Buyer Beware with Stem Cell Claims!
There are an estimated 100 stem cell clinics in the United States operating on questionable claims and with little supervision. Reporters from the Tampa Bay Times reported on a local center known as the Lung Institute and their involvement in stem cell treatments. You can read the entire article at this internet site, http://tinyurl.com/gwkn8p7 The medical director of this facility says he can treat lung patients in the U.S. because he is re-infusing them with their own stem cells, a legal process under certain circumstances. It is not approved or endorsed as a lung disease therapy in this country. Medicare won’t cover it. Participants must pay cash between $7,500 and $12,000 for a three- day treatment, plus $4,500 for additional “boosters” of cells extracted from their blood or abdominal fat.
There is no clinical data showing stem cell therapies benefit people with lung disease. Stem cells can reproduce themselves to repair tissues and mature into cells that perform a specific function.
Adult stem cells can be taken from anyone’s body. After withdrawing your blood, a centrifuge pulls out the stem cells and they are given back to the same person either intravenously or inhaled via a nebulizer. No evidence suggests stem cell therapy results in
Congratulations to our friends at Monaghan Medical Corporation on receiving the Gold Award at the Medical Design Excellence Awards for the Aerobika®. The Aerobika® is an Oscillating Positive Expiratory Pressure Therapy handheld device that provides intermittent resistance, positive pressure and oscillation (which is moving back and forth) all at the same time. This growth of new lung tissues either in animals or people.
The FDA in 2008 determined that the procedure in which a person’s own stem cells are re-injected constitutes a “drug,” meaning the clinics would be subject to the same rigorous testing requirements that govern the pharmaceutical companies. The FDA later released a narrow list of exceptions to the regulations and the Lung Institute says it operates under those exceptions.
The Lung Institute has not published results or scientific studies of its treatments. The medical director has said that about 70 percent of people report some benefit after the treatment, such as walking to the mailbox seems easier after having the treatment.
It helps to clear mucus in the upper airways so it can be coughed out. The device was put to the test in a study performed at the Robarts Research Institute, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada, and researchers found that the study subjects had improvements in increased mucus clearance, decreased cough frequency and breathless- ness, and enhanced exercise tolerance.