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Stem cell therapy
Has anybody tried stem cell therapy? At first it seemed as if it was only available outside the U.S. with costs ranging from about $12- to $25K, all of which is out-of-pocket plus the travel costs. I checked out three outfits. The closest facility to my home in the Northeast is just the other side of Cuba in the Cayman Islands where they charge $25K. The next closest is in Tijuana where they charge as low as $11,500 if you get your 50 percent deposit in more than a month before your appointment date. The third one is in Belgrade, Serbia where they charge from 15- to 25,000 euros.
Meanwhile, according to doctor.webmd.com there are stem cell clinics all over the place. I’m going to start calling right after I get up tomorrow to see if any are for real.
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9 Replies
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Steve, these kind of stem cell therapies you’re mentioning, where you have to pay many thousands of dollars in places like Cayman Islands are not real, they are scams. The largest research centers (hospitals and universities) and serious organizations, like Michael J. Fox Foundation and Parkinson UK, none of these places endorse these private clinics and therapies that have no control – therefore countries like the United States, Canada and England don’t offer or approves any of these miraculous treatments. Much has been tried over the years when it comes to Stem Cells, but the results were not significant because of the difficulty of stem cells to reach the brain because of the blood-brain barrier, that prevent blood and viruses to get to the brain. Only recently, universities as Cambridge (UK), Malmoe (Sweden), Kyoto (Japan) and last couple of years ago, the hospital where I got my DBS done, Toronto Western started a trial implanting pluripotent Stem Cells straight inside the brain. The final results are not here yet, it takes a few years until they can reach a conclusion. This is the only stem cells treatment with the potential of stopping the disease and even recovering the damage done by PD, but it’s not offered for regular patients. I volunteered to be one of the very first people to try it in North America, however, last minute my neurosurgeon decided no to take me, because back then my daughter was only 5 years old and the risks were to bug and unknown for a father of a young child to take. The main risk is that the stem cells can be growing uncontrollably and become a brain tumor. Instead they gave me DBS and I’m very glad I did, it has been working great for me.
Don’t fall for this kind of solution, they’re going to take your money and your health away.
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I totally agree with Fabio. some of my patients with lethal diseases have sold their houses to go to Bahamas, Mexico to try out therapies that have shown to be failures in U.S.
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Steve, I have PD and became interested in regenerative medicine and have been wondering myself if there is potential for using stem cells to stimulate regeneration of dopamine-producing neurons in the brain. However, the problem with using stem cells for neurodegenerative diseases is getting them into the brain, because they are too large to pass through the blood/brain barrier.
This is when I came across Exosomes, which are much smaller “vesicles” (containers) which carry biochemical messages between cells and stimulate regeneration. These CAN pass through the BBB and I have been finding more literature appearing in PubMed and other places about Exosomes bringing some significant benefit to Parkinson’s patients.
I am certainly not a professional nor am I advocating Exosome treatment for PD (more research is needed), but I do want to raise people’s awareness that there is some reason to be hopeful here. For starters, try googling “mesenchymal exosomes parkinsons” and take a look at what comes up.
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Hi. Optimal stem cell therapy approaches, based on the extensive work of Frey, von-Swhartz (Secrets of stem cell therapy) and others can be delivered much less expensive that the citations quoted. For Parkinsons, the data has led to believe (based primarily with studies using animals) that the best approach is the use of high quality mesenchymal/cord/Wharton’s Jelly and exosomes. If done IV, few get to the brain past the BBB and use of an IV filter (150 microns) is recommended for any IV application due to embolism risk. To get past the BBB one must use a sphenocath (spenocath.com).
If one has further questions, fell free to call me on my cell at 510 913 1366.
Sincerely,
EC, FNP
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What Faio said. There is a reason all these treatments are on small islands outside the reach of any regulatory agency. They are scams!
Stem cells for PD are still in the research stage–and if you are lucky(?) enough to get in a study it would be FREE. Otherwise, we just aren’t there yet.
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My husband had stem cell therapy in San Diego in 2015 at Stem Genex. They required ekg and blood work and more from his Doctor. Once he qualified they made all of the arrangements. The procedure required a mini-liposuction to harvest his own stem cells. The SC are isolated from the fat and incubated and combined with platelet growth factors taken from a blood draw. The activated stem cell solution is infused by intravenous IV and intranasally because they understood the difficulty of getting past the blood brain barrier they also used another technique as well, too much info to explain. We wish they could have cultured them over several days to acquire a larger number but the FDA then considers your own SC a drug and will not allow. Much to tell, so how did he do? His facial expressions were back, sense of smell back almost immediately, energy way up, walking better and many people commented on how much better he looked. Obviously there is much more information but this response is long enough. We would go back for a second treatment but unfortunately Stem Genex was sued and they closed. They treated many conditions and stated “Each condition and patient is unique and there is no guarantee of what results will be achieved “ but a patient that had no improvement sued and won . We have not found another clinic in the US with the efficacy that they provided.
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Steve, your story illustrates one of the problems of emerging technology. The truth is not all unapproved treatments are scams but they could be. It’s very hard for the consumer to know what’s legit and what isn’t. I ask providers for their outcome data (if they have any) and make my own judgements as to risk/benefits. I have not tried stem cell therapy though this approach looks to be very promising.
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You guys need to check out Hope Biosciences in Sugarland, TX. I’m very fortunate to be taking part in one of their Stem Cell Trials. It’s all still experimental not publicly available yet. And I’ve only had 2 infusions BUT I have been feeling better. Just saying…….. Keep this place on your radar cuz good things are happening……
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Hi, There is a type of “stem cell” therapy that is showing promise in clinical trials, that is growing new brain motor neurons from stem cells to replace those lost from Parkinson’s. I there are groups working on this in the US, England/Sweden, and Japan.
The trial that I am part of can be found here:
https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT04802733
Phase 2 trials will probable start recruiting next year.
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