#3003: Bryn Henderson

No, you can not.

We’ve talked about stem cell quackery a number of times before – but then it is a serious issue: Stem cell clinics in the US and beyond keep preying on people in genuinely shitty situations with ‘experimental’ but evidence-free, expensive and potentially dangerous cures and treatment regimes, sometimes accompanied by credulous anecdotes of “miraculous recoveries”. And people in shitty and desperate situations are easy targets for cynical and/or delusional grifters and woo-providers – they don’t, after all, even need to promise anything, since a mere glimmer of hope will usually do to part their victims from their savings (and said victims will often not be in any position afterwards to file any complaint).

 

One such business is (or was) the Regenerative Medical Group (RMG). RMG has claimed to provide “induced pluri-potent stem cells from your own cells via an affiliated laboratory” to not only regenerate cartilage and repair injury but to treat Parkinson’s disease, macular degeneration, cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis, osteoarthritis, strokes, chronic kidney disease, and cardiovascular disease and even (of course) autism – executive director of RMG, Bryn J. Henderson (DO, JD, FACPE, CIME), claimed that RMG has helped “dozens” of children with autism using stem cells. As Henderson sees it, the stem cells circulate through the body, cross the blood-brain barrier and “make new cells” that change the course and prognosis of these kids and that most of the time, the change is major, along several parameters. If you wonder about the evidence for such claims you’ll look in vain beyond some alleged testimonials. Note also that there are, in fact, no actual live stem cells in the “amniotic stem cell treatments” people like Henderson and companies like the RMG are offering.

 

Now, although authorities have struggled (or been hesitant) to address the problem, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) was ultimately sufficiently fed up with Henderson’s deceptive nonsense to bring deceptive advertising charges against him and his companies (in addition to RMG, Henderson was running something called Telehealth Medical Group) in 2018, in particular over his claims that amniotic stem cell therapies could restore the vision of blind people and “reverse autism symptoms.”

 

We’re actually not sure about the status of RMG these days, but Henderson is at least currently affiliated with something called InnovateMed, where he is described as an authority on regenerative medicine. 

 

Diagnosis: Well, maybe he’s learned something? We’re not particularly optimistic, though.