Reader\'s Digest Australia & New Zealand - June 2018

June• 2018 | 99

That’s Outrageous!

BLOODY MARVELLOUS

BY MEAGAN BOISSÉ

bloodhassincesavedan

estimated 2.4 million babies,

thisyearhe’llbetoooldto

legally donate. He’s calling

on others to step in:

“Rollupyoursleeve,put

out your arm and save

lives,” he says.

VERY PECULIAR PROCEDURE

hefountainofyouthreallyisilled

with young blood, according to a

US start-up company. Ambrosia,

foundedbyStanfordUniversity

medical graduate Jesse Karmazin,

hasdevelopedaconsumer-funded

‘clinical trial’ in which participants

pay $8000 to receive an injection

of blood plasma from donors who

are25andyounger.heplasma

will make recipients feel smarter

and more youthful, Karmazin

claims. He attributes the beneits

to growth factors and proteins,

vital to cell function, which appear

in greater volume in young blood.

Ambrosia has completed 120-plus

transfusions,butmedicalres-

earchers have raised doubts over

thetrial,whichfeaturesnocontrol

group and isn’t peer-reviewed.

KARMIC JUSTICE

Canadian court judge Mark
Tyndalehasgivenblood
awhopping870-plus
times.Now60years
old, donating was a
simplewaytosave
lives.Butin2013he
found himself on the other
sideoftheequationwhen
hewasrushedtohospitalwith
a deadly lesh-eating disease.
Fortunately, what goes around
comesaround.Tyndalesurvived
after receiving 11 litres of gamma
globulin,which,givenhisproliic
donor record, quite possibly
containedhisownplasma.

CALL TO ACTION

AustralianJamesHarrisonreceiveda
life-savingbloodtransfusionin1951,
atage14.Inspired,theboypledgedto
becomeadonorhimself.It’sagood
thinghedid:16yearslater,hisblood
wasfoundtocontainanantibody
thatwasusedtocreateavaccineto
preventhaemolyticdisease,ablood
disorderinwhichpregnantwomen
form antibodies that attack their
unborn children. While Harrison’s