LYNNE FRANKS reveals why she spent £5k having blood taken out and cleaned as she turned 75 

During my time as founder of a feted PR agency, as a women’s rights advocate and as the real-life inspiration for Edina Monsoon in Ab Fab, I’ve hosted some fabulous birthday celebrations.

My 40th was for 500 people in a huge film studio; my 50th for 150 in an old London chapel, and my 60th on the beach in Majorca for 50, with a huge paella cooked on an open fire.

But this spring, rather than throwing the usual big bash, I celebrated my 75th birthday by going to Germany to have all of the blood in my body — yes, every last drop — taken out and ‘cleaned’. 

Now, admittedly, my constant and ongoing quest for a healthy and happy old age has led to some weird and wonderful healing experiences. 

From eating only brown rice for three weeks to clean my liver to fasting for a week with daily colonic ‘therapy’, I’ve tried cures and treatments that would test the most hardcore wellness fanatic.

But even by my standards, this was extreme. The idea of taking blood out of my body via a tube in one arm, passing it through a futuristic-looking machine in a process called ‘apheresis’, and putting it back in through a tube in the other arm was certainly the most bizarre I’d ever encountered. 

As I’ve admitted, I am a fan of emerging treatments — look at fasting, which is now mainstream but, ten years ago, was thought of as an odd thing to do — but I’m also careful not to get taken in by quackery so I always do my research.

In this case, that involved tracking down others who’d had the treatment, as well as studying research papers written by the doctor running the programme.

Right now, apheresis is not available in the UK so is a relatively unknown private procedure you have to travel outside the country to get, but I felt that I was making the right choice for me. 

So how did I reach this decision and what on earth made me try it?

In my research, everything pointed towards the cleaning of plasma in the blood being the ultimate detox. No juice cleanse can do what ‘blood washing’ can.

It’s an intense health therapy intended to rid the body of all those accumulated toxins — pesticides, solvents, heavy metals, allergens — you can’t help but absorb from a modern world awash with plastic and drenched in chemicals.

Said to restore vitality and help combat any number of diseases, including autoimmune conditions like rheumatism and even long Covid, it’s also regarded as an anti-ageing and energy-boosting treatment for those of us hitting big birthdays.

After years of working round the clock on my various women’s empowerment programmes, it sounded to me like the perfect restorative cure — albeit not for the faint-hearted.

I first heard about it from my good friend Ursula Peer, a nutritionist and detox expert who specialises in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). 

Ursula told me that both she and her 75-year-old mother had tried it — and felt much healthier afterwards, with huge amounts of energy.

But it wasn’t just the modern, synthetic toxins that I wanted to be rid of. 

I know this sounds grim, but I’d also been told by several therapists and doctors that I was harbouring parasites in various organs of my body that were causing internal inflammation and could be quite dangerous as I got older.

I had probably picked up these unwelcome new friends during a lifetime travelling round the world having extraordinary experiences — from eating street food in India to swimming up the Amazon surrounded by piranha fish, to living on a small farm surrounded by tick-ridden bush in Northern California.

I’d definitely noticed that I’d been getting more tired than usual and was suffering with shortness of breath when walking up the steep hills in my town of Wincanton, Somerset, plus I had some gut issues that were causing me problems. 

In short, it seemed as if my body was potentially riddled with nasties and was struggling to function.

I’ve always believed the world tells you when the time is right for action. 

Despite the occasionally disastrous consequences — such as my unpleasant experience on I’m A Celebrity in 2007 being bitten by rats as I crawled through tunnels — I’ve almost always followed my sense of intuition wherever it leads me.

So when I was invited to deliver a workshop to a business network for the same fee as the cost of the blood cleanse, I was convinced it was a sign. I booked my appointment and a flight to Bavaria, Germany.

The treatment is the brainchild of Dr Richard Straube, a respected specialist in internal medicine who 15 years ago re-engineered a blood-washing machine originally invented in Japan.

His adapted procedure — which he calls INUSpheresis — combines different high-tech filters to clean the blood efficiently according to the needs of individual patients.

Today, he has treated more than 30,000 people, from the ages of 14 to 99, and measured the way in which chronic illnesses such as Parkinson’s, dementia and autoimmune diseases have improved as a result.

I was to have the therapy within a ‘blood-cleaning retreat’. My friend Ursula had made all the arrangements, booking a beautiful converted glass factory in the depths of the Bavarian forest for us to stay in.

Two blood-cleaning sessions lasting two to three hours each at the clinic would be combined with daily exercise classes and a delicious diet of Ursula’s detox meals based on the philosophy of TCM.

Our visit was the same week as my birthday, and I was even more convinced that this was the perfect present to myself.

It was only as I was going through Customs at Heathrow on my way to Germany that I realised I was setting off for one of the biggest and bravest adventures of my life. 

I had no idea what was in store and felt my nerves build throughout the flight to Munich, followed by the long drive on the autobahn.

The jitters began to settle when I arrived at the house set in the Black Forest, surrounded by ancient druid stones, beaver dams and a river running through the peaceful garden, where I was warmly greeted by Ursula and the other friendly, German-speaking members of the group.

Ursula explained our schedule for the next few days. We would relax at the house the first day and enjoy our qi gong exercise — the ancient Chinese martial art combining movement, breathing and meditation now so popular these days all over the world — taught by the wonderful Thomas Hudecsek, an Austrian teacher based in Vienna.

The second day of the retreat, we were sent off to the clinic for a morning of in-depth tests before receiving the first blood cleanse. 

I had a blood test, an ECG for my heart, a careful monitoring of my blood pressure and an ultrasound to check all of my key organs.

Only when Dr Straube and his team were satisfied that I was well enough to have the treatment — and that it would help me with my problems based on my life history and previous diagnoses — was I put on a flat bed alongside the INUSpheresis machine.

It seemed huge as I lay there, like something out of a sci-fi film. I was putting a great deal of trust in this contraption. 

A lot of my test results had been good, if not positively healthy, but I knew I still had issues to deal with.

The average woman has nine or ten pints of blood inside her. All of it would be taken out — though clearly only in small amounts at a time — and ‘washed’ by filtering not only the toxins I had absorbed from outside, but other waste products and pathogens cluttering up my blood.

A cannula was put in a vein in one arm, and I watched as the blood slowly filled the tube that then entered the filtration machine, which was covered in lights and made a mild rumbling noise as it worked.

Another cannula in my other arm completed the loop, as the blood came back down a tube into my body.

I was constantly monitored by the lovely doctors and nurses checking my oxygen saturation, blood pressure and heart rate as I lay back and let them do all the work.

The two-and-a-half hours went by quickly with no pain or discomfort at all and I relaxed into nothingness. 

The only thing that stopped me from dozing, indeed, was the excitement I felt at the new and hopefully much healthier life I was embarking upon.

After the first session, Dr Straube showed me a plastic bag full of a rather unpleasant yellow liquid which he explained were the removed toxins suspended in a saline lotion.

I then re-joined my group — all women aged from their 50s to their 70s, plus one man — and we compared notes as we taxied back across the Bavarian countryside for a healthy supper.

The real work, Ursula told us, was the second cleanse two days later when the machine extracts the remaining, and most stubborn, toxins left in the body.

We trooped back for this second session and, afterwards, Dr Straube again showed me the bag of vivid yellow toxins that he had removed. Yuk! 

Now samples of blood were taken for analysis to show the ‘before’ and ‘after’ results, which would be sent to me at home. Better out than in, I thought!

A few weeks later, back in Somerset, a letter popped through the letterbox from Bavaria and I found out what had been lurking inside me. It was a tense moment as I opened the envelope.

The results showed that I did indeed have both tropical and local parasites, plus possible infections in my gums and — much to my surprise — Lyme disease, which I must have got from a tick at some point.

Dr Straube suggested all these infections were likely to be causing the breathlessness and gut issues, and would need further treatment at home in the UK.

I immediately started searching for a good holistic dentist who understands that teeth and gum treatment is part of complete body health and needs to be done alongside natural health practitioners.

Dr Straube recommended that I continue to follow a healthy diet and blast out the remaining various unwelcome visitors with both antibiotics (which I may decide not to take) and natural herbs. 

So how do I feel now? And was it worth the many thousands of pounds it cost me overall, including fares and the retreat?

The process itself costs £5,000 for the two blood cleanses, plus blood tests on top.

Looking back, I did expect to jump off the machine feeling 25 and dance my way out of the clinic, so I was a little disappointed to find that it takes a few weeks really to feel the effects of the treatment.

In fact in the first few weeks afterwards, I felt more tired than usual. Dr Straube explained that my body was going through an expected stage where the blood was re-balancing and calming down after being cleaned up.

Now, eight weeks on, I feel much better.

Keeping up the healthy lifestyle and getting enough rest has been key for me. 

I have stayed on Ursula’s detox plan of 80 per cent plant food, no coffee, no alcohol, very limited dairy and limited sugar, and intend to continue this healthier way of eating (other than the very occasional splurge on a glass of wine, a bite of healthy chocolate and some delicious fish — I left Edina’s excesses behind many years ago).

As someone who does love her food, I am listening to my body as much as I can and I rest when I need to. But I still intend to enjoy life.

Meanwhile, my hairdresser says my hair has never felt healthier. My nails are strong and my friends are asking why I look so well. 

My energy levels are great — I definitely feel far less tired day to day, and I’ve taken on lots of exciting new work, which I am managing to juggle with my hectic social diary without it wiping me out as it would have previously.

I have a busy summer now, following up on all Dr Straube’s advice to make sure that I get rid of the pesky little parasites that are still there, albeit in far smaller numbers than they were, according to the ‘before’ and ‘after’ test results.

I realise that the blood cleaning has done a huge amount to boost my health, but I also know there is no quick fix to optimise energy levels, especially at 75, and I need to keep making sensible lifestyle choices if I want to age well.

Do I feel like a new woman? Certainly, the whole experience has been an eye-opener as far as understanding my body and health goes. It definitely feels like a reset, and I intend to make it a regular event.

Yes, it’s extreme, but I have never been a timid person and no one would expect me to become one now. 

In fact, I’ve already booked with Ursula to join her retreat in Bavaria next spring for my 76th birthday and enjoy the whole thing all over again.

• To find out about Lynne’s women’s workshops and retreats, visit lynnefranks.com.
• Always see your GP before making any major changes to your diet or lifestyle, or trying new treatments — especially if you take regular, prescribed medicines as there may be contraindications.