A most promising longevity treatment — in both mice and men
Woof. Welcome to a special "as good as it gets" edition of Long Youthspan.
My everyday goal with Long Youthspan is to bring you the freshest longevity news.
But there are some "news" that are not fresh — think summer of 2022 — but that are so important and interesting that I have to go back to them, even today, in February 2023. Today is one of those, so let me tell you about it.
A most promising longevity treatment — both in mice and men
A crumb-free, pro-youthspan banquet table. Read on to understand this analogy.
What's the news: Diluting blood plasma makes people younger.
Why should we believe it: This news is based on research, published in 2022, and headed by John and Irina Conboy, two leading longevity scientists at the University of California at Berkeley. The Conboys study looked at both animal subjects and the effects of plasma dilution in three actual living humans.
But what's plasma dilution? Let me explain with an analogy to a banquet table. You might wonder what a hound like me knows about banquet tables. The answer is, not much, but I use my imagination. I invite you to use yours right now. Specifically:
Imagine a banquet table with plates of delicious food. But also imagine that the table is full of bread crumbs around the dishes, spoiling the effect. What to do?
Easy. remove all the dishes from the table, wipe the table free of crumbs, and put the dishes back. Voila! Ready to party.
Plasma dilution works the same way. Blood is a mix of blood cells and blood plasma. Over time, the blood plasma becomes filled with problematic crumbs — various inflammatory marketers and troublesome proteins.
Plasma dilution takes that aged plasma and replaces it with clean saline and purified albumin. It's just like wiping the crumbs off the table. The patient's blood cells get taken out and then put back in — just like the dishes on the banquet table.
The pro-youthspan effects of this treatment were impressive. In human subjects, diluting blood plasma:
Reduced markers of neurodegeneration and cancer, lowered DNA damage, and reduced sensescence, the presence of harmful aged cells
Reduced inflammatory markers, which are believed to be a root cause of much or all of aging
The bigger picture: One theory says that aging is a body-wide process created by signaling molecules that travel through the blood.
Plasma dilution appears to be a quick and simple way to take out those "let's age!" signaling molecules. Without those molecules telling the body to age, the body seems to get younger on its own.
So what specifically can you do now: Plasma dilution is actually an existing treatment for several diseases, including myasthenia gravis, Alzheimer’s disease, and Guillain–Barre syndrome.
In other words, you might be able to get this treatment right now in certain hospitals, although not just because you want to look, move, and feel younger.
But if the Conboys are right about the long-term effects of plasma dilution, you can bet that clinics will start popping up soon and offering to dilute your blood and make you more youthful.
Ancient wisdom for long life
The offer I've dug up for you you today is an interesting docuseries produced by the Human Longevity Project. Before I give you the link, I have to admit a few things:
I am not in any way getting compensated to promote this docuseries to you. I'm just linking to it because I thought you might find it interesting.
I have not yet watched this docuseries myself. So I can't tell you whether it's filled with interesting and practical and proven ideas, or a bunch of questionable fluff.
That said, this docuseries seems promising and interesting. It features a bunch of health experts, as well as lots of shriveled but healthy centennarians from around the world, sharing their wisdom on how to stay alive, healthy, and happy for much longer than most people manage it.
There's a fair chance you'll learn something, be inspired, and maybe even get exposed to a life-saving idea or two.
If you're interested, you can sign up below to watch the first episode of this docuseries for free.
Thanks for reading, and see you tomorrow
Since I'm a hound always on the lookout for longevity news, I've devloped an interest in the top scientists who work in this field. It's incredible to think that a few geniuses, working at different labs around the world, might in just a few years' time eliminate aging, and fundamentally change the course of human history.
Today, I looked up Irina and John Conboy, the two scientists behind the plasma diffusion study I told you about above. They are a husband-and-wife team of scientists — and much more:
Irina Conboy got her PhD. in Pat Jones laboratory at Department of Biological Sciences at Stanford University, in Molecular and Cellular Immunology. She met her soulmate in science, martial arts, gardening and life, Michael Conboy at Harvard and they got married before starting the graduate studies. They celebrated their Silver Anniversary a few years ago and have been working for almost two decades as a team deciphering why when we are young “there is no pain – no gain”, but as we age “there is more pain and much less gain”.
So let me leave you with a picture of the Conboys. You might want to see what they look like, since they might save your life one day soon.
I'll be back in your inbox tomorrow, talking about a contentious issue — the effect of a high-protein diet in advancing years.
Irina and John Conboy, two of the most respected and influential scientists working on the topic of longevity. They've been married for fifty years, and working together for over 40 of those years.