosseum of ancient Rome, the bloody gladiators had just fallen to the ground, and many epileptic patients flocked up like beasts, drinking the red blood flowing from the gladiator's wounds, hoping to cure epilepsy. In the Qing Dynasty, people believed that human blood could cure tuberculosis, so there was Lu Xun's "human blood steamed bun".
It seems that blood can cure diseases is a foolish idea, but scientific research in recent years seems to have found that blood does have a unique magic power, which can make people "rejuvenate". In 2005, a study published in the top journal Nature found that the blood of young mice rejuvenated and returned to a youthful state.
The researchers surgically stitched together the vascular circulatory systems of old and young mice. Since the two mice are related by blood, there is no problem of the immune system attacking each other, and the miraculous thing happens, the ages of the two mice are "averaged", the fur of the old mice becomes smoother and behaves younger, while the young mice become sluggish in movement and have signs of accelerated aging.
This research has aroused the interest of many scientists in blood exchange, so many studies on young blood have poured in, and there was a major breakthrough last year. In May 2020, the Steve Horvath research team at the University of California, USA, published a paper in which they performed 8 young plasma injections on 6 middle-aged mice, and the entire experimental process lasted for 155 days, showing that the average physiological age of all tissues was reversed by 54%, which was reversed from 50 years old to 25 years old in human terms.
At the same time, various indicators related to aging have shown youthfulness, including increased forefox grip, improved cognitive function, improved chronic inflammation, and significantly reduced fat.
On December 6, 2021, there was a new breakthrough in the field of blood exchange! An article in Nature Aging suggests that the mechanism by which blood exchange prolongs life may be related to extracellular vesicles circulating in the blood, which carry the synthetic instructions for "longevity proteins," which aging alters, rendering this instruction ineffective.
02 Crazy rich and hacker, boldly try to change blood
Foreign rich people are very excited about the research of young blood. Pay Pal founder Peter Thiel is one of them, spending $40,000 a quarter to trade fresh blood from 18-year-olds, earning him the title of "vampire." The deal even extends to an industry, such as the American company Ambrosia, which provides young blood to wealthy merchants for $8,000 a course of treatment, as if selling mineral water.
In addition to Peter Thiel, a tech maniac, Time Pai gz also reported 3 biohackers from Russia, who also did a more crazy experiment last year, they actually sucked half of their own blood, hoping to achieve the purpose of delaying aging by diluting aging blood, one of the participants Nikolay Sidorov said that after three plasma dilutions, he was very energetic, as if he had drunk several cups of coffee.
The excesses of the rich and these biohackers have attracted the attention of the FDA of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which issued a statement warning that there are health risks to this behavior, especially for blood exchange companies, and if they continue to do so, there will be severe penalties.
03 Blood exchange research is in full swing, and the legend of immortality may be realized
Although there has been some progress in blood exchange research, it is still in its infancy. Scientists have not given up on this therapy, and continue to carry out related experiments, for example, Saul Villeda's laboratory said in the top journal Science that old mice that do not exercise do not need to exercise themselves after receiving blood injections from young mice that exercise regularly, and brain aging will be reversed.
It is these scientific research results that have contributed to the rapid growth of medical knowledge. Bank of America Merrill Lynch, a well-known investment bank, said that since 2020, the growth rate of medical knowledge has exceeded imagination, more than ten times that of the previous decade, and the means of life extension are also increasing day by day.
We are full of confidence in the future anti-aging field, even if blood exchange therapy can not really extend life, there will be a new anti-aging technology in the future, human beings will reach an unprecedented height of life, the ancient legend of immortality may no longer be a dream.
Of course, compared with the slightly magical life extension methods such as blood exchange, it seems more reliable to promote physical health through a reasonable diet. Private Message Time Pie "Xian Fang" can receive a copy of the anti-aging recipe.
—— TIMEPIE ——