Stem Cell Therapy Reverses Symptoms of MS

27/06/2016

In a groundbreaking experiment, multiple sclerosis (MS), a life-long progressive disease estimated to affect around 2.3 million people worldwide, has shown to be reversible with stem cell therapy.

Multiple sclerosis is the most widespread disabling neurological condition among young adults. It’s a chronic disease that, by way of malfunctioning immune cells, attacks the nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord.

Anyone can develop MS at any age, with the majority of cases being diagnosed in people in their 20s and 30s. The disease can come in relapsing, remitting, and progressive types, with the exact causes of the disease still not fully understood. All this makes treating MS extremely difficult.

To date, there’s no established treatment to cure MS. The best treatments can do is to try and manage the effects of the disease and decrease the frequency of new attacks. Apart from physical therapy, this generally means administrating drugs by injection into the skin or muscle, via infusion, or in pill form. As well as being only temporary and mildly effective, such methods are poorly tolerated by many people and can often cause side effects.

It’s clear there are many reasons to find a cure for MS, and doctors in Canada may have just provided us with the answer we’ve long been looking for.

I Can Now Live My Life Again Thanks To Stem Cell Therapy

“We are rebooting the immune system like you might reboot a computer,” —Dr. Mark Freedman

An experimental stem cell treatment was conducted on a group of 24 patients who were expecting to be confined to a wheelchair within the next 10 years.

Patients first received a drug that caused stem cells from the bone marrow to move into their bloodstream. These stem cells were then extracted and purified to remove the damaging MS cells, and, after patients were treated with immune cell destroying drugs, returned to the body via blood infusion.

The stem cells then made their way back into the bone marrow to set about rebuilding the immune system with healthy and unharmful MS-free cells.

As the treatment required destroying the patients’ malfunctioning immune cells, the experiment wasn’t without its risks—with one patient dying during the this phase. But, even to the surprise of the doctors, the overall results were nothing less than astonishing.

Following the treatment the majority of the patients have went on to rebuild their lives, becoming once again able to walk, play sport, and drive, as well as regaining their sight and balance, returning to work or college, getting married, and even having kids using banked sperm or eggs.

One of the participants who received the treatment, Jennifer Molson, has a particularly dramatic success story.

At the ripe age of 21, Molson was diagnosed with MS and given a sentence that would lead to her needing round the clock care—including help with bathing, dressing, and eating.

By 26, the disease was in full force, with Jennifer living in a 24-hour rehab centre and being cared for by her boyfriend. Less than a year following her stem cell treatment, Molson was walking down the aisle at her wedding.

Not having experienced MS symptoms now for 14 years, today she is living and enjoying an extraordinary life, kayaking, skiing, hiking—all thanks to the revolutionary stem cell treatment spearheaded by doctors in Ottawa, Canada.

Of the 23 Canadian patients who survived their treatments, not a single one has since developed new brain lesions or experienced a relapse. Due to the drugs involved he treatment is still an aggressive one and not for everyone, but it does offer much hope for suffers of MS around the world.

Visit our website to find out how you can safeguard the health of your child by banking stem cells from their baby teeth.