“Latest Stem Cells News”

Recent stem cell research studies using Adult Stem Cells to treat heart diseases such as congestive heart failure and heart attacks have made the news recently.  And on the surface, these adult stem cell success stories of heart attack victims making amazing recoveries in these research clinical trials is wonderful news indeed.

New Research Trials for Heart Attack Victims

For example, at the Texas Heart Institute, John Hartman who had suffered a heart attack recently had his own stem cells implanted into his heart muscle in a new stem cell research trial.

From the stem cell article:

Dr. Jim Willerson President, Texas Heart Institute, said, “We think the improvement we see is largely from the blood flow increase salvaging the cells that are reversibly injured, allowing them to function normally.”

“That reflects in the patient being able to do better, walk further, breathe better,” said Dr. Emerson Perin St Luke’s, THI Cardiologist.

Stem Cell Trial for Congestive Heart Failure

Also, in another stem cell research trial at Vanderbilt, an unnamed 65 year old congestive heart failure patient was treated using his own Adult Stem Cells again.   Dr. David Zhao, director of the cath lab there said “The patients who stand to benefit from this approach include those whose coronary arteries are so diseased that nothing else could be done,”

What About Heart Disease Patients Who Can’t Get Adult Stem Cells?

However, the headlines don’t mention the millions who are suffering and dying after having heart attacks (1.25 million per year in the United States) and are in congestive heart failure and don’t have the opportunity to receive adult stem cell treatment because the FDA has classified a patient’s own stem cells as a drug- thus slowing down progress and starving heart patients of a “drug” with no side effects or ethical issues and only has upside.

For every Barry Brown or Kenneth Milles, heart attack victims who were lucky enough to get into a US stem cell research clinical trial using their own stem cells, there are millions of heart disease patients who do not have that opportunity. And for that, we have the FDA to blame.

And that is only addressing adult stem cell therapy for heart disease………what about the hundreds of other conditions that can be helped or improved by Adult Stem Cells?

Sad.

For more information on clinical research trials in the United States, go to the Clinical Trials website – www.clinicaltrials.gov

A group of patients who have been helped by stem cell research using Adult Stem Cells have formed a group called the Stem Cell Awareness Association.  This group is growing fast with prospective stem cell patients and even US doctors joining the movement.   They will be holding a Stem Cell Awareness rally this Saturday, June 13th, 2009 in Denver.

Making Others Aware of the Benefits of Adult Stem Cells

The Stem Cell Awareness Association was formed by Carol Peterson.  Carol is the grandmother of Cameron Peterson, a young toddler who was blind from Optic Nerve Hypoplasia, but now can see thanks to stem cell therapy in China using Adult Stem Cells from cord blood.

Educated Freedom of Choice

Carol says the mission of the Stem Cell Awareness Association can be summarized  in four simple words, “Educated Freedom of Choice.

“Our group is mainly made up of patients who have experienced what is really available in other countries and while we don’t want to exert influence over other patients’ decisions, we do want to make them aware that what is available in the U.S. is not representative of what is available throughout the world.”

US Medical Establishment Protecting Patients Or Are They More Worried About Lawsuits and Reputations?

David Aldrich, a spinal cord injury patient who has improved tremendously after his stem cell treatments in China also weighs in on the topic-

“I am worn out from dealing with a medical establishment that does not provide me with the best treatment available and oftentimes tries to stop people like me from seeking treatment abroad under the guise of protecting me,” said Aldrich. “My short-term goal is to let people know that there is help available, no matter what your physician says. But my real goal is focused on bringing people together to figure out what can be done so I don’t have to go abroad for my next treatment.”

If you guessed that David was referring to the American medical establishment not providing him with the best treatment available,  you would be correct.

Too Much Focus On Stem Cell Research and Not Enough Focus On Helping Patients Now With Adult Stem Cells?

While America focuses on “research” using billions of taxpayer dollars, other countries are using Adult Stem Cells now and actually helping patients improve their lives.

For example, take Shel Morse, the mother of Macie Morse, who was legally blind from her optic nerve hypoplasia, but CAN NOW DRIVE!  after receiving adult stem cell therapy in China, she has her say -

“Macie’s journey to stem cells started when she turned 15 and asked for a driving permit. It wasn’t even an option with her current vision, not to mention the fact a vision teacher of hers had stated it was never going to be possible and we should just face reality. At that point I knew that it was my mission to let people know that they don’t necessarily have to live with the diagnosis their local doctors give them.

“Macie’s doctors not only criticized the companies we told them about but actively discouraged us from help overseas – help that they could not offer. The reason why I got behind this organization and decided to set up this event in Denver is because the patients need to join together to have a voice. Our medical society needs to get serious about real health care; we cannot rely on our current system – it is broken. U.S. doctors and scientists need to focus on doing what is necessary to help patients instead of their reputations and how they can make money.”

What else can I say?  Carol, David and Shel said it perfectly.    See the full stem cell press release here

If you are in the Denver area on Saturday, go check them out, you may learn something and for sure you will meet some brave individuals-

All patients who are considering stem cell treatments or have already had stem cell treatments are welcome to join the next Stem Cell Awareness Rally:
Location: Denver, Colorado
Place: Stella’s Coffee House
Date: June 13th, 2009
Time: 2 pm

If you have done any research on stem cell treatments abroad, you will undoubtedly read negative articles like this one on CNN from the mainstream media saying these companies are promising cures and are preying on the desperate, that these companies are selling “snake oil”   Nothing could be further from the truth.

The stem cell companies and stem cell doctors that are part of the Repair Stem Cell Institute offer patients a good chance at an improvement in the patient’s quality of life- they don’t offer nor promise cures.  Patients going to these stem cell therapy treatment centers abroad know this.

Unfortunately, the United States and their FDA don’t give these patients any other options.  Are they able to use their own stem cells to help their multiple sclerosis or heart disease-  Stem Cells that have been proven safe in thousands of studies? No.  What is one to do then?  These patients must go abroad for the only treatment that can help their disease or condition.

Here is a sampling of what some of these companies  affiliated with the Repair Stem Cell Institute tell their patients:

From Stem Cells China:

It’s not a cure. It’s about quality of life. Every day I see inquiries begin like this: “Can stem cells cure…?” Everyone should know the answer to that one right away. No. No known therapy utilizing stem cells can cure any medical condition. Not one.

A cure would rewrite the broken code of your genome. A cure would rewind the debilitating progression of a neuro-degenerative disease to the moment before onset. A cure would fix all the wrongs of a baby’s challenged birth. We eagerly await the development of cures and their accessibility to patients in need.

So why are people receiving stem cell therapy today? Therapies involving adult stem cells today are providing quality of life improvements for many patients. It’s no cure. Just as painkillers are not a cure for pain. They improve our quality of life if we feel pain.

But who would deny that painkillers are still worthwhile for extreme pain? Many doctors in the West are saying that they don’t have enough proof that stem cells are improving quality of life for patients. In the meantime, patients are busy coming to China and China’s stem cell clinics are busy offering the chance for quality of life improvements where none else would exist. We encourage you to explore the therapies being offered today.

From Dr. Shimon Slavin, Israel, helping people like Louis Zylstra and Arndt Roehlig

However, we have some positive and most encouraging evidence that the cells we inject may be of benefit, especially as evidenced in some patients with multiple sclerosis as well as based on the first patient we treated with spinal injury that seemed to have somewhat improved. The good news is that there are no side effects at all so there is no risk and nothing to lose (except money…). I would like to stress that since we are in very early stages of our research, nothing can be said about the clinical efficacy of our approach.  However, on the other hand, I do understand that patients in need cannot wait for all the answers to be solved and this is why we agree to offer experimental procedures for patients that understand the experimental nature of our program and consent to try and explore new treatment options.

From Dr. Roberto Fernandez Vina– For doctors who say that current stem cell therapies are “unproven,” Dr. Fernandez Viña has the following response:

“How many patients must to be treated to say this is a cure? How many patients must die waiting for the word “cure?”

A lot of diseases are not totally cured with drugs but the laboratories talk about curing (HIV, Tuberculosis and a lot of malignant deseases). They say that the drugs “cure” but in reality the drugs improve the quality of life. Stem cells “cure” in the same sense. If a person is dying of diabetes and we improve the prognosis and he no longer needs insulin injections, we increase the C peptide, decrease the HbA1c, decrease protein in the urine, decrease the risk of amputation or kidney failure, in my book that is a “cure.”

From Richard Humphries, with multiple sclerosis and a stem cell recipient from Cell Medicine in Costa Rica:

I’m case study #1 in the paper (Multiple Sclerosis Study) just released and have had two stem cell treatments in Costa Rica where they promise nothing but deliver wonderful results. Secondary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis patients can’t wait on historical data. Time is not on our side but stem cells improved my quality of life and the follow up MRI looks excellent.

From the X cell Center in Germany:

Even if not all of the interactions have been conclusively researched to date, the status of the current medical insights has indeed reached a level that allows the non- hazardous treatment with adult stem cells and puts medical professionals in a position to assume responsibility for its use.

Given the proven treatment success of regenerative medicine, the question of whether more research is needed prior to therapeutic use has already been answered.

Those who nevertheless demand stem cell therapy be postponed until we know more about it are taking away patients’ rights to make their own decisions as they search for medical solutions – for the kind of help stem cell therapy does offer.

In the Dominican Republic, Dr. Zannos Grekos, a stem cell research doctor, is now helping patients with heart disease and lung diseases with their own Adult Stem Cells as reported on CNN in a special research report.

Adult Stem Cells Helping Heart Disease and Lung Disease

In the last 18 months, Dr. Grekos and his company Regenocyte have treated more than 100 patients for either heart diseases such as congestive heart failure, coronary artery disease, heart attacks, and angina and lung diseases such as pulmonary hypertension, emphysema and COPD.

The story features Barbara McKean of Naples, Florida. Barbara was suffering from the lung disease, COPD and was treated with her own stem cells.

From the stem cell article:
“Right away, the next morning, I felt a sense of well-being that I hadn’t felt in a long, long time,” McKean said.

“I know that I am living proof that this does work,” she added. “I know that.”

His Eyes Are Wide Shut

Check out this quote from the chief medical officer of the American Lung Association-

The chief medical officer of the American Lung Association, Dr. Norman Edelman, said he does not doubt the sincerity of patients who believe they have been helped by stem cell therapy. But he added, “There’s an enormous placebo effect in almost all of these cases.”

So Dr. Edelman sees a woman, Barbara McKean, featured previously here,  who was on oxygen 24/7 walking around with a cannister and now, after stem cell treatment, is completely off oxygen and he thinks it is the placebo effect? Ridiculous.

Luckily, Barbara’s doctor does not intentionally close his eyes to the obvious:

McKean’s family physician, Dr. Robert Folsom, confirmed to CNN that she had been suffering for many years from an advanced state of COPD, an incurable lung disease. Folsom told CNN he was “quite incredulous” after seeing her condition improve.

Folsom, who said he has been McKean’s family physician for many years, disputed any suggestion that her apparent recovery stemmed from a “placebo effect” — an improvement sometimes seen in patients who are given an inert substance in clinical trials.

“I know about the placebo effect, and her improvement does not seem to be a result of that,” he said.

Stem Cell Therapy- Documenting Results

Dr. Grekos is documenting research data  from his patients treated with their own stem cells and wishes to present it to the FDA at the end of this year.

In the past few days, another stem cell research doctor, Dr. Roberto Fernandez Vina, also just presented his results of his stem cell research data for COPD and Emphysema at the annual International Society for Stem Cell Research annual meeting.

And Dr. Grekos had a parting shot for the “experts” who always try to downplay any adult stem cell success story:

He shrugs off the criticism from people who doubt his claims, saying he — and not they — are on medicine’s cutting edge.

Stem cell experts who reject his methods “need to be better educated,” he said.

original post by Don Margolis

In a recent published clinical stem cell research study, adult stem cells were shown to help delay Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) progression and improve an ALS patient’s quality of life. This research study was believed to be the first published study comparing ALS patients who had their own stem cells injected into their brain vs a control group.

Thank you very much to ALS Worldwide for providing us with this exciting stem cell research breakthrough in humans- not mice! Any clinical studies like this in the United States? I can’t hear you….

Without further ado- here is the published stem cell research study on ALS: Stem-cell transplantation into the frontal motor cortex in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis patients

Summary of Adult Stem Cell Therapy for ALS Study

This summary is provided by the good people at ALS Worldwide as well as they went to observe this tremendous stem cell treatment using Adult Stem Cells!

HOSPITAL SAN JOSE TECNOLOGICO DE MONTERREY STEM CELL PROCEDURE

The initial two year clinical test study results of the stem cell procedure instituted by Hospital San Jose Tecnologico de Monterrey, was published in Cytotherapy, February, 2009. Positive results were confirmed through both clinical observation and MRI tractography. It is considered by many within the international neurological community to be the foremost procedure available for minimizing or abrogating ALS symptoms and extending the lifespan of ALS patients. The procedure is a state of the art use of autologous CD-133 (+) stem cells injected into the frontal cortices for the effective replacement of motor neurons.

Representing the ALS WORLDWIDE patient community, we were at Hospital San Jose Tecnologico de Monterrey in Mexico from June 6-14 to observe the hospitalization and procedures for the first two international patients being provided this stem cell therapy. In a sentence, the official message delivered is clear: “This stem cell procedure is not a cure. We offer nothing more than the promise of stability and extended life expectancy. The opportunity, however, exists for improvement. “

Process of Stem Cells for Lou Gehrig’s Disease

The stem cell preparation procedure is sophisticated and complicated but in the simplest terms, the patient’s blood is purified, extracted and cleansed. Stem cells are extracted and then the one kind of stem cell that can be best coaxed into becoming a neuron is injected into two places in the brain. The patient experiences no pain and very little discomfort during the procedure. A mild sedative is provided and within hours, the patient is back in his or her room, enjoying dinner.

The team effort at Hospital San Jose Tecnologico de Monterrey embraces a cooperative spirit that pervades every aspect of their efforts. Patients and their families are treated with the highest level of concern, respect and support. The hospital itself resembles the finest hotel and provides exemplary care. A more detailed, scientific explanation of the Monterrey experience is currently being prepared and will be posted to ALS WORLDWIDE within the next week.

I hope to post these updates on this breakthrough in stem cell research as well.

original post by Don Margolis

Dr. Roberto Fernandez Vina is scheduled to present a stem cell research study in which he helped improve Diabetes Type 2 patients with their own Adult Stem Cells and followed up on them for 3 years! The stem cell treatment and therapy was a great success. The results are below.

Stem Cell Pioneer and Doctor to Present Adult Stem Cell Study At ISSCR Meeting

Dr. Fernandez Vina will present the following abstract at the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) annual meeting in Barcelona in July 2009.  This is another milestone in Adult Stem Cell research as Dr. Fernandez-Vina has probably been the world’s foremost stem cell doctor in helping patients with their own stem cells.

FIRST REPORT FROM ARGENTINA OF FIRST THREE YEARS FOLLOW UP OF AUTOLOGOUS STEM CELLS IMPLANT IN DIABETES TYPE 2

Objectives: To evaluate the long time performance of Stem cells implant in pancreas in Diabetes Type 2 patients The adults stem cells CD34(+)CD38(-) have demonstrated the capacity to differentiate into functional cells in the endocrine pancreas.

Method: After three years on cell therapy for diabetes,patients the conclusions are optimistic. In this study were observed the evolution of 58 patients Diabetic type 2, 37 male, 21 female, 29- 71 years old. 29 patients were under insulin therapy, and 20 patients using Sulphonylureas + Biguanides. For the transplantation, we harvested bone marrow from the iliac crest by aspiration. The sample was processed using a density gradient separation method, obtaining 120ml (±95) of CD34(+)CD38(-) solution. For the implant was procedure a catheterization through Splenic Artery. No complications or further events were observed during or after the procedure. The patients were subjected to clinical and blood samples control during the 36 months following the implant.

Conclusions: the implant of mononuclear CD34+CD38- ( stem cells) from autologous bone marrow improve pancreatic function in patients with type 2 diabetes, in a safe form and is maintained after 3 years at least

Stem Cell Treatment Now Available, But Not In the United States

Dr. Fernandez Vina from Argentina now is treating patients with their own stem cells in Argentina as well as El Salvador (a short flight from Houston) for conditions such as Spinal Cord Injury, Heart Disease, Lung Diseases (COPD and Emphysema) Diabetes Type 1 and Diabetes Type 2 as well as many other conditions.

If you are further interested in this Adult Stem Cell treatment, please go to our Repair Stem Cell Institute website and fill out this stem cell treatment request form and we will assist you in receiving more stem cell therapy information regarding Dr. Fernandez Vina

original post by Don Margolis