Stem cells go alternative

By Jason Major

TechNyou

Name what ails you. The alternative medicine market has latched onto stem cells as its next cure-all and apparently business is booming.

Alternative medicine has something for everything from anti-aging creams, miracle pills and butt tightening to curing human kind’s every ill

My family and a couple of female friends have recently badgered me about my thoughts on stem cells in cosmetics such as face creams, the most recent one being the use of apple stem cells in some anti-ageing cream.  I had to confess I didn’t have a clue about them, but expressed skepticism as I have yet to see any clinical evidence or robust science to back any of these claims. Plus intuitively, I couldn’t see how stem cells from a plant could help a human, but I am outside my area of expertise here. Regardless, intuitive skepticism doesn’t cut the mustard when we are talking beauty products, so I was glad to stumble across an article that summarises it all in one document.

Context from someone with a clue

Doug Sipp, in the journal Regenerative Medicine provides some perspective to the burgeoning alternative medicine industry that seems to be making plenty of dollars from stem cell-based products or treatments, despite any evidence they even work or are safe.

TechNyou has already posted a bit of stuff on stem cell tourism, which Sipp also does, but he goes into a bit of detail on how companies are marketing the cosmetics and nutritional supplements.

100 ways to stay young

I must live a sheltered life as I had only seen TV or chick mag advertisements for the apple stem cells used in cosmetic creams. Sipp, however, reveals a proliferation of stem cell-based cosmetics that can take the form of injections of human or animal cells, food supplements, or skin creams and lotions that are purported to either include stem cell extracts or activate your own stem cells.

There is even a cosmetic line marketing itself as containing human fat tissue. As gross as that sounds to me it seems the desire for eternal youth is powerful. And should you desire you can get 30 ml of eye cream for $119, or a 28‑vial set of “Million Stem Cell Magic Concentrate” for $1220.  My wife tells me that women really would pay this much for a product even if there was only a remote hope it would do as it claims. And tagging the product with stem cells can provide an added marketing push because, according to Sipp, stem cells can be seen as a “natural” product.

But that’s not all

One company suggests their stem cells have been shown to have “effects on health, wellness, and regeneration,” with impacts on such ailments as dodgy hearts, Alzheimer’s disease and erectile dysfunction. Too much? How about a simple augmentation of your butt or breasts?

Wishful thinking

It seems there is nothing stem cells can’t fix. If all these claims were true we really would have eternal life, youth, and sexual functionality – at a hefty price, of course.

Reference

Sipp D (2011) 6(3). Stem cell stratagems in alternative medicine, Regenerative Medicine, DOI:10.2217/rme.11.13

More info

Australian Stem Cell Centre:

Can rabbit stem cells cure your ills?

What do baby stem cells and cows have in common

TechNyou

Hope, stem cells tourism and the art of dialogue

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