STEM CELL THERAPY

For one thing, experience. Other clinics provide freeze-dried, off-the-shelf commercial products in a ‘one size fits all’ approach. There’s an old saying: ‘If you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail.’ We use an individualized approach to each patient, choosing the best regenerative treatment based on their overall health and the severity of their underlying problem.

Most patients (80%) have a positive response. Like everything else in medicine, stem cells may not help everyone. Response to stem cell therapy depends on the underlying health of the patient, their baseline level of activity, their weight, and the severity of the underlying problem.

Patients with very mild arthritis who are active usually respond better than someone with so-called ‘bone on bone’ arthritis, but in our experience, even patients with advanced degrees of arthritis can benefit from stem cell therapy. In many cases, stem cell therapy has been able to delay joint replacement surgery. Our hope is that if people get stem cells early on in the course of their arthritis we may even be able to prevent joint replacement entirely. We have seen many patients who were told by other clinics that they were ‘bone on bone’ in an effort to scare them into getting stem cell therapy done ‘right away’ when in fact their arthritis was not that severe.

When in doubt get a second opinion. We never pressure anyone to get treatment. But the fact is that stem cells are usually the best option when it comes to arthritis.

That is one of the most important questions you must ask any provider who wishes to treat you with stem cells. At Dynamic Health we use your stem cells from your own body. There are stem cells in every single tissue in our bodies, but in some tissues, they are more plentiful. For example, adipose tissue (fat) and bone marrow are the two main sources of active, viable stem cells and those are the two main sources that we use.

By using your own body as the source of stem cells we are basically helping your body heal itself. And by using your own stem cells there is no risk of bloodborne infections like hepatitis, HIV, Zika, and many others.

There are two major reasons for this. First, all of these products are obtained from materials donated after normal, live births. The tissues are processed, screened for infectious diseases, and then freeze-dried and placed into bottles and shipped all over the country. Many providers use these off-the-shelf products because it’s ‘easy’ to just pull a bottle off the shelf and draw it up into a syringe (Remember the ‘hammer/nail’ discussion above).

Secondly and even more important, the FDA has stated in its regulations that providers may not use stem cells that come from other people and not the patient themselves unless these products undergo the exact same approval process that drugs have to undergo. This process involves filing New Drug Applications and doing years of very expensive research to prove safety and effectiveness. None of the currently available placental, amniotic, or umbilical cord products have undergone this FDA approval process. Providers using these have only a limited time left before they must cease and desist from using these products altogether or face stiff penalties from the FDA.

In addition, one of the major umbilical cord stem cell producers issued a nationwide recall in the fall of 2018 for bacterial contamination. A number of patients were injected with these contaminated products and had to be hospitalized for the infections that resulted.

Any time you penetrate the skin, there is a small risk of infection. Our procedures are performed using strict aseptic techniques, so infection is rare, occurring in only about 1 of every 1000 patients.

Other possible complications include allergic reactions to local anesthetic and bleeding, and both of these are extremely rare. We can even do these procedures in patients who are on blood thinners, provided that they can stop the blood thinner for several days beforehand (Never stop your blood thinning medication unless cleared by your doctor to do so).

The number of injections required depends on the severity of the underlying problem. Most patients can get by with one but patients with more severe degrees of arthritis may need a ‘booster’ shot after several months.

Studies have shown that patients can expect one to two years of pain relief, but in our experience, we have had many patients that have gone well past 2 years and are continuing to do well. No arthritis therapy is permanent because there is no way to completely stop the disease of arthritis. Even artificial knee joints last on average 15 years before wearing out. But with regular stem cell therapy, our hope is to prevent patients from having to resort to joint replacement surgery or at least delay it as long as possible.

As long as providers use autologous stem cells (definition: stem cells that come from the patient themselves) for regenerative therapy, the FDA accepts these procedures as complying with current standards of care. The equipment that we use to process your stem cells is FDA cleared for that use. All placental, amniotic, and umbilical cord blood/tissue products must have product-specific approval from the FDA, and as of now none of the commercially and currently available products have that approval except in one instance, and that is when umbilical cord blood stem cells are used specifically and only to treat hematological diseases like leukemia. No amniotic, placental, or umbilical cord blood or tissue products are FDA approved for regenerative medicine, and providers that currently use these products have only a limited time left before the FDA mandates that they must stop or face stiff sanctions. At Dynamic Health we have always used the patient’s own stem cells, and until more effective treatments are discovered and approved by the FDA we will continue to do so.

Insurance companies have not yet instituted coverage for stem cell treatments, and it will most likely be several years before this happens. Most patients with arthritis cannot wait that long for treatment. They need help now. While the stem cell treatment itself may not be covered, the joint rehabilitation therapy that is combined with stem cell therapy is frequently covered by insurance.

We used to think that the injected stem cells actually turn into new cartilage. Recent research has shown that something slightly different is happening. The stem cells and growth factors that are injected serve as chemical messengers. These stem cell messengers send signals to the dormant stem cells that are already living inside your damaged tissues. These special signals tell the dormant stem cells to ‘wake up’ and begin to grow and repair the local tissue damage that has been caused by wear and tear. It’s your own body healing itself. We’re giving it a ‘boost’ that it needs but can’t get on its own to get the process started.

There is no permanent cure for arthritis. Stem cell therapy helps to regenerate tissues damaged by arthritis, but the disease process of arthritis is still ongoing due to the effects of time, gravity, and constant use.

The best way to try to prevent ongoing joint damage is to get stem cell regenerative therapy done on a regular basis. So over time, as the effects of the stem cell injection begin to wear off, that when you should consider getting another stem cell therapy which can build on the results of the previous therapy. Some patients actually get better results with the second treatment than they got with the first, due to the cumulative effects of tissue regeneration.

Remember the goal is to try to prevent (or in extreme cases, at least delay) the need for joint replacement surgery. There is no other treatment available that has the potential to do this. Not cortisone. Not hyaluronic acid gel shots. It’s either stem cells or eventual surgery.