New review of stem cell supplements and pills

Today’s post is a review and fact-check of stem cell supplements. This is the second time I have looked at the state of stem cell supplements. The number of supplements has greatly increased.

Supplements  |  Stem cell supplements claims | Stem cell activators | Supplement marketing | Visiclear, Visifree & Visishield |  Stem-Kine |  Regenexx supplements | Big picture on stem cell pills

Quick Article Summary and Claim Review. Stem cell supplements claim to improve your health by impacting your stem cells. My research as a stem cell biologist on the state of this arena indicates that there are no strong clinical trial data to support such claims. Stem cell supplements pose risks too and they are expensive. As a stem cell biologist, I generally recommend against taking stem cell supplements but consult your physician.

Let’s go through the potential risks and benefits here as we discuss the science.

Note that “supplements” here refer to things people take in addition to food, not “supplements” that we scientists add to the media (liquid food) that we use to grow stem cells in a lab.

Stem cell supplement capsules, vitamins, and more

Let’s start with some broader context. I’m fairly skeptical of supplements in general. The main reason to take them is if one has a documented deficiency in something. Maybe like iron or perhaps (maybe not) Vitamin D. If you are vegan you might consider taking B12.

As a 15+ year prostate cancer survivor the only supplement I regularly take is Vitamin D.

However, I’m having my doubts even about that. Right after my diagnosis and surgery, it made sense to me theoretically that a hormone like Vitamin D might help prevent cancer recurrence. This idea was based on in vitro results from Vitamin D inhibiting cancer cells in a dish. Since then, the literature hasn’t been very encouraging on any benefit in actual people.

Stem cell supplement claims

How about supplements claiming some link to stem cells?

There’s not much foundation for them and they usually cost a lot.

The main claim of these supplements is that they’ll make you have more stem cells.  Sometimes they claim to make you have better stem cells. These are so-called stem cell activators (more below).

Others claim the pills aid in stem cells differentiating into the desired cell type. We are seeing more stem cell supplements claim anti-aging effects in the last few years too.

None of these claims have robust data to back them up.

A big surprise for me was that searching Clinicaltrials.gov found many studies on stem cells and supplements. But there is little data there too. One study that did have data was focused on a supplement called NutraStem. It tested effects on CD133+ or CD34+ cells as compared to a placebo. In my view, it wasn’t convincing that there was any benefit.

I also do not see published data on the supplement called Stemregen. It is a combination of plant extracts and other materials. One surprise there is something to do with colostrum, which I haven’t seen before in supplements but may be growing in popularity.

Stem cell activators

There are no solid data to suggest that taking oral stem cell supplements can activate your stem cells. Activate can mean different things as well. Some stem cell activator products claim to boost cell numbers. Others claim to make stem cells more active, but it’s unclear what that means.

Stem cell activators could pose risks. Supplements that increase stem cell numbers or activity might predispose patients to tumor formation. Research has shown that MSC conditioned media, for example, can activate tumor cells in culture.

Supplement marketing

A Google search for “Stem cell supplements” yields an array of results and ads.

While Google has rightly (and generally very effectively) banned stem cell clinic ads, it still feels like anything goes with stem cell supplement ads.

An Amazon search yields scores of stem cell supplement results too. They are generally in the $50-$100 range, but some price tags approach a thousand dollars a pop.

What about Visiclear, Visifree & Visishield?

I’ve been hearing more about vision-related supplements. The most popular ones are called Visiclear, Visifree, and Visishield.

These supplements contain vitamins, antioxidants, and other factors. Various claims on the web suggest that these products may help vision by either keeping stem cells healthy or restoring stem cell health.

I’m highly skeptical.

We stem cell researchers do sometimes add vitamins or antioxidants to our cultures of stem cells in the lab. Yet it’s not clear that antioxidants that people eat or take as supplements would have benefits to endogenous stem cells, including in the eye.

A quick search on Amazon found that these products are also very expensive. No surprise. There are quite a few unhappy customers who left reviews there as well.

As a stem cell researcher, I wouldn’t recommend Visiclear, Visifree, or Visishield.

On a separate note, there are reasons to be skeptical and concerned about so-called stem cell eye drops as well. These have been more on the FDA’s radar screen lately.

Stem-Kine review

Something called Stem-Kine from Neil Riordan, who runs a stem cell clinic firm in Panama, often pops up on the web. About a decade ago he published a paper on Stem-Kine. It claimed a link to mobilizing stem cells, but I’m not convinced at all.

Physicians in the hospital can reproducibly mobilize stem cells in donors or patients. However, this is done using powerful, proven drugs, not supplements. This has been the subject of tons of published research such as related to preparing stem cell transplants after chemo in cancer patients. (By the way, you might find this guest post on a family’s experience with stem cell donation to be an interesting read.)

These stem cell pill supplements are super expensive too. How much does Stem-Kine cost? For a case of 60 x 700mg capsules on Amazon or elsewhere, you’ll pay about $60-$70. It seems way overpriced to me.

Could it work?

It’s hard to say without more data, but I doubt it and anything like this has risks too.

Further, it’s not clear that mobilizing bone marrow stem cells in a healthy patient regularly is a wise thing to do.

Note that Stem-Kine calls itself, “the Ferrari of nutritional supplements.” What is that based on — price?

Regenexx supplements

The Regenexx brand has a supplement product line now including Regenexx Complex. One supplement, called “Advanced Stem Cell Support Formula” used to be available and cost about one hundred bucks for 32 fluid ounces. That is about $400 a gallon. I don’t see it available on Amazon anymore though. I still don’t believe there are solid data to back it up.

The description says it’s a “proprietary blend of vitamins, herbs, and supplements that may help support healthy stem cell function and cartilage production.” The Amazon page for this or a very similar product lists these ingredients: “Vitamin C 1000mg, Vitamin D 2000IU Proprietary Blend 3455 mg of Glucosamine Sulfate and HCl, Chondroitin Sulfate, Curcumin, L-Carnosine, Resveratrol (resVida), Bitter Melon, BioPerine Does not contain wheat, gluten, sugar, soy or dairy. Contains ingredients derived from shellfish and corn.”

I don’t see a good rationale for Regenexx Complex either.

Overall, do stem cell pills or supplements work? Probably not.

In the big picture, in my view stem cell supplements are not worth the money. They probably won’t do anything too helpful specifically to stem cells and could have risks.

At this point, in my view exercise seems like maybe the only possibly reliable and safe way to impact certain kinds of stem cells in your body naturally, but before you change any exercise routine, talk to your doctor. Also, check out my post digging into 6 possible natural stem cell boosts. More data are needed.

We’ll see in the coming years or decades if any specific supplement can convincingly do something useful that is stem cell-related based on more research.

It’s also important to consider that anything that boosts stem cell numbers could also pose the risk of unwanted consequences like abnormal cell or tissue growth. Even cancer is possible if you strongly activate stem cell proliferation with supplements.

Will there ever be a stem cell pill? Part of me wishes there could be, but so far we aren’t close.

References

1. Search for articles with “Stem cells” and “supplements” in the title on Pubmed.
2. Search for articles with “stem cells” and “diet” in the title on Pubmed.
3. Consumer Alert on Regenerative Medicine Products Including Stem Cells and Exosomes, FDA
4. Articles listed on PubMed that involve Stem-Kine.
5. The Cerule Stemenhance supplement still has five papers mentioned in PubMed on it. However, I’m not convinced by the data there that there are clear, lasting benefits to users.
6. Also on the supposed longevity front, check out this post which includes a review of David Sinclair supplements.