Stem Cells and Medical Tourism

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Questions to Ask When Looking for a Stem Cell Treatment

By Audrey Philpot

With the increasingly popular awareness and proliferation of Stem Cell treatments and related therapies how can a smart consumer of medical care tell which are the most effective and best treatments for their conditions. In this article we endeavor to supply you with some questions you should ask when shopping for care. Here are some questions you should ask.

How many patients have you treated and how long have you been doing these treatments?

When you choose a Company to entrust your treatment to you want to know what their track record is.

Have there been any reports of adverse effects?

Be sure to ask if there have been any adverse reactions or any complications arising from the administration of the cells.

What can their treatment do that other Stem Cell company's treatments can do?

Always find out what the claims of other companies are and how they substantiate these claims. Ask if they use Fetal Stem Cells. Very few companies worldwide do so. These cells because of their unique properties are superior to any other kind of cell being administered currently.

In addition to the specific properties of hematopoietic cells which include their ability to enter the affected tissue and stimulate healing and reduce inflammation does the company use pure pristine neuronal cells which are instrumental in creating a healing response in affected brain and nervous system tissue?

What kind of cells are they using to treat you?

It's important to understand what kind of cells you will receive and their healing potential for your condition. Not only do you need to understand what kind of cells but also how they are being obtained and how old they are.

Allogenic vs. Autologous- There are two basic kinds of cells you can receive- allogenic (from another donor) and autologous (from the person themselves). The cells we use are allogenic and can be administered without immunosuppressive drugs or risk of Host vs Graft Disease due to the intrinsic property of Immune Privilege which only fetal stem cells possess.

Telomere Length
-The next item to consider is the age of the cell itself which will determine the Telomere length of these cells. All Autologous cells have the same Telomere length as the rest other cells in the patients body and are directly related to the overall health of the patient and their chronological age.

Therefore the older and unhealthier a person is- the less Telomere length the Cells are likely to have. Short Telomeres lead to imperfect Cell Replication and mutated DNA- the cause of Aging on a Cellular level. Fetal stem cells have optimal Telomere length due to their age and will replicate perfectly and repeatedly thus enabling more healing to take place and new DNA information to be introduced.

Hematopoietic and Neuronal Cells vs Mesenchymal Cells- You will notice that many of the companies who promote Stem Cell treatments use Adipose derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells. What this means is that your fat is extracted (in a procedure like liposuction) and then using a method of spinning this material it separates into its various components and the Stem cells that are in the fat tissue are used.

This Mesenchymal Cell has several properties such as the ability to stimulate the body's own healing resources however it also has limitations such as only being able to change into fat bone or cartilage- and is classified as multipotent. They are also not able to enter into the body's tissue to do repair and regeneration as they do not possess the proper ligands (cellular receptors) to bind to the affected tissue.

In contrast cells that are fetal derived are pluripotent which means they can become 220 different cell types the body needs for repair and restoration. The Hematopoietic cells can enter into the tissues and do repair and regeneration as well as providing healthy DNA information to halt and reverse the effects of various diseases. The neuronal cells (the fetus is the only source of Neuronal cells) do the same in the brain and nervous system.

What kind of results have you gotten for treating my condition?

Ask the company how many people with your condition they have treated and what kind of results they have experienced.

About the Author

Audrey Philpot is a globe-trotting journalist and marketing expert with many years of experience in the health and wellness field. She is currently the Director of Marketing Communications for Stem Cell of America ( - a company pioneering the use of Stem Cell Therapy. Audrey can be reached at