Therapeutic phlebotomy for longevity

General
1

Hi all,

There’s increasing evidence that donating/giving blood is beneficial for longevity:

  1. Each additional blood donation is associated with a 7.5% reduction in mortality risk
  2. Iron cannot naturally be removed from the body without blood loss, and iron accumulation is potentially a major driver of age-related disease
  3. Therapeutic plasma exchange is rejuvenating in model organisms

For some people, an easy way to implement this is to donate blood regularly. Yet, the majority of Americans are unable to donate blood due to strict criteria for who can donate.

If unable to donate blood, one alternative is to get a prescription for therapeutic phlebotomy where a phlebotomist removes a significant amount of blood (similar to blood donation). Unfortunately, it’s extremely difficult to get a prescription for this very safe procedure (millions of Americans donate blood annually with few negative side effects).

Would absolutely love if gethealthspan could eventually offer a streamlined way to get a therapeutic phlebotomy prescription. Love all the current offerings on gethealthspan and think this could be a great value add that’s not currently being offered elsewhere in the market.

Thoughts from the community and admins?

Best,
Stephen

2 Likes
2

Thanks for posting this.

I have, for years, been donating blood (I’m O- so they call me, every 8 weeks, like clockwork) and have reported the benefits of this to anyone who will listen since starting to get into the longevity research.

One topic that this has come up recently in, is the bodybuilding community - particularly those on performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) and, for the general population who are on any sort of testosterone therapy. I am particularly interested in this, as I am a sports nutritionist and personal trainer (secondary to my work as a medical business analyst).

I am incorporating much of what I am learning here through Healthspan in my practice and recommending the therapies for consideration - I agree that it would be great for Healthspan to streamline a therapeutic phlebotomy prescription for those who would be excluded from donating their blood via traditional means.

Warm regards,
Amanda

3

Hi- This is Shriya from the Healthspan Clinical Team! Thank you for sharing this research about therapeutic phlebotomy for longevity. After looking over the content that you have shared, I wanted to add a couple notes.

The research on blood donation and blood donor mortality (the first paper you shared) has been conducted as a correlation study which does not yet indicate a “causal relationship between these two measured variables. Regardless, the research in the second two papers connecting iron levels and therapeutic plasma exchange to mTOR and lifespan is incredibly interesting. Our goal here at Healthspan is to promote protocols that are thoroughly backed by scientific evidence. We will continue to monitor research in this field for validity and reliability.

1 Like