How to live longer? And how to improve your stem cell health?

The book “Life Force“, written by Tony Robbins, Peter Diamandis and Robert Hariri, wants to answer these questions.

This critical scientific overview of “Life Force” explores some of the topics covered by Tony Robbins, including stem cell therapies, nutrition, and achieving optimal health.

Tony Robbins is a well-known bestselling author and productivity coach. 

Peter Diamandis is a medical doctor and aerospace engineer, bestselling author, co-founder of Singularity University and founder of the XPRIZE, while Dr. Hariri is a surgeon and biotech entrepreneur who is currently CEO of Celularity, a stem cell company. 

They co-wrote a book on longevity; more specifically about the latest breakthroughs in medicine and biotechnology to slow down aging, prevent disease, and maximize energy and strength.

According to the authors, “Life Force will show you how you can wake up every day with increased energy, a more bulletproof immune system, and the know-how to help turn back your biological clock. This is a book for everyone, from peak performance athletes, to the average person who wants to increase their energy and strength, to those looking for healing.”

Life Force – How to live longer, healthier

It’s well-known that Tony Robbins has been very interested in health and longevity (R). And so are we! 

After all, you can’t be productive and be the best version of yourself if you don’t also focus on keeping your body and brain healthy. 

Tony Robbins emphasizes a healthy diet and supplements for a long, healthy life. We wrote about the best longevity diet here, and we explain what we believe are the best, science-based anti-aging supplements here. 

Besides nutrition and supplements, Tony Robbins also recommends many other things to improve health and longevity, like improving sleep and having a positive mindset. 

In this regard, we highlighted 50 of the best tips to sleep here. 

And to improve positive thinking, we gathered dozens of tips here. Happiness is something you can learn! 

Tony Robbins and longevity biotechnology 

Besides lifestyle, Tony Robbins also focuses on novel biotechnologies to extend lifespan. 

For example, he, Peter Diamandis and others raised $250 million for Celularity, a company that uses stem cells to improve health (R). 

Tony Robbins is also one of the founding partners of Fountain Life (R), a company that offers stem cell therapies for rejuvenation.  

Given Tony Robbins’ investments in several stem cell companies, it’s clear that Tony Robbins is a big proponent of stem cell therapies for longevity. He also receive stem cell therapies (R).

Stem cells create novel cells and maintain cells. For example, mesenchymal stem cells create fat cells, bone cells and cartilage cells. Skin stem cells create skin cells, gut stem cells create gut cells, and so on.  

When we age, stem cell function, and the amount of stem cells in our body declines (as we explain here). This leads to our tissues being less replenished with novel cells, and being less properly maintained. 

This contributes to wrinkles, a decline in muscle function, reduced blood vessel health, and so on. 

So fixing your stem cells is clearly very important. 

Stem cell therapies and longevity  

However, improving stem cell health is easier said than done. 

The old idea was to just inject stem cells into your body. These stem cells would travel to places where they are needed in the body, and settle there (a process called “grafting”), start dividing and create novel cells that would replace the damaged or disappeared cells. 

After many years of research, however, it became clear that it’s not that straightforward (R). 

Stem cells are very fragile, and when injecting them into the body, many of them already die because of the change in temperature, shear stress, and change in pH (acidity). 

Many stem cells injected into the blood also get trapped into the lungs, and thus do not reach the places where they are needed. Furthermore, this trapping of stem cells in the lungs can block blood vessels in the lungs, causing pulmonary embolism (R).

The very few cells that survive and do reach the tissues, do not graft well; they cannot nestle themselves well into the tissues. 

And the very few cells that do graft, often do not live long; after a few hours or days most of them die off. 

Luckily, there are ways to deal with this. 

Novel kinds of stem cell therapies 

To improve the survival and grafting of stem cells, one can genetically reprogram stem cells to become stronger and more resistant to being injected or transplanted.

Stem cells can also be genetically modified so they graft better, and can survive longer in often hostile (e.g. in an old or pro-inflammatory) environment. 

One can also use younger stem cells, like stem cells derived from the placenta or umbilical cord. These cells seem to be stronger and graft better, and also suffer less from immune rejection. That is what Celularity is exploring. 

Also, the stem cell therapies Fountain is offering come from the placenta (R).  

Beyond stem cell therapies 

Scientists are also starting to look beyond stem cells. Scientists saw that despite stem cells not grafting and staying only for a short while in the body, some stem cell therapies could lead to beneficial effects (R). 

Scientists believe this because during the brief period in the body, stem cells secrete substances, like exosomes, that can lead to beneficial effects (R). 

Exosomes are small particles, released by cells, that contain proteins, peptides, RNA and other molecules. Exosomes can travel to neighboring cells or can be carried via the bloodstream to reach cells all over the body. The cells take up the exosomes and their cargo is released in these cells. 

Some scientists call exosomes “stem cell 2.0” therapy. 

Another approach is to expose our cells, including our stem cells, to factors that can rejuvenate stem cells. One way is by exposing them to “young blood factors”; these are substances found in young blood (or that are actually absent in old blood) which can rejuvenate tissues. 

When old stem cells are exposed to these young blood factors they become rejuvenated (R,R,R,R,R). 

How to improve stem cell health? 

The therapies Tony Robbins invests in to improve stem cell health are very novel and also very costly.

After all, it’s not easy to come by young placental stem cells, extract them, multiply them and then reintroduce them into the body. 

Are there ways to improve stem cell health in general? For example by taking small oral molecules? 

Yes! Various substances have been shown to be able to support stem cell health. They can do this in various ways, for example by protecting stem cells against DNA damage, reducing inflammation which impedes stem cell functioning, lengthening the telomeres of stem cells, helping to maintain the epigenome in stem cells, and so on.

We listed for you some of the most interesting science-based supplements to boost stem cell health.

Science-based supplements to improve stem cell health 

1. Alpha-ketoglutarate 

For example, alpha-ketoglutarate (AKG) can support stem cell health (R,R,R). It can do this by improving the metabolism and epigenetics of stem cells. 

It should therefore also not be surprising that AKG has shown to increase lifespan and healthspan in different organisms (R). 

You can learn more about alpha-ketoglutarate and longevity here. 

2. NMN (nicotinamide mononucleotide) 

NMN is a substance that increases NAD levels in our cells. NAD is a pivotal molecule to protect and repair DNA and the epigenome, including in stem cells. 

NMN can improve and protect stem cells such as mesenchymal stem cells that form bone and fat tissue (R,R). 

Learn more about the anti-aging effects of NMN here. 

3. Glycine 

Glycine is a naturally-occuring substance in our body; in fact, it’s an amino acid. However, during aging, levels of glycine decline. 

Glycine has shown to improve stem cell health (R,R). It can do this by protecting proteins in cells, or by inducing autophagy, which is the digestion of cellular waste. 

Learn more about the anti-aging effects of glycine here. 

4. Low-dose lithium 

Lithium is a mineral found everywhere in nature. 

Low-dose lithium can lengthen telomeres. Fast-dividing cells like stem cells need long telomeres to keep dividing, as we explain here. 

Low levels of lithium in the drinking water have been associated with increased lifespan in humans (R,R). Giving mice and other organisms low levels of lithium increases their lifespan (R,R,R,R,R). 

Learn more about lithium and longevity here. 

5. Glucosamine 

Glucosamine has been associated with reduced mortality in humans (R,R), and can extend lifespan in animals (R,R). 

Glucosamine can for example help mesenchymal stem cells to generate cartilage cells (R). Glucosamine can also improve stem cell proliferation in the gut (R,R). 

Learn more about glucosamine and longevity here.

6. Fisetin 

Substances like fisetin reduce inflammation (R,R) and help the body to clear senescent cells, leading to an increased lifespan (R). 

Fisetin has shown to reduce aging-related increase in inflammation and lower toxic substances senescent cells secrete which damage stem cells (R). 

We explain more about fisetin and longevity here.

7. Vitamin C

Vitamin C can also improve stem cell health (R,R). 

But ideally, vitamin C has help from alpha-ketoglutarate, given these two substances are substrates for important epigenetic enzymes, such as the TET enzymes (R). 

We go deeper into the role of vitamin C and longevity here.

Conclusion 

We very much applaud books like “Life Force”. 

Not only can such books improve the health of many people, and potentially extend their lifespan; they can also generate more awareness around longevity and slowing down aging. 

Tony Robbins both embraces “low-tech” and “high-tech” approaches to longevity. The low-tech approaches are things like food, supplements, proper sleep, stress reduction and other lifestyle interventions. 

The high-tech approach involves things like novel stem cell therapies. 

It’s clear that the future of longevity will follow these two approaches; both will be very important to lead a long, healthy life, as we explain here. 

If you are interested in other books about longevity, we listed the best books here.