Is there any validity that this increases lifespan or strengthens the immune system or anything of that order?
Need answer fast? 
Just let the teenager go, nobody will believe his allegations.
On a serious note, the surprising answer to your question is maybe, based on a study done with mice.
At the least it seemed to improve the cognitive functions of older mice, but I saw nothing about extending lifespan or boosting immunity.
I wouldn’t be tapping neighbor boy Jimmy like a Capri Sun until there are further studies though.
Yeah, I have seen articles about this for a few years (?) now. Just interested in it, I would not sign up for this. I’d be interested in any data that references any psycho-emotional-physical “aftereffects”, if any, of folks who have had transfusions in emergency situations. I mean blood is a very special substance which carries so much of our individuality.
Of all of the tissues in our body, blood carries the least of “our individuality”. Most cells contain DNA, with each one of them carrying a complete copy of our entire genome, and you don’t get much more “individual” than that. But most of blood is just plasma, which isn’t made up of cells at all, and most of the rest is red blood cells, which don’t carry any DNA. The only DNA in our blood is in the very rare white cells, and in stray bits which have gotten there from other cells.
As in so many other fields, I believe science has yet to discover all the properties contained in blood. I mean, what might those elements be in the blood of young mice that are affecting older mice?
Also, I don’t believe you can “sign up” for it. At least not in the USA. Transfusions are fairly dangerous and require an MD’s order and medical necessity. If the research pans out that could change but, I don’t see it happening very soon.
I believe there is an outfit in California that is doing this… costs some cash.
edit: BTW, if this turns out to be a “something”, can you imagine the 1% paying for harvesting. Weird Hollywood movie
There are clinical trials that are now underway:
Probably some sort of hormone. There are interesting things in blood; nobody’s denying that. They’re just not very individual interesting things.
Great link, thanks.
Several things immediately pop up.
The initial study that Atamasama linked stated that they used young mice, and that they were able to induce significant brain change in older mice when surgically joining their circulatory systems.
They also stated that they "… gave old mice infusions of young blood plasma (the liquid component of blood containing proteins and hormones but no cells), which significantly improved their performance in learning and memory tests."
The clinical trial is testing the second part, giving plasma from young donors (16-25 yo)
to patients 35 yo and up.
What if the donated plasma has to be from someone even younger than 16 for maximum effect?
Did I ruin my old age by not having children and therefore grand children?
Should I start aiming to be a 1%er?
Could I donate to my older self?
The linked article mentions a couple proteins of interest. It’s also woth noting that the mice were given components of human blood, not mouse blood, if I understood correctly. That would seem to mean that whatever is mediating the effect is not species specific, which is very interesting. (Another possibility is that the researchers were using so-called humanized mice, in which case bets are off as far as cross species effects; the article doesn’t go into those details.)
Do you want vampires? Because this is how you get vampires.
Red blood cells only live for 100-120 days. Either from a teenager or an 80-year-old. So it’s unlikely that there’s much significant difference between them from the age of the person.
I don’t follow that line of reasoning. If there is a qualitative difference between blood produced by old people and that produced by young people why should the lifespan of the blood have anything to do with it?
Now, if you said red blood cells only live for 100-120 days, so any effect could only last 3-4 months, I’d agree with you, but there’s plenty more young people out there, and they make new blood all the time, so if you’ve got the money 3-4 months effect repeated quarterly works just fine
Edited to add: Plus, I see they used plasma, not red blood cells, so the lifespan of a red blood cell is even less relevant.
This is true, but my intuition tells me that it is possible that red blood cells produced by a young person might have different qualities than those produced by aged folks.
And, on the other hand, it is probably not the red blood cells themselves which factor into the “health benefits”, if any, of this blood transfer.
From my personal experience, personally experienced, a few years ago I underwent PRP therapy. (platelet-rich plasma) It was for my knees. My own blood was centrifuged and the yellow liquid at the top, after separation, is plasma with many more platelets than what is typically found in blood. The concentration of platelets, what my doctor termed “growth factors” is anywhere from 5 to 10 times greater than in normal blood. This yellow plasma was syringed out of the test tube and injected into my knees. Over the course of maybe 6 months, I received three such treatments.
I later learned that baseball player A-Rod and basketball player Kobe Bryant had received identical treatment for their knees. Both of them had to have it done in Germany.
Oh yeah, after being in pain for quite some time, this therapy helped me out tremendously and brought my knees back to almost normal. And, as I lived in Europe at the time, the treatment was paid for by the universal health insurance that exists in almost all the countries there.
Because new red blood cells are being produced all the time, and the old ones are dying all the time (that’s what makes shit brown). So when you get that transfusion from a young person, it won’t be all new blood cells that will last 3-4 months. It’ll be a combination of variously-aged blood cells, some new ones only 1 day old, some 99-day old ones with only a day left to live.
So? The question was, is there a beneficial effect? If there is, all it takes is periodic renewal, plus they used plasma which doesn’t even contain red blood cells, so the whole question is moot.
Hey, Heinlein predicted this in “Methusaleh’s Children” (though they came up with a way to produce “young blood” artificially, as I recall, before they went into production…