Weekly reads: patient views on stem cell clinics, vertebrate super-pygmies, Tasmanian tiger, low back pain

What do patients who go to stem cell clinics really think of their experiences?

It can be hard to get good data on this important question. For that reason, it was great to see a new article on this topic. With perhaps around 2,000 unproven clinics in the U.S., these firms are likely to have tens or hundreds of thousands of people as customers a year. Many are put at risk.

See a map below from way back in 2016 when stem cell clinics were already active in just about every state.

stem cell clinics map, stem cell clinics
Stem cell clinics map in 2016 in the U.S. Turner and Knoepfler.

Patient views on stem cell clinics

Here’s the new paper on patient experiences.Clinical use of autologous cell-based therapies in an evolving regulatory landscape: A survey of patient experiences and perceptions, F1000. This is from Ubaka Ogbogu and Nevicia Case. It provides interesting insights into patient perspectives and experiences going to stem cell clinics. How many patients were told the stem cells were not proven to work?

How many patients had side effects? The number surprised me.

Check out this paper.

More recommended reads

pygmy vertebrates
Super-tiny vertebrates are rare. Why?

Blast from the past: super pygmy vertebrates

The article in the NYT above reminds me of an old post I did on pygmy vertebrates: Why aren’t there vertebrate super pygmies? It’s a fascinating area of science. It may seem simple, but why are animals the sizes they are? It goes beyond cell numbers and cell sizes.

Speaking of which, why are cells the sizes they are? Most cells are about 10 microns. Some of this relates to biophysics.

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3 thoughts on “Weekly reads: patient views on stem cell clinics, vertebrate super-pygmies, Tasmanian tiger, low back pain”

    1. @Bill, I saw that too and will probably write about it. That article is junk.
      I still don’t see much evidence that MUSE cells are real. It’s remarkable that there are clinical trials on them, clinics marketing them, etc. when there is so little data and from so few labs. They seem similar to VSELs in how only a few labs supposedly can isolate and study them. To me it also just doesn’t make sense that adults would have pluripotent stem cells.

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