In today's video I'll show you a doctor that's already treating people suffering from kidney
disease with an innovative stem cell treatment.
This is not simply a BREAKTHROUGH in the field of Regenerative Medicine, this could change
the lives of many people with kidney disease.
My name is Katherine and this is 00kidney.
If you're new here, welcome to our journey together to a better kidney health!
In the last few years, researchers and doctors have made impressive steps forward in treating
very complicated diseases using stem cells and regenerative medicine.
Diseases that were incurable, such as leukemia, heart disease, osteoarthritis, spinal cord
injuries, Parkinson's disease, type 1 diabetes and even cancer are now being successful treated
with stem cell therapies.
And this is not news.
What you may not know, is that there are clinics in the world already treating, and curing,
at least at some degree, kidney disease with stem cell therapy.
Yes, this is happening right now.
So, are doctors already curing kidney disease with stem cell therapy?
Well, let's take a look at what this clinic is offering.
It's a clinic specialized on stem cell therapy and regenerative medicine.
They promise to cure kidney disease, even in people in stage 5, using an innovative
treatment.
They also have tons of happy customers showing their appreciation on their website.
Now, I have already talked before about the incredible promises of stem cell, so I'm not
entirely surprised to know that this clinic is already using them to treat kidney disease.
Now, the very interesting part is that they're actually offering a treatment based on Cord
Tissue-Derived, Mesenchymal Stem Cells.
This is interesting because, according to the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, these mesenchymal
cells, that are found in the bone marrow or like in this case in the umbilical cord, can
play a significant role in kidney healing.
These stem cells can be transplanted into the body to promote the regeneration of damaged
kidney tissue and reduce overall inflammation.
And, while the debate for ethics of stem cells is not over yet, these stem cells are not
Embryonic stem cells.
Sourcing them doesn't require the destruction of an Embryo.
We are talking about Pluripotent stem cells here, stem cells sourced from the umbilical
cord.
The clinic's spokesperson also claims they're sourcing them from the American Association
of Tissue Bank, which is an association of certified suppliers
of full-term, ethically US donated human umbilical cords.
Now, this is the kind of stem cells that are being studied and tested today in many clinical
trials, especially by the Harvard Stem Cell Institute.
And while researchers from Harvard are testing these stem cells in their clinical trials,
this clinic is way beyond testing: They are already offering this as a treatment
for kidney disease.
What the doctors in this clinic are doing is deploying the stem cells systemically via
IV to the patient.
It's a very simple protocol, actually.
It's a 4 day trip to their clinic in the Cayman Islands.
After arriving there the first day, you get a Physical assessments & supporting therapies
the second day.
Then, you get injected with 300 MILLION CORD TISSUE-DERIVED MESENCHYMAL stem cells the
3rd day.
Now, this number, 300 million of cells shouldn't go unnoticed because it's a lot more than
what many clinical trials are using.
Then the 4th day you get a check up and then you can leave.
There's also a detox regimen involved, a vitamin therapy and some supplements.
Note that this kind of therapy is very popular amongst celebrity and athletes.
The Cayman Islands clinic has the endorsement from celebrity such as Lou Ferrigno, the Hulk
of the movies from the seventies, and other actors and sportsmen.
But what kind of result could someone suffering from kidney disease expect from this new kind
of stem cell treatment?
Well, according to the Medical Director of the clinic,
"A reasonable outcome of a stem cell therapy would be the marked reduction in inflammatory
markers when compared to pre-treatment levels and a MARGINAL INCREASE IN KIDNEY FUNCTION.
This would likely not be sufficient to remove a patient from dialysis after one therapy,
but the hope would be TO REDUCE DIALYSIS FREQUENCY."
Ok, if this is true it's probably the biggest breakthrough in the treatment of end stage
renal disease I have seen in my entire life.
I mean, we all know how hard it is to get kidney function back when a patient reaches
stage 5 of kidney disease.
Now this doctor, this Medical Director says that with just one shot of 300 million mesenchymal
stem cells you can get better immediately.
Now what you may ask is but does this really work?
Are they really curing kidney disease with stem cells already in 2020?
Well, there are reasons that led me to believe that an improvement, for people with kidney
disease could be possible with this kind of treatment.
I'm saying this because of what the Harvard Stem Cell Institute found in their recent
trials.
According to them, there's a specific type of mesenchymal cells that plays a significant
role in kidney healing.
These stem cells can be transplanted into the body to promote the regeneration of damaged
kidney tissue and reduce overall inflammation.
But please don't get your hopes too high yet.
There are also reasons why I don't recommend you to consider this specific treatment as
a viable way to treat kidney disease.
First of all, there are currently no FDA-approved treatments for kidney disease that use stem
cells.
There are also no treatments approved in Europe either.
Actually, the clinic I'm talking about is situated in Grand Cayman, in the Caribbean.
And I'm not saying that I don't trust what the Medical Director of this clinic says,
or the celebrities that endorse him, What I'm saying is that right now, trying
to cure kidney disease with just an injection of stem cells is a shot in the dark.
Also, it's not covered by any insurance, since it's not approved by the FDA.
So, the treatment is going to cost you 20.000$.
Also, note that they have only one price and
one protocol for any treatment you want.
You have kidney disease?
It's 20.000$ for one injection.
You have Alzheimer?
It's 20.000$ for one injection.
You have an autoimmune disease?
It's still 20.000$ for one injection.
But also for chronic inflammation, Chron's disease, diabetes and so on.
They say they can cure a lot of health problems and conditions.
Same treatment, same price.
Doesn't really sound believable to me that all these pathologies will receive all these
benefits from the same, identical treatment.
Also, there's a very important reason why these new treatments are still not approved
by the FDA and are not available to the public.
Scientists have yet to isolate the specific cells responsible for kidney repair.
This is why only general systemic stem cell therapy is available to fight kidney problems.
So, they're basically injecting you with 300 million mesenchymal stem cells.
And then what happens?
What are these cells going to do?
To understand this, we need to know a little bit more about stem cells.
Well, stem cells are important to us because of their ability to divide repeatedly, growing
into a large number of cells, which, for some kinds of stem cells, can form complex structures.
Stem cells are involved in the development of all the structures in the human body.
The essential idea, then, is that if some part of the body is missing or flawed, then
we can, roughly speaking, grow a new one, using stem cells.
This is what stem cells do: they develop into any cell type to replace the cells in a damaged
organ.
But putting this idea into practice can be very difficult.
The development and maintenance of the various structures of the human body takes place in
a very specialized environment, with all kinds of signals going around and
pushing cells into various forms.
And even then, it often doesn't work (for example, early miscarriages of malformed embryos
are actually pretty common).
This is why the FDA doesn't approve the practice of just injecting some stem cells into someone,
and expect those cells to turn into exactly what that person needs.
So, the problem is getting your stem cells to turn into the cell type you want to replace,
alright? and not into something else.
Because this requires knowing and replicating the conditions which these cells experience
during normal development, which is not as easy as it may sound.
This problem is particularly troublesome when we deal with stem cells that can develop into
any kind of cells.
In particular, pluripotent stem cells.
These are the cells the Cayman clinic is going to use, since these cells can grow into pretty
much anything.
But since, again, they can grow into pretty much anything, they can also grow into something
we don't want -- like cancer.
Yes, the main risk here is that these 300 million mesenchymal stem cells are not going
to turn into kidney cells, but into something else.
Now, I'm not going to tell you that they give you cancer in this clinic in the Cayman Islands,
but I'm also not telling you to buy a plane ticket to fly there.
So, my advice here is to keep monitoring the progress of stem cell therapies and, most
important, THE CLINICAL TRIALS GOING ON.
Clinical trials may be an interesting way for someone with kidney disease to receive
a stem cell treatment without the risk of going to an offshore clinic and being administered
a treatment not approved by the FDA.
Now, every time I talk about these breakthrough treatments in my videos, I keep getting the
same questions in comment section.
How can I get this treatment?
Regarding this stem cell treatment, there are two ways to get it: the first would be
to fly to this clinic in the Cayman Island and to pay 20.000$.
The second would be being part of a clinical trial.
There are clinical trials going on all around the world testing the most recent therapies
involving stem cells.
And there are actually several studies that are going to test these therapies on people
suffering from chronic kidney disease.
Now, if we take a look at the website ClinicalTrials.gov, which is the most up-to-date database about
the clinical trials actually going on and recruiting test subjects,
we may see that there's the need for people with kidney disease willing to test these
treatments.
Let's take a look at this website because it's very interesting.
These are the clinical trials actually authorized by the US and European government agencies.
Here you can sort clinical trials by disease, by country and by city.
You can also see which studies are actually recruiting patients and for what purpose,
and get info on what kind of requirements they are going to need.
Now, unlike the therapy proposed by the Cayman island clinic, being part of one of these
trials would be totally free of charge for the patient.
And, while not all these treatments are going to help you, or are even aimed at finding
something capable of helping people with kidney disease,
If there's something that works and that will be the cure for this disease, it is going
to come out from one of these clinical trials.
This is why I think many of you watching me right now may be interested in knowing more
about these studies.
Now, if you're thinking about participating in a clinical trial, consider that usually,
first contact with the team of researchers will be made by your doctor.
So be sure to get them involved, if you think you can meet the criteria and the treatment
would be helpful for you.
But in the database you can also find the email addresses of the researchers responsible
recruiting volunteers, usually, and you may be able to contact them
if you think you meet the requirements.
This is all for today, but stay tuned because there is a new video coming the next Tuesday.
And, as usual, feel free to ask any question in comment section or in the 00kidney facebook
group.
I usually try to answer all the questions that I can.
For now, I want to say thank you for watching me today and as always, I want you to prioritize
yourself.
Take care of you and do your best to live your healthiest life.
I hope you enjoyed this video.
See you soon, goodbye!