stem cell treatment
 

Has anyone heard of Stemgenex? They are a company which does stem cell treatment and does it here in the U.S.
They use autologus (from the patient) stem cells.
They acknowledge that this is not a cure but a stopgap to repair some of the loss due to PD. The disease will still progress but you will hopefully have regained some degree of improvement.

Stemgenex
 

Yes I have and I would love to hear from others too.

If they truly do the treatment here in the US, then I believe they must do "same day" cells - as required by the FDA. I did a quick search and saw that they are based in La Jolla, which is very close to Mexico, so I'm wondering if they do the injections in Mexico - in which case they wouldn't have to do same day cells.

The difference being that with same day cells they are extracted from one's body via adipose or bone marrow (or possibly some other place?) and re-injected back in the same day, usually via IV or IT (spinal). The problem with this is that it yields a low number of cells, between 10-50 million. PWP probably would need many treatments. MANY! Cells that are not same day cells are expanded in a lab to yield a higher number.

So I will confess here that I actually did a stem cell treatment with a company out of Texas called Celltex. If you look them up online you can find some unfavorable information about them. I saw it too. I spent a lot of time speaking with them and with many of their patients before I decided to use them. It was a risk and I decided to give it a try, my choice.

The process was this - I had a small amount of fat removed here in my hometown with a local plastic surgeon. Celltex worked with the plastic surgeon arranging for my fat to be sent to their lab in Texas. At the lab, my stem cells were removed from my fat (approx 10 million cells) and expanded for about 8 weeks, until they reached over 500 million cells. They use a fetal bovine solution for expansion, commonly used in labs. Once my cells were ready, I was to off to Cancun- where my cells and I would meet! Celltex works with a hospital in Cancun called Galenia - beautiful, state of the art hospital with a wonderful staff of Dr's and nurses.

I chose to receive 500 million cells - 400 million via IV and 100 million via IT.
The entire procedure went really well, plus I had a lovely vacation in Mexico with my husband and daughter.

The results - it certainly wasn't a miracle cure. I didn't expect it to be. I do feel better in some ways. My energy increased, my fatigue is much improved.
I've been sleeping better. Constipation is better, bladder control is better.
I think my expression on my face is better - less frozen. (many people have mentioned this) I feel more focused and motivated. In general, I feel stronger. My rigidity is still about the same, tremors have never been a problem for me.

I believe that if I did this same treatment once per month for a year that I would feel really great. I know the degeneration would still be happening, but I could maybe get ahead of it. My point with all of this being that PWP probably need billions and billions of cells. I've had PD for 5 years, and had 500 million cells and I feel like they made a tiny dent, and that's it.

I paid $30K for the treatment and if I was a zillioinaire I would definitely do this treatment very often! I'm really looking forward to a day when this treatment is perfected and you can just go and do your stem cell treatment at the Dr, and it's covered by insurance.

I'd be happy to chat with anyone about stem cells. I'm off to Yosemite in the morning, so I will be offline until Saturday.

Thanks Ana, that was great information! Enjoy your trip!

Gary

Thanks for the info my San Fran. home girl. Would you say that your money was well spent. Thats what it sounds like your saying.
Have a blast in Yosemite.