Ben Greenfield: Young Plasma Treatments Are Boosting My Longevity in 2026

January is filled with proclamations from people with hopes of improving their health. From joining a gym to reading more books, everyone is looking to improve their longevity once the new year begins. Now, while getting more active and spending more time in a bookstore is a common stance that people take in the New Year, you may be surprised to find young plasma treatments on a list of New Year’s resolutions. Yet for Ben Greenfield, biohacker, health consultant, and New York Times bestselling author, young plasma treatments have become a part of his routine, and he’s excited for the benefits that they’ll bring in 2026. 

What Are Young Plasma Treatments?

Plainly explained, young plasma treatments involve transfusing plasma from young donors into older individuals, based on the notion that the donor’s young plasma will trigger metabolic changes, resulting in longevity benefits within the older person’s body.

Plasma, a part of the blood, plays a significant role in several bodily functions that include blood clotting, transportation, blood pressure, and even body temperature.

Aside from its bodily functions, the use of plasma for rejuvenating benefits isn’t unheard of. Take vampire facials, for instance, whereby platelet-rich plasma is injected into the face to reduce wrinkles and stimulate the production of collagen. Infamous biohacker Bryan Johnson has also taken the use of plasma to the extreme, undergoing multi-generational plasma exchange with himself, his son, and his father.

So, are youth plasma treatments exactly what we need to boost our longevity in 2026, or is it another health hoax that should be left in 2025?

What Does the Research Say?

Referencing a 2024 study on his Instagram page, Greenfield shared how signals carried in young plasma may help to combat aging across multiple biological pathways in animal models. Published in Nature Aging, the researchers found that the injection of small extracellular vesicles (sEVs) from the plasma of young mice into old mice helped to improve aging. Per the findings, the older mice lived longer, showed fewer signs of aging, and had improved organ function.

What’s more, the plasma also changed how the proteins worked inside the aged tissues, particularly those involved in energy production, which improved the performance of mitochondria – the cell’s powerhouse that typically stops working well with age.

While the researchers are yet to understand exactly how the youth plasma treatment worked within the mice, their findings do suggest that the treatment can help reduce age-related damage. As for Greenfield, these findings are exactly why he feels so sure about youth plasma treatment;

“This research helps explain how aging alters the cellular instructions that control energy production, and why I feel so good from this protocol, which I rank right up there with stem cells and peptides.”

That said, this is not the first study to highlight the potential anti-aging benefits of youth plasma treatments. A 2024 study published Heliyon explored the impact of youth plasma treatments on the hallmarks of aging multiple sclerosis, myasthenia gravis, blood disorders, blood cancers, recovery from organ transplants.

Do your homework

Having said that, as of 2024, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advises caution against using young plasma to treat various medical conditions or provide other health and wellness benefits. Their website states.

“There’s no proven clinical benefit of the infusion of plasma from young donors in the prevention of conditions such as aging or memory loss; or for the treatment of such conditions as dementia, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s disease, heart disease, or post-traumatic stress disorder.”

The FDA warns that dosing of these infusions, which can involve large administered volumes, is not guided by evidence from adequate and well controlled trials.”

Adverse reactions

According to the FDA, “the infusion of plasma can be associated with infectious, allergic, respiratory, and cardiovascular risks, among others:

• Even though blood products are screened for a variety of different infectious agents, there’s always a residual risk that the product may contain an infectious agent.
• The infusion of plasma is occasionally associated with serious allergic reactions. These include anaphylaxis, which can manifest as hives and airway obstruction.
• Infusion of plasma can occasionally cause transfusion-related acute lung injury.
• In some individuals, particularly those with preexisting heart disease, the infusion of plasma can cause overload of the circulatory system leading to swelling of the body and difficult breathing.”

Want to know more?

Alternative therapies will continue to rise in demand in 2026, and red light therapy will remain a wellness staple for many. Ben Greenfield took to Instagram to share his appreciation for this therapy and how it’s uniquely beneficial for longevity.

References

@bengreenfieldfitness (2026). Instagram. Available at: https://www.instagram.com/bengreenfieldfitness (Accessed: 19 January 2026)

Chen, X., Luo, Y., Zhu, Q., Zhang, J., Huang, H., Kan, Y., Li, D., Xu, M., Liu, S., Li, J., Pan, J., Zhang, L., Guo, Y., Wang, B., Qi, G., Zhou, Z., Zhang, C. Y., Fang, L., Wang, Y., . . . Chen, X. (2024). Small extracellular vesicles from young plasma reverse age-related functional declines by improving mitochondrial energy metabolism. Nature Aging, 4(6), 814. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43587-024-00612-4

Liu, M., Lan, Q., Wu, H., & Qiu, C. (2024). Rejuvenation of young blood on aging organs: Effects, circulating factors, and mechanisms. Heliyon, 10(12), e32652. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e32652