4 ms·

Wasn't blood transfusion from a young another effective method? Though it is a Pandora's box of ethical problems

Dylan16807 6y ago
Is it? You can sell plasma right now, so it seems straightforward to let people sell blood every 2 months if they want to.
inglor_cz 6y ago
Interestingly, they had similar results with just giving mice saline mixture with albumin. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/06/200615115724.htm https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/06/200615115724.h... Which sort of indicates that it is not young blood per se that plays the important role, but dilution and removal of "something" that accumulates with age. Albumin is expensive, at least so far, no one thought about an industrial method to produce large quantities, because there was no demand for them. Aside from price, no ethical problems there. Also, frequent blood donors tend to be much more healthy. A study from Kuopio, Finland, showed that they are almost immune to heart attacks: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9737556/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9737556/ Ofc, the question of causality is strong here, no doubt. But maybe - if the body of a blood donor is forced to produce new blood frequently, might this new blood be "healthier" or "younger" in some sense.
- nradov 6y ago
  There is a hypothesis that excess iron is a risk factor for heart attack, and that periodic blood loss clears it out. This could be why pre-menopausal women have lower rates of heart attack than men and post-menopausal women, even after adjusting for age and other factors.
- galangalalgol 6y ago
  For men and postmenopausal women that could just be dumping excess iron to avoid organ damage. If the albumin had similar results for regular blood donors and premenopausal women, maybe we need albumin.
- awiesenhofer 6y ago
  A good occasion to remind everyone to consider donating blood, especially now - most places are pretty low on blood transfusions currently because of the pandemic. Varies by country of course but if you are healthy and it's possible where you live you can help a lot!
  - ianai 6y ago
    This is a good message, but every time I’ve sought out to give blood they had way more than enough. Is there anywhere actually requesting blood now?
  - rubicon33 6y ago
    Even if one wanted to donate right now, aren't we supposed to be limiting our exposure to other people as COVID surges? I'm probably too cautious of a person but I tend to not trust other people to exercise appropriate caution themselves. Intimate proximity to a nurse taking blood, seems like a bad idea right now.

Is it? You can sell plasma right now, so it seems straightforward to let people sell blood every 2 months if they want to.

inglor_cz 6y ago

Interestingly, they had similar results with just giving mice saline mixture with albumin. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/06/200615115724.htm https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/06/200615115724.h... Which sort of indicates that it is not young blood per se that plays the important role, but dilution and removal of "something" that accumulates with age. Albumin is expensive, at least so far, no one thought about an industrial method to produce large quantities, because there was no demand for them. Aside from price, no ethical problems there. Also, frequent blood donors tend to be much more healthy. A study from Kuopio, Finland, showed that they are almost immune to heart attacks: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9737556/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9737556/ Ofc, the question of causality is strong here, no doubt. But maybe - if the body of a blood donor is forced to produce new blood frequently, might this new blood be "healthier" or "younger" in some sense.

nradov 6y ago
There is a hypothesis that excess iron is a risk factor for heart attack, and that periodic blood loss clears it out. This could be why pre-menopausal women have lower rates of heart attack than men and post-menopausal women, even after adjusting for age and other factors.
galangalalgol 6y ago
For men and postmenopausal women that could just be dumping excess iron to avoid organ damage. If the albumin had similar results for regular blood donors and premenopausal women, maybe we need albumin.
awiesenhofer 6y ago
A good occasion to remind everyone to consider donating blood, especially now - most places are pretty low on blood transfusions currently because of the pandemic. Varies by country of course but if you are healthy and it's possible where you live you can help a lot!
- ianai 6y ago
  This is a good message, but every time I’ve sought out to give blood they had way more than enough. Is there anywhere actually requesting blood now?
- rubicon33 6y ago
  Even if one wanted to donate right now, aren't we supposed to be limiting our exposure to other people as COVID surges? I'm probably too cautious of a person but I tend to not trust other people to exercise appropriate caution themselves. Intimate proximity to a nurse taking blood, seems like a bad idea right now.