Podcast episode 68 (in German)
INUSpherese: blood washing fact-checked
September 6, 2026
Filtering blood is established medicine, and yet blood washing for healthy people is one of the scene’s most controversial trends. The episode looks for the line between real medicine, serious research and a brown tube as a sales argument.
What it is about
Therapeutic apheresis has existed for decades: in severe familial hypercholesterolemia, LDL is regularly filtered from the blood, and plasmapheresis helps with certain autoimmune and nerve diseases. Technically, INUSpherese is a double-membrane filtration from this family — a first filter separates the plasma from the blood cells, a second is meant to hold back unwanted substances. The episode checks what of this is proven: a Dresden paper analyzed what the filter retains and found plastic-like signatures in it. Then the criticism is laid fully on the table — missing controlled efficacy studies, the loss of useful components as well, the re-uptake of the substances afterwards and the prices.
Key points
- A session lasts 2 to 3 hours, and usually 2 sessions on consecutive days are recommended; the brand name was registered in 2016.
- In a paper published in 2025 in the journal Brain Medicine, the eluate after the cycles was analyzed by infrared spectroscopy in 21 participants.
- 14 substance classes were found whose signatures resemble plastics such as polyamide and polyurethane — an indication that the filters actually remove something.
- The measurement was qualitative: the method could not quantify how much was filtered out, and the attribution to plastic is not entirely certain spectroscopically.
- According to providers’ price lists, a session costs roughly 2,000 to 3,000 euros; a detox weekend thus quickly reaches 5,000 to 7,000 euros.
- For comparison, the episode draws on the series’ blood value panel: for that amount, you could measure annually for around 20 years.
- The filter also retains useful things — clotting factors such as fibrinogen, messenger substances, micronutrients; in healthy people the balance is an open question.
Where the data stop
The episode’s decisive sentence comes from the Dresden paper itself: that something ends up in the filter does not yet prove a health benefit. That would require randomized studies with clinical endpoints, ideally compared against a sham apheresis — and precisely these do not exist so far; the researchers themselves call for them. For none of the advertised lifestyle indications is there controlled proof of efficacy, which is also why no statutory health insurer pays.
Then there is the logic trap: microplastics and PFAS come back in with the next meal and the next sip from a plastic bottle — without stopping exposure, you are washing a car that is standing in the rain. And it remains an invasive procedure with an extracorporeal machine circuit. Drops in blood pressure, tingling from the anticoagulant citrate and irritation at the access sites are possible; serious complications are rare with experienced teams, but the procedure belongs in the hands of a physician.
Listen (in German)
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Published on September 6, 2026.
The topic in the database
- Therapeutic blood washing that filters environmental toxins (heavy metals, pesticides, microplastics, PFAS) and inflammatory mediators from the blood.INUSpherese® (blood apheresis)
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Information only, not medical advice and not a usage or dosage recommendation. Prescription-only and unapproved substances belong in the hands of a physician. Last updated: 2026-09-19.