Dracula was right! Infusing young blood improves your health but it WON'T make you younger

Dracula was right! Infusing young blood improves your health but it WON'T make you younger

US experts found 'vampire therapy' can repair muscle tissue and the liver
However, the health benefits stopped slightly short of reversing ageing
It follows the fad of vampire facials - a recent trend to firm up the face
Doctors remove blood from the arm before putting it back in the face

By VICTORIA ALLEN SCIENCE CORRESPONDENT FOR THE DAILY MAIL

22 November 2016

Dracula might have had the right idea in drinking the blood of young maidens.

It comes straight from the pages of a gothic horror novel, but transfusions of young blood could actually be good for your health.

Scientists found 'vampire therapy' can repair muscle tissue, as well as the liver and brain after only 24 hours.

It follows the fad of vampire facelifts, which involve having blood drawn from your arm and spun in a centrifuge to remove the plasma, then injected back into your face to make it plumper and firmer.

Scientists found 'vampire therapy' can repair muscle tissue, as well as the liver and brain after only 24 hours - but it won't slow ageing

The new therapy involves transfusing blood from someone younger, similarly to North Korean dictator Kim Il-Sung who was said to take blood from people in their twenties to try to live to 100.

It was found by US researchers to have significant health benefits, although stopping short of reversing ageing.

But while young blood may not hold the key to eternal youth, it was found in mice to cut fat around the liver and improve muscle regeneration.

Irina Conboy, associate professor in the Department of Bioengineering at University of California, Berkeley, said: 'Our study suggests that young blood by itself will not work as effective medicine.'

But she added: 'It's more accurate to say that there are inhibitors in old blood that we need to target to reverse aging.'

A Harvard study has previously found an 'anti-ageing' protein, GDF-11, which depletes in the blood as mice age.

This could explain the rejuvenation seen in older animals given young blood, although scientists are still searching for more clues.

The Berkeley experiment exchanged blood between older and younger mice using pumps, which led to each mouse having half the blood of the other.

They found older animals given the transfusion became better able to regenerate their muscles when injured, with less thickening and scarring.

Quickly, the blood improved health and repair of tissues including muscle, the liver and brain.

Science is catching up with the beauty industry, which has suggested for some time that blood could turn back the clock.

The vampire facelift, championed by Kim Kardashian and beauty expert Trinny Woodall, is based on the idea that plasma rich in platelets from your own body can stimulate the growth of more cells.

Kim Kardashian gets vampire facial using own blood

The vampire boob lift, more controversial and linked by critics to cancer, works on the same principle, also using blood taken from the arm.

However blood from someone else can be rejected by the body, running the risk of organ failure and casting doubt on whether the mouse experiment would work in people.

The US scientists found, while young blood does appear to benefit health, it does not improve brain cells used for memory and learning.

But they say previous research, which saw old and young mice share organs as well as blood showed 'ageing is reversible and not set in stone'.

Dr Conboy said: 'Old blood appears to have inhibitors of brain cell health and growth, which we need to identify and remove if we want to improve memory.'