What Joe Rogan Got Right About Plasmapheresis

Joe Rogan recently posted about receiving plasmapheresis, holding up bags of his own plasma for his millions of followers and describing the procedure as “changing the oil in your body.” His post generated enormous interest overnight, and understandably so. For most people, it was the first time they had ever heard of the procedure.

For us, it was a Friday.

Global Apheresis has performed over 15,000 therapeutic plasma exchange procedures. Our founder, Dr. Dobri Kiprov, is one of the physicians who established this field as a clinical discipline in the 1980s. He completed his fellowship in Clinical Immunology at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, was the first U.S. physician to pass the Hemapheresis Practitioner Exam, and has authored over 100 peer-reviewed publications on the topic. He was also one of the first physicians to hypothesize that therapeutic plasma exchange could be applied to aging, a line of thinking that has since been validated by multiple peer-reviewed studies.

So when plasmapheresis trends on social media, we pay attention. Not because the attention is new to the science, but because the science deserves it.

Here is what you should know.

What Therapeutic Plasma Exchange Actually Does

Therapeutic plasma exchange, or TPE, is a medical procedure that separates your blood into its components, removes the plasma, and replaces it with a fresh solution, typically 5% human albumin. Your blood cells are returned to you. The procedure takes about two to three hours and is performed by registered nurses under physician supervision.

If that sounds intense, the reality is more mundane than you might expect. You sit in a comfortable chair. An IV line is placed in each arm, one to draw your blood and one to return it. The apheresis machine separates the plasma in a closed-loop system and returns your cells along with the fresh albumin. Most patients describe the experience as similar to a long blood donation. Some read, some watch TV, some fall asleep.

Rogan's description was actually quite accurate. Plasma does carry inflammatory proteins, autoantibodies, and metabolic byproducts that accumulate over time. Removing that plasma and replacing it with clean albumin gives the body a measurably different internal environment to work with.

The “oil change” analogy is informal, but it captures the core idea. You are removing what has degraded and replacing it with something that allows the system to function more efficiently.

What the Research Shows

This is where it moves beyond analogy and into clinical evidence.

In 2022, a study from UC Berkeley published in GeroScience demonstrated that TPE reduces biological age by one to three years in healthy adults. Dr. Kiprov was second author on that paper with equal contribution designation. The study was conducted in collaboration with the Conboy Lab, whose earlier work on parabiosis in mice helped launch the entire field of plasma-based rejuvenation research (Kim et al., GeroScience, 2022).

In 2025, a study from the Buck Institute for Research on Aging published in Aging Cell took it further. Researchers used 35 epigenetic clocks to measure the effects of TPE combined with intravenous immunoglobulin, or IVIG. The combination, administered biweekly, produced approximately 2.6 years of biological age reduction. Dr. Kiprov was again second author (Fuentealba et al., Aging Cell, 2025).

These are two separate studies, published in two different peer-reviewed journals, conducted with two different research institutions. The findings are consistent and reinforcing.

And it is not just longevity. The AMBAR trial, a Phase 2b/3 randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study of 322 patients with Alzheimer's disease, showed that TPE slowed cognitive and functional decline by 52 to 71 percent compared to placebo. In the mild Alzheimer's subgroup, some patients showed measurable improvement on global disease scales. TPE for Alzheimer's carries zero risk of ARIA, the brain swelling side effect associated with monoclonal antibody treatments like lecanemab and donanemab.

What About the “Biologics” He Mentioned?

Rogan referenced “next-level approaches using biologics alongside the plasma replacement.” That is almost certainly a reference to IVIG, intravenous immunoglobulin, a concentrated infusion of antibodies derived from pooled human plasma.

Think of it this way: TPE removes the harmful and aging-related factors from your plasma. IVIG puts back the beneficial immune components. The combination addresses both sides of the equation, which is why the Aging Cell study showed it produced the strongest biological age reduction of any protocol tested.

We offer IVIG as both a standalone treatment and as a complement to TPE. This is not experimental in our practice. It is part of our standard treatment approach for patients pursuing longevity and health optimization.

Expertise Matters

Therapeutic plasma exchange has been used in clinical medicine for decades. It is an established treatment for dozens of autoimmune and neurological conditions, with formal guidelines from the American Society for Apheresis. What is newer is the application of TPE to aging, cognitive decline, and biological age reduction. That is the frontier Dr. Kiprov has been working on for years, and the research is now catching up to what we have been observing clinically.

The interest that follows a moment like this tends to bring two kinds of questions. The first is “does this actually work?” The research says yes, with important nuances depending on the condition and the patient. The second is “where do I go?” That matters more than people realize. TPE is a real medical procedure. It requires vascular access, anticoagulation, careful monitoring, and clinical judgment about replacement fluids, treatment frequency, and patient selection. The experience and credentials of the team performing it are not incidental. They are the difference between a good outcome and a bad one.

We see patients for Alzheimer's and cognitive decline, longevity and health optimization, autoimmune disorders, and post-infectious syndromes including Long COVID and PANS/PANDAS. We also run an affiliate program that brings physician-supervised TPE to clinics across the country.

If you are curious about whether TPE might be right for you, we offer free discovery calls with our physicians. No pressure, no commitment. Just a conversation with someone who has actually done this 15,000 times.