Multiple Sclerosis Sufferers Sigh With Relief - Part One
Recently MS patient Jan Wilks began walking days after treatment
with umbilical cord stem cells after years in a wheelchair.
Coverage of her case in the press sparked a huge demand for more
information on this new cutting edge treatment. Jan Wilks is
only one of stem cell therapy's success stories.
Multiple Sclerosis - a Cure?
Stem cell therapy is not defined as a cure for MS but as a
treatment for this crippling disorder. The medical definition of
a cure is a treatment which generates a remission in symptoms
and normal diagnostic studies for five years or over. Data has
not been monitored long enough to use the word cure. The term
treatment is much more medically sound.
A stem cell is a primitive cell capable of producing many
types of specialized cells. A stem cell communicates with the
body to determine and travel to sites of need, to divide in a
controlled manner to create a copy of itself and a copy of
another more specialized cell required by the body and to assist
the body to heal and regenerate its existing cells.
For Multiple sclerosis stem cells work in three ways
1) By forming new neurons to replace the dead ones.
2) By replacing the dysfunctional and destroyed oligodendrocyes
(myelin-producing cells.)
3) By coordinating the repair process via signaling cues to the
existing cells. Cord blood stem cells also have the capacity to
modulate the immune system and have consistently normalized
markers of over-active immune systems in several in-house
studies.
How Are The Stem Cells Produced?
Using specialized protocols the red and white blood cells are
removed from the umbilical cords. This dispenses with the need
for blood or tissue matches, and removing any associated risks.
The purified stem cells are then expanded or "grown" in
controlled laboratory culture to generate the high numbers
needed for therapeutic application. During this process certain
rare and very powerful subsets of stem cells (comprising 10% of
the stem cells in a normal cord) are expanded to comprise over
70% of the total stem cell population per vial. These purified
and potentiated cord blood stem cells are frozen using a
specialized media. The components of the freeze media are FDA-
(US Food & Drugs Administration) approved for human injection
and significantly enhance viability: the number of thriving,
healthy cells after defrosting. Post thaw viability using this
specialized freeze media and a proprietary freeze method is more
than 97%.
A question of Ethics?
Stem cells are derived from umbilical cords with no right to
life issues. Cords are obtained via informed consent donations
from screened mothers of full term births, fully tested for
infectious diseases using American Association of Blood Bank
Standards.
Success Rates
The stem cells have been used to treat multiple sclerosis over
100 times with an average significant clinical benefit ratio of
over 80%. The 80% success rate figure is based on in-house
historical data. Preliminary analysis of updated data -
including the data using the new site-specific injection -
reflects more than 90% success rate. Different individuals have
different responses. An analysis shows that 90% of cases who did
not perform or performed marginally at first with no long- term
benefit were taking toxic drugs such as beta-interferon (Avonex,
Betaseron) chemotherapy (Novantrone) or antibiotics. It can be
deduced that the toxicity or function of certain drugs may
challenge or kill the stem cells or create other areas of need
that would dilute the neurological progress. Beta-interferon is
especially toxic to the liver consequently stem cells may
prioritize that area for regeneration instead of the
neurological system. Over 90% of all cases which performed with
the highest rating had worked with their prescribing physicians
to wean off the above drugs before starting cell treatment or
had never taken them.
Good Candidates
Every single person is different and experiences a different
manifestation of MS on a different schedule. Consequently every
single person experiences his or her own route to healing. As
with any medical treatment, it is extremely difficult to predict
outcome. There are some patients who respond better than others,
these include patients who:
Have not taken toxic drugs, have minimal or reduced heavy metal
toxicity, don't smoke, drink, take drugs or artificial
sweeteners, eat a healthy diet with unadulterated nutrition for
the cells including raw fruits, vegetables, and fat sources, do
some form of physical activity/therapy and have highly positive
yet realistic therapy goals.
The risks
In more than 300 treatments no negative side effects have been
reported; nor are there any medically or scientifically
anticipated risks outside that of a routine outpatient
injection. This is primarily due to the fact that all white
blood cells have been removed from samples using a proprietary
purification protocol.