Reviewed:

Robert J. Hancock

Explore the vital connection between diet, health, and the body's natural stem cell production. Discover how Mesenchymal Stem Cells (MSCs) are revolutionizing treatments for conditions like liver cirrhosis, diabetes, kidney disease, and more, by enhancing cellular repair and regeneration.

How to Increase Stem Cells Naturally is a vital topic for those seeking to rejuvenate their body's healing abilities.

Aging leads to a decrease in stem cells, but natural methods can help boost their production, aiding in health and longevity.

Discover effective strategies to enhance your body's natural stem cell production, promoting regeneration and improved well-being.

How to Increase Stem Cells Naturally

To naturally increase stem cells, you should focus on following a healthy lifestyle which includes:

  1. Maintain a Healthy Diet: Consume polyphenol-rich foods (berries, turmeric, green tea) and anti-inflammatory foods (tomatoes, olive oil, green leafy vegetables, nuts like almonds and walnuts, fatty fish like salmon) to stimulate stem cell production.

  2. Exercise Regularly: Regular physical activity, especially aerobic exercise, improves cardiovascular health and encourages stem cells to become bone rather than fat.

  3. Get Quality Sleep: Ensuring adequate and quality sleep is vital for the health and production of stem cells.

  4. Intermittent Fasting or Caloric Restriction: Practices like intermittent fasting or caloric restriction can enhance autophagy, leading to increased stem cell production.

  5. Reduce Stress Levels: Managing stress through relaxation techniques helps in protecting and maintaining stem cells.

  6. Stop Smoking and Reduce Alcohol Intake: Avoiding harmful habits like smoking and excessive alcohol consumption is beneficial for stem cell health.

  7. Reduce Sugar Consumption: Lowering sugar intake can prevent the inhibition of stem cell proliferation, thereby enhancing their function.

  8. Supplementation: Taking supplements such as high-quality omega-3 fatty acids, Vitamin D3, and resveratrol supports stem cell growth and activity.

Nutritional Support for Stem Cell Health

In the pursuit of how to increase stem cell production and regenerate cells in the body naturally, understanding stem cell nutrition is crucial.

Incorporating foods to increase stem cells, along with specific stem cell supplements and cell regeneration foods, can effectively enhance your body's natural cell regeneration process.

Nutrient

Sources

Benefits

Sulforaphane

Cruciferous vegetables (cauliflower, broccoli, kale, cabbage, bok choy, garden cress, Brussels sprouts)

Enhances liver enzymes to combat contaminants

Omega-3 Fatty Acids

Seafood, fatty fish

Antioxidants, reduces heart disease risk

Proteins and Beneficial Fats

Seeds, nuts

Fights inflammation, supports stem cell health

Vitamins and Minerals

Variety of foods

Maintains stem cells, healthy hematopoiesis

Reduced Sugar Intake

-

Prevents inhibition of stem cell proliferation, enhances function

Herbs and Their Impact on Stem Cell Health

Recent studies have shown that certain herbs and their active components can enhance stem cell health. These findings highlight the potential of herbs in supporting stem cell proliferation and differentiation.

  1. Chinese Herbs: Panax ginseng and Panax notoginseng, notable Chinese herbs, are known to aid the proliferation and differentiation of neural and mesenchymal stem cells. These herbs are utilized in improving recovery from brain injuries and degenerative diseases.

  2. Carica Papaya: The leaf extract of Carica papaya has demonstrated the ability to increase thrombocyte counts in human and murine models, indicating its role in promoting stem cell health.

  3. Herbal Extracts: Various herbal extracts are being researched for their effectiveness in stimulating stem cell proliferation and differentiation. These extracts show potential in treating diverse diseases due to their local availability and potential low production costs. Further research is necessary to fully understand their mechanisms and pathways.

Strategies for Supporting MSC Growth and Function

  • Healthy Lifestyle: A balanced diet, regular exercise, and effective stress management are crucial.

  • Avoid Negative Factors: Minimize skin aging accelerators like environmental pollution, UV radiation, alcohol, tobacco, and undernourishment to aid MSC function in skin rejuvenation.

  • Continued Research: More studies are needed to pinpoint specific natural methods for increasing stem cells.

For a comprehensive understanding, explore these resources:

  • MSCs and their sources

  • MSCs in wound healing and skin regeneration

  • MSCs in tendon injury treatment

Enhancing Health with Endogenous Stem Cells: A Natural Approach

Using endogenous stem cells is a less reliable but still effective method to enhance health and increase cell count. This approach focuses on stimulating the body's own stem cell production.

Key Ways to Increase Stem Cell Production

  • Dietary Impact: Diet is a crucial factor in overall health, affecting aspects like obesity, metabolism, and cancer.

  • Regeneration and Nutrition: Specific dietary choices and fasting (calorie restriction) can significantly impact tissue regeneration.

  • Examples of Dietary Influence: Liver regeneration is affected by supplemented nutrition diets, A high-fat and high-glucose environment can inhibit bone regeneration, high glucose levels can cause oxidative stress, impairing the proliferation and migration of human gingival fibroblasts.

Caution Advised with Stem Cell Supplements

Despite the marketing of stem cell supplements promising to enhance natural stem cell functions or increase stem cell count, their safety and effectiveness remain largely unverified. This uncertainty is highlighted by several authoritative sources:

  • Safety and Efficacy Claims: Some companies claim their stem cell products are safe and effective, yet a study found that less than half made verifiable claims about their products' safety and efficacy.

  • Health Sciences Authority Warning: The Authority cautions against misleading claims on supplements, stating there's no scientific evidence that health supplements with stem cells can prevent or treat conditions like cancer and diabetes.

Follow a clean, anti-inflammatory diet.

Medical professionals are learning that one of the best ways to reduce inflammation lies not in the medicine cabinet but in the fridge. By following an anti-inflammatory diet, one can reduce levels of inflammation within the body for extended periods.

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Pictured: Foods that fight inflammation - DVC Stem

Foods that cause inflammation

Inflammation is part of your body's natural defense against things that adversely affect health, like bacteria, viruses and toxins. But your immune system is complicated, and its components are sometimes triggered by unexpected things — including certain foods.

An unbalanced diet means eating a lot of processed foods, which contain ingredients that can activate inflammatory processes directly. Foods that have high levels of fat, sugar and other refined carbohydrates are essentially toxic to our bodies and trigger inflammatory pathways through a number of direct and indirect ways.  Try to avoid or limit these foods as much as possible:

  • Refined carbohydrates, such as white bread and pastries

  • French fries and other fried foods

  • Soda and other sugar-sweetened beverages

  • Red meat (burgers, steaks) and processed meat (hot dogs, sausage)

  • Margarine, shortening, and lard

Benefits of anti-inflammatory foods

On the other side are beverages and foods that reduce inflammation and chronic illness, mainly fruits and vegetables such as blueberries, apples, and leafy greens that are high in natural antioxidants and polyphenols-- protective compounds discovered in plants.

Studies have correspondingly associated nuts with minimized markers of inflammation and a lower risk of heart disease and diabetes. Coffee, which includes polyphenols and other anti-inflammatory substances, might protect against swelling, also.

Anti-inflammatory foods

Foods to increase stem cells should have anti-inflammatory properties. An anti-inflammatory diet should include these foods:

  • Tomatoes

  • Olive oil

  • Green leafy vegetables, such as spinach, kale, and collard

  • Nuts like almonds and walnuts

  • Fatty fish like salmon, mackerel, tuna, and sardines

  • Fruits such as strawberries, blueberries, cherries, and oranges

Anti-inflammatory diet

To reduce levels of swelling, aim for a healthy diet. If you are searching for an eating strategy that carefully follows the principles of anti-inflammatory consumption, consider the Mediterranean diet, which is high in fruits, vegetables, nuts, whole grains, fish, and healthy oils.

IMG_256

Some recommended healthy ingredients

Ginger root: typically utilized in Thai cooking to help settle indigestions. Ginger is understood to combat inflammation by reducing polyunsaturated fatty acids that can activate an inflammatory reaction. 

Mushrooms: High in micronutrients known as polyphenols. These nutrients are stemcell enhancers and can be found in plant-based diets; They help protect and cleanse liver cells from harmful contaminants that can break down hormones in the body.

Seed and Nuts: Excellent snacks filled with protein and beneficial fats that keep you feeling full longer and assist in eliminating any cravings. Seeds consist of anti-inflammatory plant sterols, while nuts are filled with alpha-linolenic acid, a type of inflammatory combating omega-3 fat.

Cruciferous veggies: Cauliflower, Broccoli, kale, cabbage, bok choy, garden cress & Brussels sprouts are some of the best foods for stem cell growth. These veggies have lots of the sulforaphane compound, which boots enzymes in the liver that combat harmful contaminants we may digest or take in. These green leafy veggies are likewise packed with Indole-3-carbinol particles that help reduce inflammatory agents in the bloodstream.

Berries: Blackberries, goji berries, pomegranate, blueberries, and raspberries all contain superoxide dismutase (SOD), a powerful antioxidant. This enzyme has incredible inflammation-reducing flavonoids and is excellent for lowering oxidative-associated stress, which is an essential consideration for optimum liver health and helps avoid joint pain. 

Seafood and Fatty fish are other practical and natural adult stem cell activators as they contain several omega-3 fats, consisting of Eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA). EPA is usually found in cold-water fatty fish, and various research studies have shown that fish oil is a powerful antioxidant that assists lower the danger of developing heart problems.

Food is medication 

Our diets significantly impact our body's natural regrowth cycles. Including stem cell-friendly foods in one's diet is a tremendous first step to promoting natural cell growth. Intermittent fasting is also a stem cell activator and has been discovered to start quick cellular regrowth. 

Overall, to achieve optimal benefits all aspects of a healthy lifestyle (exercise, diet and sleeping) must be utilized. Regenerative ability, which is required to improve healthy aging, especially with regard to the increased human lifespan, in addition to all the known benefits of a healthy lifestyle for a limitless number of health problems including diabetes , cancer, mental health, pediatric asthma, and reproductive health. 

References:

  1. Ghanemi, A., Yoshioka, M., & St-Amand, J. (2022, January 14). Exercise, diet and sleeping as Regenerative Medicine Adjuvants: Obesity and ageing as illustrations. Medicines (Basel, Switzerland). Retrieved November 7, 2022, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8778846/