Therapeutic Plasma Exchange (TPE): ThriveMD’s Latest Longevity Solution
Your plasma does more than carry nutrients — over time, it can accumulate harmful antibodies, inflammatory proteins, and immune complexes that drive chronic disease and undermine your health. Therapeutic Plasma Exchange (TPE) is an innovative, clinically established procedure that directly filters and removes these disease-associated substances from your bloodstream. It has shown meaningful results for patients with autoimmune, neurological, blood-related, and select neurodegenerative conditions — giving your body, and your other treatments, a stronger foundation to work from.
TPE is a clinically established procedure with decades of use in hospital and specialty settings. At ThriveMD, we bring this advanced therapy into a physician-supervised, personalized care model designed for patients who want more than symptom management. Schedule a consultation at our Centennial, Colorado clinic to learn if this therapy is right for you.
What Is TPE?
Therapeutic Plasma Exchange, sometimes called plasmapheresis or plasma exchange therapy, is a medical procedure that filters and refreshes your blood plasma, removing aging proteins and inflammatory markers that accumulate over time. The process helps lower the concentration of harmful substances circulating in the bloodstream by removing and replacing the affected plasma to improve symptoms and support the body’s response to other treatments. Think of the procedure as a deep reset for your global biologic system!
TPE Helps Remove:
- Antibodies and high-molecular-weight proteins that cause diseases
- Immune complexes resulting in autoimmune disorders
- Inflammatory proteins that cause systemic inflammatio
- Circulating, plasma-bound heavy metals and toxins, like lead, mercury, and mold
- Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs), such as PCBs in plasma.
- Immunoglobulins that clump at low temperatures, resulting in vascular issues
Potential Benefits of Therapeutic Plasma Exchange
- Reduce Systemic Inflammation
- Improve Cognitive Clarity & Mental Sharpness
- Enhance Energy & Cellular Function
- Support Immune System Regulation & Chronic Disease Resilience
- Clear Microplastics, Abnormal Immune Factors, & Environmental Toxins
- Reduce Biological Age
- Provide Relief from Debilitating Disease Symptoms
- Enhance Effectiveness of Other Treatments
- Early clinical trials suggest it slows Alzheimer’s disease progression
A New Discovery in Alzheimer’s Treatment
The recent AMBAR clinical trial for patients with moderate Alzheimer’s showed approximately 61% less decline in cognition and daily function over placebo. Patients saw improvements in memory, language, and daily living activities, as well as less neurological damage – suggesting true disease-modifying potential, not just symptom relief.
Who Benefits from Therapeutic Plasma Exchange (TPE)
TPE is often recommended for patients with autoimmune, metabolic, neurological, or hematologic disorders, as well as complications from antibody-mediated rejection following an organ transplant. While TPE isn’t a cure for disease, it can help slow progression, alleviate symptoms, and improve the effectiveness of other treatments.
TPE can treat:
- Autoimmune Diseases: Multiple Sclerosis (MS), Guillain-Barré syndrome, Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyneuropathy (CIDP), Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE), Antiphospholipid Antibody Syndrome (APS), Lambert-Eaton myasthenic syndrome
- Blood/Kidney Disorders: Thrombotic Thrombocytopenic Purpura (TTP), Goodpasture’s syndrome, systemic vasculitis, Waldenström macroglobulinemia (lymphoplasmacytic lymphoma)
- Neurological Conditions: Autoimmune encephalitis, Myasthenia gravis
- Neurodegenerative Conditions: Alzheimer’s disease
Every person and diagnosis is unique, so your healthcare provider will carefully evaluate your unique medical history to determine if TPE is the right treatment path for you.
Disclaimer: Not all indications are FDA-approved and some use cases are currently still undergoing trials
How TPE Works
Financing
ThriveMD now offers Cherry financing for TPE, making top-tier care instantly accessible. Flexible, transparent payment plans with competitive rates let you proceed today without upfront costs. No surprises, just clear terms and thoughtful options designed around your budget. Click the button below to access the application and get started.
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Apply HereFAQ’s
What is plasma?
Plasma is the liquid part of your blood, helping to carry vital substances like water, nutrients, hormones, and antibodies through your circulatory system and to the rest of your body. It helps maintain healthy body temperature and blood pressure while playing a key role in the immune system.
How can TPE help me?
Certain complex diseases and environments cause toxins, chronic infections, and inflammatory proteins to accumulate in the bloodstream. TPE helps the body eliminate these harmful substances by offering a safe and effective process that filters the blood and replaces affected plasma to better support the immune system.
Is Therapeutic Plasma Exchange safe?
TPE is generally considered safe and effective when performed by trained medical professionals in a controlled clinical environment. Complications may occur, but patients are monitored closely throughout the procedure to ensure safety and comfort.
Potential complications include higher risk of infection as well as loss of calcium (hypocalcemia), potassium (hypokalemia), and/or magnesium (hypomagnesemia) in the blood.
All ThriveMD procedures are done under the careful supervision of a certified medical professional, an MD or NP.
What happens during my TPE consultation?
Your 30-minute, in-person consultation will take place 2 to 4 weeks before the procedure. During this visit, your healthcare provider will go over what to expect the day of and how to prep for the procedure, review your veins, and do a final blood draw. You’ll also receive a supplement that will support a successful TPE treatment.
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“final blood draw’ –> “blood draw”
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“If needed, you will receive a supplement to ensure a successful TPE treatment”
For virtual or out-of-state patients, an order will be placed to Lab Corp for the blood draw and you will meet virtually with your provider to review questions and prep instructions.
How should I prepare for a TPE appointment?
Your healthcare provider will give specific preparation instructions, but patients are generally encouraged to stay well hydrated, eat a light meal before treatment, and wear comfortable clothing.
What does a TPE treatment feel like?
Most patients are able to relax during treatment. You may feel the initial placement of an IV line, but the procedure itself is typically painless. Some people experience mild fatigue afterward.
How many TPE treatments will I need?
The number of TPE treatments needed will vary depending on your specific condition as well as how you respond to the therapy. Some patients may require several treatments over a short period, while others only need maintenance treatments over time.
Are there side effects to TPE?
You may experience temporary side effects of TPE. Your care team will monitor you closely and address any concerns you may have during treatment.
Side effects of Therapeutic Plasma Exchange include:
- Lightheadedness
- Fatigue
- Mild changes in blood pressure
- Tingling sensation in hands or feet
- Allergic reactions
- Pain at needle site
- Nausea/vomiting
- Shortness of breath
- Feeling cold
When will I notice results after TPE?
Some patients notice improvement within days of treatment, while others experience gradual changes after completing a full course of therapy. Results depend on the underlying condition and your individual response to treatment.
How does TPE work?
Therapeutic Plasma Exchange uses a specialized machine that separates plasma from red and white blood cells before removing and replacing the plasma.
- Treatment begins by placing an IV in each arm, which connect to the machine.
- Once treatment starts, your blood moves from the vein and through tubing into the machine, where it’s separated from the plasma.
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Plasma is replaced with therapeutic albumin to promote longevity.
- Each plasma exchange can take from 2 to 4 hours.
Can I schedule TPE with ThriveMD if I live out of state?
Yes, provided all qualifications are met to ensure you are a candidate. Blood draws will take place at a third-party location – we will place the order, but all costs are the patient’s responsibility. We will also schedule a virtual consultation to discuss the process, but because we cannot accurately assess your veins in a virtual meeting, we cannot guarantee you will be a candidate.
What is the AMBAR study for Alzheimer’s?
The AMBAR (Alzheimer’s Management by Albumin Replacement) study, published in the Alzheimer’s & Dementia journal, is a randomized, double-blind clinical trial supporting the use of TPE for neurodegenerative diseases, specifically Alzheimer’s disease. It was held over the course of approximately 14 months, including weekly plasma exchanges during the initial phase and maintenance treatments for the remaining time.
The study was conducted across the US and Spain with approximately 500 patients diagnosed with mild-to-moderate Alzheimer’s disease. During the trial, patients’ plasma was removed and replaced with clean albumin or immunoglobulins to determine if it slowed Alzheimer’s progression. In doing so, Amyloid-beta (Aβ) (a key Alzheimer’s protein), was removed from the blood, and thereby out of the brain, to reduce oxidative stress and improve inflammation and vascular health.
The study was well-tolerated by patients, with minimal side effects mostly appearing during the initial intensive treatment phase.
Is TPE FDA-approved for Alzheimer’s?
No. TPE is not yet FDA-approved for Alzheimer’s, as it’s still in the investigational stage.
Meet Our Doctor, Dr. Scott Brandt
Dr. Brandt has had a profound interest in Longevity medicine since early the fields inception. His extensive and diverse training and experience, in multiple areas of medicine, has allowed him to quickly adopt many of the new constantly evolving, technology rich therapies. His ongoing involvement in the clinical implementation of new health span lengthening medications, supplements, peptides, devices and maybe most importantly, utilizing the most up to date pre-emptive testing available to screen for coronary artery disease, cancer, and DNA markers of disease. This has allowed Dr. Brandt to catch what use to be incurable diseases early in their infancy. His unrelenting desire to stay focused on the rapidly improving landscape in early detection has completely changed life extension, and cure rates, of conditions that have long been considered lethal until recently. Dr. Brandts desire to combine and deliver the most innovative state-of-the-art ongoing medical care in the ultimate longevity program, combing every innovative expertly tested therapy, medication, peptide, hormone, or device targeted uniquely for patient specific results, has earned him recognition as one of the foremost experts in both regenerative and longevity care in the country.