Comic spends thousands on stem cell therapy

John Cleese is undergoing stem cell therapy in a bid to stay young.

The Fawlty Towers star credits the experimental treatment with helping him look younger than his 79 years.

The comic told Steve Wright on Radio 2: ‘I think stem cell therapy is the most extraordinary thing and of course, I'm sorry to say, it's not cheap.’

He explained: 'Stem cells are basically cells at such an early stage of development that they haven't decided what sort of cells they're going to become.

'So if they are introduced into your body, the body doesn't recognise them as foreign objects so it doesn't reject them, and they go around your body saying, "Do you need our services today?"

‘The knee says "I need you over here:, and they go over and turn into knee cells and help to repair the damage.

'I've been doing that for some years and the astonishing thing is that you don't hear much about it. I look younger than my age and it's entirely down to stem cell therapy and not because I'm a wonderful person, which I am, but that doesn't affect my looks.’

 The human body’s supply of stem cells naturally falls with age, and injections to replace them cost between £4,000 and £20,000 a time, However, the jury is still out on whether they have any more medical effect than a placebo.

In 2017, the US Food and Drug Administration warned consumers to avoid stem cell therapies that the regulator has not approved, unless they are part of a registered research trial.

Cleese's sitcom Hold The Sunset has just returned to BBC One.

Published: 4 Aug 2019