Health
As Ozzy Osbourne announces stem cell therapy, experts urge caution, highlight risks
As rock legend Ozzy Osbourne has turned to stem cell therapy, some experts caution that it’s not for everyone.
At the start of his latest episode of “Ozzy Speaks” on SiriusXM with Billy Morrison, Osbourne revealed that he recently returned from a follow-up appointment “after having some stem cells put in me.”
The rocker also had a previous treatment approximately three months ago, as he stated in the episode.
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“The thing is, you have it, and you go, ‘I don’t feel that great,’ but I don’t know what it would be like if I didn’t have it,” Osbourne said.
In the past several years, the musician has struggled with several serious medical problems that have impacted his mobility, including Parkinson’s disease, per a report.
Rock legend Ozzy Osbourne has turned to stem cell therapy — but some experts are cautioning that it’s not for everyone. (Getty Images/iStock)
After he first started stem cell treatment in 2020, he wanted “to be a part of the world again,” his daughter Kelly Osbourne said in a report at the time.
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“Seeing, after one treatment of stem cell, what has happened and the progress that he’s made is mind-blowing,” she added.
Fox News Digital reached out Ozzy Osbourne for comment.
Below is an overview of the treatment — and what to know about the risks and benefits.
What are stem cells?
Stem cells are found in almost every tissue in the body, according to the Mayo Clinic website.
Some stem cells repair tissues after injury, while others have the potential to become different types of cells, such as brain cells, muscle cells in the heart or bone cells.
“We routinely use cellular therapies, including stem cells, to treat cancers of the blood and bone marrow,” Dr. Mikkael Sekeres, chief of the division of hematology of Sylvester Cancer Center at the University of Miami, told Fox News Digital.
Some stem cells repair tissues after injury — while others have the potential to become different types of cells, such as brain cells, muscle cells in the heart or bone cells. (iStock)
“The theory is, we can give high doses of chemotherapy to people who have these cancers to eliminate the cancer, but those therapies may have such a high dose that we could wipe out the healthy cells in the bone marrow,” he said.
Alternatively, the doctor went on, experts can “rescue” the bone marrow by giving stem cells to a patient from a healthy donor.
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Another advantage is that the healthy donor stem cells will produce a new immune system to attack and eliminate any remaining cancer, Sekeres added.
“Use of stem cells in this way has saved tens of thousands of lives,” he noted.
Therapies ‘largely experimental’
Stem cell therapies are only approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat certain cancers of the blood and immune system, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
In 2023, the FDA also approved a cord blood-based cell therapy to decrease the risk of infection after stem cell transplants.
Ozzy Osbourne is seen for the first time in this image since announcing he was canceling his tour due to medical concerns. (MEGA for Fox News Digital)
“Stem cell therapy given for other reasons is largely experimental and unproven,” Sekeres noted.
Despite its potential benefits, stem cell therapy isn’t considered a “silver bullet” for Parkinson’s disease treatment, according to Dr. Michael S. Okun, a Florida-based medical advisor to the Parkinson’s Foundation.
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“Though there have been many advances in stem cell technology, the realization that Parkinson’s is a disease of more than just dopamine underscores the importance of multidisciplinary treatment,” Okun, who is also the executive director of the Norman Fixel Institute for Neurological Diseases University of Florida Health in Gainesville, Florida, told Fox News Digital.
All stem cell products require the FDA’s approval, according to the agency’s website.
“Folks interested in Parkinson’s stem cell therapy should be cautious if ever offered a treatment,” Okun said.
Despite its potential benefits, stem cell therapy isn’t considered a “silver bullet” for Parkinson’s disease treatment, a doctor warned. (iStock)
“We recommend requesting a copy of the institutional review board approval, which is a document verifying that investigators have been authorized to perform research in a human population.”
(An institutional review board ensures ethical treatment of research subjects.)
“Since stem cell therapy is still investigational, you should never be charged to participate in a research trial,” Okun noted.
“Folks interested in Parkinson’s stem cell therapy should be cautious if ever offered a treatment.”
“There is a large market for ‘stem cell tourism,’ in which people may be charged large sums of money, and in some cases irreversible side effects may follow a transplant.”
Potential adverse side effects
One type of stem cell therapy is a stem cell transplant, which involves infusing another person’s stem cells into the recipient’s body.
Sometimes these stem cells come from the bone marrow, which is known as a bone marrow transplant, according to experts.
In other cases, they are harvested from a baby’s umbilical cord, which is known as a cord blood transplant.
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Some people may experience symptoms of rejection if their immune system recognizes the donor stem cells as “foreign” and starts to attack them.
Acute symptoms may include an itchy rash, diarrhea, general malaise, shortness of breath and yellowing of the eyes, according to the National Health Service.
All stem cell products require the FDA’s approval, according to the agency’s website. (iStock)
Longer-term complications may include infertility, various cancers, cataracts, bone or muscle weakness, and damage to certain organs, such as the liver, kidney, lung or heart, per the National Cancer Institute’s website.
Stem cell therapy should not be viewed as a “fountain of youth,” Sekeres cautioned.
Previous research published in JAMA Network Open discovered a multi-bacterial outbreak among patients who received unapproved products that were marketed as stem cell therapies, he pointed out.
To verify that a therapy is FDA-approved, the agency recommends emailing ocod@fda.hhs.gov for information, according to its website.
Fox News Digital reached out to the FDA for further comment.
For more Health articles, visit www.foxnews.com/health.
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Humans have been chewing gum for thousands of years, long after the flavor fades and without any clear nutritional benefit.
The habit dates back at least 8,000 years to Scandinavia, where people chewed birchbark pitch to soften it into a glue for tools. Other ancient cultures, including the Greeks, Native Americans and the Maya, also chewed tree resins for pleasure or soothing effects, National Geographic recently reported.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, William Wrigley Jr. transformed chewing gum from a novelty into a mass consumer habit through relentless and innovative marketing. His brands, including Juicy Fruit and Spearmint, promoted gum as a way to calm nerves, curb hunger and stay focused.
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“Are you worried? Chew gum,” an article from 1916 said, according to Kerry Segrave’s book, “Chewing Gum in America, 1850-1920: The Rise of an Industry.” “Do you lie awake at night? Chew gum,” it continued. “Are you depressed? Is the world against you? Chew gum.”
Advertisements have long framed chewing gum as a tool for stress relief and mental sharpness. (Keystone View Company/FPG/Archive Photos/Getty Images)
In the 1940s, a study found chewing resulted in lower tension but couldn’t say why.
“The gum-chewer relaxes and gets more work done,” The New York Times wrote at the time about the study’s results.
Gum became an early form of wellness, and companies are trying to revive that idea today as gum sales decline, according to National Geographic.
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But only now are scientists finally beginning to understand the biology behind those long-standing beliefs.
Chewing gum may briefly affect attention and stress-related brain activity, according to studies. (iStock)
A 2025 review by researchers at the University of Szczecin in Poland analyzed more than three decades of brain-imaging studies to examine what happens inside the brain when people chew gum. Using MRI, EEG and near-infrared spectroscopy research, the authors found that chewing alters brain activity in regions tied to movement, attention and stress regulation.
The findings help clarify why the seemingly pointless task can feel calming or focusing, even once the flavor has faded.
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Chewing gum activated not only the brain’s motor and sensory networks involved in chewing, but also higher-order regions linked to attention, alertness and emotional control, the review found. EEG studies found brief shifts in brain-wave patterns linked to heightened alertness and what researchers call “relaxed concentration.”
Humans have chewed gum for pleasure for thousands of years, according to reports. (iStock)
“If you’re doing a fairly boring task for a long time, chewing seems to be able to help with concentration,” Crystal Haskell-Ramsay, a professor of biological psychology at Northumbria University, told National Geographic.
The review also supports earlier findings that gum chewing can ease stress, but only in certain situations. In laboratory experiments, people who chewed gum during mildly stressful tasks such as public speaking or mental math often reported lower anxiety levels than those who didn’t.
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Chewing gum did not, however, consistently reduce anxiety in high-stress medical situations, such as immediately before surgery, and it offered no clear benefit when participants faced unsolvable problems designed to induce frustration.
Some studies suggest chewing gum can reduce stress in mild situations but not extreme ones. (iStock)
Across multiple studies, people who chewed gum did not remember lists of words or stories better than those who didn’t, the researchers also found, and any boost in attention faded soon after chewing stopped.
Gum may simply feed the desire to fidget, experts suspect.
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“Although these effects are often short-lived, the range of outcomes … underscores chewing gum’s capacity to modulate brain function beyond simple oral motor control,” the researchers wrote.
“However, at this time, the neural changes associated with gum chewing cannot be directly linked to the positive behavioral and functional outcomes observed in studies,” they added.
A 2025 review analyzed decades of MRI, EEG and near-infrared spectroscopy studies on gum chewing. (iStock)
Future research should address longer-term impacts, isolate flavor or stress variables and explore potential therapeutic applications, the scientists said.
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The findings also come with caveats beyond brain science. Although sugar-free gum may help reduce cavities, Fox News Digital has previously reported that dentists warn acids, sweeteners and excessive chewing may harm teeth or trigger other side effects.
Fox News Digital has reached out to the study’s authors for comment.
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