Category Archives: Stem Cell Treatments

Does the Stem Cell treatment have any age requirements?

No, Stem Cell Of America accepts patients of all ages.

There are multiple factors in determining the cost of treatment. Please contact us to have your case evaluated.

No, the treatment is not covered by private or public health insurance.

Yes, we routinely accept patients from Canada, England, Australia and other countries all over the world.

Yes, the cells are tested for 14 different criteria, including viral, bacterial, and fungal infections, as well as viability. Moreover, we use PCR DNA testing, which is far more sophisticated and expensive than the screening tests routinely used in the United States for other Stem Cell treatments.

No, Fetal Stem Cellsare immune privileged. This means that you can give the cells to any patient without matching, use of immunosuppressive drugs and without rejection. Therefore they will not cause adverse reactions in the patient, such as graft-versus-host disease. Because of this special property of the cells there is no risk of rejection or adverse reaction, which can leave the body vulnerable to serious diseases and infection.

Our Fetal Stem Cell treatment has no known negative side effects.

A partial list of disease and conditions that Stem Cell of America has successfully treated includes:

Due to the rapid advances in Stem Cell science, some diseases or conditions may not be listed. Please contact us to get additional information.

Every person is of course different. Each of our bodys healing mechanisms work at a unique pace as they are influenced by many factors. Commonly, significant positive changes are seen between three to six months post treatment. At times, these changes can occur in as little as weeks or even days after receiving treatment.

After the first treatment, the Fetal Stem Cells will continue to proliferate and repair. Some patients choose to receive treatment more than one time to expedite the healing process. The decision is yours. If you decide to repeat the treatment, usually a waiting period of 6 months is recommended.

Fetal Stem Cells are the cellular building blocks of the 220 cell types within the body. The Fetal Stem Cells used by Stem Cell Of America remain in an undifferentiated state and therefore are capable of becoming any tissue, organ or cell type within the body.

Fetal Stem Cells also release Cytokines. Cytokines are cell-derived, hormone-like polypeptides that regulate cellular replication, differentiation, and activation. Cytokines can bring normal cells and tissues to a higher level of function, allowing the bodys own healing mechanisms to partner with the transplanted Fetal Stem Cells for repair and new growth.

In the past 2 decades, Stem Cell Of America has arranged for the treatment of over four thousand patients with Fetal Stem Cells. The number of patients continues to grow. Please contact us to get specific information on a disease or condition.

Stem Cell Of America has offices in the United States and a treatment center in Mexico.

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Frequently Asked Questions | Stem Cell Of America

Every day sick patients are asking how canstem cell therapy help them now. These patients are most likely desperate for any help, as the current medicine or prognosis just isnt cutting it. And while one daythere may be aviableanswer ofa yes, right now unfortunately, the field isjust not there yet. But, others do not share this view and are in fact offering to cure peoples diseases with stem cell treatments, a phenomenon known as stem cell tourism as most cases occur outside this country. Below we discuss a little about this.

What are stem cell treatments?

As was mentioned, stem cell treatments have been developed as a way to intervene in the development of and potentially treat a whole host of illnesses and physical maladies. These include baldness, missing teeth, and blindness, as well as degenerative illnesses like Parkinsons disease, type 1 diabetes mellitus, heart failure, and even cancer.

The majority of the advertised stem cell treatments utilize adult stem cells, normally harvested from the patient, and these stem cells are introduced into the damaged part of the body. The stem cells then self-renew within the damaged part, promoting growth of new tissues and subsequently replacing the diseased tissues.

Since the stem cells have been harvested from the body of the patient, theoretically, the odds of rejection or fatal side effects are very minimal. Because this is the case, stem cell treatments essentially provide a less invasive, more viable, and more sustainable therapeutic or treatment approach than similar intervention methods like organ transplantation.

Most stem cell treatments are still in the research phase.

Stem cell treatment clinics have been mushrooming everywhere. They are manifold in medical tourism centers in India, China, Ukraine, and Mexico. Even in the United States, where the oversight of the Food and Drug Administration or FDA is strict, stem cell treatment centers operate.

But while this is the case, it is crucial to keep in mind that most stem cell treatments, with the exception of bone marrow transplantation, are still in the preliminary research stages. In fact, studies of these treatments remain so new that finding published results is next to impossible.

Countries like China that study stem cell treatments on a clinical level do not have adequate and up-to-medical-standard documentation processes either, further putting the public in the dark when it comes to stem cell treatments efficacy and dangers.

There are several potential risks of stem cell treatments.

Even aside from the preliminary research phases and lack of published results, stem cell treatments have many risks. And the worst part is studies on these risks, as on the treatments efficacy, are yet to be explored by the medical community.

For instance, in the case of cancer, there is the danger of further aggravating the progress of the disease. Bear in mind that these treatments involve the introduction of stem cells into the diseased part of the body. Sure, the stem cells will most likely be harvested from the same patient and thus not foreign to the recipients body. However, factors such as uncontrolled growth may still occur and therefore further worsen the disease instead of treat it.

Another danger is the unchecked use of the types of stem cells to be administered. In countries without supervision and regulation of these types of intervention strategies, the use of stem cells harvested from sheep and sharks has been reported for treating human patients; an obviously bad situation.

Think twice before choosing stem cell treatments.

While stem cell treatment clinics are popping up all over most of these are scammers who prey on the desperately ill. Another sector has been cropping up offering stem cell treatments for cosmetic purposes as well. With promises of efficient and unfailing treatments, may they be for cosmetics, mild physical maladies, or serious terminal cases, there is no doubt that these treatments can sometimes be tempting to take.

But bear in mind that stem cell treatmentsthe legitimate ones, that isare mostly in the preliminary research stages. Because of this, you wont really be sure whether the treatment you obtain will work or not. And remember, if sounds to good to be true, it probably is. If there was a miracle treatment out there that really does cure horrible diseases, dont you think every sick patient would be getting it done and being healed? For more information, please visit this website put together by the international society for stem cell research: http://www.closerlookatstemcells.org/

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Information for scientists by scientists on all things related to stem cell growth including stem cell culture, culture medium, tissue culture, fibroblast growth factor (fgf2) and more.

Note: StemCultures facilitates posting on this blog, but the views and accounts expressed herein are those of the author(s) or interviewee(s) and not the views or accounts ofStemCultures its officers or directors whose views and accounts may or may not be similar or identical. StemCultures, its officers and directors do not express any opinion regarding any product or service by virtue of reference to such product or service in this blog.

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Risks of Stem Cell Treatments - StemCultures

There's a dark side to stem cells: bogus treatments that prey on patients' hopes when mainstream medicine has little to offer.

Stephen Byer stepped far outside typical medical care when his son, Ben, had ALS. He took Ben to China for stem cell-like treatments, and later helped hundreds of people do the same, believing it would help them.

The unproven procedure could have killed Ben. It didn't -- but it also didn't work. Ben later died of ALS. So did the ALS patients Byer now regrets helping get the treatment.

Why take the chance? For Byer, it started with misleading promises online.

"The Internet, while increasing communication, has spawned a horde of charlatans and creeps," Byer says. "We were suckered into one of the earlier forms of stem cell chicanery."

But not everyone who seeks unapproved stem cell treatments feels ripped off. Even though the stem cell treatments Dawn Gusty got in Tijuana, Mexico, didn't ease her multiple sclerosis, she doesn't look back with regret.

That moment -- when hope surpasses science, and when someone claims to be able to bridge that gap -- may be one of the riskiest for patients to handle. And it's one of the most alarming for stem cell experts.

"It is a very dangerous situation," says Joshua Hare, MD, director of the Interdisciplinary Stem Cell Institute at the University of Miami.

Make no mistake: Hare is all for scientific stem cell research. His concern, he says, is "hype" that glosses over an inconvenient fact: There are no new approved stem cell therapies.

The danger becomes clear if you Google "stem cell treatment." You'll get search results from clinics in the U.S. and around the world touting stem cell treatments for conditions ranging from baldness to ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease).

People who pursue those treatments "are spending huge sums of money to get therapies that are completely unproven and unlikely to work," Hare says.

Aaron D. Levine, PhD, a Georgia Institute of Technology bioethics professor, agrees. "A lot of companies are claiming they can do things right now the science can't support," Levine says.

But it's happening anyway. Famous athletes and politicians have sought the treatments. So why shouldn't we?

Twice, Dawn Gusty paid $27,000 for stem cell treatments at a clinic in Tijuana, Mexico. Twice, her care there was completely out of step with accepted medical care for her multiple sclerosis.

Twice, the procedure didn't work. Still, Gusty, of Kingston Springs, Tenn., isn't second-guessing herself. She had gone looking for something better than what her U.S. doctors could offer.

"I was being treated by the book, but I am not a textbook case of MS," Gusty tells WebMD. "It was doing no good."

In Tijuana, Gusty got heavy metal chelation , growth hormone shots, drugs to stimulate the production of blood cells, and chemotherapy . Bone marrow drained from her leg was injected directly into her spine, into her muscle, and infused into her bloodstream.

After her first visit, she felt more energetic, although she was disappointed that her condition didn't improve much. After the second treatment, she says she felt "a slight improvement, and then I settled into the same condition I had been in."

Still, she sees a different kind of value in it. "I learned so much," she says. "It changed my direction and put me on the path I am on now. I am not seeing a traditional neurologist, and not taking standard medicine."

The International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR), a group of established stem cell researchers concerned with the proliferation of unproven treatments, has issued a patient handbook on stem cell therapies.

The ISSCR advises patients to seek only stem cell treatments being tested in clinical trials approved by the FDA (or, if abroad, by a national regulatory agency such as the European Medicines Agency). It also allows for smaller studies approved by an independent Institutional Review Board (IRB) or Ethics Review Board (ERB).

The ISSCR lists these warning signs that a stem cell treatment is not legitimate:

Anyone still considering a therapy after checking all of the above can download the 26-item list of questions the ISSCR recommends asking. Ask a doctor or medical professional to help you understand the answers to these questions about the treatment, scientific evidence behind it, oversight of the clinic and practitioner, safety and emergency plans, patient rights, and costs.

"One of the notorious signs of an unproven therapy is the claim it will treat anything," Levine says. "A lot of people say we have stem cells that will seek out your ailments and cure them, whatever they are, anything from spinal cord injury to autism to heart disease . It is hard to imagine how a single therapy could really be beneficial for all of these things."

In the U.S., the FDA says "stem cells, like other medical products that are intended to treat, cure, or prevent disease, generally require FDA approval before they can be marketed."

However, treatments may avoid FDA regulation if the stem cells:

Transplanting such cells, clinics argue, is a surgical procedure rather than treatment with a drug or biological product. Licensed doctors can perform such transplants if they deem it medically appropriate for a patient.

"It is a gray area," says Mahendra Rao, MD, PhD, director of the National Institutes of Health's Center for Regenerative Medicine. "If you make too many health claims, it is still illegal. But if you do it correctly and there is validation to your work and you make your claims carefully, it is a surgical procedure not regulated by the FDA."

Because it's a gray area, Rao says, "certain groups try to see what they can drive through this window."

The FDA is stepping up its inspections of U.S. stem cell clinics and defending its actions in federal court. However, people can still find doctors and clinics in the U.S. who offer unproven stem-cell treatments.

"This is a very confusing time for patients. They have two questions: 'Can I do it?' and 'Should I do it?'" Hare says. "If the answer to 'Can I do it?' is yes, patients automatically assume the answer to 'Should I do it?' also is yes. And that can be dangerous."

"If you can't establish the benefits, you should not take the risk," Hare says.

Many stem cell clinics advertise that their procedures are safe. Since they are taking your own cells, concentrating them, and giving them back to you, what could be the harm?

"Let's say the therapy itself is completely neutral, no harm and no foul comes from it. You still are going through a medical procedure, going to a doctor's office, being put under anesthesia, getting liposuction, and then having the material injected back into you. And the first rule doctors learn is that there is no such thing as a benign procedure," Hare says.

Every treatment has some risks. So the question comes down to whether the benefits outweigh the risks. And those studies haven't been done yet.

"The most patients can hope for is that the injection triggers some reaction in their bodies that has some benefit. And that is optimistic," Levine says. "The least-bad risk is financial harm from the costs of these treatments. But patients may also wind up sicker, because one thing about injecting cells is they stay in the body and may not do what they want. It's hard to know how harm is being done, because most of these clinics do not follow up on patients and have little incentive to do so."

Many patients claim they are much better or even cured by unorthodox stem cell treatments -- including some who received the same treatment as Ben Byer.

The procedure he underwent was -- and still is -- being advertised to patients, who must travel to China to get the treatment. It's not advertised as a stem-cell therapy, but uses stem-cell-like cells from aborted fetuses.

"The doctor took the cells, nurtured them in a test tube, and then injected them in two places in the brain and in the spinal cord, way up in a dangerous place," Byer says. "Remarkably, Ben survived the surgery."

Not all unapproved stem-cell treatments involve such risky surgery. A common technique gets stem cells from fat removed via liposuction. That's less risky than brain injections but is not without risk.

Byer, too, thought the early improvement he saw in his son meant the treatment was a success.

"I didn't realize it was a time-constrained benefit and that in a short time, Ben would be back to where he was," Byer says. "And during that short time I set up a whole operation to send literally hundreds of people to China. Even when I saw the benefits diminish over four weeks, and in the weeks after that, I didn't believe it. I told myself he'd recover those benefits. Then I told myself something else. By the time I faced up to it, it was too late."

SOURCES:

Stephen Byer.

Dawn Gusty, Kingston Springs, Tenn.

Joshua Hare, MD, director, Interdisciplinary Stem Cell Institute, University of Miami.

Mahendra Rao, MD, PhD, director, Center for Regenerative Medicine, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Md.

Aaron Levine, assistant professor, School of Public Policy, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta.

Mary Laughlin, MD, professor of medicine, hematology, and oncology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville; and past president, International Society for Cellular Therapy.

FDA web site.

Sipp, D. Stem Cell Treatment Monitor web site, "More than Minimally Manipulative."

U.S. vs. Regenerative Sciences, LLC: "Order of Permanent Injunction."

News release, Regenexx web site.

IntelliCell web site.

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Stem Cell Treatments: 6 False-Hope Warning Signs

Treatment

The Stem Cell treatment performed at our clinics is a painless medical procedure where Stem Cells (cellular building blocks) are usually administered intravenously and subcutaneously (under the skin). The whole procedure takes approximately one hour and has no known negative side effects.

Following the treatment, the Fetal Stem Cells will travel throughout the body, detecting damaged cells and tissue and attempts to restore them. The Fetal Stem Cells can also stimulate existing normal cells and tissues to operate at a higher level of function, boosting the bodys own repair mechanisms to aid in the healing process. These highly adaptive cells then remain in the body, continually locating and repairing any damage they encounter.

As with any medical treatment, safety should be of the highest priority. The Stem Cells used in our treatment undergo extensive screening for possible infection and impurities.

Utilizing tests more sophisticated than those regularly used in the United States for Stem Cell research and transplant. Our testing process ensures we use only the healthiest cells to enable the safest and most effective Fetal Stem Cell treatment possible. And, unlike other types of Stem Cells, there is no danger of the bodys rejection of Fetal Stem Cells due to the fact they are immune privileged. This means that you can give the cells to any patient without matching, use of immunosuppressive drugs and without rejection. This unique quality eliminates the need for drugs used to suppress the immune system, which can leave a patient exposed to serious infections.

With over 4,000 patients treated, Stem Cell Of America has achieved positive results with a wide variety of illnesses, conditions and injuries. Often, in cases where the diseases continued to worsen, our patients have reported substantial improvements following the Stem Cell treatment.

Patients have experienced favorable developments such as reduction or elimination of pain, increased strength and mobility, improved cognitive function, higher tolerance for chemotherapy, and quicker healing and recovery.

To view follow up letters from patients, please visit the patient experiences page on our website.

All statements, opinions, and advice on this page is provided for educational information only. It is not a substitute for proper medical diagnosis and care. Like all medical treatments and procedures, results may significantly vary and positive results may not always be achieved. Please contact us so we may evaluate your specific case.

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Stem Cell Of America - Breakthrough Stem Cell Treatments ...

The arthritis in Maureen Munsies ankles was so intense until barely a year ago, she literally had to crawl on hands and knees to get upstairs.

The pain, she recalls now, took my breath away, and played havoc with the avid hikers favourite pastime.

In desperation, Munsie turned to a Toronto-area clinic that provides a treatment many experts consider still experimental, unproven and of questionable safety.

The 63-year-old says the stem cells she received at Regenervate Medical Injection Therapy 18 months ago were transformational, all but eliminating the debilitating soreness and even allowing her to hike Argentinas Patagonia mountains two months ago.

For me its been a life saver, Munsie says. Ive been able to do it all again I dont have any of that pain, at all.

Canadians drawn to the healing promise of stem cells have for years travelled outside the country to such places as Mexico, China or Arizona, taking part in a dubious form of medical tourism.

But Regenervate is one of a handful of clinics in Canada that have begun offering injections of stem cells, satisfying growing demand but raising questions about whether a medical idea with huge potential is ready for routine patient care.

Especially when those patients can pay thousands of dollars for the service.

Clinics in Ontario and Alberta are treating arthritis, joint injuries, disc problems and even skin conditions with stem cells typically taken from patients fat tissue or bone marrow.

The underlying idea is compelling: stem cells can differentiate or transform into many other types of cell, a unique quality that evidence suggests allows them to grow or regenerate tissue damaged by disease or injury.

Researchers including hundreds in Canada alone are examining stem-cell treatments for everything from ailing hearts to severed spinal cords.

With few exceptions, however, the concept is still being studied in the lab or in human trials; virtually none of the treatments have been definitively proven effective by science or approved by regulators like Health Canada.

The fact that Canadian clinics are now offering stem-cell treatments commercially is concerning on a number of levels, not least because of safety issues, says Ubaka Ogbogu, a health law professor at the University of Alberta.

Three U.S. women were blinded after receiving stem-cell injections in their eyes, while other American patients have developed bony masses or tumours at injection sites, Ogbogu said.

Stem cells have to be controlled to act exactly the way you want them to act, and thats why the research takes time, he said. It is simply wrong for these clinics to take a proof of concept and run with it.

Ogbogu says Health Canada must crack down on the burgeoning industry but says the regulator has so far been conspicuous by its inaction.

Other experts say the procedures provided here typically for joint pain are likely relatively safe, but still warn that care must be taken that the stem cells do not develop into the wrong type of tissue, or at the wrong place.

Alberta Health Services convened a workshop on the issue late last year, concluding there is an urgent need to develop a certification system for cell preparation and delivery to avoid spontaneous transformation of (stem cells) into unwanted tissue.

But one of the pioneers of the service in Canada says theres no empirical evidence that such growths can develop, and suggests the treatments only real risk as with any invasive procedure is infection.

Meanwhile, patients at Regenervate have enjoyed impressive outcomes after paying fees from $750 to $3,900, says Dr. Douglas Stoddard, the clinics medical director.

About 80 per cent report less pain, stiffness and weakness within a few months of getting their stem-cell injection, he said. His treatments efficacy, though, has not been tested in a randomized controlled trial, the gold-standard scientific study which would compare the injections to a sham or other treatment and identify any placebo effect.

I believe medical progress is not just limited to the laboratory and randomized double-blind trials, Stoddard said. A lot of progress starts in the clinic, dealing with patients You see something works, you see something has merit, and then its usually the scientists that seem to catch up later.

The Orthopedic Sport Institute in Collingwood, Ont., the Central Alberta Pain and Rehabilitation Institute and Cleveland Clinic in Toronto all advertise similar stem-cell treatments for orthopedic problems.

Edmontons Regen Clinic says it plans to start doing so this fall.

Ottawas Innovo says it also treats a range of back conditions with injections between the vertebrae, and uses stem cells to alleviate nerve damage.

Orthopedic Sport says its doctor focuses on FDA and Health Canada approved stem-cell injection therapy for patient care.

In fact, no treatment of the sort the clinics here provide has ever been authorized.

Health Canada says the vast majority of stem-cell therapies would constitute a drug and therefore need to be authorized after a clinical trial or new drug submission.

A number of stem-cell trials are underway, but only one treatment Prochymal has been approved, said department spokesman Eric Morrissette. Designed to combat graft-versus-host disease where bone marrow transplants for treating cancer essentially attack the patients body its unlike any of the services the stem-cell providers here offer.

But as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration aggressively pursues the hundreds of clinics in America, Health Canada says only that its committed to addressing complaints it receives.

It will take action based on the risk posed to the general public, said Morrissette, who encouraged people to pass on to the department information about possible non-compliant products.

Stoddard said the injections his clinics provide are made up of minimally manipulated tissue from patients own bodies and any attempt to crack down would be regulation for the sake of regulation.

But academic experts remain skeptical about the effectiveness of the treatments.

Scientific evidence suggests the injections may help alleviate joint pain temporarily, but probably just because of anti-inflammatory secretions from the cells not regeneration, said Dr. David Hart, an orthopedic surgery professor at the University of Calgary who headed the Alberta workshop.

Theres a need for understanding whats going on here and theres a need for regulation, he said.

Most of the clinics say they use a centrifuge to concentrate the stem cells after removing them from patients fat tissue or bone marrow. But its unclear if the clinics even know how many cells they are eventually injecting into patients, says Jeff Biernaskie, a stem-cell scientist at the University of Calgary.

Munsie, on the other hand, has no doubts about the value of her own treatment, even with a $3,000 price tag.

The procedure from extraction of fat tissue in her behind to the injection of cells into her ankles took barely over an hour.

Within three months, the retired massage therapist from north of Toronto says she could walk her dogs again. Last week, she was hiking near Banff.

Im a real believer in it, and the possibility of stem cells, says Munsie. I just think Wow, if we can heal with our own body, its pretty amazing.

(The story was modified July 6 to clarify lack of clinical-trial evidence for Regenervate procedures.)

tblackwell@nationalpost.com

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Canadian clinics begin offering stem-cell treatments ...

Adult stem cells can be extracted from human fat. Patrick T. Fallon /The Washington Post/Getty Images hide caption

Adult stem cells can be extracted from human fat.

The Food and Drug Administration is cracking down on "unscrupulous" clinics selling unproven and potentially dangerous treatments involving stem cells.

Hundreds of clinics around the country have started selling stem cell therapies that supposedly use stem cells but have not been approved as safe and effective by the FDA, according to the agency.

"There are a small number of unscrupulous actors who have seized on the clinical promise of regenerative medicine, while exploiting the uncertainty, in order to make deceptive, and sometimes corrupt assurances to patients based on unproven and, in some cases, dangerously dubious products," FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said in a statement Monday.

The FDA has taken action against clinics in California and Florida.

The agency sent a warning letter to the US Stem Cell Clinic of Sunrise, Fla., and its chief scientific officer, Kristin Comella, for "marketing stem cell products without FDA approval and significant deviations from current good manufacturing practice requirements."

The clinic is one of many around the country that claim to use stem cells derived from a person's own fat to treat a variety of conditions, including Parkinson's disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and lung and heart diseases, the FDA says.

The Florida clinic had been previously linked to several cases of blindness caused by attempts to use fat stem cells to treat macular degeneration.

The FDA also said it has taken "decisive action" to "prevent the use of a potentially dangerous and unproven treatment" offered by StemImmune Inc. of San Diego, Calif., and administered to patients at California Stem Cell Treatment Centers in Rancho Mirage and Beverly Hills, Calif.

As part of that action, the U.S. Marshals Service seized five vials of live vaccinia virus vaccine that is supposed to be reserved for people at high risk for smallpox but was being used as part of a stem-cell treatment for cancer, according to the FDA. "The unproven and potentially dangerous treatment was being injected intravenously and directly into patients' tumors," according to an FDA statement.

Smallpox essentially has been eradicated from the planet, but samples are kept in reserve in the U.S. and Russia, and vaccines are kept on hand as a result.

But Elliot Lander, medical director of the California Stem Cell Treatment Centers, denounced the FDA's actions in an interview with Shots.

"I think it's egregious," Lander says. "I think they made a mistake. I'm really baffled by this."

While his clinics do charge some patients for treatments that use stem cells derived from fat, Lander says, none of the cancer patients were charged and the treatments were administered as part of a carefully designed research study.

"Nobody was charged a single penny," Lander says. "We're just trying to move the field forward."

In a written statement, U.S. Stem Cell also defended its activities.

"The safety and health of our patients are our number one priority and the strict standards that we have in place follow the laws of the Food and Drug Administration," according to the statement.

"We have helped thousands of patients harness their own healing potential," the statement says. "It would be a mistake to limit these therapies from patients who need them when we are adhering to top industry standards."

But stem-cell researchers praised the FDA's actions.

"This is spectacular," says George Daley, dean of the Harvard Medical School and a leading stem-cell researcher. "This is the right thing to do."

Daley praised the FDA's promise to provide clear guidance soon for vetting legitimate stem-cell therapies while cracking down on "snake-oil salesmen" marketing unproven treatments.

Stem-cell research is "a major revolution in medicine. It's bound to ultimately deliver cures," Daley says. "But it's so early in the field," he adds. "Unfortunately, there are unscrupulous practitioners and clinics that are marketing therapies to patients, often at great expense, that haven't been proven to work and may be unsafe."

Others agreed.

"I see this is a major, positive step by the FDA," says Paul Knoepfler, a professor of cell biology at the University of of California, Davis, who has documented the proliferation of stem-cell clinics.

"I'm hoping that this signals a historic shift by the FDA to tackle the big problem of stem-cell clinics selling unapproved and sometimes dangerous stem cell "treatments" that may not be real treatments," Knoepfler says.

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FDA Cracks Down On Stem-Cell Clinics Selling Unapproved Treatments - NPR

Denise Pritchard, WZZM 12:44 PM. EDT August 14, 2017

Woman's Bones

GRAND RAPIDS, MICH. - Stem cell injections are being used to treat all sorts of illness, from joint pain to tissue damage. Dr. Michael Kwast is a chiropractor who's sold on the benefits of stem cell treatments.

He joined The Exchange to explain how they work and describe the results hes seen for patients.

Dr. Kwasts group, Medical Services Providers, is affiliated with the Stem Cell Institute of America.

For more information about stem cell therapy, visit http://www.stemcellgrandrapids.com. Or, you may attend a free seminar on Aug. 21 at 7 p.m. Its at 475 Lake Michigan Dr. NW in Grand Rapids. Register now by calling 616-888-3160.

Make it easy to keep up to date with more stories like this. Download the WZZM 13 app now.

Have a news tip? Email news@wzzm13.com, visit our Facebook page or Twitter.

2017 WZZM-TV

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Local chiropractor educating patients about stem cell treatments - WZZM

Advancellssays its stem cell-based therapy completely reversed multiple sclerosis (MS) in an Indian pilot trial with only one MS patient.

The patient, Rahul Gupta, was diagnosed with MS seven years ago and has since suffered multiple relapses. His disease was progressing fast and he was quickly losing his ability to walk. Gupta, who lives in New Zealand, approached Advancells a company based in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh that specializes in the use of stem cells for therapeutic purposes.

After my last relapse, I became determined to look for alternative treatments for multiple sclerosis,Gupta said in a press release. I started looking on the net and found that stem-cell therapy [offers] hope for people suffering with MS [and] that it is safe and would not harm me in any way. I was determined to undergo stem-cell treatment, as my illness was progressing very quickly.

Gupta enrolled inAdvancells adult stem-cell therapy program as the trials single patient. In the procedure carried outin June at a New Delhi clinic doctors isolated stem cells from his bone marrow and re-infused them back into the patientat specific points. Apart from this procedure, Gupta underwent only physiotherapy and a dietary routine.

Straight after the treatment I saw major improvements, he said. I could walk a lot better, could climb stairs which I was unable to do after 2012 and even go on the treadmill.

Dr. Lipi Singh, head of technology at Advancells, said the company is frequently approached by MS patients from around the world who want to participate in its program.

Patient selection is a key criterion for us and Rahul suited the criteria perfectly, Singh said. He is young and still at a moderate level of the disease and in a very positive frame of mind. Patients at this stage are best suited for this kind of treatment and thus we decided to accept him as a pilot case.

Singh now expects to review Guptas response sometime this fall.

It will take approximately three months for us to review changes in the magnetic resonance imaging of the patient, but the drastic changes in symptoms clearly are an indication of the fact that the treatment is working and could become a hope for millions of patients across the world who are suffering from this disease. Singh said.

He added: This is a good start to a lengthy research phase, but it seems that we are on the right track and hopefully we will be able to make a significant contribution in eradicating not only MS but a host of untreatable diseases existing today.

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India's Advancells Reports Successful Reversal of MS in Single Patient Using Stem Cell Therapy - Multiple Sclerosis News Today

Theoretically, eternal youth is now within our grasp.

Doctors are close to discovering a real life fountain of youth that could theoretically enable patients to live forever. Advances in stem cell treatments and now, tissue nanotransfection (TNT), which is a new technique, can theoretically provide patients with the benefits of youth for life.

The fountain of youth is within the grasp of science, but so far, only for mice. Human trials come next year.

LOS ANGELES, CA (California Network) -- The quest for eternal life is ancient. It is mentioned in the first and oldest story we have, the Epic of Gilgamesh. In that ancient Sumerian tale, only Utnapishtim, a man who built and ark and survived a great flood in a story that is almost identical to the story of Noah's ark, knows the secret to eternal life, which ultimately proves elusive. In the centuries that followed, people have tried every remedy imaginable to prolong life. They searched for the fabled fountain of youth, and according to some legends, bathed in the blood of virgins and children.

Today, we know none of these endeavors would work because ageing is carried on in the genes. The only way to reverse ageing is to manipulate the genes. And this is precisely what doctors are looking to do in order to produce new cells, and even whole organs.

Researchers now know the primary difference between a young person and an old person is the number of stem cells in their body. Young people have many times more stem cells. This is the basic, underlying reason why young people are so youthful. A young body can repair itself more rapidly and thoroughly than an older one because of the number of stem cells. But if stem cells could be injected into an older body, in quantities similar to those enjoyed by a young person, what would happen then?

Nobody knows for certain because the experiment hasn't been conducted, but the hypothesis is that the older person would become more youthful, healthier, and longer lived.

As stem cells enter the medical mainstream, and may become a standard part of medical treatment in the near future, there is another development that could make stem cells irrelevant. Nanotransfection, abbreviated as TNT, is a new method whereby skin cells can be turned into any other cell in the body using a special microchip and electricity.

The device, called a nanochip, is loaded with genetic material essential to turning cells into other kinds of cells. The electrical current enables the device to inject the genetic material into the skin where it ends up inside the cells. These cells can then travel though the body and take on the properties of healthy cells around damaged tissue, facilitating repair. On other words, a damaged liver or heart can be repaired with this tiny device. The advantage of this method is that stem cells are not required. Your skin cells simply become whether other kind of cells they are told to become by the injected genetic material.

A study affirming the effectiveness of this approach was published in the journal, Nature Nanotechnology. It has been tested on mice and was successful in restoring function to non-functioning limbs. It will be tested on humans within the next year.

Scientists have known they can reprogram cells into other kinds of cells for a long time now, but only recently have they developed the method to do so cheaply and efficiently. The actual procedure requires a chip that is as small as a penny, and takes only a second to work.

If the procedure works on humans, then doctors may have a cheap and efficient way to repair and even replace organs. The discovery is so dramatic is it difficult to believe. More testing is required, but it shows just how far we have come in our ability to edit genes and reprogram cells to grow specific forms of tissue within the body.

In a generation or less, it is reasonable that we will have unlocked the secret to reversing ageing. Of course, this discovery opens a whole host of ethical and philosophical questions, but that's for the ethicists and politicians to work out. For now, science is about to take the first sip from the fountain of youth, and we await the result.

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Pope Francis Prayer Intentions for JULY 2017Lapsed Christians. That our brothers and sisters who have strayed from the faith, through our prayer and witness to the Gospel, may rediscover the merciful closeness of the Lord and the beauty of the Christian life.

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A med-tech startup has developed a fast and easy way to treat certain burn wounds with stem cells. This technology is developed by German researcher Dr. Jrg Gerlach. He is the worlds first ever person who use a patients stem cells to directly heal the skin. The technique is meant to reduce the healing time and minimize complications, with aesthetically and functionally satisfying outcomes. There are no scars, no residual pain and its like there wasnt any burn to start with. Its not less than a miracle.

The medical technology startup has now transformed the proof-of-concept device from a complicated prototype into a user-friendly product called a SkinGun, which it hopes doctors will be able to use outside of an experimental setting. RenovaCare CEO Thomas Bold believes, the SkinGun can compete with, or even replace, todays standard of care. The sprayer allows us to have a generous distribution of cells on the wound, explained Roger Esteban-Vives, director of cell sciences at RenovaCare.

RenovaCares SkinGun sprays a liquid suspension of a patients stem cells onto a burn or wound in order to re-grow the skin without scars. Stem-cell methods helped cut this risk by quickening healing and providing a source of new skin from a very small area. Cell Mist method gets a greater yield from its harvest than mesh grafting, a more common way to treat burns. At a maximum, grafting can treat six times the size of its harvest area. Cell Mist can cover 100 times its harvest area.

When dispensing cells over a wound, its important that they make the transition without any damage. Damaged cells reduce the effectiveness of the treatment.

High cell viability also contributes to faster healing. When a wound heals naturally, cells migrate to it to build up the skin. That process can take weeks.

Stem cells have tremendous promise to help us understand and treat a range of diseases, injuries and other health-related conditions.

There is still a lot to learn about stem cells, however, and their current applications as treatments are sometimes exaggerated by the media and other parties who do not fully understand the science and current limitations

Beyond regulatory matters, there are also limitations to the technology that make it unsuitable for competing with treatments of third-degree burns, which involve damage to muscle and other tissue below the skin.

When burn victims need a skin graft they typically have to grow skin on other parts of their bodies. This is a process that can take weeks. A new technique uses stem cells derived from the umbilical cord to generate new skin much more quickly.The umbilical cord consists of a gelatinous tissue that contains uncommitted mesenchymal stemcells (MSC)

Research is underway to develop various sources for stem cells, and to apply stem-cell treatments for neurodegenertive diseasesand conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, and other conditions.

Tens of thousands of grafts are performed each year for burn victims, cosmetic surgery patients, and for people with large wounds having difficulty healing. Traditionally, this involves taking a large patch of skin (typically from the thigh) and removing the dermis and epidermis to transplant elsewhere on the body. Burns victims are making incredible recoveries thanks to a revolutionary gun that sprays stem cells on to their wounds, enabling them to rapidly grow new skin. Patients who have benefited say their new skin is virtually indistinguishable from that on the rest of the body.

Thomas Bold, chief executive of RenovaCare, the company behind SkinGun, said: The procedure is gentler and the skin that regrows looks, feels and functions like the original skin.

If you are planning to have stem cell treatments dont forget to remember these points

Stem cell researchers are making great advances in understanding normal development. They are trying to figure out what goes wrong in disease and developing and testing potential treatments to help patients. They still have much to learn. However, about how stem cells work in the body and their capacity for healing. Safe and effective treatments for most diseases, conditions and injuries are in the future.

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Dramatic Burn-Healing Through Stem Cell Treatment - Fox Weekly