Home › Blog › Stem Cell Support Formula and Anti-inflammation: This Blew Me Away

If you read this blog, you know that I love writing about what I experience every day in the clinic. Yesterday I heard such an amazing story about the Regenexx Stem Cell Support Formula from a patient, I wanted to share. Let me explain.

Controlling Inflammation and Stem Cells

Many Americans are an out-of-control pro-inflammatory mess. In fact, as we age, many of us get metabolic syndrome, which is weight gain, hypertension, poor insulin control, and high triglycerides. This disease state is often associated with excessive inflammation, which can be bad for many cells in your body, not just stem cells. Hence, when we designed our Stem Cell Support Formula, we had two goals in mind. The first was finding out which supplements in which mixtures would promote human mesenchymal stem cell growth and cartilage production in culture. These experiments took about a year. The second was making sure those same supplements had research showing they could reduce inflammation. To learn more about this supplement, see my video below:

My Patient’s Amazing Story

Yesterday I saw a woman from the Chicago area who was seen in the clinic for her severe knee arthritis. She was also a long-time asthma patient and as part of the work-up to a planned same-day stem cell procedure, we had requested she see her local doctor about getting off Advair. This is an inhaled corticosteroid drug that we believe may harm stem cell function, given the research reports of increased bone disease (osteonecrosis) that has been reported with this medication.

The patient relayed a story that she had gone to her pulmonologist to ask if there were substitutes she may use while undergoing our procedure. He couldn’t think of any that didn’t involve steroids, so she was stuck. She then dutifully began taking the Stem Cell Support Formula in preparation for our procedure, planning on staying on the Advair. A funny thing then happened. She began to notice that she didn’t need it as often. In fact, she eventually stopped it all together because she was having no problems breathing.

First, I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS SUPPLEMENT AS A REPLACEMENT FOR INHALED CORTICOSTEROIDS. This is merely an interesting observation that blew me away. Second, does it make sense? Let’s explore that more deeply.

Supplements and Asthma

One of the hallmarks of asthma is that it’s triggered by inflammation. In fact, this is the reason that steroid anti-inflammatory drugs are often used in its treatment. Hence, it could make sense that anti-inflammatory supplements could have an impact. However, is there any research that backs this up?

This isn’t my field, so I don’t know this literature well offhand, so I began searching the US Library of Medicine. Sure enough, I found this study looking at how curcumin (one of the components of our supplement), in a randomized controlled trial, helped asthma. There is less clinical evidence, but some theory that the resveratrol in this supplement may help respiratory disease. There’s even a paper about adding in L-carnosine (another ingredient in our supplement) to cigarette filters due to its ability in the lab to help reduce the oxidative cell damage caused by smoking.

The upshot? Again, I don’t recommend people start taking our Stem Cell Support Formula to treat their asthma. Having said that, this woman has been on medications for almost two decades and now feels she doesn’t need them. This seems to make some sense as there is quite a bit of research on the potent anti-inflammatory effects of some of the ingredients of this supplement and a small clinical trial on how curcumin can help asthma. In the meantime, it’s a compelling story, so thought I would share!

Chris Centeno, MD is a specialist in regenerative medicine and the new field of Interventional Orthopedics. Centeno pioneered orthopedic stem cell procedures in 2005 and is responsible for a large amount of the published research on stem cell use for orthopedic applications. View Profile