Customer Update from Mike Byrom
It is unfortunate that the field of stem cell therapy has so many variables because this variability leads to misinformation even among experts and factual statements that are often taken out of context causes inaccurate assumptions by the listener. We should begin to correct this by making more precise statements regarding stem cell therapy.
Let’s start by saying Mesenchymal Stem Cell (MSC) therapy to clearly define it from other types of stem cells that can do other types of treatments. We should also define that a treatment is just that, “a treatment” not necessarily a cure. A treatment improves a condition and improves the patient’s quality of life, while a cure would completely remove the disease from the patient.
All patients do not respond in the same way and to the same extent from MSC therapy. The amount of benefit a patient receives depends on many things including the quality of the cells being delivered, the method of delivery, the quantity of cells being delivered, the severity of the disease being treated, the length of time the patient has had the disease and the overall health of the patient receiving the treatment.
There are other factors involved also but these are factors of great importance for a successful treatment. Because of these variables you can often find articles where 2 people of about the same age with apparently the same disease will experience greatly different results from MSC therapy. The reader would assume that all things were the same when in fact they were not remotely close to being the same but those details were left out of the article.
The last important point worth mentioning is the difference between an experimental treatment and an approved treatment.
An approved treatment is one that has a significant amount of controlled tests to support the statement that a treatment works and the data from those tests has been reviewed and approved by a regulatory authority such as the FDA or the HTA.
An experimental treatment often involves only a single patient that receives a treatment with little previous documented tests to support that the treatment may be helpful. It has not been reviewed or approved by a regulatory authority. An experimental treatment does not mean that it won’t work it just means that it has not been proven to the satisfaction of an approving governmental authority.
Now that you have some context to help interpret the success of MSC therapy for articles that you read let’s move on to some exciting information.
Stem Cell Treatment for Multiple Sclerosis (MS)
MS is an auto-immune disease (meaning your body attacks itself) which affects many parts of your body including your brain, spinal cord, optic nerves and eyes. It occurs when your immune system attacks the protective coating on nerves called myelin.
Without this protective coating the nerves become damaged and the result is you have symptoms such as; fatigue, difficulty walking and moving, blurry vision, weakness, pain, and difficulty controlling your bladder and bowels. These problems tend to get worse over time as the disease progresses and can significantly degrade your quality of life.
Traditional medical treatment options for MS are limited to pharmaceuticals intended to reduce relapse time and slow disease progression. Many people that suffer from this disease do not experience any benefits from these drug treatments and often suffer from very bad side effects. There are currently no classical medical treatments to cure this disease.
Mesenchymal stem cell therapy for the treatment of MS has been showing some amazingly and life changing successful results. Here are 3 example cases.
Leslie from the UK
Leslie was diagnosed with MS in 2006. He experienced limited benefit from traditional medical treatment and after about 4 years he required the use of a wheelchair, had extreme fatigue, optical neuritis, difficulty walking and talking and all the normal symptoms associated with MS. He decided to have stem cell therapy and traveled outside of the UK to receive it. Within a week he could walk and was coordinated enough to start exercise at a local gym. His disease continued to improve and he now is living a relatively normal and productive life again. His story can be found with the links below.
Video of his 4 month follow-up:
Holly Huber from San Diego USA
Holly was diagnosed with MS in November of 2004. She attempted traditional medical treatment for her condition but did not experience success. 4 years later in 2008 she was in a wheelchair much of the time, she had difficulty speaking, had difficulty with cognitive function, difficulty walking, extreme fatigue, poor balance, she couldn’t drive, she had problems with her bladder and many other symptoms that prevented her from living a happy and productive life. She made the decision to have stem cell therapy and traveled to Costa Rica and had treatment using MSC’s from donated umbilical cord blood. She experienced tremendous improvements with her disease. She regained control over her bladder, regained ability to walk, talk, drive, and live a productive life. All the details of her story can be found on her website listed below and she has produced a series of video diary entries to document her journey. A link to one of those videos is below.
Video Diary:
Jason Upshaw from Texas USA
Jason was diagnosed with MS in 1996. His disease progressed normally over several years until he was unable to walk, talk, feel his hands and feet, had extreme fatigue and all of the common symptoms of this disease. He decided to travel to Panama and have stem cell therapy in 2008. After his first treatment and within a week he was able to walk without assistance. He has received massive improvement in all symptoms of his disease over time and has regained control over his life. Jason’s case was an extremely difficult one because he had been suffering from the disease for such a long period of time before his first treatment. This long time allowed for significantly more damage to his nerves to occur which is one of the critical factors I discussed above. The video story below is a little long at 17 minutes but one of the most amazing turnaround cases you will ever see and it is worth watching every minute of it.
His story:
In all 3 of these examples the patients still have their disease but the treatment they received allowed them to regain control of their lives and enjoy living again.
References:
https://www.webmd.com/multiple-sclerosis/what-is-multiple-sclerosis#1