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Whatever happened to those blood transplants people were getting from younger people? Logically it made sense, but I'm guessing after further study it didn't pa

Whatever happened to those blood transplants people were getting from younger people? Logically it made sense, but I'm guessing after further study it didn't pan out? Or was it just a trend that didn't get any follow up?

1970-01-01 1y ago
There's weak science behind it. Basically it works, but you need to be a crazy person to think that it is a novel way to cheat death. Death remains undefeated. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_blood_transfusion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_blood_transfusion
- GoatInGrey 1y ago
  Treating aging is not the same as treating death. The reason the two are colloquially linked is because aging has been by far the dominant driver of death for all of human history. To your point, aging has never failed to kill a human. There are a couple reasons to believe that aging is malleable. One is that we know how to de-age human cells using the same factors that fertilized oocytes use to de-age the underlying egg cell (typically many decades in age). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Induced_pluripotent_stem_cell https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Induced_pluripotent_stem_cell The second is that nature has examples of biological immortality. Planaria are a fascinating one as they have among the trashiest, most mutated genome on the planet. They're even polypoid, where they have multiple sets of chromosomes, but they're simultaneously the best regenerators on the planet. Despite having a discrete nervous system and centralized brain, you can slice a planaria into hundreds of pieces, and each of those will regenerate into a full, functional adult. They don't age, they don't get cancer. The issue is that we have no idea how this happens. So there is still a lot for us to learn about the fundamentals of aging and regeneration overall.
  - 1970-01-01 1y ago
    You 2nd point sounds like a quest for literal reincarnation. It is great sci-fi material; When the organism is no longer a single unit, at no point does death occur. The organisms survive continuously, yet they lose no external feature. Is it cheating death? Well, what happens when the original mind meets its millionth copy?
  - preachermon 1y ago
    > aging has been by far the dominant driver of death for all of human history not dominant if mean life expectancy is < 40. Aging only has an impact after age 55. (and if 55 seems young, you have a cushy life)
    - quesera 1y ago
      Assuming that infant mortality is not on the minds of most adults (w/r/t their own survival), aging becomes the dominant driver.
GoatInGrey 1y ago
There is still ongoing research and testing. It's at a state where we know it has some effect, but we don't know what exactly it is doing and therefore do not have a clear path to optimization. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/acel.70103 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/acel.70103 https://longevity.technology/news/human-trial-finds-therapeutic-plasma-exchange-reduces-biological-age/amp/ https://longevity.technology/news/human-trial-finds-therapeu...
preachermon 1y ago
One, ethics Two, ethics, Three, it took something like 10K young people per old person to make it work, and it was at best a proof of concept Four, ethics
- directevolve 1y ago
  Why do you think there’s an ethical problem with this type of blood transfusion?
- otikik 1y ago
  Yeah, Peter Thiel does not have problems One,Two and Four. And Three is a minor inconvenience.

1970-01-01 1y ago

There's weak science behind it. Basically it works, but you need to be a crazy person to think that it is a novel way to cheat death. Death remains undefeated. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_blood_transfusion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_blood_transfusion

GoatInGrey 1y ago
Treating aging is not the same as treating death. The reason the two are colloquially linked is because aging has been by far the dominant driver of death for all of human history. To your point, aging has never failed to kill a human. There are a couple reasons to believe that aging is malleable. One is that we know how to de-age human cells using the same factors that fertilized oocytes use to de-age the underlying egg cell (typically many decades in age). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Induced_pluripotent_stem_cell https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Induced_pluripotent_stem_cell The second is that nature has examples of biological immortality. Planaria are a fascinating one as they have among the trashiest, most mutated genome on the planet. They're even polypoid, where they have multiple sets of chromosomes, but they're simultaneously the best regenerators on the planet. Despite having a discrete nervous system and centralized brain, you can slice a planaria into hundreds of pieces, and each of those will regenerate into a full, functional adult. They don't age, they don't get cancer. The issue is that we have no idea how this happens. So there is still a lot for us to learn about the fundamentals of aging and regeneration overall.
- 1970-01-01 1y ago
  You 2nd point sounds like a quest for literal reincarnation. It is great sci-fi material; When the organism is no longer a single unit, at no point does death occur. The organisms survive continuously, yet they lose no external feature. Is it cheating death? Well, what happens when the original mind meets its millionth copy?
- preachermon 1y ago
  > aging has been by far the dominant driver of death for all of human history not dominant if mean life expectancy is < 40. Aging only has an impact after age 55. (and if 55 seems young, you have a cushy life)
  - quesera 1y ago
    Assuming that infant mortality is not on the minds of most adults (w/r/t their own survival), aging becomes the dominant driver.

GoatInGrey 1y ago

There is still ongoing research and testing. It's at a state where we know it has some effect, but we don't know what exactly it is doing and therefore do not have a clear path to optimization. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/acel.70103 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/acel.70103 https://longevity.technology/news/human-trial-finds-therapeutic-plasma-exchange-reduces-biological-age/amp/ https://longevity.technology/news/human-trial-finds-therapeu...

preachermon 1y ago

One, ethics Two, ethics, Three, it took something like 10K young people per old person to make it work, and it was at best a proof of concept Four, ethics

directevolve 1y ago
Why do you think there’s an ethical problem with this type of blood transfusion?
otikik 1y ago
Yeah, Peter Thiel does not have problems One,Two and Four. And Three is a minor inconvenience.