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 […]
I often get asked about where things stand with stem cell therapy for back pain, which is the focus of today’s post. Back pain is a complex condition with many potential causes. New treatments are needed as existing approaches often don’t work that well. What about stem cells? Stem cell therapy or other cell therapy
Can stem cell therapy for back pain work? Read More »
Does it make any sense medically or scientifically to use stem cell therapy for pain or neuropathy? There isn’t much solid evidence that this is a good way to go. However, there’s a vast scope of research ongoing in this area. Stem cell clinics have been earning millions of dollars selling this idea too. The
Fact-check of stem cell therapy for pain & neuropathy Read More »
When I was a little kid I played this game called “connect the dots” or “dot-to-dot”, where you draw a line from dot-to-dot in numerical order and at some point a picture starts to emerge. I think kids and even some adults still play this today. They even come in extreme versions with hundreds or
Trying to connect the dots on CRISPR baby story paints a dark, cloudy picture Read More »
Stem cells for arthritis and pain are hot topics these days and I’m getting an increasing number of patients reaching out with questions and sharing their situations related to arthritis or pain (or usually both together). I asked one arthritis patient who reached out to me if they would be OK with me sharing their
Arthritis patient with pain’s email on stem cell clinic & my answer Read More »
Last year I started seeing stem cells mentioned along with the opioid crisis in a particular way, but now recently I saw an entirely different pairing of stem cells with the opioid crisis. The first connection I saw was of a few for-profit, unproven clinic firms claiming that for pain sufferers it would be better
The opioid crisis, pain, stem cells, & FDA Read More »
Does it make any sense scientifically or medically to use stem cells for pain? I’m skeptical in most cases today. The whole idea of stem cells for pain has been on my mind for a number of reasons. For one thing, more stem cell clinics are marketing unproven stem cell therapies at a high price
Do stem cells for pain make any sense? Read More »
A new study on treating pain with a unique stem cell connection caught my attention. The paper was from a team at Pfizer led by Edward B. Stevens. Talk about bench to bedside, these researchers went all the way from patients to patient somatic cells to reprogrammed IPSC to neurons to model pain in a dish
Pain in a dish? Drug testing bench to bedside with IPS cells Read More »
I started a poll on what PIs dislike most about the NIH grant process. Why did I even do such a poll? I’ve been a professor for 6 years now and even in just a half a dozen years it’s clear that the grant process has become more and more painful. The poll results suggest
NIH grant process is painful on many levels according to poll respondents Read More »
After a bit of a hiatus in 2024, our list of regenerative medicine and stem cell meetings returns for 2025. I’m noticing a lot of great stem cell meetings already scheduled for 2025. With the pandemic being less of an ever-present thing, most meetings are now only in-person these days. In a way, the hybrid
2025 regenerative medicine and stem cell meetings list Read More »