Ultra rich turning to blood therapy to keep old age at bay.
Why the wealthy believe the fountain of youth flows with blood
The one per cent has never been more blood thirsty. And I don’t mean in the chase riches at all costs, screw the little guy kind of way. They’re obsessed with using actual blood to keep them young, beautiful and vital. It sounds a bit like something from a centuries-old folk tale or last season’s American Horror Story, but the rise of blood as the 21st-century Holy Grail is very real and rooted in the latest advances in modern science. The rich have always had a bit of a blood fetish. There are many old horror stories about royals and aristocrats doing various things with blood to stay young and beautiful. For example, Countess Elizabeth Báthory de Ecsed, the infamous 16th-century serial killer also known as “the blood countess,” who reportedly murdered somewhere around 650 young girls and was rumoured to both drink and bathe in their blood. One of the most simultaneously feared and beloved horror characters of all time, Dracula, was partly inspired by the ruling classes’ blood lust. There’s a reason why vampires often hail from the upper class. Today’s penchant for blood is a little less macabre. So far, no one has been killed in the pursuit of youth and immortality. In fact, much of the emphasis has been on using one’s own blood as a magical elixir that encourages the body to regenerate. You may remember 2013’s viral photo of Kim Kardashian, face smeared in blood and mugging for a selfie after receiving a “Vampire Facial.” The anti-aging treatment, where a patient’s own blood is withdrawn, spun in a centrifuge to create platelet-rich plasma, then re-injected back into their own skin, became immediately covetable. It also came with a price tag of about $1,500. “The Kim Kardashian photo triggered demand, but it was definitely sensationalized in the media. They showed it as actual red blood being used on her skin, which isn’t actually how the treatment looks,” says Dr. Diane Wong, owner of Glow Medi Spa. In reality, the plasma is more clear with a tinge of yellow ( markedly less creepy, but also less photogenic). The Vampire Facial, also known as PRP (platelet-rich plasma) by those more interested in medicine than tabloids, has come a long way since those early Kardashian- fuelled days. The centrifuged blood is now less commonly re- injected into skin. Rather, practitioners have found equal success by applying it topically after treatments that penetrate the skin’s dermal layer. “We do things differently now. Although we got results with injectables, it was limited because the needles would create a lot of downtime and pain. Clients weren’t as willing to do it,” says Wong. “Now the only people who are hesitant are those who are squeamish about needles or getting their blood taken.” Wong applies PRP after a treatment called VoluDerm, which uses radio-frequency micro-needling to create small wounds in the skin’s surface. The plasma encourages the body to regenerate and produce more collagen after the procedure, which is now one of Glow Medi Spa’s most popular services and boasts zero downtime. Outside of the beauty world, athletes are also using their own blood to recover from injuries and increase performance. Tiger Woods, Kobe Bryant and Rafael Nadal all made headlines for using injectable blood therapy. “It works the same way as when you cut yourself. One of the first cells that shows up to kick- start healing is the platelet that tells your body to start making more tissue or collagen,” says Dr. Julia Carroll, co-owner of Compass Dermatology. “The most common reaction we get from patients isn’t ‘ Eww, gross,’ it’s, ‘Wow, that’s really cool.’ ”
If you want to take things a step farther, you can visit one of several trendy blood spas. The most notable one is Espace Chenot at L’Alberta in Italy, where doctors extract 100 millilitres of your blood, mix it with oxygen, then inject it back into you to encourage cell regeneration. The treatment is supposed to aid with memory, weight loss, energy and immunity. This process would be repeated multiple times over a patient’s stay.
Things get a bit more eerie from there. There’s a class of scientists and the extremely wealthy who are beginning to experiment with not just their own blood, but the blood of young people. In 2014, researchers began injecting elderly mice with the blood of younger mice and discovered that it seemed to improve the older rodents’ memory and ability to learn. This summer, a startup company called Ambrosia launched the first U. S. clinical trial to test the anti- aging benefits of young human blood. Notably, it’s a pay-to-play trial, which has raised ethical concerns. Ambrosia plans to charge interested participants a whopping US$ 8,000 for lab tests and a one- time treatment. In South Korea, scientists are studying whether human umbilical-cord blood can prevent frailty in the elderly.
Then there’s the blood lust of one Peter Thiel — and not just when it comes to bankrupting Gawker. The Silicon Valley billionaire has made no secret of the fact he believes young people’s blood is the key to extending human life and perhaps even warding off death entirely. He’s particularly interested in parabiosis, or the process of getting blood transfusions from young people.
Thiel has publicly invested in several biotech startups and given US$ 6 million to biomedical gerontologist Aubrey de Grey’s Sens Foundation, which seeks to extend human lifespans. While he hasn’t publicly admitted to injecting himself with young blood, Gawker reported in June that Thiel “spends US$40,000 per quarter to get an infusion of blood from an 18- year- old, based on research conducted at Stanford (University) on extending the lives of mice.” Vanity Fair also recently reported rumours of wealthy Silicon Valley elites paying young people for their blood.
Is there anything blood can’t do? According to Wong, the possibilities seem pretty endless at the moment in the beauty sector. “Some trends come and go, but this is something that is going to be able to advance a lot and isn’t going away anytime soon,” she says. As an example of where blood-based treatments are headed next, she points to a new study she’s taking part in that looks at using PRP to stimulate hair regeneration.
Even with all these advances, the average person won’t be bathing in blood any time soon. The cost of even the cheapest of these treatments is prohibitive for most people. “The cost is a very limiting factor, both for us and the patients,” says Wong. For now, unless you’re of a certain class, you may just have to be satisfied with your favourite face cream. Blood may be thicker than water, but cold hard cash trumps all.