cure your blindness, your child’s autism, or your grandpa’s Alzheimer’s! It is appalling how commercial clinics oversell the ability of stem cells to be a cure for a myriad of conditions. Unfortunately, this creates public mistrust and brings on the wrath of regulatory agencies.
Unless cells grow, stem cell therapy will not be effective. How embryonic stem cells are collected, how umbilical cord blood is collected, and how your own tissues are collected can involve different levels of complexity. How stem cells are gleaned or isolated from their sources has a major impact on your treatment. For example, when your own fat or bone marrow is collected, how is it broken down to get a concentrate of your own adult stem cells? Merely putting fat back into the joint is not stem cell therapy! Two patients getting stem cell treatment for a painful joint, using their own fat stem cells, can end up getting two entirely different treatments. In one, the fat will be injected without being broken down. In the other, the fat will be broken down. Your own stem cells will be isolated and then injected into your joint. An important point to understand is that fat contains many different cells, including stem cells. Fat cells are not stem cells. Therefore, it is very important to break down the fat in order to isolate your stem cells, discarding the remainder of unwanted fat cells. Fat is merely acting as an easily available source of your stem cells. Once you have a concentrate of stem cells ready, the next step is to deliver them to the area needing help. How will this be done? Are the cells getting into the joint space? Are they getting to the area of inflammation? Some clinics give intravenous (IV) injections of stem cells. The majority of stem cells given intravenously can get filtered in the lung. It depends on the condition being treated. But don’t expect an intravenous injection of stem cells to heal your knee joint. Unless the cells reach the area of damage, they won’t be effective. Similarly, cells for conditions affecting the brain may have to be implanted directly into the damaged part of the brain. Research is being conducted to answer some of the questions. Delivery routes and methods for different clinical conditions will vary and have to be clearly established. Until then, we may not be able to predict outcomes or compare results. Unfortunately, there is no apples-to-apples comparison among stem cell treatments yet!
CASE STUDY: MR. KAPOOR AND HIS DAUGHTER PRIYA
Mr. Kapoor is a 65-year-old real estate magnate who has traveled the world and loves to golf. He has played at some of the best-known international courses and even carries his own clubs. About seven years ago, his right shoulder started to hurt after playing. It progressively got worse. He was unable to lie on his right side. Shoulder pain kept him up most nights. He had an MRI evaluation that showed a significant, but not complete, rotator cuff tear. He wanted to avoid surgery or any other toxic medications or injections. He started exploring alternatives. After doing thorough research and getting opinions at three different stem cell clinics, Mr. Kapoor underwent stem cell treatment. He received an injection of his own stem cells harvested from his fat and bone marrow. His recovery was uneventful. Over the next two months he gradually resumed playing.
About two years ago, his 21-year-old daughter Priya was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. Diabetes and its treatment take not only a physical toll, but a psychological one as well. This diagnosis impacts not only the patient but close family members. Determined to find a better cure for his daughter, and given that Mr. Kapoor had such a good experience with stem cells for his shoulder, he contacted the clinic he had gone to, inquiring about stem cell treatment for diabetes. He was told that his daughter could undergo a similar stem cell procedure like the one for his shoulder. The cells would be administered intravenously. Mr. Kapoor was quoted a price that was three times the cost he paid for his shoulder treatment. Mr. Kapoor trusted the clinic and took his daughter for the treatments. He was also advised that she could stop her insulin since the stem cell treatment would cure her diabetes.
Ms. Priya Kapoor received three treatments over three months. There was no improvement in her blood sugar level. The Kapoors were advised to pay for more treatments. In the meantime, Priya started having dizzy spells, and her vision became fuzzy. She also developed tingling and numbness in her feet. One day out of the blue, she noted an ulcer on her little toe. Over the next two weeks, the toe turned black; it was then Mr. Kapoor got alarmed and rushed Priya to a local hospital. The diagnosis was diabetic ulcer with gangrene of the toe. The dead toe had to be amputated. Tests showed that Priya had sky-high blood sugar levels. Her A1C was 14 (normally between 4 and 5.6) and she was heading into major complications due to uncontrolled diabetes. She had stopped taking her insulin on the advice of the stem cell clinic.
Mr. Kapoor had shown blind faith in the physicians. This highlights the dilemma you’re likely to face. On one hand, your own stem cells are capable of regenerating tissue like bones, joints, muscles, and cartilage. However, the same cells are not going to increase the production of insulin. They are not going to regenerate and repair diabetes. You need insulin from the outside to control your blood sugar level. Uncontrolled high blood sugar levels can lead to deadly complications, which Priya had started to experience. That is the level of complexity we need to understand.
The questions that need to be answered are: What stems cells are necessary for what condition, and how will they be administered? Cells given through a regular IV are probably not going to be effective. Most cells get filtered in the lung. Don’t expect those trapped cells in the lungs to regenerate and repair your pancreas to start making more insulin. This is not a treatment for diabetes, and these are not the stem cells for treatment of diabetes.
Great research is being conducted using embryonic and programmed stem cells that are capable of regenerating insulin-producing cells. Those stem cells can be directly implanted into your body either in the pancreas or at a location where new insulin-producing cells can grow. Again, not all stem cell treatments are the same. They may sound the same in terms of their title, so be careful!
KEY TAKEAWAYS
1. Not all stem cell treatments are the same. The source of the stem cells and the way they are processed prior to you getting them are both critical to the outcome.
2. Different conditions will need different types of stem cells. Your arthritis will not respond to the same stem cells as your diabetes will.
3. In order to be effective, live stem cells must reach the area of damage in your body where help is needed.
4. Multiple stem cell treatments may be required, depending on the nature and extent of your condition.
5. Just like any other treatment, stem cell treatments are most effective when you take care of your body and maintain good general health.
CHAPTER 4
Sources and Types of Stem Cells
The good, the bad, and the ugly.
Stem Cells Help Grow New Cells
If stem cell treatments are properly developed, they have the potential to become as revolutionary as the discovery of penicillin. Just as antibiotics have saved many lives, stem cell treatments can also save many patients who have hit a dead end with mainstream medicine.
When disease or injury happens, there is cell damage. When significant disease or injury happens, cell death can ensue. As we have learned in previous chapters, a variety of toxins and inflammatory compounds are released by damaged or dying cells. These toxins take away the ability of your local stem cells to regenerate. You develop symptoms, and your ability to perform decreases. In order to get the local stem cells functioning again, additional stem cells are needed. This forms the basis of stem cell therapy. The stem cells help replace damaged and dying cells with new cells that are healthy and functional. Stem cells are also powerful anti-inflammatories and help resolve the local inflammation by neutralizing toxins. This improves the local environment of the
