Has anybody done something cell treatment? My mom recently got diagnosed with ALS. She lost majority of her muscle in her arms and some in her legs and needs to take breaks walking after 15 minutes.
I remembered that in other countries outside if America do this. I was wondering if anybody had done that or has a family member who did this? I know it won't cure ALS but Im.hoping it will slow it down
I am not asking for medical advice. My son has already had his stem cells retrieved. He is about (in a week) to undergo the return process. As I understand it, "they" are going to put him back in the "newborn" state. All vaccines and natural immunity will be gone. What precautions do we need to take at home after the "reinstalling" the stem cells. And for how long?
Has anyone tried stem cell therapy for their autistic child? Was it worth it?
Hi everyone, I’m looking for experiences from parents who have tried stem cell therapy for their autistic child. Did you notice any real improvements? If so, what changed and how long did it take before you noticed anything?
A little about my daughter: she is 6 years old and autistic. We were never given an official level, but based on her support needs I would guess she is somewhere around level 2–3.
She can speak in short 2–3 word sentences, mostly to request things. She responds to her name and can label almost everything around her. She also knows how to write and spell words. Our biggest struggles right now are aggression and self-injurious behavior. She may hit other children if they try to touch her things, and sleep is also extremely difficult. She still cannot sleep alone and has a very hard time staying asleep through the night.
We are considering traveling for stem cell therapy, but it would be about a 16-hour drive. Flying with an autistic child can be extremely difficult for us, so driving would probably be our only realistic option.
For parents who have actually done stem cell therapy: Would you do it again? Did you see meaningful changes in communication, behavior, aggression, sleep, or daily functioning? Do you feel the results were worth the cost and such a long trip?
I would really appreciate hearing both positive and negative experiences before we make such a big decision.
I have degenerative disc disease at L4-L5 and L5-S1, and I’m considering stem cell therapy — not just for those two levels, but potentially the whole lumbar spine and the lower half of my cervical spine as well.
Before I commit to something this extensive, I want to hear from people further down the road than I am.
Has anyone had stem cells injected directly into their discs more than 6 years ago? Especially if it was multiple levels, not just a single disc.
I keep reading that these treatments have a shelf life of 3 to 6 years. If that’s true for you, I’d love to know what happened after. Did the pain come back? Did you need a second round? Or is anyone out there still doing well past that window?
Real experiences only, please. Trying to make a decision here, not read more marketing.
i also would love to hear where you went!
Caterra is studying type 1 diabetes with the hope of one day providing a permanent treatment for this disease. In particular, she is creating stem-cell-derived insulin-producing beta cells and working to ensure that, once those cells are implanted into a patient's pancreas, they can evade future immune attacks and continue producing insulin for the body! Learn more about type 1 diabetes and insulin-producing beta cells in the lab with Caterra.
MUSE cells are starting to hit the market in the US/Mexico, and I'm not sure how to feel about where it's going. Patients should be very careful, as the cart is already so far ahead of the horse... and it feels that it'll get much worse in the next year.
If you haven't seen, the general idea is that they're a subset of mesenchymal stem cells. They appear to be isolated mostly from umbilical cord MSCs, I think only a small percentage of those are MUSE cells.
There's some exciting human research on them for things like strokes, here's a small RCT that looks promising:
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10925866/
But, zooming out and looking at the MSC history... I don't know if this is going in the right direction, I can't help but fear this is about to be pretty bad for patients/broader medicine.
I just found this article, which seems to match how they're being marketed. The general idea seems to be that MSCs likely work by paracrine signaling (instead of seeing damage and turning into that type of cell you need like a cartilage cell, they release goodies that help you body heal the damaged cells), while MUSE cells can do two things:
1 - Phagocytose damaged cells (gobble them up)
2 - Differentiate (turn into) and replace those cells. MSCs can potentially turn into fat, bone, muscle, ligament, cartilage, etc., while, it appears MUSE cells may be pluripotent, meaning they can turn into those, but also nerve cells, blood cells, any type of cells.
That 2nd property, called pluripotency, if true, is a huge breakthrough as it would potentially unlock treatments for lots of stuff with no answers, including Parkinsons, TBI, stroke, spinal cord injury, etc. But the problem in my mind is that scientists have been working for decades on this with embryonic stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), which cost like $500K-1M/dose to make and differentiate into the right therapy. Many companies are getting close and bringing the cost down with automation.
MUSE cells cost somewhere around 20-50K depending if you go to Mexico or the US.
What's confusing to me is that you typically don't inject an embryonic or induced pluripotent stem cell, you would differentiate it first, then inject that stem cell or other cell type. But MUSE cells are being injected as pluripotent, eat the damaged cell, then become that cell type on in your body? I think that's accurate but don't quote me.
It seems they've shown a lot of this in vitro (in the lab) and in some small studies, but humans are complicated, I don't think we truly know what they're doing, if anything, yet. But it's already being sold...
My biggest fear here is we see the sequel to, what I feel is, a very bad movie in marketing MSCs to consumers. I foresee companies that previously did MSCs pivoting their marketing over time, saying that was the old tech, it was actually overpromised and we didn't know. MUSE cells are the real stuff.
But, as a patient, you can't help but wonder, if MSCs were oversold, how do you know this isn't happening again? What if, in 5 years, a new cell is discovered, and they say "No, we were wrong again, THIS is the one", and we end up on a never-ending treadmill?
What do you tell all of the desperate patients who gave up their retirement, took out a 2nd mortgage, or went bankrupt trying MSCs? I know plenty of those patients. Do this enough times, and patients will never trust doctors again, and that's a very bad society to live in.
Not to be a debby downer, I believe in regen med's future. But, the unfortunate reality is clinics are making lots, lots of money. Probably double, maybe triple or quadruple what those doctors made before they changed careers. Not to throw shade, innovators need to be rewarded for sure, but there's a massive power imbalance between doctors and patients already, and that much cash means they have enough money for the best lawyer in the world, who's able to fend off any medical board, FDA, FTC, and certainly a disabled patient.
How do patients feel about where this is going? Any ideas to steer the ship, and prevent a threepeat of bone marrow concentrate, wharton's jelly, then MUSE cells?
There are two sides to the story, I'd like to hear theirs. I'll try to get them on for an interview with the sub.
Decades ago, if you needed a chunk of bone for cervical/lumbar fusion or badly broken leg/arm, they would take a chunk of your hip bone. Now the synthetic bone that matches with everyone.
Is there anyone researching synthetic/generic follicles? I would assume that would be cheaper than cloning each person’s own follicles
How important is the source of stem cells? (Survey)
I am a Sixth Form student in the UK currently doing an EPQ about Parkinson's disease (counts for 1/2 an A-level). I am looking to find out more about how people consider where stem cells come from before they are treated with them.
Any response is genuinely golden to me, and I would thoroughly appreciate a couple of minutes of your time (there are only 3 questions, all of which are optional). I am not collecting data for any monetary gain, just to support my academic writing. All responses will be kept completely confidential.
Was shown a plan to get stem cells injected for small (1-2 cm) labrum tear in my right hip. The plan is 3 rounds of stem cells, spaced out at 6 weeks each, for $4800 total.
Has anyone done treatment for this before? Was it worth it? Kind of hard to cough up that kind of money, but trying to make my hips last.
The stem cells come from Platinum Biologics and the provider is RegenRx in Denver if anyone has any first hand results from either of these.