Harold Katcher applied topical E5, his proprietary blood plasma fraction, to his own right hand
An update from last week: In the last issue of Long Youthspan, I wrote about Harold Katcher. Katcher is a professor of biology and the inventor of E5, a blood plasma fraction that's given us the longest-lived lab rat as well as significant organ rejuvenation in animals.
What I didn't know last week is that there has also been one limited human trial with E5, on Dr. Katcher himself. He applied a topical version of E5 (the rat stuff was injected) to his right hand last year. Katcher says that scars and wrinkles disappeared, normal skin color returned, and the skin became much thicker. Photographs, like the ones above, seem to bear his claims out.
Of course, this is just a one-person experiment. What’s more, we can't be sure the differences in the picture above are due to E5, since we don't have "before" photos of the same hand.
Still, if Katcher's right hand looked anything like his left hand does now, and if the improvement is really the result of topical E5, then this is very exciting for a few different reasons:
There is significant and visible improvement
It took just one application of topical E5, and the results became obvious after just four days
The effects have persisted for over a year without additional treatment
There were no side effects
So what’s next? As I mentioned last week, injectable E5 experiments with dogs are currently under way. If all goes well, human trials with injectable E5 might come next year.
But topical E5 might require less testing and scrutiny before it comes to market, and we might see it even sooner. If topical E5 really produces the kinds of results that Katcher claims, it would be a huge and attention-grabbing breakthrough for the longevity industry.