Wash. State Man Needs $100K For German Stem Cell Treatment
A 23-year-old Bellingham, Wash., man suffering from idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy, a form of heart failure, hopes to raise $100,000 to travel to the Xcell Center in Düsseldorf, Germany, to receive treatments using stem cells harvested from his own body. Erik Gelhar believes the controversial therapy will stabilize his heart and forestall the need for a heart transplant. The treatments were recommended by his cardiologist, who was unable to figure out why Gelhar contracted the disorder. The procedure is not only unproven, it is not covered by insurance. “This is a young man who has not had a shot at life,” his cardiologist said.” I’m supporting him having a shot at life.”
By Kie Relyea, “Bellingham man tries to raise $100,000 for stem cell therapy in Germany to stabilize his heart”, September 25, 2009, © The Bellingham Herald
I am surprised that a cardiologist would not warn this poor man that he could be wasting his (and his family’s and friends’) hard-earned money on a useless treatment. I have read that such stem cell-based heart treatments could be available within a few years in the U.S. And they would be scientifically tested and proven effective and safe. What’s the rush?
The procedure is neither controversial nor unproven. The procedure uses ADULT or REPAIR stem cells (RSC)…not EMBRYONIC (ESC). What’s the difference? ESC treatments have caused tumors. RSC NEVER have. ESC are controversial. RSC are not.
Also, this is hardly an untested or unproven science.
ADULT STEM CELLS HAVE BEEN USED TO TREAT CARDIAC DISEASES, INCLUDING CONGESTIVE HEART FAILURE, FOR OVER 5 YEARS!!
Allow me to give you the briefest history of adult stem cell cardiac history.
1998 – Dr Doris Taylor takes stem cells from the thigh of a rabbit, injects them into scar tissue in the animal’s heart and repairs the damaged muscle. The research was published in Nature Medicine.
1998-1999 – French researchers transplanted muscle cells into a human heart.
2000 – Human studies and trials using adult stem cells to regrow muscle tissue, including cardiac muscle tissue, are performed in many countries around the world.
2002 – Dr Taylor herself witnessed in Rotterdam the first patient in the world to get stem cells injected through a catheter into the wall of the heart. Encouraging results began to come in—improved ejection fractions, reduced diameters, thicker muscle tissue.
2004 – The first-ever commercial stem cell treatment center in the world starts adult stem cell treatment of hundreds of human patients. Results are amazing and include the regrowing of cardiac muscle tissue in patients, significant increases and sometimes a doubling of ejection fractions (the % volume of blood the heart can pump out per beat), etc! Stem cells are also recognized as “smart,” going to where they were needed most, creating micro-vessel bypasses around existing blockages areas, areas that previously were blocked and in areas where stents were implanted.
2005 – Advancements continue as Dr Taylor rinses rat hearts with detergent until the cells washed away and all that remained was a skeleton of tissue translucent as wax paper. She then injected the scaffold with fresh heart (stem) cells from newborn rats. Four days later, “We could see these little areas that were beginning to beat. By eight days, we could see the whole heart beating.” The experiment, reported in the journal Nature Medicine, marked the first time scientists had created a functioning heart in the lab from biological tissue.
2007 – Anecdotal aside: In November 2007, James Eilert was treated via catheter using his own adult stem cells. In his own words:
In Jan 2006, when I was 34 years old I had a “widowmaker,”100 % blockage of the left ascending coronary artery. My ejection fraction (EF)was between 20 and 25 percent (55 is normal) and I was told that I had about 5 years left.
1 1/2 weeks after (treatment) I had an echo done and the completely dead apex was beating again – verrrrry weakly but it was moving.
6 months later- my sidewalls are now beating normally, my septum went from 100% damage to 30% damage. My Dr. says my heart is 50 percent more elastic than the year before adult stem cell therapy.
After 6 months – My total dead heart tissue is down to about 10 percent – and my EF is up to 50 percent!
James’ heart and health continues to improve and he pushes himself and his limits today. He runs regularly, can bike 20 miles and was recently interviewed and tested by Men’s Journal for an article to be in a future issue.
Summation:
James went from Class III congestive heart failure to Class I with an ejection fraction (EF) increase from ~20-25% to his current EF of 50%. His doctors have lifted all restrictions and limitations on his physical activities. Videos of his tests and results can be found on his facebook page. For more on his story, read the article to the left.
James is only one of many adult stem cell treatment success stories.
2009 – Present day. There are currently dozens of stem cell treatment centers around the world (on at least 4 continents) who are using adult stem cells to treat cardiac disease in human patients and regrow both cardiac and skeletal muscle tissue and more. The Repair Stem Cell Institute tracks all of these treatment centers and ranks their quality and protocal effectiveness
Thousands of RSC treatments have been performed with virtually no side effects & resulting in significant improvements to the patient’s health. There are 2,572 “stem cell” clinical trials results at clinicaltrials.gov There are 1,160,000 “stem cell” scholarly papers on google. Evidence supports that the risk of RSC treatments are about the same as the risks associated with drawing blood. (Standard safe practice of lab protocols removes these risks almost entirely.)
To read more about cardiac stem cell treatment history:
http://tinyurl.com/cardiacstemcells
http://tinyurl.com/DMcardiac
http://tinyurl.com/cardiaccatchup
http://tinyurl.com/cardiacpapers – scholarly papers
http://tinyurl.com/clinicalcardiac – US clinical trials
http://repairstemcell.wordpress.com/2009/09/24/heart-disease-asc-a-brief-history/
What a nice amount of detail. However, all of the so-called history merely corroborates what the previous poster says, namely that scientific investigation, such as that done by Doris Taylor, is moving step by step toward finding stem cell-based treatments for heart (and other) disorders. What smells funny is the giant leap that (the poster and) these expensive offshore clinics make from careful testing to expensive treatments. The interesting thing about the previous comment is the volume of scientific detail provided about success in rats and the amount of “anecdotal” detail provided about success in humans, including the poster’s. He offered no proof that the use of “repair stem cells” (not a scientific term at all, but one made up by a stem cell entrepreneur, I believe) had anything to do with his recovery. How do we know a certain medication he might have been taking didn’t do the trick? He certainly doesn’t know, and never will know. Because there was no scientific testing done. I’m certainly glad of his physical improvement but he stretches logic to the snapping point when he concludes that the stem cell treatment — sorry, repair stem cell treatment — was the reason. Where’s the controlled scientific testing? It’s not there.
P.S. Correct me if I’m wrong, but Doris Taylor’s most recently published research has been in rabbits, not human heart patients.
I’m not sure if I know who is scamming whom
X-Cell charges roughly around 14000 EUR which converts to USD 20K; this guy is asking for USD 100K!
http://www.xcell-center.com/treatments/faq.aspx
http://msajourney.blogspot.com/2009/08/once-decision-was-made-to-pursue-stem.html
($14,555 USD with no air-fare)
[Feel free to Google XCell's rates and find out what the approximate cost is - it's nowehere near the 100K USD he's asking for]
Then we have this post:
http://www.ripoffreport.com/Clinics/X-Cell-Center/x-cell-center-x-cell-center-c-db4ac.htm