The Dr. Hyman Show - Can Food Reactivate Your Stem Cells?

Episode Date: September 13, 2019

Among the major superpowers of our stem cells is their ability to self renew. Stem cells can also sense damaged cells and tissues and send signals that promote self-healing. In this mini-episode, Dr. Hyman speaks with Dr. William Li about the things that both enhance, and impair, our body’s regenerative abilities, including our diet. Dr. Li shares information on which foods have been scientifically proven to activate our body’s stem cells. William Li, MD, is a world-renowned physician, scientist, speaker, and author of Eat to Beat Disease: The New Science of How Your Body Can Heal Itself. He is best known for leading the Angiogenesis Foundation. His groundbreaking work has impacted more than 70 diseases including cancer, diabetes, blindness, heart disease, and obesity. His TED Talk, “Can We Eat to Starve Cancer?” has garnered more than 11 million views. An author of over 100 scientific publications in leading journals such as Science, the New England Journal of Medicine, The Lancet, and more, Dr. Li has served on the faculties of Harvard, Tufts, and Dartmouth Medical School. Listen to Dr. Hyman’s full-length conversation with Dr. Li: https://DrMarkHyman.lnk.to/DrLi

When you and I were growing up, right in grade school, we learned from our teachers that starfish can regenerate, salamanders can regenerate, but people can't regenerate, right? You can't grow a new arm. Yeah, well, it's true. You can't grow a new arm, but we do regenerate. We regenerate every day. Hi, I'm Kea Perowit, one of the producers of the Doctors Pharmacy Podcast. We are constantly learning new things about the way food and nutrients impact the body. In this mini episode of the podcast, Dr. Hyman speaks with world-renowned physician, scientist, and author, Dr. William Lee, about activating the body's stem cells with food to enhance

its regenerative abilities. I don't think something that most people are aware of, that you can activate your own stem cells, that there's things you do in your life that you can screw up your stem cells. And what are stem cells anyway there's things you do in your life that you can screw up your stem cells and what are stem cells anyway what do they do and how do we how do we understand how to stop hurting them and start helping them yeah well some cells are really simple um we're made of stem cells so when our moms and dads got together and created you know uh us in the womb we started out as stem cells they actually made every single organ of the cell. And egg and the sperm. And egg and the sperm got together, and they basically decided they would become a stem cell factory. And then pretty much we formed out of our own stem cells. And after we were born, a few of those stem cells stuck around, about 700,000 of them.

They stick around, and they're mostly in our bone marrow, and they're in the lining of our intestines. They hide out in our body, and they help us regenerate. We. They hide out in our body and they help us regenerate. We know that we regenerate because our hair falls out and grows back. Our gut lining grows back. Our livers can grow back. If you actually remove part of your liver, it'll grow back. Our skin grows back, you know. So our bodies possess the ability to regenerate through stem cells.

Now, what can injure stem cells? You know, high doses of alcohol can damage and blunt through stem cells. Now, what can injure stem cells? You know, high doses of alcohol can damage and blunt your stem cells. So I'm okay with the one tequila I had last night? You know, having a tequila every now and then is not bad, having a glass of wine. But you know, the thing is, on balance, what you want to do is, people who drink a lot have damaged stem cells. Diabetes is another state, a metabolic state that, you know, it really impairs drink a lot have damaged stem cells. Diabetes is another state, a metabolic state that it really impairs. It cripples our stem cells.

High blood sugar cripples our stem cells. So the excess of anything can be harmful, including to our stem cells. So what are the things that we can do to help boost our stem cells? This is where it's really become interesting. Before I talk about that, though, let me just tell you. to help boost our stem cells this is where it's really become interesting before i talk about that though let me just stress affect your stem cells stress can definitely affect our stem cells high stress will blunt the activity of our stem cells you know it's just like stunning them so they're like wait a minute what do i do now you know maybe i'm not going to be so enthusiastic in rebuilding our organs we got to rebuild our blood vessels we got to rebuild our hearts you know our hearts got to rebuild our hearts. Our hearts turn around.

We actually have stem cells in our hearts and our brains and regrow our nerves. Every single day, something in our body is regenerating. Actually, a lot of things are regenerating. But more exciting to me is the ability for every single person listening to this podcast to be able to actually enhance their own stem cells. And here's the research. So the Mediterranean diet, it's been studied by Spain, podcast to be able to actually enhance their own stem cells and here's the research so the

mediterranean diet has it's been studied by spain looked at um uh elderly people on the mediterranean diet and those who uh were on a mediterranean diet compared to not on a better training that had five times the number of stem cells in their circulation in their bloodstream so again it's not one magic food it's the pattern of food that you're actually eating. Now when you, you can actually do the research on specific things as well. So for example, tea. Green tea will increase your stem cells,

but guess what, so can black tea, right? So here's what the surprise is. That's why the Japanese live forever. Not the longest in Japan. All the green tea. You know, people in Asia drink a lot of tea. People in Britain drink a lot of tea as well. We drink a lot of tea as well we used to say green tea is good black tea is fermented so it's not going to be that good for you we're changing our minds we have to keep our minds open black tea can also

double the number of stem cells and then here's another kind of surprise and delight is that um there was a study at uh by ucsf in san franc Francisco where researchers took people with known cardiovascular disease so they had kind of crappy blood flow and they gave them hot chocolate yeah I was going to say the chocolate stem cell story I want to hear about that amazing right so the darker the chocolate the higher the flavonols these are the bioactives are naturally present in cacao yeah and they there was a study these are the food is medicine this is components. There are literally these chemicals in food called phytochemicals or phytonutrients that actually have these medicinal properties.

They are made by mother nature. They're packed in the food, growing on the plant. And every plant-based food will actually have some type of bioactive. So in cacao, which is a bean, which then you process to actually get kind of the cocoa powder. If you take the really dark chocolate, like 73% cacao, which is a bean, which then you process to actually get kind of the cocoa powder, if you take the really dark chocolate, like 73% cacao, the really dark chocolate, and you make it into a high-flavanol hot chocolate drink, and you have it twice a day over the course of a month, they doubled the number of stem cells compared to the people who didn't drink

hot chocolate. Right. And so, okay. So the question is, is that important? Well, when they measured their blood flow,

what they did is they put a blood pressure cuff on them and which, you know, kind of like lowers the circulation of the blood. They let it go. They found that the blood flow was much vastly improved. Wow. So here's a functional result that actually means it makes a difference. So who's going to complain about chocolate?

Who's going to complain about tea? Who's going to complain about a Mediterranean diet? I mean, you go out to eat. These are the things we love. Yeah. Getting people to think about food as not just calories, but information. Food is not just energy, but information. Food is not just energy, but actually instructions that regulate your stem cells and your DNA and your

microbiome and your immune system and your angiogenesis. I mean, these are things that are not things people think about. It's the new science of nutrition, right? So beyond proteins and calories and sugar and all that kind of stuff, we're now combining food science with life science. Stem cells are considered unspecialized, meaning that they have the potential to develop into various kinds of specialized cells. They can self-renew and can also sense damaged cells and tissues, sending signals that promote self-healing. Science continues to illustrate how food has the power to prevent and reverse disease. And the more we know about it, the more power we have to curate a targeted diet to help us reach our health goals.

The catch is that we have to choose the right foods, the ones that elevate us, and simultaneously ditch the poor quality ones that harm us. I hope you enjoyed this episode of The Doctor's Pharmacy. Thanks for tuning in. Hi, everyone. I hope you enjoyed this week's episode. Just a reminder that this podcast is

for educational purposes only. This podcast is not a substitute for professional care by a doctor or other qualified medical professional. This podcast is provided on the understanding that it does not constitute medical or other professional advice or services. If you're looking for help in your journey, seek out a qualified medical practitioner. If you're looking for a functional medicine practitioner, you can visit ifm.org and search their find a practitioner database. It's important that you have someone in your corner who's trained, who's a licensed healthcare practitioner, and can help you make changes, especially when it comes to your health.