You no longer need to travel vast distances in search of the elusive “Fountain of Youth”. Cutting-edge research suggests your own body might be the fountain itself, and your blood the water that runs from it. By swapping half the blood plasma of older mice with a solution of protein albumin, scientists at the University of Berkeley saw rejuvenating effects on the brain, liver, and muscles of older mice. The simple idea is that blood dilution reduces the concentration of inflammatory proteins that tend to increase with age. Interestingly, these findings might also put to rest the hypothesis that the infusion of blood from younger mice into older mice is responsible for these rejuvenating effects. The actual mechanism might simply consist of reducing harmful proteins through blood dilution. But before you try to dilute your blood at home - which, of course, we don’t recommend - keep in mind that just because something works in mice, it doesn’t mean it will work for humans. We need to wait for human trials to find out.
