IGX

So, I had a physician tell me I should look into stem cells for the suspected adductor tear I've got. Of course, I've been fighting constantly with my insurance re: MRI, fighting my doctor on some shit etc, and stem cell therapy isn't covered by insurance anyway, so... I doubt I'd bother.

However, I was poking around a little and it looks like the information on stem cell injections treating soft tissue injuries, alleviating arthritis etc is, at the least, interesting.

Has anyone gone down this path or know someone who has?

I did come across some really weird stories of people going abroad for the therapy, but that doesn't seem smart to me. I mean, you can extract them from placenta after birth, and from your own bone marrow (I think), so I don't know that I'd want to go to Thailand to get ladyboy placenta injected anywhere.

Bear in mind, this info is limited to what I have recently learned in Advanced Physiology and Cellular Biology. Consult a Professional opinion.

The reason embryonic stem cells are so valuable is that for the first few divisions they are Totipotent. They can differentiate in to any type of body cell and placental cell. Even after the initial divisions, they are plueripotent. They can differentiate into any type of body cell. Cord blood cells are multipotent, they can differentiate in to more than one type of cell but are not as versatile as embryonic stem cells.

Blast cells (like osteoblasts which generate new bone or hemocytoblasts in the bone marrow which are the progenitors of blood cells) usually, to my knowledge, can only differentiate into the type of cell the differentiate into normally. They are not normally multipotent, unless someone has figured a way to hot wire them.

One of the main reasons certain injuries don't heal is that some of your tissues (bones) have blast cells, and some (cardiac muscle, neural) does not.

I believe they can extract them from fat tissue these days. And yeah, they are fucking magic. I did 10+ years in medical research. They havent even come close to tapping the potential of stem cell therapies.

The level of bullshit in the medical literature is so high it's hard to decipher fact from fiction, and going through the technical literature doesn't help a lot of times.

From a cost perspective, going overseas for some procedures makes a lot of sense.

I just found out my incredibly fat aunt had stem cell therapy for her arthritic knees after dropping ~75 pounds. Apparently when that didn't make her feel better, she had the injections done and can now walk down stairs without incredible pain.

Said it took her ~3-5 months to see the full benefit.

Shit, I may have to sell a kidney to get this done for this tendon. That's assuming I can get someone to approve an MRI to find out what is torn, and where.

.

funny thing. In the "Bro-science" world a hierarchy developing on injury recovery. it goes like this.

1. Stem cell therapy
2. Growth Hormone
3. Platelet Rich Plasma
4. Peptides - close to PRP, but not as good as old fashioned GH.
5. all the crap that most PTs and doctors know about and is normally covered on health insurance.

Oddly enough I cannot believe that the PRP folk aren't trying the self stem cells given the possibility of getting it from the person under treatment. Neither is covered under most insurance plan.

So here's to getting a bunch more Disposable Income to make the top 4 happen!!

Joe Rogan swears by it. Has it done in Vegas by Dr Roddy McGee. Podcast #945.
McGee says you don't want embryonic cells for soft tissue injuries. I haven't gotten through the whole thing yet- too many podcasts. But having recently learned that I've got arthritis in my knee, this is now on my radar.

Just finished the Roddy McGee episode. Interesting stuff. Stem cells can indeed be pulled from fat.

The potential sounds amazing. I'd like to find out more about the people who didn't get relief from the procedure.

The Ginger Beard Man wrote:Joe Rogan swears by it. Has it done in Vegas by Dr Roddy McGee. Podcast #945.
McGee says you don't want embryonic cells for soft tissue injuries. I haven't gotten through the whole thing yet- too many podcasts. But having recently learned that I've got arthritis in my knee, this is now on my radar.

My plan is to wait out joint replacements while stem cell magic gets figured out.

nafod wrote:

The Ginger Beard Man wrote:Joe Rogan swears by it. Has it done in Vegas by Dr Roddy McGee. Podcast #945.
McGee says you don't want embryonic cells for soft tissue injuries. I haven't gotten through the whole thing yet- too many podcasts. But having recently learned that I've got arthritis in my knee, this is now on my radar.

My plan is to wait out joint replacements while stem cell magic gets figured out.

I'm thinking similar thoughts. I'm 46 and have arthritis in the right knee. I don't think I'm all that close to replacement, but I do have a different surgery coming up.

just inject some saline as close as you can get to what you figure is the tear

it will hurt a bit but you'll be fine