STC30 SuperLife
Summary of this article:
- Some African consumers contacted us through our email address: alert@afcopa.com and requested that we look in to the product Superlife Total Care 30 (STC30) from the company Superlife World
- STC30 is a powder which contains fruit extracts, fruit juice powders and Vitamin C
- Many marketers of the product claim this product contains stem cells, which as we will show, is absolutely false
- Some African Consumers stopped taking their prescribed medication in the misguided belief that STC30 can cure them
- We interviewed a medical doctor in Cameroon who was recommended to us by distributors of STC30 but were only offered anecdotal evidence regarding its healing health claims
- Dr. Fred Zülli, CEO of Mibelle Biochemistry, the company which manufactures the plant stem cell extracts in STC30, has issued a statement to African Consumer Protection Agency regarding the healing claims made by marketers of STC30. Read his statement below
- Finally, we followed two patients , a man and a woman who were both diagnosed with diabetes type 2 and high blood pressure for 4 and 3 months respectively while they consumed STC30
- African Consumer Protection Agency is issuing the lowest possible AFCOPA Score of F for misleading African Consumers into thinking that STC30 can interact with stem cells to cure diseases.
Main Article
African Consumer Protection Agency has conducted a detailed review of the health claims and efficacy of the product Superlife Total Care 30 (STC30) produced by the company Superlife World.
In this article, we shall walk you through the process of our investigation and explain how we reached our verdict concerning the product STC30.
AFCOPA was first alerted to the product STC30 in July of 2020, as the covid-19 pandemic was rapidly spreading and affecting many countries around the world.
The first alert was sent to us by a Nigerian lady living in the United Kingdom through our email address alert@afcopa.com. She was concerned because her sister who has high blood pressure and diabetes had started taking STC30 and simultaneously stopped taking her prescribed medications. Other people reported their concerns with the health claims made by marketers of STC30.
We immediately decided to look into the product and the claims made about its health benefits.
Let´s start by stating some facts about STC30:
- STC30 is packaged and sold by the company Superlife World, based in Malaysia.
- STC30 stands for Super life total Care 30, though some marketers and consumers of the product have been heard referring to it as stem cell 30
- STC30 comes in a packet containing 15 sachets with a total cost of about 65.99 Euros (approx. 31436 Naira; 76.60 Dollars)
- Each sachet contains 1.5g of a dry powder, of which 1.4g (93.3%) are carbohydrates.
The product page on Superlife´s website lists the ingredients of STC30 as follows:
• PhytoCellTec® Malus Domestica ( Apple Stem Cell Extract)
• PhytoCellTec® Solar Vitis (Grape Stem Cell Extract)
• GliSoDin® (Cantaloupe Extract)
• Blackcurrant Juice Powder
• Bilberry Extract
• Vitamin C
Two of the these ingredients, PhytoCellTec® Malus Domestica and PhytoCellTec® Solar Vitis are supplied to Superlife World by the company Mibelle Biochemistry based in Switzerland. The ingredient GliSoDin® is supplied to Superlife World by ISOCELL Nutra based in France.
In the course of our investigation, we contacted the CEO of Mibelle Biochemistry Dr. Fred Zülli who patented and tested the stem cell preparations, and we also contacted the CEO of ISOCELL NUTRA Francois Vix. Dr. Fred Zulli promptly replied to our inquiry, but we have not yet heard from Francois Vix of ISOCELLL Nutra. More on what we learned from Dr. Fred Zülli later.
There are many Health Claims made in relation to STC30. A Health Claim is any statement about the relationship between food and its effect on health. In countries with established consumer protection systems, health claims made by manufacturers must be approved by fact-checking government agencies in order to prevent manufacturers from misinforming and misleading consumers. Manufacturers must hence submit evidence that their products have the stated health effects.
We encountered many marketers on Facebook, YouTube, Whatsapp Groups, Amazon as well as users who claimed that STC30 could cure Diabetes mellitus, sickle cell, all kinds of cancers, high blood pressure, Covid-19, stroke and even hemiplegia.
When we inquired about how a formulation containing fruit powders and Vitamin C could cure so many diseases, we often received two types of explanations:
- STC30 contains plant stem cells which repair damaged tissues in our bodies
- STC30 activates stem cells in our bodies, which repair damaged tissues.
So we attended an online seminar organized by marketers of STC30. There, we learned that STC30 is marketed as a classic MLM (multilevel marketing). This means that the more new sellers an individual recruits, the more money the individual makes.
During the online seminar, there were no doctors or other healthcare experts who could answer our questions on how the product works.
We were however able to make direct contact with one of the organizers by showing interest in selling the product. We were asked to direct all our questions to a medical doctor in Cameroon. We decided not to reveal his identity for privacy and safety reasons. We could not verify, if he was an actual medical doctor or not.
We called the doctor and recorded the call. He told us that he is a medical doctor and started the discussion with a summary of what STC30 is as well as its ingredients. He then immediately went on to explain to us what stem cells are and how they work to replace damaged tissue in our bodies. He basically gave us a summary of what we had read on the STC30 webpage. We immediately asked him if there are stem cells in STC30. He admitted that there are no stem cells in the product. He confirmed what we had already found out, which is that STC30 contains the dried extracts of plant stem cells, but no living cells. This is a very important point to note.
He told us that he had been using STC30 on his patients who were making miraculous recoveries. As an example, he told us of a woman who had breast cancer and was healed after taking STC30. When we asked if this was his patient and if he could walk us through the timeline of the treatment and medical reports, he quickly answered that it was a patient of a friend and he did not know the woman personally. But he added that there were many examples of such breast cancer cures due to STC30, even though he had not treated any of the patients personally.
He offered us another case of a seemingly miraculous cure of a young child who suffered from sickle cell disease. He told us that after the father watched his daughter suffer for many years, he decided to try STC30, and the child was healed. We were very skeptical about this information and decided to press for clarification. We asked him if he could explain how fruit powders plus a vitamin could cure sickle cell, which is an inherited genetic disorder? This would mean that STC30 is capable of rewriting the inherited genes of a person, which would lead to a whole host of problems for consumer safety. For example, how would the product know which genes to alter? Rewriting the genes for sickle cell would be equivalent to rewriting the genes for skin colour or height, or any other genetically determined physical attribute for that matter. Even the powerful gene editing tool called CRISPR is still in its infancy. Following our line of thought, he once more admitted that the girl with the sickle cell had not been his patient, but he had heard of the treatment form a colleague, and he admitted that he could not confirm that the girl had been healed, since sickle cell patients often have long periods when they are free of any symptoms.
We further pressed the doctor about how STC30 worked in the human body. He admitted that he could not tell how the product was able to accomplish all these feats of seemingly supernatural treatments, but he knew someone who could tell us. This was how he introduced us to the man who created the stem cell ingredients in STC30, Dr. Fred Zülli of Mibelle Biochemistry. Despite being unable to give us any factual information rather than anecdotes on STC30 during our 40 minute call, the Cameroonian man did however display knowledge which pointed to him being an actual medical doctor or at least a person who worked in the medical field. And since we were directed to him by marketers of STC30, it is safe to conclude that he is linked to the distribution of the product, leading to bias and lack of objectivity on his part.
After doing some research, we found out that the only studies which Mibelle Biochemistry had carried out with the stem cell extracts were in the area of cosmetic skin care. The results showed reduction of rings under the eyes of participants. You can read the study of the research here: https://mibellebiochemistry.com/phytocelltectm-md-nu
We contacted Dr. Fred Zülli on the 28th of October 2020 and asked if he could confirm that the plant stem cell extracts his company produced and supplied to Superlife World had the capability of curing human diseases such as cancer, diabetes, and hypertension. A short while later on the same day, Dr. Fred Zülli sent us a reply stating the following:
“This is to inform you that Mibelle Biochemistry has not done any studies on cancer or other medical treatments with our plant stem cells and we do also NOT support any claims mentioned below.”
This in itself is a very clear statement requiring no further explanation.
After receiving the statement from Dr. Fred Zülli, the president of African Consumer Protection Agency wrote to SuperLife World requesting clarification on the function and health claims of their product. We have not received any reply yet.
When we started our investigation in 2020, the product page for STC30 on the Superlife World official website stated the following:
“The Super Life STC30 (Superlife Total Care) prides itself as the origin of stem cell in treatment and prevention of diseases.”
The page then went on to describe the function of stem cells in humans.
The webpage has since been updated and as of the 28th of March 2022, here is what it says:
“A revolutionary formulation based on the Apple & Grape Stem Cells PhytoCellTecTM which increases the longevity of SKIN stem cells. Combines with GliSODin®, known as “the enzyme of Life”, STC30 helps to combat oxidative stress & strengthens the body´s natural antioxidant system.”
As of March 28th 2022, if you were to search for the term “superlife STC30” on google, one of the first results would be the website superlifeinternationale.com. On this website, we read the following about STC30: “Stem cells are inevitably the future of medicine! The STC30 is a new technology in the world of stem cell therapy.” The page further says: “The plant stem cells (apple and grape) contained in STC30 are extracted by PhytoCellTecTM technology from the prestigious MIBELLE Biochemistry laboratories in Switzerland”
This is a blatantly false statement as there are NO stem cells in STC30. Mibelle Biochemistry clearly describes their extracts produced under the PhytoCellTecTM brand as “liposomal preparations” and in one of the documents available on their website for download, they state: “the extract of Uttweiler Spätleuber (Malus domestica) stem cells was obtained after lysis of the plant stem cells.” Lysis is the scientific word for the disintegration of a cell by rupture of the cell wall or cell membrane. In other words, the cells are killed and broken down, and their contents extracted. There are NO stem cells in STC30, but rather, it contains the extracted contents of dead apple and grape stem cells, which according to Mibelle Biochemistry, could be useful in cosmetic skin lotions.
Furthermore, we know that the GliSoDin® (Cantaloupe Extract) in STC30 is an antioxidant, as well as the Black currant juice powder and Billberry extract. There is no evidence to suggest that any of these extracts and juice powders are capable of curing cancer, diabetes, sickle cell, stroke, hypertension or any other illnesses.
Despite all the information we had gathered, we still needed to know if there could be a holistic effect from the combination of the different ingredients in STC30, which each of them do not have on their own. So we followed a patient called Mark (name changed for privacy reasons). Mark, who is 55 years old lives in Bonn, Germany and was diagnosed with diabetes type 2 in 2009 as well as with arterial hypertension. He is originally from West Africa. In 2016, Mark had a stroke and has been partially paralyzed on the left side of his body ever since. Mark had agreed to inform us on the progress of his health when he started taking STC30 in March of 2020. After 4 months of using the powder daily, Mark did report having more energy in the first week of treatment. This effect could be as a result of the antioxidants in STC30, or a placebo effect. However, his blood pressure and blood sugar showed no improvement over the period of usage. His paralysis had not improved either.
We also followed a 45 year old woman from West Africa who lives in Aachen, Germany. She took the STC30 treatment for 3 months starting in May 2020. She had diabetes type 2 as well as high blood pressure. She had stopped taking her medications, something which should only be done after consulting a medical professional. We talked with her once every four days. At first she was ecstatic about how wonderful she felt about using STC30 without her prescribed medications. However by the end of the first month, she had had a hypertensive crisis, which in her opinion, was the result of too much stress. She however resumed taking her blood pressure and diabetes medications while also taking STC30.
After three months, we could see no improvement in her blood sugar levels or in her blood pressure.
Both of these patients were financially struggling, so buying packets of STC30 was a big financial burden for them. However, they had high hopes of miraculous healing due to the information they had been getting from the internet as well as from the people selling the product.
So here´s what we know so far:
- The manufacturer of the stem cell extracts found in STC30, Dr. Fred Zülli denies any healing effects attributed to their product.
- There are no studies done with STC30 by Superlife World that would demonstrate any of the healing claims made by marketers of the product
- Even Superlife World has redacted their STC30 page to remove any information that could be misinterpreted as STC30 having any stem cell activity which could heal diseases
So why are we still getting dozens of testimonies from African consumers every month in 2022 claiming that such illnesses as diabetes, stroke, high blood pressure, sickle cell, epilepsy, cancer, have been “miraculously cured” by STC30, when this product clearly can´t heal any illnesses?
We think there is an explanation for this paradoxical phenomenon, and here it is:
Superlife World initially recruited African influencers and key personalities to help market their product. This is not unusual since many companies also do this.
The recruited sellers were given the narrative of stem cell treatments which was also found on Superlife´s website.
These sellers of STC30 then created the initial hype around the product by using fabricated testimonies, sometimes with paid actors. It is possible that Superlife World knew that this is happening, and might have even encouraged this. It is Superlife World after all, who created the false stem cell narrative right from the beginning.
The first sellers then recruited new sellers who recruited more. In an MLM system, there is a huge incentive for sellers to recruit as many sellers as possible, since this increases their profit.
This leads to a very fast growing propaganda landscape driven by ever more unverified testimonies. The sellers start organizing events with paid actors who give pre-prepared testimonies. We know of at least one verified case of paid false testimony.
The excitement leads to many people who are ill deciding to take the powder with high expectations. Due to the placebo effect, some patients may feel that they are getting better. The sellers keep close contact to those consuming the powder thereby increasing the pressure on these patients to say they are feeling better. Any feeling of improvement which the patients report is blown out of proportion by the sellers who immediately push for public testimony from the patient, either during an event or on a recorded video which can be shared on social media. The testimonies are shared wide and far. However, for those who realize that the treatment did not work and they still feel sick, they may fear being accused of not following the prescription. These patients stay silent, even though their testimony of “miraculous healing” is circulating on the internet and on social media. As a result, you do not get patients who make negative testimonies to say that they are still sick and were not healed as they initially thought they were. This in turn means that you keep getting more and more positive testimonies, and no retraction from those who realized they were wrong. This gives the false impression that the treatment is effective due to the mounting number of positive testimonies.
Eventually, the number of people who are still sick despite taking the product reaches a certain critical number and the sales of the product start dropping. By this point the company has made millions and some sellers have gotten rich on the backs of those who are in desperate need of help.
All the company needs to do at this point is to rebrand the product, or stop the production to avoid any losses.
This is why we keep seeing new supplements coming in to Africa with claims of miraculous treatments. The products fly high for a few months or years and then disappear and then new ones come along.
Many of these products are marketed using the MLM system and they are propagated as described above. MLM systems are excellent in marketing such products because they bring high revenue very fast. In the absence of consumer protection agencies in much of Africa, manufacturers, mostly Asian manufacturers, can introduce product after product, and make millions of dollars from African consumers using MLM systems, while providing no evidence to support the health claims associated with the products.
Conclusion: While we did not see any evidence that STC30 poses a direct risk to the health of consumers, taking the powder as prescribed by the company is unlikely to heal any illnesses. A major health risk comes to those who stop taking prescribed medications, or delay a doctor´s visit, because they believe that STC30 is a stem cell treatment that can cure everything.
So once more, let us reiterate: STC30 is a fruit extract powder which does not contain any stem cells. It contains antioxidants, but is incapable of curing any illnesses.
We give Superlife World and its marketers the lowest possible consumer protection score, an F for misleading consumers in to believing that STC30 is capable of interacting with stem cells to cure diseases.
Authored by Team AFCOPA