The Longevity Therapy That Doesn’t Add Anything to Your Body
A Conversation with Dr. Christopher Davis About Therapeutic Plasma Exchange -By Sam Tejada
Imagine changing the oil in your car for the first time after driving 100,000 miles.
You wouldn’t expect the engine to become brand new. But you’d certainly understand the value of removing what has accumulated over all those miles and replacing it with something clean.
When I first started learning more about Therapeutic Plasma Exchange, or TPE, that analogy immediately made sense to me.
I spend a tremendous amount of time studying longevity. I’m constantly talking with physicians, scientists, researchers, and innovators about what’s next. And most of those conversations revolve around what we can add to help the body perform better—better nutrition, supplements, peptides, hormones, regenerative therapies, and advanced technologies.
TPE turns that thinking on its head.
Instead of asking what else we can put into the body, it asks:
What might happen if we remove some of what’s standing in the way?
That question immediately caught my attention.
It also reminded me of something I learned from my mentor, the late Dr. Robert Willix. Long before “longevity” became the movement it is today, Dr. Willix taught me to look beyond symptoms and ask what was happening underneath them. What was creating the burden? What was interfering with the body’s ability to heal and function optimally?
Interestingly, Dr. Paul Savage, who also worked with Dr. Willix, has become one of the physicians advancing the conversation around Therapeutic Plasma Exchange, toxin burden, and longevity. That connection made me want to understand this therapy even more.
For insight, I sat down with my “go-to,” Liquivida’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Christopher Davis, M.D., F.A.C.C., a Board-Certified Internal Medicine Physician, Board-Certified Interventional Cardiologist, and Functional Medicine Specialist who works extensively in advanced longevity medicine. His longevity and functional medicine practice. Reveal Vitality & Longevity Institute offers plasma exchange as part of its approach to personalized health optimization.
First Things First: What Exactly Is Therapeutic Plasma Exchange?
Sam: Dr. Davis, let’s start with the basics. What are we actually talking about when we say Therapeutic Plasma Exchange?
Dr. Davis: Therapeutic Plasma Exchange is a medical procedure where we separate the plasma—the liquid portion of your blood—from the cellular components of the blood. We remove that plasma and replace it with a replacement fluid, commonly albumin and saline, and then return the blood cells to the patient.
What’s important to understand is that this isn’t a new experimental procedure. Plasma exchange has been used in conventional medicine for decades for certain autoimmune, neurological, and hematologic conditions.
What’s newer is the interest in applying what we’ve learned from that procedure to longevity.
Sam: So we’re not really talking about “cleaning the blood,” which is how I sometimes hear it described?
Dr. Davis: That’s an oversimplification. Plasma carries thousands of substances throughout the body—proteins, antibodies, inflammatory mediators, hormones, nutrients, metabolic products, and environmental compounds.
When we exchange plasma, we’re temporarily reducing many circulating substances at once. The scientific question we’re now asking is whether reducing certain age-associated or potentially harmful factors can positively affect the biological environment of the body.
That’s what makes this so interesting.
Aging Isn’t Only About What We Lose
Sam: This is probably the concept that surprised me most. We talk constantly about what declines with age—muscle, hormones, collagen, mitochondrial function. But there’s another side of the equation: things accumulate.
Dr. Davis: Exactly. Aging isn’t simply a deficiency problem.
Over decades, we accumulate damaged proteins, inflammatory compounds, metabolic byproducts, environmental pollutants, and other substances. At the same time, our body’s ability to process and eliminate certain compounds can change.
One major area of research is chronic, low-grade inflammation associated with aging, sometimes called “inflammaging.”
We’re increasingly recognizing that the environment surrounding our cells matters tremendously. If that environment contains excessive inflammatory or dysfunctional signaling, simply adding another supplement or therapy may not address the whole picture.
Sam: Which brings us back to that idea of removing rather than adding.
Dr. Davis: Right. It’s a completely different way of approaching optimization.
Why Did TPE Suddenly Become a Longevity Conversation?
Sam: If physicians have been performing plasma exchange for decades, why are we suddenly hearing so much about it in longevity?
Dr. Davis: A lot of the excitement grew out of fascinating research into blood and aging.
Scientists initially studied what happened when older animals were exposed to younger blood. They saw changes in tissue regeneration and other markers associated with aging.
Initially, people assumed there must be something magical in young blood.
But later research suggested something potentially even more interesting: part of the benefit may come from diluting or removing factors present in older plasma rather than simply adding young factors.
That’s an important distinction.
It suggests that the aging environment itself may contain signals that influence how our tissues behave.
What Happens During a TPE Session?
Sam: I think when people hear “plasma exchange,” they picture something extremely invasive. What actually happens?
Dr. Davis: It begins well before the procedure.
First, we need to understand the patient. We review their health history, medications, laboratory results, cardiovascular health, and the reasons they’re interested in treatment. TPE isn’t something everyone should automatically do because they heard about it on a podcast.
During the procedure, blood circulates through specialized equipment that separates the plasma from the cellular components.
The plasma is removed, while the patient’s red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets are combined with replacement fluid and returned to the body.
A session can take a few hours depending on the protocol and the individual.
Afterward, most patients can return to normal activities relatively quickly, although recommendations vary.
The important thing is that this is a medical procedure. Patient selection, appropriate testing, clinical supervision, and follow-up matter.
What About Toxins, PFAS, and Microplastics?
Sam: This is the part of the conversation that really grabbed my attention. We’re living in an environment our grandparents simply didn’t experience.
Microplastics. PFAS. Pesticides. Industrial chemicals. Heavy metals.
How much does that factor into your interest in TPE?
Dr. Davis: Environmental burden is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore.
We’re detecting microplastics in human blood and tissues. We’re learning more about PFAS and other persistent chemicals that can remain in the body for years. And we’re only beginning to understand the long-term biological consequences of many of these exposures.
Exposure to heavy metals like mercury, lead, and aluminum has been linked to brain fog, memory loss, fatigue, and even immune dysfunction. These toxins can silently build up in the body through food, water, air, and everyday products.
The body tries to detox naturally, but in today’s world, it’s often overwhelmed. That’s why we’ve brought TPE into our practice to help remove harmful toxins directly from the bloodstream.
When your body is overloaded with toxins, it can disrupt systems that impact how you think, feel, and function—like cognitive clarity (brain fog, memory), hormone balance (energy, metabolism, sleep), Immune resilience, inflammation, and recovery.
Why CEOs, Athletes, and Longevity Leaders Are Paying Attention
Sam: There’s clearly growing interest in this among people who aren’t necessarily sick—executives, entrepreneurs, athletes, and longevity enthusiasts. Why?
Dr. Davis: Because the goal for that population isn’t simply avoiding disease.
It’s preserving function.
They want to maintain cognitive performance, cardiovascular health, metabolic health, physical capacity, and resilience as they age.
That’s really the shift we’re seeing across longevity medicine.
People such as Bryan Johnson and Peter Diamandis have helped bring enormous attention to measuring biological aging and experimenting with interventions designed to extend healthspan. Plasma exchange has naturally become part of that conversation.
But I always remind people that just because a high-profile longevity enthusiast chooses to explore emerging therapies, that doesn’t necessarily make it the right option for them.
What Are You Seeing in Your Own Practice?
Sam: At Reveal Vitality, you’re actually working with patients interested in these types of advanced longevity strategies. What makes you consider plasma exchange for someone?
Dr. Davis: I don’t look at TPE in isolation.
That’s probably the most important point.
Longevity medicine should never become a collection of trendy procedures.
We start with the individual: comprehensive diagnostics, medical history, metabolic health, cardiovascular risk, inflammatory markers, body composition, hormones, lifestyle, environmental exposures, and personal goals.
Then we determine what makes sense.
For the right person, plasma exchange may become one component of a much broader strategy. But if someone isn’t sleeping, isn’t exercising, has uncontrolled metabolic disease, or has other fundamental health issues, we can’t pretend an advanced procedure somehow replaces those basics.
Sam: That’s something you and I talk about all the time.
There’s no machine, injection, supplement, or procedure that replaces taking care of yourself.
Dr. Davis: Exactly.
Advanced longevity medicine should build on the fundamentals, not distract from them.
Five Questions to Ask Before Considering TPE
Sam: If somebody reads this and thinks, “I need to try this,” what would you want them to ask first?
Dr. Davis: I’d start with five questions.
- Why am I considering TPE? Is there a clearly defined health objective, or are you pursuing it simply because it’s the latest longevity trend?
- Am I medically an appropriate candidate? Your health history, medications, cardiovascular status, laboratory testing, and other factors all matter.
- What are we measuring before treatment? If we’re talking about optimization, we need objective baselines. Otherwise, how do we know whether we’ve accomplished anything?
- What protocol is being recommended, and why? There isn’t one universal longevity protocol for plasma exchange. Ask the physician to explain the rationale behind the treatment plan.
- How will we measure success afterward? That may include inflammatory markers, metabolic markers, toxin measurements, biological age assessments, functional testing, or other objective data depending on the patient’s goals.
I would add one more unofficial question:
What else should I be doing? Because TPE should never become an excuse to ignore nutrition, movement, sleep, stress management, and the other fundamentals.
So, Is Plasma Exchange the Future of Longevity?
Sam: After everything you’ve learned and what you’re seeing clinically, how excited should we actually be about this?
Dr. Davis: I think we should be curious.
That’s different from saying we should all rush out and do it.
We’re learning that aging is extraordinarily complex. It’s influenced by genetics, environment, metabolism, inflammation, lifestyle, cellular signaling, and countless other factors.
TPE gives us another way to influence that environment.
Ultimately, longevity isn’t about chasing every new “hack.”
It’s about continuing to ask better questions.
What is changing inside our bodies as we age?
What can we measure?
What can we improve?
And perhaps just as importantly:
What can we remove?
Disclaimer: Always consult with your healthcare provider before beginning contrast therapy, especially if you have cardiovascular conditions, blood pressure concerns, or other medical considerations.
“I’ve spent years exploring the therapies that can help us live healthier, longer lives and believe the future of medicine is about helping the body work the way it was designed to. Sometimes that means giving it what it’s missing. And sometimes, it means removing what no longer belongs. That’s why this conversation about Therapeutic Plasma Exchange is so important.”
– Sam Tejada
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