Young Blood Is the Key to a Young Everything Else

This weekend was a hot time for blood: several new studies about how you’re only as good as the red stuff running through your veins were released.

According to the New York Times, scientists at Harvard University and the University of California, San Francisco did similar but separate studies that involved injecting older mice with young mouse blood. They noted that after the injections, the older mice demonstrated impressive achievements in brain function. While parabiosis (when two animals are literally stitched together to study the change in their bodies) has been proven to benefit older animals, just an injection of younger blood into an older mouse had not.

Scientists found that mice injected with the protein GFD11 (a protein found in the blood) were able to recover from muscle injuries, as well as grow new blood vessels and olfactory neurons almost as well as mice who had been under the affects of parabiosis, Science Magazine notes. Relatedly, injections of younger mouse plasma into older mice also sparked new brain function. While these results show promise for patients with Alzheimer’s and other age-related illnesses, there’s one downside: Kim Kardashian will be absolutely insufferable today.