Ian Somerhalder is getting torched after a July 1 Instagram Story made his supplement hustle look a little too close to cancer-cure territory.
The Vampire Diaries star posted screenshots of customer messages claiming tumors were shrinking, then added a link to his supplement line with the words, “get what your body needs here.”
One message claimed, “My husband has 80-100 tumor masses that are all over his body,” before adding that “for the first time in 15 years not only have new ones stopped coming in, but the existing ones are shrinking.” Another message suggested berberine “might be what is shrinking his tumors,” and thanked the company because “these supplements are helping my husband, best friend and soulmate come back to life.”
While Somerhalder did not directly claim that berberine pills from The Absorption Company — which he co-owns with his wife, Nikki Reed — cure cancer, he deleted the posts shortly after they went live.
The backlash hit fast. One Reddit user, whose mother is battling cancer, wrote that they support “natural remedies to ease their ailments,” but slammed posts claiming supplements “shrinks cancer cells” or “eliminates them completely” with “no studies to back up their claims.” The user warned that those messages can give patients “a false sense of hope,” especially when chemo or radiation may be doing the actual work.
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center lists berberine as a supplement with potential drug-interaction risks, including possible effects on bosutinib, an oral chemotherapy, and increased blood levels of tacrolimus and cyclosporine. Clinical research has also explored berberine for colorectal adenoma recurrence, meaning precancerous polyps, not as a treatment for active cancer.
The controversy lands in the middle of Somerhalder and Reed’s very polished post-Hollywood rebrand. Reed recently appeared solo on Dr. Will Cole’s The Art of Being Well to discuss her postpartum health crisis and the couple’s supplement company.
Somerhalder has also been selling the farm-life pivot hard, recently telling Fox News Digital that leaving Hollywood and embracing regenerative agriculture “shifted my life forever.” He called Reed “this earth goddess” and said he misses the people from acting, not “the work.”
