According to Greek mythology, when you consume ambrosia, the blood running through your veins is replaced with ichor, a golden fluid. Ambrosia, consumed only by gods and goddesses, grants immortality.
Ambrosia is also the name of a startup that aims to combat aging. Rather than golden fluid flowing through the veins of gods, the company's product is the blood of the young actual blood, donated by adults up to age 25 which it will inject in customers 35 and older who have $8,000 to spare.
The question remains: Do young blood injections actually work? Are we just a needle prick away from sweet, fresh-faced longevity?
"I know what you're thinking," said Ambrosia founder Jesse Karmazin in an interview. "Is it all just, like, Silicon Valley tech people?"
It's true: Silicon Valley has a fascination with immortality. Investors have poured billions into longevity research and startups. Venture capitalist Peter Thiel, the billionaire Facebook board member and adviser to Trump, has invested millions into anti-aging medicine. Ambrosia hasn't raised any capital yet, and Karmazin told me that the company has no affiliation with Thiel.
Actually, Karmazin said, Ambrosia's client base is "a real mix of different types of people."
Karmazin said that it's mostly Americans currently undergoing the treatment, with slightly more men than women. He said the company has treated doctors, lawyers, biotech CEOs, someone with a theater background and other individuals from a variety of different industries.
A quote from Jesse Karmazin
Ambrosia currently has two clinics, one in Florida and one in San Francisco. "The treatment is large: It's two liters, which is a pretty significant amount of blood. It's like four pints if you use the American measuring system."
Still, for $8,000 a pop, blood injections are meant for customers who tend to have a little more disposable income. Ambrosia may not be affordable for everyone, but the pricing is reportedly at cost for now; Ambrosia isn't making any money from it yet.
The company gets its spritely plasma from blood donors. It buys blood from blood banks, an industry Karmazin noted is both heavily regulated and expensive.
Karmazin said that the company has both subjective and objective evidence that its treatment is conclusive. He mentioned clients who looked younger after the treatment, as well as people having more energy, sleeping better and feeling stronger. He also noted that people have had "dramatic improvements in Alzheimer's disease."
From an objective standpoint, Karmazin said the Ambrosia treatment can improve cholesterol, amyloid levels plaques in the brain and cancer risk.
"I want to be clear, at this point, it works," Karmazin said. "It reverses aging. We're pretty clear at this point. This is conclusive. We are probably done with the clinical trial. It worked so well, we're going to start treating people. We're pretty amazed with this. Yeah, no, it works, there's really no question whether it works or not."
"I want to be clear, at this point, it works," Karmazin said. "It reverses aging. We're pretty clear at this point. This is conclusive. There's really no question."
But the lack of science casts doubt on Karmazin's confidence.
Evidence on the Ambrosia website includes a handful of links to both human clinical trials and mouse experimental studies. Of the six total human clinical trials included, one is sponsored by Ambrosia. The study was first received in June of 2016. The longest trial dates back to September 2014. The trials aren't yet completed. Some of then haven't even started enrolling yet. And they're small one has just 18 people. Phuoc V. Le, an assistant professor in the school of Public Health at University of California Berkeley and associate professor of Internal Medicine at UC San Francisco School of Medicine, said a clinical trial of this size is "minuscule" and just a first step to make sure there aren't any adverse reactions.
"Something like this needs to have large clinical trials for years before they can make claims as hefty as what they're making," Le told Mic. He added that "this is years and years away" and that that is something consumers need to be aware of. "This is an unproven remedy."
A quote from Phuoc V. Le
Nir Barzilai, a professor of endocrinology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and the director of Einstein's Institute for Aging Research, also agreed that Ambrosia's treatment can't be called conclusive just yet.
There would have to be clinical trials where some elderly participants receive infusions of something else rather than the blood from younger people because the placebo effect in such trials is high, he said.
Derek Huffman, assistant professor of molecular pharmacology and medicine at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, said in an email that the willingness to treat individuals with transfusions for aging at this point is, in his view, "a distortion of the studies it is based on, and an example of an idea getting too far ahead of the science." He added that "this is not to say that this burgeoning area of science is not promising, and that related strategies will not one day come to fruition to successfully target aging, but they will require a much more targeted and fine-tuned approach than is being suggested here.
Le noted that for vulnerable populations, such as people suffering from stroke or early-onset Alzheimer's or dementia, they can't and don't want to wait, so it's dangerous for Ambrosia to make promises of reversal or amelioration of their conditions that are inconclusive, and at a considerable cost.
"For example, if I had early-onset dementia and I lived in Palo Alto and I'm a retiree and I'm living off of social security but I saved up $8,000, and I've seen my parents die of dementia, and saw how bad it was, I might consider spending essentially my savings on something that is unproven," Le said. "Although they are selling it as, not a cure-all, but potentially life-altering and so I worry that it's clearly not coercion but I worry that that people will fall into this trap of spending big bucks and not getting approving benefits."
It's also important to consider the ethical implications of companies like Ambrosia. As Karmazin mentioned, the company gets it plasma by purchasing blood from blood banks. If this type of treatment were to scale up, and companies had millions of people using it, the demand for young blood would be astronomical.
"Could we see a day when young people are selling their blood on the open market for companies like Ambrosia?" Le hypothesized. "And then what do we do in terms of balancing the public good? Meaning, if I were a patient in a hospital and I required plasma because I have a really bad medical condition, but maybe the Red Cross can't get any, because people would rather sell their blood to a company than to donate their blood because it's a limited public good."
Le compared this commodification of blood to the organ black markets in developing countries, noting how this can disproportionately coerce and hurt the poor while benefiting the wealthy. Someone can donate their kidney to a rich person and, as he noted, the type of individual to do this is someone extremely impoverished.
If large clinical trials do bear out, great. But Le believes there could be more benefits yielded from that type of research than just an outpatient elective treatment like Ambrosia. He said that we should figure out what is in plasma that actually confers the benefits, and potentially try and isolate that.
Le said that perhaps medical experts can make plasma synthetically, from animals or in a way that doesn't commodify a public good like blood. That way, it "can provide benefit not just to the rich or to the extremely desperate but also make it available equally to all people."
Go here to read the rest:
Inside Ambrosia: Could infusions of millennial blood make you ... - Mic - Mic
- Here's What You Should Know About Stem Cell Beauty Products - Who What Wear - October 29th, 2023 [October 29th, 2023]
- After Death Dangles Answers to the Only Important Question - The Stream - October 29th, 2023 [October 29th, 2023]
- Igniting Hope conference aims to end race-based health disparities ... - University at Buffalo - October 29th, 2023 [October 29th, 2023]
- 10 Best Horror Anime on Crunchyroll - Screen Rant - October 29th, 2023 [October 29th, 2023]
- 10 Flowers That Represent Freedom - AZ Animals - October 29th, 2023 [October 29th, 2023]
- Demon Slayer: What is Muzan's illness? Explained - Sportskeeda - October 29th, 2023 [October 29th, 2023]
- Enterprise's Archer Copied Picard's Star Trek: Insurrection Romance - Screen Rant - October 29th, 2023 [October 29th, 2023]
- Anemone Flowers: Meaning, Symbolism, and Proper Occasions - AZ Animals - October 29th, 2023 [October 29th, 2023]
- The billion-dollar search for immortality - UnHerd - June 24th, 2023 [June 24th, 2023]
- Should Medicine Still Bother With Eponyms? - The New York Times - June 24th, 2023 [June 24th, 2023]
- Immortality: A Love Story - Plugged In - June 24th, 2023 [June 24th, 2023]
- Harvard morgue scandal: The history of selling body parts - The Boston Globe - June 24th, 2023 [June 24th, 2023]
- Imbibe yoga in its true spirit on the International Yoga Day - Daily Pioneer - June 24th, 2023 [June 24th, 2023]
- Everything you need to know about Nick Fury as Secret Invasion arrives - Yahoo Entertainment - June 24th, 2023 [June 24th, 2023]
- Some Interesting Facts On The Hindu Epic Ramayana - The Movie Blog - June 24th, 2023 [June 24th, 2023]
- Will AI Become Our New Gods? - Answers In Genesis - June 24th, 2023 [June 24th, 2023]
- There's food growing in The Woodlands. Here's how to forage for it ... - Houston Chronicle - June 24th, 2023 [June 24th, 2023]
- One Piece: Op-Op Fruit is the source of Imus immortality - Dexerto - June 24th, 2023 [June 24th, 2023]
- King Charles III's Coronation at the Convergence of Policy ... - JURIST - May 12th, 2023 [May 12th, 2023]
- Ancient Greek healing temple in Trikala to be restored - The Greek Herald - May 12th, 2023 [May 12th, 2023]
- The long and short of telomere rejuvenation | Opinion - Chemistry World - May 12th, 2023 [May 12th, 2023]
- Is there a solution to the puzzle that is cancer? The fundamental ... - Sciencenorway - May 12th, 2023 [May 12th, 2023]
- The Week In Russia: Theater Of War - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty - May 12th, 2023 [May 12th, 2023]
- No. 788: Hi, Mom were getting ready for your big day with dirty ... - Innovate Long Island - May 12th, 2023 [May 12th, 2023]
- Star Trek: Who Is The Oldest Human? - GameRant - May 12th, 2023 [May 12th, 2023]
- Sabbaticals: A Gateway to Reimagining Health - Non Profit News - Nonprofit Quarterly - May 12th, 2023 [May 12th, 2023]
- Florence Nightingale birth anniversary: The Lady with the Lamp who founded modern nursing during Crimean War - News9 LIVE - May 12th, 2023 [May 12th, 2023]
- Defence Secretary oral statement on war in Ukraine - GOV.UK - May 12th, 2023 [May 12th, 2023]
- TOM UTLEY: Mrs U and I are better prepared for the end. But scientists say we might live to 122! - Daily Mail - March 31st, 2023 [March 31st, 2023]
- Eddie Jones reveals NRL legend Andrew Johns was on the verge of a shock code switch in 2005 - Daily Mail - February 18th, 2023 [February 18th, 2023]
- The debauched world of Ozzy Osbourne - biting bats to Sharon finding him in bed with the nanny - Daily Mail - February 5th, 2023 [February 5th, 2023]
- 6 Benefits of Reishi Mushroom (Plus Side Effects and Dosage) - Healthline - December 23rd, 2022 [December 23rd, 2022]
- Alchemy - Wikipedia - December 23rd, 2022 [December 23rd, 2022]
- Emily Dickinson - Poems, Quotes & Death - Biography - December 23rd, 2022 [December 23rd, 2022]
- Alexis Carrel - Wikipedia - December 21st, 2022 [December 21st, 2022]
- Medicine MBChB - University Of Worcester - November 23rd, 2022 [November 23rd, 2022]
- Republic of Florence - Wikipedia - November 23rd, 2022 [November 23rd, 2022]
- Taoist sexual practices - Wikipedia - November 23rd, 2022 [November 23rd, 2022]
- Herbal medicine - Wikipedia - October 23rd, 2022 [October 23rd, 2022]
- Aubrey de Grey - Wikipedia - October 23rd, 2022 [October 23rd, 2022]
- Greek language - Wikipedia - October 23rd, 2022 [October 23rd, 2022]
- Gynostemma pentaphyllum - Wikipedia - October 23rd, 2022 [October 23rd, 2022]
- Lingzhi (mushroom) - Wikipedia - October 23rd, 2022 [October 23rd, 2022]
- The Hayflick Limit: Why Every Human Can Live Up to 125 Years - History of Yesterday - October 6th, 2022 [October 6th, 2022]
- Downtown Lecture Series, now in 10th year, will focus on sexualities - University of Arizona News - October 6th, 2022 [October 6th, 2022]
- Scent of Wind Review: A Simple Tale of Kindness From Iran Echoes the Countrys Masters - Yahoo Entertainment - October 6th, 2022 [October 6th, 2022]
- Proxy voting rises when Congress usually flies in and out of town, analysis finds - Oil City Derrick - October 6th, 2022 [October 6th, 2022]
- Keith Simpson reviews 'Boris Johnson: The Rise and Fall of a Troublemaker at Number 10' - PoliticsHome - October 6th, 2022 [October 6th, 2022]
- Disney+ Releases Official Trailer for the Original Series Limitless with Chris Hemsworth from National Geographic - Yahoo Finance - October 6th, 2022 [October 6th, 2022]
- True Fathers Resist the Holy Father - OnePeterFive - October 6th, 2022 [October 6th, 2022]
- Targeted-sequence of normal urothelium and tumor of patients with non-muscle invasive bladder cancer | Scientific Reports - Nature.com - October 6th, 2022 [October 6th, 2022]
- Cheers and Jeers: Thursday - Daily Kos - October 6th, 2022 [October 6th, 2022]
- North Korea tells officials that 350,000 people died of diseases this year - Radio Free Asia - October 6th, 2022 [October 6th, 2022]
- New York: World War II: Inventive Report An interactive presentation of how, without real danger, the - Game News 24 - October 6th, 2022 [October 6th, 2022]
- Soma (drink) - Wikipedia - October 2nd, 2022 [October 2nd, 2022]
- Lavish Qin Shi Huang Tomb Built for Immortality - October 2nd, 2022 [October 2nd, 2022]
- The Four Directions & Medicine Wheel of Native Americans - Gaia - October 2nd, 2022 [October 2nd, 2022]
- Kanye, Selena Gomez have bipolar disorder. Why is there a stigma? - USA TODAY - October 2nd, 2022 [October 2nd, 2022]
- Forrest Bess Was a Fisherman by Day and Painter of Wild Visions by Night. A New Show Explores His Legacy - artnet News - October 2nd, 2022 [October 2nd, 2022]
- 'Star Wars': 9 Force Powers Used Only by The Jedi - We Got This Covered - October 2nd, 2022 [October 2nd, 2022]
- The CIA has invested in wooly mammoth resurrection technology and nobody knows why - Daily Star - October 2nd, 2022 [October 2nd, 2022]
- Here's why we age - Hindustan Times - September 20th, 2022 [September 20th, 2022]
- Blind mystic Baba Vanga's five predictions for 2023 - from end of births to nuclear disaster - Irish Mirror - September 20th, 2022 [September 20th, 2022]
- President Biden Says Covid-19 Pandemic is Over in the US - Slashdot - September 20th, 2022 [September 20th, 2022]
- Immortality a possibility? This jellyfish could have the answer - Ohmymag - September 17th, 2022 [September 17th, 2022]
- Early Puberty Resulting From Excessive Smartphone Screen Time? Here's What This Study Found - Forbes - September 17th, 2022 [September 17th, 2022]
- Godard's assisted suicide - not an option everywhere - SWI swissinfo.ch - SWI swissinfo.ch in English - September 17th, 2022 [September 17th, 2022]
- Akudaaya: Tinubu, Abacha and Shettima's Theory of Ruthless Leadership -By Festus Adedayo - Opinion Nigeria - September 17th, 2022 [September 17th, 2022]
- On The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power, a hard rains a-gonna fall - The A.V. Club - September 17th, 2022 [September 17th, 2022]
- The longevity diet: Lots of beans and periodic fasts slow ageing - The New Daily - September 17th, 2022 [September 17th, 2022]
- The Real Effects Aloe Vera Has On Your Body - Health Digest - September 11th, 2022 [September 11th, 2022]
- Its Time To Rethink the Origins of Pain - Scientific American - September 11th, 2022 [September 11th, 2022]
- Queen Elizabeth II: Celebrities send well-wishes as world waits for update on health - The Independent - September 11th, 2022 [September 11th, 2022]
- The Moon: Earths Eighth Continent to This Jellyfish is Immortal (Planet Earth Report) - The Daily Galaxy --Great Discoveries Channel - September 11th, 2022 [September 11th, 2022]
- This president was shot in the back, but the doctors are the ones who killed him - Salon - September 11th, 2022 [September 11th, 2022]
- As The Royal Family Deals With Devastating Racism Accusations From Meghan Markle, 96-Year-Old Queen Elizabeth II Now Under Extensive Medical Care as... - September 11th, 2022 [September 11th, 2022]
- To quit or not to quit: The hardest question for sporting greats - Deccan Herald - September 11th, 2022 [September 11th, 2022]
- OND: Harvest moon, climate refugees, wall wind turbine, JWST and more - Daily Kos - September 11th, 2022 [September 11th, 2022]
- 10 Fantasy Shows Like Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power You Should Check Out - /Film - September 11th, 2022 [September 11th, 2022]
- Jared Kushner is keeping fit because he thinks he might live forever - Business Insider - August 27th, 2022 [August 27th, 2022]