Every fifteen years or so, a health and well being game changer shows up. The ones that come to mind right now are ozone therapy, Prolozone therapy, CT and MRI scans, chelation therapy, Bio-Energy Testing, and hormonal restoration therapy. Game changers are treatments or diagnostic modalities that effectively treat and/or diagnose a condition that is usually resistant to diagnosis or treatment. In this issue, I am going to tell you about the latest game changer. It’s called cord derived stem cell therapy. Here’s a real live case example of the very first patient I treated with cord derived stem cells.
Norma’s Case
Norma was a 73 year old woman with severe COPD (chronic lung disease). Her condition was so bad that she needed oxygen 24 hours a day. And even on oxygen her ability to get around was limited. On average, she spent 2-4 weeks every year in the hospital, often in the intensive care unit, fighting off life threatening infections. Then, last May I gave her a treatment that completely changed her life. It was miraculous. Four weeks after the treatment she was walking around without oxygen and even started working at her church. I had never seen anything like it. COPD is supposed to be incurable. What was this life saving treatment? I gave her an intravenous injection of cord derived stem cells. It took all of 20 minutes.
What are stem cells?
Stem cells are cells that are made in the bone marrow. They are all over the body, nestled close to the capillaries, where they are ready to mobilize at a moment’s notice. When an area of the body is damaged from trauma, infection, toxicity, or poor circulation, the body responds by producing inflammation in that area. The inflammation then attracts stem cells to the damaged area. When they get there, they do what only stem cells can do.
Stem cells carry vesicles. Vesicles are microscopic bubbles that contain micro RNA, messenger RNA, and various signaling proteins. When the stem cells get to the damaged area, they release these vesicles. The components in the vesicles are then taken up by the damaged cells, and one of the great miracles of life happens. The damaged tissues are revived and regenerated. And that’s not all.
The vesicles also secrete anti-inflammatory cytokines to eliminate the inflammation. Additionally, these cytokines modify and regulate immune functions such as facilitating a TH-1 to TH-2 shift. Both factors make them potentially effective in autoimmune disorders. They have also been shown to be effective against acute and chronic infections by manufacturing and releasing antimicrobial peptides. And, they are anti-fibrotic. This means they can break down the fibrotic scarring that can occur in lungs and other tissues. I have to admit that stem cells seem like the magical answer to all things aging. However, there is a problem.
As we get older, as we become more toxic, and as we become progressively out of shape our stem cells don’t work very well. This is the reason why our bodies do not heal as well the older we are. And over the years, the unhealed damage adds up and worsens, and soon become beyond repair. The result is chronic age-related diseases including chronic lung disease like Norma, chronic heart disease, and chronic musculoskeletal damage such as bad hips, knees, shoulders, etc. And, that’s when stem cell therapy can be such a game changer.
What kinds of stem cell therapies are available?
When it comes to stem cell therapy, there are basically two forms. One form is called autologous therapy. In this form, the patient’s own stem cells are harvested and then injected into the damaged areas. To get autologous stem cells the doctor either punctures a needle into the patient’s bone marrow or performs a procedure called liposuction in which fat cells are removed. The bone marrow blood and the fat cells both contain a great many stem cells. These stem cells can then be separated out of the marrow blood or the fat, and then injected back into the patient. Autologous stem cell therapy has been around for at least 50 years, but it has only been in the last 10 years that it has been widely used. Autologous stem cell therapy can be remarkably effective, especially for regenerating damaged joints, but there are two big problems with it.
First, in order to get autologous stem cells, the doctor needs to perform one of the surgical procedures I just mentioned. The procedures hurt, and have complications associated with them. They are also expensive. A typical autologous stem cell therapy usually costs in the area of $10,000 and there is even a bigger problem with autologous stem cell therapy than the pain, risks, and cost.
Autologous stem cells are only as good as the age of the patient they are taken from. Remember that I told you that one of the reasons we don’t heal as well as we get older is because older bodies produce fewer stem cells. And to make matters worse, as we celebrate more and more birthdays, the ones that we do produce have less viability and efficacy and fewer growth factors, microRNA, and messenger RNA. So, the stem cells of a 73-year-old like Norma are not all that great to begin with. This dramatically limits the usefulness of autologous stem cell therapy in older people.
So, what do we do now? There is a better solution and that is utilizing cord derived stem cells. It turns out that the umbilical cord of a newly born baby contains a huge amount of stem cells. And, since these stem cells are from a newborn, they are much more active and effective than they will be when that baby is 60+ years old. Children heal very quickly and that is because their stem cells are so much more effective than the stem cells from an older person. These stem cells are taken straight from the umbilical cord so instead of throwing it away, they are immediately processed and harvested after a new baby is born. They are then put in ampoules and kept freshly active by being stored at minus 80 degrees. And here’s why cord derived stem cells are changing the way doctors do regenerative medicine.
When the doctor needs to give a stem cell treatment, all he has to do is to defrost the cord stem cells and inject them immediately. No risky surgical procedure is needed. The cost is significantly less, in the order of $2-4,000. And most importantly, the stem cells are much more effective.
Exosomes
Remember that when the stem cells get to where they are needed, they release vesicles carrying microRNA, messenger RNA, and various signaling proteins? The term for these vesicles is exosomes. These exosomes, not the stem cells per se, are the mechanism behind the regenerative power of stem cells. And the good news is that doctors can now get ampoules of exosomes, and use them directly without having to inject stem cells. So, why is that a good thing, and are there any advantages to exosomes over stem cells?
Exosomes have a number of advantages over stem cells. For example, one of the problems with injecting stem cells intravenously is that they tend to clump together. This makes them less capable of getting to where they need to go. By injecting exosomes, this clumping problem is avoided.
Also, when stem cells are injected intravenously the first place they go is to the lungs. And since virtually everybody has inflammation of some sort in their lungs, the stem cells tend to settle in the lungs instead of traveling throughout the body to the heart, kidneys, brain, liver and elsewhere. Now, if you have a primary lung problem like Norma, this is great news. But if you want to regenerate organs and tissues beyond the lungs, stem cells are very limited in being able to get there. This is not the case with exosomes. Since they are much smaller particles, they can get past the lungs easily. They can even cross the blood brain barrier.
Another potential problem with intravenous injection of cord stem cells is that they can be perceived as being foreign by the innate and adaptive immune system and quickly destroyed. Exosomes are able to evade this kind of immune response.
And, one particular aspect of exosomes is that since they are not cells, they are less expensive and easier to store and use. Let me tell you about a case I had recently, in which I used exosomes.
Case Report of Exosome Therapy
The patient was a 65 year-old man who had been showing signs of dementia, fatigue, and decreased stamina for about 2 years. His symptoms were getting worse by the month. I injected cord stem cells initially, and only 30 days later his wife told me that he was getting around “like the old days”, and that his mental function had significantly improved. About 2 months later I gave him an injection of exosomes right into his spinal fluid. This allowed the exosomes to go directly into his brain. I also gave him some exosomes intravenously. Thirty days after that he was completely normal in every way. It is now 6 months after the last treatment and he is as good as ever.
Both cord derived stem cells and exosomes can also be injected into painful and degenerated joints, necks, and lower backs, where they can be very effective at regenerating new cartilage, connective tissue, and ligaments. They can easily be combined with Prolozone therapy. And as Norma’s case shows, cord stem cells are almost miraculous when it comes to lung conditions such as COPD. I forgot to tell you that I also had a case of pulmonary fibrosis that was turned around with cord stem cells. This is absolutely remarkable. Both COPD and pulmonary fibrosis are completely incurable using any other kind of therapies.
When I use cord derived stem cells or exosomes for systemic therapy, I like to make sure the patient is in good shape prior to treatment. Having an established healthy lifestyle, nutritional, and hormonal replacement program is important. I also like to pretreat with ozone therapy twice a week for three weeks before administering the cells. This creates a much better response to both the stem cells and exosomes. It also mobilizes the body’s own stem cells. Stem cells and exosomes are expensive. So, I want to make sure my patients get the maximum from them.
Important Considerations for Cord Derived Stem Cells and Exosomes
First, only cord cells that come from babies born here in the United States should be used. Second, the lab producing the cells and exosomes must verify that they use third party testing to test for contamination, stability, and viability. My two favorite sources for stem cells are Chara Biologics cells and Alocyte cells. My source for exosomes is Kimera Labs. These companies meet all of these criteria.
And, just in case you have already thought about it, even if you are a healthy older person and don’t have a medical condition, there’s nothing wrong with getting a treatment with stem cells every now and then just to make sure you stay on your game.
Refs:
M. L. Bustos, “Aging mesenchymal stem cells fail to protect because of impaired migration and antiinflammatory response,” The American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, 2014.
A. Hermann, “Age-dependent neuroectodermal differentiation capacity of human mesenchymal stromal cells: limitations for autologous cell replacement strategies,” Cytotherapy, 2010.
Hye Jin Jin, “Comparative Analysis of Human MSC from Bone Marrow, Adipose Tissue, and Umbilical Cord Blood as sources of cell therapy,”
International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 2013
Rashid MH, Bayraktar E, et al. Exosomes: From Garbage Bins to Promising Therapeutic Targets. Int J Mol Sci. 2017 Mar 2;18(3).
Spiel D. The role of exosomes in regenerative medicine. https://www.comfortcompassion.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/The-Role-of-Exosomes-in-Regenerative-Medicine.pdf
