Adult Stem Cells: A Transformative Force in Health Care

Health Travel Guides is powered by Inpatra Patient Systems, the same platform that powers the adult stem cell patient registry stnon-profit oversight body International Cellular Medicine Society. We work with patients from all walk of life seeking relief from sports injury as well as the symptoms and progression of chronic diseases such as autism, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, rheumatoid arthritis, type 2 diabetes, and more. All of our treatment providers are part of the ICMS accreditation and clinic registry program; all treatment protocols are submitted to an IRB for review and approval. To learn more about adult stem cell treatment abroad, talk to a friendly Health Travel Guide today. The call is toll free: 866.978.2573.

Cellular medicine is one of the most promising fields of science to emerge in decades, with a preponderance of clinical evidence demonstrating that adult stem cell treatment offers the possibility of restoring quality of life for patients, while saving billions of dollars on medical care and lost productivity.

As part of Stem Cell Awareness Day, Health Travel Guides will sponsor webinars, internet radio program and other patient informational events providing information on adult stem cell treatment for a number of chronic health conditions.

Click on the banner to see the full list and sign up for different patient information events!

Adult Stem Cell Treatment Protocols with Health Travel Guides:
* Diabetes
* Cancer
* Autism
* Multiple Sclerosis
* Alzheimer's
* ALS
* Macular Degeneration
* Congestive Heart Failure
* Parkinson's
* Lupus
* Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD)
* Anti-aging
* Hodgkin's Lymphoma
* Multiple Myeloma
* Rheumatoid arthritis
* Joint (hip, knee) degeneration

For 38-year-old pitcher Bartolo Colon, it looked like his best pitching years were behind him. A one-time Cy Young award winner who hurled 90+ mph fastballs, he spent the past year on the injured list, so overweight and out of shape that sports writers said he looked ready to catch flies rather than pitch fastballs.

Then the pitcher, who is from the Domincan Republic, had a little-known procedure called stem cell therapy, and after that, everything changed, enough for Sports Illustrated to trumpet "Is this the Fountain of Youth?!" in its headlines. Good reason too - after the simple procedure, Colon experienced something of a career revival, throwing a shut out and pitching at his old top speeds of 95 mph.

Colon isn't the only athlete that has benefited from stem cells. A race horse by the name of Be a Bono had the same treatment on its knee joint, and went on to earn more than $1.25 million in winnings.

Major League Baseball has launched an investigation into Colon's treatment, concerned that it may have also included injections of HGH (Human Growth Hormone), a banned performance enhancer. But if Colon's medical records reveal his performance improvement is attributable to stem cells - as is the case with Lynn Munson and Ron Delke, who talk about their improvements after stem cell treatment elsewhere on this lens - then it may be that stem cells will transform not only sports medicine, but sports themselves.

When you work with Health Travel Guides to investigate adult stem cell treatment alternatives available, you can rest assured that our partners are Board Certified surgeons and physicians and allied health professionals at full service state-of-the-art hospitals, providing the best possible medical care and support for patients and families living with chronic degenerative disease.

All stem cell therapies performed by the A-ASC Stem Cell Therapy programs available through Health Travel Guides utilize autologous adult stem cells, posing limited or no possibility for rejection since they come from the same patients.

Adult autologous stem cells are extracted via micro-liposuction from a patient's bone marrow and adipose (fat) tissue (as opposed to bone marrow extraction which is longer and more difficult and can fail to yield enough stem cells to actually stimulate therapeutic value.)

Investigations performed by multiple groups demonstrates that ASCs are able to increase tissue perfusion and limit ischemic tissue damage in several circumstances, including chronic skeletal muscle, myocardial, and cerebral ischemia. Evidence derived from studies has consistently indicated that effects are mediated by angiogenic and anti-apoptotic factors secreted by ASCs.

It has also been recently demonstrated that ASCs possess many characteristics of pericytes, and are capable of stabilizing endothelial networks as well as participate in the in vivo formation of new vessels which connect with host vasculature, conduct blood flow, and exhibit network stability.

From autism to Alzheimer's, adult stem cells are changing the face of medicine and how we treat chronic disease. This interview with New Yorker Julia Szabo gives you the skinny on the actual effectiveness of stem cells on dogs...and her own journey to get treatment which has taken her from Spain to Costa Rica to the Regenerative Medicine Institute at Hospital Angeles Tijuana, the closes stem cell Center of Excellence that Americans can access.

The ICMS believes patients must be empowered to make informed decisions about their medical care. Many patients turn to medical travel facilitation websites and portals to gather information about stem cell treatment, and as the ICMS points out, the credibility and intentions of these companies can vary greatly, ranging from, at their best, responsible groups serving the important role of helping to provide key information and direction to the other end of the spectrum where we see unscrupulous businesses preying on on the desperation of patients by making false, unsubstantiated and unverifiable claims of stem cell "cures".

The ICMS is a nonprofit organization dedicated to patient safety in the adult stem cell treatment arena; on its website, CEO David Audley writes that "it is critical that all parties involved in the recruitment of patients do so with the highest possible standards of ethics, patient care and honesty":

Guidelines for Patient Recruitment Include:

*Patients need to be provided with a description of how the cells will be harvested, processed and implanted into the patient, an accurate estimate of the price for the treatment and qualifications of the physician providing the treatment

*Patients need to be informed of the legal status of the treatment in the location where the treatment is being provided

*Patients need to be given access, upon request, to a licensed medical professional employed by the clinic prior to being asked to sign any agreement or make any commitment to seeking treatment at said clinic,

For the full list of 11 guidelines, click on the green quote box above!

Director of the Center for Gene Therapy at Tulane University Health Sciences Center and Professor of Biochemistry Dr. Darwin Prockop has been researching adult stem cells for fourteen years. In a Newsweek interview, Dr.. Prockop said that "Despite myearly skepticism about fat-derived stem cells, the potential uses for these and other non-embryonic stem cells are almost limitless."

Indeed the animal world is showing startling results from adult stem cell therapy. Research at UCLA and Pittsburgh gave birth to Vet-Stem in 2000. Vet-Stem provides adult stem cell therapy for animals such as Be a Bono, the professional racehorse that earned more than $1 million in prize money after stem cell therapy. It also provides stem cell treatment for dogs, a market that is 60 million strong in the US. Results suggest that the use of stem cell technology will utterly transform veterinary medicine in ways we may find difficult to imagine.

For those who consider stem cell therapy an ostentatious display of spending for a mere pet, the price tag for pet stem cell treatment might surprise you. The Riha family recently appeared on ABC News with Hunter, their beloved golden retriever suffering from arthritis. The Rihas were told that Hunter's hip replacement would cost $10,000, a therapy that was out of reach. But their vet had an innovative suggestion - a $2,500 stem cell transplant.

Hunter's stem cells were extracted via "puppy liposuction' and after being processed at a lab, were reinjected into his hip. He is one of a few thousand pet patients treated by Vet Stem.

Considering that the commercialization of adult stem cell treatment has proliferated as rapidly as the research on same:stem cell ttreatments for humans are available at offshore stem cell clinics treating chronic disease conditions such as COPD, Multiple Sclerosis, Alzheimer's, and even breast regrowth after mastectomy. In The US medical device manufacturer BioHeart has identified the first of six planned Stem Cell Centers of Excellence at Hospital Angeles in Tijuana which actually features a concierge service that picks up patients from San Diego International airport. For more details feel free to call Health Travel Guides, toll free 866.978.2573.

A study conducted by stem cell researchers at Case Western Reserve University has found that Mesenchymal Stem Cells (MSCs) function like a 'drugstore' to protect and heal.

Cells recruited to the site of a local injury can morph into different tissues: some provide a protective function, others provide healing or even produce antibiotics.

The MSCs are present in all blood vessels and self-activate in the event of injury or inflammation, constructing a "curtain of molecules" which prevent the immune system from overreacting and mounting an autoimmune response.

When injected into damaged tissues or the bloodstream, MSCs appear to be capable of everything from muting the damage from acute heart attack and stroke, to fully resolving certain medical conditions including tendonitis, some forms of diabetes,and arthritis.

Even radiation syndrome, burns, and wounds are repaired by MSCs, earning them their title "The Ultimate Disease Antidote"

Source: Cell Stem Cell journal, as reported in The Times of India