Just in case you're running late on that whole grabbing lunch thing, we suggest you look away now — because this will surely make your appetite disappear. A new study conducted on mice has found that injecting older specimens with the blood of their youthful friends can reverse the effects of aging.
Stanford University's Saul Villeda, who led the study, at first doubted that this procedure could offer any benefits to humans, but he's now becoming more and more optimistic of the implications of his work. In the experiment, as The Daily Mail so charmingly puts it, he "connected the circulatory systems of an old and young mouse so that their blood could mingle." If that's not the worst sentence you've read all week, you need to re-think your RSS feed.
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These unsettling findings are still in testing stages and years away from any human applications (until then, this might tide you over). If you're too grossed out to even think about the benefits, you should know there's a non-cosmetic silver lining: If successful, a treatment based on Villeda's experiments could potentially prevent Alzheimer's and other health conditions associated with old age. No word yet on whether or not some kid's blood will make your skin warp back to Emma Stone levels of perfection, but in the mice tested, it resulted in a drastically improved performance in memory tests.
Unfortunately for Twi-hards worldwide, this doesn't mean scientists are going to start working on a way for old people to suck the blood of pale, awkward young girls living in wooded areas of Washington state. The likely result of this research will be further investigation into what exactly it is about young plasma that improves brain function, and then an attempt to replicate that without turning your local middle school into a blood bank. Good thing, because we don't think we could stomach our blood mingling with anyone else's. (Guardian)
Photo: Geffen Pictures.
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