Vera Kolodzig revealed to her followers on Instagram that she underwent “therapeutic apheresis” to “prevent” illness. However, the actress ended up deleting the post from her account. Internal medicine and immunohematotherapy specialists explain to CNN Portugal what this treatment is and assure that there is no scientific evidence regarding the effectiveness of this technique to prevent illnesses in healthy individuals.
“Today Dr. Ana Moreira connected me to a machine, not because I am sick, but to prevent me from getting sick.” This is how actress Vera Kolodzig announced on an Instagram post, now deleted, that she underwent “therapeutic apheresis,” a technique that involves the selective harvesting of specific blood components—platelets, red blood cells, or plasma—with the remaining blood being returned to the patient afterward. However, the doctor who performed the procedure emphasizes to CNN Portugal that the treatment is not indicated for healthy individuals.
“As a doctor, I cannot say that this treatment is done on people who are not sick,” says Ana Moreira, correcting the actress’s post and adding that the procedure was carried out following videos and podcasts she did with the actress, in which she explained the context of integrative medicine as a whole.
Ana Isabel Pedroso, a specialist in internal medicine, explains to CNN Portugal that therapeutic apheresis is a medical technique in which “blood is drawn from the patient, processed to remove certain elements, and then the remaining blood is returned to the patient.” The name of the technique varies depending on the element to be removed, adds immunohematotherapist Diana Sousa Mendes from Hospital Fernando Fonseca: “For example, if there is a substance in the plasma causing a disease—there is a disease called thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP)—it may be necessary to perform therapeutic apheresis known as plasmapheresis, which consists of removing plasma and replacing it with healthy donor plasma.”
This technique is specifically used to “treat various conditions,” adds Dr. Ana Isabel Pedroso, being indicated for individuals with “autoimmune diseases such as myasthenia gravis, multiple sclerosis, Guillain-Barré syndrome, and systemic lupus erythematosus; severe dyslipidemias; hematological diseases such as sickle cell anemia and thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP), kidney diseases such as hemolytic-uremic syndrome and rapidly progressive glomerulonephritis; and complications from transplants, such as graft-versus-host disease.”
Therefore, both specialists agree that it “does not make sense” to proceed with this procedure in “people who are not sick.” “The use of therapeutic apheresis as a preventive treatment for healthy individuals is not a practice supported by the medical community. Current scientific literature does not provide evidence that therapeutic apheresis is effective or necessary to prevent diseases in healthy individuals,” argues Dr. Ana Isabel Pedroso, who recalls that, “although generally safe, therapeutic apheresis can carry some risks, including allergic reactions, electrolyte imbalances, bleeding, and hypotension.”
For the internal medicine specialist, promoting this procedure for healthy individuals on social media “obviously raises ethical concerns, as we are talking about unnecessary medical interventions, high costs, and potential health risks without proven benefits.”
The post has since been removed from Vera Kolodzig’s official Instagram account. CNN Portugal attempted to contact the actress to understand the specific reasons that led her to undergo the procedure, but as of the publication of this article, no response has been received.
In the post, the actress mentioned Dr. Ana Moreira as the specialist who subjected her to this treatment. Ana Moreira is a doctor, holds a degree in Medicine, and is the president of the Portuguese Society of Integrative Medicine and vice president of the Portuguese Society of Ozone Therapy and Regenerative Medicine.
In a written response sent to CNN Portugal, Dr. Ana Moreira states that the therapeutic apheresis technique “is not a recent practice,” being “a medical procedure performed in various hospitals.” Thus, she says, “it is not a therapeutic technique of Integrative Medicine,” but rather “a therapy prescribed by a doctor in clinical cases that warrant it.”
Ana Moreira clarifies that she “never said” that therapeutic apheresis could be a procedure done on healthy individuals to prevent future diseases. The doctor believes that “the fact that a patient does not have ‘a diagnosed illness’ does not mean they are healthy,” supporting this claim with the World Health Organization’s (WHO) definition of health, which establishes the term as “a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.”
“The lifestyle adopted by the majority of people in Western societies has a significant impact on the propensity for metabolic disorders (e.g., diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular diseases). Lifestyle changes can promote healthy aging, mitigating the deleterious effects of stressors. Exposure to a variety of stressors (processed foods, overeating, environmental toxins, infectious agents, or medications) throughout life promotes chronic inflammation and the development of metabolic disorders,” argues the doctor.
In this context, Ana Moreira explains that in Functional Integrative Medicine, doctors use “a personalized strategy that considers the unique needs of the patient, their circumstances, and conditions,” as well as “appropriate interventions from a range of scientifically proven therapies, such as, for example, nutritional prescriptions, orthomolecular supplementation, stress management techniques, always complementarily to everything the patient may already be taking for their chronic illness.”
The doctor also recalls that “the term Integrative Medicine has existed since the 1970s in the USA,” having emerged from “the need, ‘suggested’ by the WHO, to introduce Integrative techniques into public health systems.” She argues that there should be a “distinction” between Integrative Medicine and “alternative or unconventional therapies,” considering “the need for regulation of this matter by the respective professional orders of each country and the urgent need for inclusion in the respective curricular programs of medical schools and recognized educational centers.”