A friend sent me some information about an X39 patch that activates stem cells to support overall wellness and vitality. Have you heard about it and do you think this is the next frontier in health and wellness?
Touch wood this answer goes down well. In preparing for this response I made sure I did not spill any salt during lunch and did not walk under any ladders. Fingers crossed, I’ve done enough.
Call me superstitious, but I find it’s best to hedge your bets. Everyone reading this publication knows about the rationale behind investment hedges, which are far more considered and educated than bets — or are they?
Those who pre-empted the current market turbulence and decided to increase their exposure to, say, gold are smiling smugly while they sip their coffee this morning.
My immediate answer is that if you are going to invest in, or bet on, a patch that activates stem cells through the body’s own infrared light, it’s best to hedge your bet. Perhaps exercise and eat well. I had never heard of the product, but after doing some “desktop research”, I feel as though I’m writing the script for a Netflix documentary.
For those who don’t know, X39 patches by LifeWave claim to use a unique, patented light-activated technology that uses the body’s own infrared light to naturally elevate GHK-Cu, or copper peptide, without external light sources. LifeWave says that it developed this technology after 10 years of stem cell research that resulted in more than 70 patents.
All you need to do is apply the patches to your body — behind the neck is best, I believe — where it interacts with the body’s natural light and biochemical processes to do a host of good things. These include naturally increasing vitality and energy production, supporting the creation of younger, healthier cells and helping to improve strength, stamina and overall wellness.
And the natural, alternative, New Age crowd went wild! The average price for patches appears to be R3,600, just short of R90 a day for a sticky placebo. If anyone selling this reads Business Day, they need not worry, no opinion of mine will affect their revenue streams. Humanity has proven for decades that there’s a (substantive) captive audience of gullible people, especially when it comes to health promises and “special” investments. Sounds too good to be true? Gimme some!
But why listen to me? I am a well-known cynic. Paul Knoepfler is a professor in the department of cell biology and human anatomy, the Genome Center and Comprehensive Cancer Center at the Davis School of Medicine at the University of California. That sounds slightly more intimidating than “Business Day Columnist”.
Writing about the X39 product in his publication, The Niche, which in its own words is the “top, most authoritative stem cell and regenerative medicine blog on the web”, he says: “I found six papers from a PubMed search for ‘LifeWave’. None of the papers provide concrete evidence to back up the claims about the patches in my view.” He goes on: “While LifeWave points to clinical studies ... in support of their X39 patches, the studies I found on these patches, in my opinion, are not convincing as they were small, had questionable or unclear methods ... were not registered on Clinicaltrials.gov, and were not published in what I consider rigorous journals that are listed on PubMed.”
While he goes into detail, a recurring theme emerges throughout: “Some folks on the web even claim that no side-effects are possible, which is, of course, false. Anything that can activate one’s stem cells, assuming for one second that that claim is true, has the potential to do unhelpful things.
“Overall, given the high cost and uncertainties, I would not recommend this product.” Towards the end of the review, he discusses the authors of the papers on GHK-Cu that LifeWave cites. He points out that co-author Anna Margolina is a hypnotist now and has a YouTube channel where she uses a puppet to make her points.
You can’t make this up. Perhaps this whole thing does make sense, after all.
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