The fountain of youth is a secret spot that humans have been trying to find for millennia. For certain of us, immortality has a strong allure. It even has a presence in Greek mythology. It seems every society throughout the ages has had its own version of the story. As soon as we started figuring out that we were getting older, we wanted to get younger. Rituals, lotions, potions… we have come up with something for every part of us, from head to toe. We dye and scrub and wax and buff, and as time has gone on, we’ve gotten pretty good with keeping the wrinkles and sags at bay. Science and proper nutrition have gone a long way toward making the fountain of youth a reality, but one San Francisco clinic has taken things several steps further. (1)
Young Blood For Immortality
It sounds like a joke, but it’s not. “Teenage blood treatments” are an actual thing. Take the sweet, sweet blood of a teenager. Inject it straight into someone in search of immortality.
Ambrosia is a biotech startup that is based in San Francisco but now treats patients in all 50 states. From their website: “Our registered, approved clinical trial successfully conducted from 2016 to 2018 found statistically significant improvements in biomarkers related to Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, inflammation, and stem cells after a single treatment with young blood (donor age 16 to 25). Patients in the clinical trial reported subjective improvements in athletics, memory, skin quality, sleep, and many other areas.” (2)
How does it work? Well, it’s not some Dracula kind of scenario. And it’s not as simple as just taking the blood from one person and injecting it into another. Only the plasma is used. Plasma is known to be rich in proteins and factors that promote healthy cell functioning. The idea is that the plasma of a strapping young person may whip someone’s own tired old plasma into shape.
The treatments do not come cheap! At $5500USD for one liter, and $8000USD for two, patients at Ambrosia are shelling out a good bit of cash to put some bounce back in their step.
Bloody Beauty
Though this concept may seem completely crazy to you, skincare treatments involving blood have been around for a while now. “Using platelet-rich plasma is a very hot trend right now in dermatology,” Joshua Zeichner, M.D., director of clinical and cosmetic research in dermatology at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York told Allure. “It is being used to improve skin tone and texture, wrinkles, and even promote hair growth.” (1)
The main difference between these types of treatments and the ones that Ambrosia offers is that in the beauty treatments it’s one’s own blood that is used. Ambrosia offers younger blood, that hoped-for key to immortality.
Ambrosia was founded in 2016. Though they are proud of their work so far, large-scale studies need to be performed over longer periods of time. With just a few years under their belt, it’s hard to say whether these treatments are truly effective yet. But if they do prove to be helpful, it could mean a whole new world of possibilities for people who are aging… not just for better skin but for better overall health, inside and out. (1, 2)