Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Adult stem cell therapy for MS

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    #16
    Jerry,

    so back to my original question. Is the immune system being destroyed and rebuilt? If so, I can imagine the possibility of the disease process being stopped, but how would that repair anything other than some natural healing, but that might be limited.


    THanks.

    Comment


      #17
      Hey BigA,
      I know almost enough about this HSCT to be dangerous. I know that the process done in Germany includes enough chemo to render the immune system ?naive? the process includes re-installing the patient's own stem cells after being purified. The patient needs to be re-vaccinated for all of the childhood infectious disease after the patient has completed some time recuperating.
      So to answer your question, I can only go on the info George Goss supplied on his blog. He claims he has been cured of the MS progression AND he is getting some of his functions restored. He was decimated by MS for over 10 years, maybe more. You must read his blog. I wish I could find out about more HSCT patients. I want to know where this is going and who has already been there.

      Comment


        #18
        Who is George Goss? and did the treatment cure his MS?

        In 2008 the buzz on here and elsewhere was Cell Medicine in Costa Rica and Panama. The hospital in Costa Rica was state-of-the-art, no signs of a third world country there. As a registered nurse who has worked in many hospitals here in the US, I was impressed, very impressed.

        We researched the stem cell tx in Mexico, China, Germany and Israel and felt most comfortable with Costa Rica.

        No, at the time shutting down the immune system was only being done at Northwestern University in Chicago and they were not taking patients.

        As I said, when you are starting to lose your abilities due to progression, and your neurologist/doctor tells you there is nothing to offer, you cling to whatever hope you can.

        For us, that was stem cell treatment. But, in hindsight, if it did work, Meredith Verira (for her husband has MS) who has millons, Montel Williams, etc. would all have done it and be sharing their stories.

        Comment


          #19
          drmarc,
          Look him up. George Goss from Santa something, California. His blog is 'the cure for multiple sclerosis'. He is easily found on the internet. He had the HSCT at Heidelberg University hospital 2 years ago. The procedure was with chemotherapy. He is ( in my mind ) the poster boy for this treatment. And he is a physicist which makes his explanations of scientific things more palatable to me.

          Comment


            #20
            Hey drmarc,
            I just saw that George Goss posted on this site back in May. His blog is called ' the cure for multiple sclerosis'. Look him up.

            Comment


              #21
              JerryD

              Will do, thanks!

              Comment


                #22
                In my opinion, and for various reasons too detailed to go into here, ascribing credibility by virtue of a scientific pedigree while using the word "cure" for this particular therapy, is logically flawed. In all things MS related, a particular individual's response to a specific treatment, drug, diet, etc. can range from no effect to tremendous effect. Cure implies a level of certainty which isn't evident, not yet anyway.
                Steve
                sometimes you can't make it on your own

                Comment


                  #23
                  I don't imply that his response, positive as it seems to me, has anything to do with George's education or degree. My implication is that George knows and understands the science. And can describe the procedure, in lay terms.
                  I am saying that HSCT has been used on many more patients than I have found, and they have been treated successfully. George has explained it on his blog to my satisfaction.
                  I wish you all would search him out and I know these other ideas of stem cell replacement ( and their questionable successes ) would lose their luster.
                  George has researched this treatment. He went through it. Now he is living without MS. That says, to me, that we should all have the opportunity to have the HSCT procedure.
                  But, once it has been proven effective and approved by the FDA, it will be on the list of treatments like the drugs. Or maybe not? If you are truly looking to get rid of this disease, this seems to be the only way. Prove me wrong.

                  Comment


                    #24
                    Steve,
                    What I have uncovered on the internet, leads me to believe that HSCT can be the cure that all of us have craved for 150 years. I am simply saying that if you can prove to me that you have found someone that had the chemo/ablative treatment and stem cell replacement ( using one's own stem cells ) and did NOT rid themselves of MS, I want to hear the story.
                    It seems that everyone that was treated in Costa Rica or Panama or somewhere else that is ' a third world ' clinic, had an imperfect process.

                    Comment


                      #25
                      Thanks JerryD. This actually sounds like it really works.

                      Comment


                        #26
                        Jerry D

                        1. I went to Costa Rica and there was nothing "third world" about it, that had nothing to do with the efficacy of the treatment.

                        2. While I believe HSCT may be effective at ridding people of the inflamatory, myelin damaging, MS activity, you tell me whether it has been shown to repair nerve damage caused bt degeneration of neural tissue.

                        I haven't had an "attack" in 18 years and I have the exact same symptoms, only having progressed in severity, as I did then. Nothing new. A cure means both stopping the damaging activity to the myelin AND repairing the function of my nervous system. Sometimes, after an attack, the myelin can repair itself and you are back to normal (happens a lot) but you are under threat of another attack. Sometimes there is ongoing damage, after a discreet attack which affects function and progresses over time.

                        The people who saw benifits in CR/Panama most likely saw the effect of the intrathecal injections of the cord blood derived stem cells, a powerful anti-inflamatory (steroids on steroids) but folks like me did not see nerves regrow, a different process. I'm not doubting the ability of HSCT to stop attacks, which in some cases can allow the CNS to repair itself and function to be restored (a permanent remission, as it were). So does your internet research describe a person with SPMS for twenty years, having undergone HSCT and now able to get out of a wheelchair, regain normal uninary and sexual function and now able to sleep 8 hours and get out of bed without feeling like getting right back in. That's the cure I've been waiting for.
                        Steve
                        sometimes you can't make it on your own

                        Comment


                          #27
                          Originally posted by toot2818 View Post
                          I'm going to a workshop on Saturday about this. Has anyone heard about this? Is it something new?

                          Toot
                          I'm a huge believer and advocate of stem cells.Good luck and please keep us posted.
                          Without hope there's nothing.

                          Comment


                            #28
                            Steve,
                            The HSCT treatment, from what I can find out, includes chemotherapy to render the system naive . Did your treatment include chemo. As George has stated before, 'No chemo , no cure. George was dx'd SPMS. I don't know how long he was suffering from MS.
                            The only thing that is clear to me about this treatment is that it STOPS disease progression and gives the body a chance to heal itself. The treatment doesn't reverse disability, as far as I can tell. George does say that he no longer takes any drugs and that his disabilities are lessening in severity. That stuff sounds good enough to me.

                            Comment


                              #29
                              Right no chemo. I get that. My point is after a discreet attack, such as my first one in 1986, and as often happens in people in the relapsing remitting phase of MS, the myelin can heal enough to regain full function. In my case, no more double vision, ever. No drugs, no treatment just natural.
                              The scar(s) remain (aka Multiple Scelerosis).

                              But sometimes the repair does not complete and lost function remains. In may get worse due to continued attacks (loss of myelin) and new symptoms may appear or by degeneration of the nerve tissue, no longer insulated by the myelin. Not all forms of SPMS are the same, as I've stated in many threads and in many forums, the nomenclature for MS disease types/stages is woefully imprecise.

                              My doctors have said that based on lesion load, my activity is in the bottom 5% for MS but the slow and steady progression of damage has added up.

                              i don't have attacks anymore, my body has had a chance to heal itself. The same problem with many spinal cord injuries, nerves don't regrow or repair. HSCT, like conventional treatments, may in fact slow or stop the disease in in tracks, which is great news but I won't call it a cure for me until I can dance and run and mow the yard.
                              Steve
                              sometimes you can't make it on your own

                              Comment


                                #30
                                This is starting to make sense and I think people should read more before undertaking such serious treatments. From what skreynolds57 and JerryD are saying, the treatment at best stops the disease process. If healing can then take place, that's an added benefit.

                                That's not cure by some standards, but more like just after putting out a forest fire - the trees don't become "unburnt" after the fire is out, but some trees may survive and recover.

                                Comment

                                Working...
                                X