It’s hard to beat aging if even a short walk hurts your knees.
Of course, you can change your diet, your exercise and even get Botox. But compensating for the wear and tear on our joints is not so simple.
He claims he finally has a solution: to fly to the Bahamas for an experimental therapy to inject millions of stem cells from healthy young Swedish volunteers into his knees, hips and shoulders. The price tag? About $16,500 per joint, or a full body combo for $25,000.
This is not new science; Research into stem cell therapy has already shown promise as a potential treatment for aging-related diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and arthritis. But using it to lift the knees of healthy (and wealthy) 40-year-olds is new territory.
And Johnson isn’t the only one benefiting from this trend.
The wellness industry is buzzing with latent excitement about the idea of rejuvenating the knees with a shot of new cells.
Although not FDA-approved in the US, some clinics abroad are able to offer treatments with the approval of regulatory agencies in other countries—for a price. A massive market of unregulated clinics is already cashing in on consumer interest in the therapeutic power of stem cells to the tune of $1,200 to $28,000 per treatment, research has found.
Longevity leaders say it’s a promising idea, and experiments like Johnson’s could even help push the healthcare paradigm toward proactive, preventative care for our joints.
For now, here’s what we know—and what we don’t know—about stem cell therapy for knees.
A shot to overwhelm the body’s natural healing ability
In Johnson’s search for “superhero joints,” he flew to Physical Longevity, the Bahamian clinic that is developing experimental anti-aging treatments, mostly with stem cells.
He didn’t just want stem cells. Johnson reserved a special type of treatment that involved mesenchymal stem cells (or, MSC). These cells are all the rage in longevity circles these days because they seem to reduce inflammation and promote regeneration. Unlike other cells, they can act alone — isolated from other tissues, naturally gravitating toward damaged or dysfunctional tissues to help repair them, the research suggests.
Speaking to BI about a month after his procedure, Johnson said he hasn’t noticed much change yet.
Bryan Johnson flew to the Bahamas to have MSC stem cells injected into his knees, hips and shoulders — for about $16,500 per joint. Josh DeAngelis
“That’s probably because my health biomarkers are already in the top 1% in terms of muscle, fat, metabolic health, cardiovascular health, etc,” Johnson said, citing health statistics shared on his website. “So it’s very difficult for my subjective sense of well-being to improve.”
Still, Johnson said he’s waiting for objective data to see the benefits, trusting a process he developed over years (and millions of dollars) to determine which longevity treatments are worth it. He hired a team of medical experts who evaluate peer-reviewed studies on potential longevity treatments, ranking the quality of the evidence, Johnson told BI. MSC therapy made the cut as a treatment of interest, and Johnson said he and his team felt the clinic and stem cell provider were reliable and safe. It was worth a trip to the Bahamas.
Currently, the only FDA-approved stem cell therapies you can use in the US use the patient’s own cells. While this is effective for some things, it may not do much to rejuvenate your joints, Rasul Chaudhry, a professor of biological sciences at Oakland University who specializes in stem cell research, told BI. It’s hard to reverse age-related damage with cells that have aged with you, Chaudhry noted.
Younger cells taken from healthy volunteers appear to be better at repairing and regenerating damage — at least that’s what Johnson’s doctor, Steven Sampson, told BI. Chaundhry said this could be true if you use cells from an embryo, but there are ethical and technical concerns with this, and even cells from healthy 20-year-old donors have aged to varying degrees.
It is a promising area of medicine, but far from FDA approval. Plus, even Sampson cautions that new donor stem cells shouldn’t be seen as a quick fix or a panacea.
“I have to temper expectations and let patients know that this is not magic pixie dust. We are studying this under a clinical trial and the results take time,” Sampson said.
Athletes pioneered this trend
NFL superstar Peyton Manning received stem cell therapy more than a decade ago to recover from a neck injury. He is one of many athletes driving the boom in experimental treatments. Patrick Smith/Getty Images
As is often the case with exclusive and experimental therapies, athletes were the true pioneers of this treatment.
A 2014 study found that 12 NFL players, including Peyton Manning, had received stem cell treatments (not approved by the FDA) to help them bounce back from various injuries. NFL superstar George Kittle, professional wrestler Hulk Hogan and UFC fighter TJ Dillashaw have all visited the same clinic in Panama for an injection of cells harvested from donated umbilical cord tissue. (Other athletes have had treatments involving their own stem cells — tennis great Rafael Nadal for his knee and back, ESPN reported, and golfer Jack Nicklaus for back pain, according to CNN.)
Sampson is frustrated that his work is inherently expensive and off-limits because it perpetuates a vicious circle. If only a few people can do it, there are fewer opportunities to study how these treatments might help aging and chronic disease, he said.
But, in a way, that’s why he’s unclear about wealthy patients like Johnson and the elite athletes who make it. Those with a strong interest in longevity and the resources to pursue it are helping to drive interest in this type of medicine.
He hopes the move will spur research that could one day help treat or prevent many chronic conditions.
When stem cell therapy goes wrong
However, research is a slow process.
At the moment, the main influence of this interest in the production of drinks is the proliferation of so-called “scam clinics” in the US and abroad, making bold claims about how their unproven treatments can transform your body.
Conducted with proper medical supervision, some studies have found no adverse effects from stem cell treatments for various conditions.
However, this is a dangerous arena. Improper stem cell treatments can cause infection, blindness, and excessive cell growth, which can cause tumors to form.
“I’ve heard horror stories because you go there in desperation and maybe some people will get a benefit, but the vast majority of people don’t know what they’re getting,” Chaudhry said. It can be difficult to know exactly what you are getting, how much and whether it has been stored and handled safely.
There are also many unknowns about the long-term effects of the procedures, the research suggests. Paul Knoepfler, professor and researcher at the UC Davis School of Medicine and author of “Stem Cells: An Insider’s Guide,” told Business Insider that the perceived benefit of stem cell treatments could be a placebo and could cause patients to miss out. more evidence. -based therapies, such as joint replacements.
Johnson said he’s not convinced his approach to experimental and innovative treatments is more risky than letting nature take its course, especially after it’s done its homework. “Something can certainly go wrong, but that’s just life and something can go wrong anyway,” he said. “Risk is a nuanced conversation. It’s not clear that this is the highest risk path. It may actually be a lower risk path.”
Related: Is Stem Cell Therapy Worth It?
Matthias Bernow, CEO of the biotech company Cellcolabs that provided the stem cells for Johnson’s procedure, has high hopes for the future of this treatment.
“What I’m really hoping for is that in the future, when we go to the office for our annual checkup and get our flu shot, maybe we’ll also get a stem cell boost to either treat our current conditions or to delay their onset, to treat our bodies in the best possible way, regardless of whatever the genetic lottery has given us,” he told BI.
While stem cell therapies show promise for vision loss or diabetes, experts largely agree that they are probably not a fountain of youth.
More high-quality data are needed to understand how they affect aging. They may do nothing to treat the more complex consequences of aging, such as neurological degeneration.
“At a more basic level, there isn’t even a reasonable common sense reason why MSCs would help aging, especially in relation to the brain,” Knoepfler said. “So far we just haven’t seen clinical trials work that well for the most part,” he added.
However, if you don’t have the money to fly out for high-tech treatment, finding a physical therapist or a good personal trainer is a helpful first step in assessing your mobility and making an exercise plan to relieve pain. of joints and to prevent injury. over time.