Stem Cell Healing for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (Emphysema)
Dr. David Steenblock has been at the forefront of the stem cell movement for years. He is of the pioneers in the use of your own adult stem cells to treat your body and has had great success in healing the damage left in the wake of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD).
Scores of private stem cell research and treatment centers across the world have used bone marrow, umbilical cord blood and fat tissue derived stem cells to treat people with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease and documented significant improvements in lung function. Many of those treated were able to reduce their reliance on supplemental oxygen or go off it altogether.
This parallels what Dr. Steenblock has seen in many of the Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease patients he has treated using their own stem cell-rich bone marrow. However, what sets him apart from virtually all others doing any sort of stem cell therapy for chronic illnesses like Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease is the fact he readies a patient to receive stem cells; that is, he introduces dietary, hormonal, drug and other measures to insure that not only is a patient’s stem cell as vital and robust as possible, but also that their body is primed to encourage stem cells to engraft and go to work healing and regenerating body tissues.
First Stop on the Road to Wellville: About Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease – Emphysema (A quick review)
Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) refers to a progressive chronic lung disease in which the lung’s air sacs and the surrounding tissues are destroyed or damaged. The breakdown of these air sac walls eventually destroys enough of the lung’s surface area so as to significantly diminish the normal absorption of oxygen into the blood stream. This leaves the sufferer almost always short of breath due to a lack of oxygen in the blood stream. The #1 cause of this insidious condition is exposure to cigarette smoking, although rare forms of emphysema may occur in non-smokers including one type that is brought about by absence of a particular enzyme called Alpha 1-antitrypsin. It can also occur in conjunction with other lung diseases such as chronic bronchitis and asthma, all of which are made worse by cigarette smoking and exposure to polluted air or other sources of noxious airborne particles or gases. Both emphysema and chronic bronchitis belong to a category of pulmonary (lung) conditions known as Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD).
Step #2: Identifying impediments to healing and stem cell activity and dealing with them
In general, Dr. Steenblock’s patient preparation program is build around these core elements:
- A physical exam including a blood test & urinalysis (UA).
- A simple test for toxic heavy metals.
- Measures to insure no infections are present in the lungs or elsewhere.
- Screening for sinus problems in those with a history of nasal symptoms.
- Assessing hormone levels.
- Some patients may be asked to do a nocturnal pulse oximetry test, which is used to determine how low the blood oxygen level falls during sleep at night.
- Unless ruled out or contraindicated, patients typically undergo a “General Detox program” prior to stem cell harvesting and treatment.
Those interested in detailed information on the aforementioned pre-treatment measures should click this link.
If you have had any of the aforementioned tests done previously, please provide them along with the rest of your medical records. If you need to have any one or all of these performed please inform the front office staff and they will arrange this with Dr. Steenblock.
Step #3: Additional measures to help insure that a patient’s stem cells
Dr. Steenblock administers various natural and FDA approved stem cell activators & mobilizers such as Stemgevity™ and Neupogen® prior to doing a stem cell treatment and in many instances prescribes use of various FDA approved devices that complement this. Among the many high tech things in Dr. Steenblock’s stem cell prepping & activation-mobilization arsenal is:
In addition, Dr.David Steenblock has developed an approach to getting older patient’s bodies to replace “sluggish, devitalized” stem cells in their bone marrow with healthier, more vigorous ones. This is discussed in an article titled “Dr. Steenblock Does It Again!” in the November-December issue of his clinic newsletter. This can be readily accessed by clicking this link.
Step #4: Getting Stem Cells
Once a Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease patient has been “primed and prepped”, he or she then has either stem cell rich bone marrow or fat tissue harvested and given back by intravenous drip (IV). The choice of which tissue is used is made by Dr. Steenblock and his medical and scientific team, who base this on what experience, knowledge and informed insight tells them is most likely to confer the greatest clinical benefit.
In addition, he creates growth factor rich platelet rich plasma (PRP) from a patient’s own blood and mixes this with stem cells prior to administering them (These growth factors activate stem cells and enhance their activity. More on this in the box titled “Platelet Rich Plasma” further down below)
As you may know from your own research on the Internet, some physicians claim that bone marrow treatments don’t work as well as fat stem cells while others bumper thump only one kind like bone marrow stem cells because that’s all they can legally harvest and give. However, as fat stem cells tend to be most effective in remediating and healing up only certain diseases, and bone marrow others, it is becomes important that the doctors use “the right tool for the right job.” Going to a clinic that provides only bone marrow extractions or only fat stem cells might result in a patient getting the wrong cells for their condition.
Also, many “Stem Cell Doctors” have little experience with using more than a few adult (non-embryonic) stem cell types to treat people; and most of these have only treated people within a narrow age range who are saddled with a limited number of medical conditions (The opposite of what their websites claim.)
Genuine stem cell doctors need to possess a wealth of experience and access to a stem cell lab in order to continuously test their patient’s stem cell numbers and viability, especially when these are so easily improved by the very methods the team is using to prepare and process them. This lab needs a flow cytometer at the very least in order to measure the actual types and viability of your stem cells prior to their administration especially in those patients who are older than 40 and have chronic health problems.
Consider this too: Fat stem cells are becoming increasingly popular since they appear to be a great way to tackle many diseases. “Let’s do some liposuction to remove some tummy fat and make that into a stem cell treatment to remedy your problems” is a familiar refrain at many clinics today. But truth-be-told, fat stem cells are killed during the process of extracting the fat they reside in using traditional liposuction methods. This is why Dr. Steenblock and his team use a “miniliposuction” method to harvest fat, which yields large numbers of healthy stem cells.
When fat is removed and given back the same day it is harvested, the quantity that can be extracted becomes of critical importance since the number of stem cells that can be obtained is directly proportionate to the amount of fat that the doctors can safely remove. This imposes severe limitations on the attending physician(s) when it comes to patients who are very thin by nature or choice or due to their disease/condition, since they (the doctors) can only obtain a small amount of fat and thus wind up with a small number of stem cells to treat with. In this situation, Dr. Steenblock often elects to remove bone marrow from a patient’s hip or leg and give stem cells from this to the patient along with the fat derived stem cells. And in some instances, Dr. Steenblock and his doctors refers patients to their Mexican colleagues for administration of pure umbilical cord stem cells in order to optimize healing.
Again, the more different types of stem cells, e.g. bone marrow, fat, umbilical cord, etc. a patient gets the better their overall results will be!
How exactly do stem cells from fat tissue or bone marrow bring about improvements in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease?
When stem cells enter your blood stream they are whisked to your lungs where they remain. This is owed to the fact that blood makes a “first pass” through the lungs before reaching the heart. Once these stem cells enter the lung, they commence doing their healing and regenerative work. As part of this the stem cells facilitate repair of damaged air sacs and the replacement of diseased cells with healthy cells.
The recovery process typically takes four (4) to six (6) months or more, although many people find they need to use less supplemental oxygen beginning during the fourth month following their treatment.
More on how stem cells, specifically fat and bone marrow derived ones, go about healing and repairing diseased lung tissues follows immediately below.
How fat tissue derived stem cells heal Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
Fat tissue stem cells produce a variety of proteins called growth factors that has a powerful impact on cell development, growth and proliferation. When scientists took mice with cigarette smoke-induced COPD and injected them with fat tissue derived stem cells from both mice and humans, they found that not only did the cells arrive in the lungs and stick around (up to 21 days in one study) but also reduced lung-damaging inflammation as well as the lung cell die-off and airspace enlargement that characterizes emphysema. In addition, other studies indicate that a particular type of stem cell (that is abundant in fat) known as “mesenchymals” has the ability to suppress many of the immune system players such as macrophages that attack emphysema-ridden lung tissue. Not surprisingly, many people with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease who have been treated with fat tissue derived stem cells have reported experiencing reductions in shortness-of-breath and reliance on supplemental oxygen.
How bone marrow stem cells heal Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
Bone marrow has been shown to foster lung tissue repair and confer other benefits in various laboratory and animal studies. One way in which this is accomplished lies in the fact that when bone marrow stem cells especially mesenchymals arrive in the lung, some respond by becoming epithelial and epithelial-like cells. These are the cells that line the lung and which suffer great damage in emphysema sufferers. In addition, bone marrow stem cells secrete compounds that promote new blood vessel formation, while mesenchymal stem cells dampen the lung-damaging activity of immune system players such as certain T-cells and macrophages (In most diseases these immune cells help promote repair, but in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease their activities wind up contributing to its progression.)
Readers interested in a highly technical look at how bone marrow stem cells can affect repair in diseased or injured lungs should click this link.
Evidence stem cell therapy benefits Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
A great many case histories have surfaced across the world concerning sometimes remarkable improvements in emphysema patients treated with bone marrow and fat tissue derived stem cells. The FDA has, in fact, apparently seen enough evidence to warrant their approving at least two (2) clinical studies involving the use of stem cells for emphysema.
How much does Dr. Steenblock’s course of care and the stem cell treatment cost?
In general, most patients spend between $6,000.00 and $15,000.00 USD for their stem cell based treatment program at Dr. Steenblock’s Clinic. In general, the quantity of stem cells used goes up with the amount of money invested in the treatment process.
Is any of the testing, preparatory care or the stem cell treatment covered by Medicare or health insurance?
Many of the tests outlined in “First Stop” section may be reimbursable under Medicare and/or private health insurance plans.
On-the-other-hand, Dr. Steenblock’s use of stem cell activating & mobilizing drugs and technologies is deemed “off label”, as are his fat and bone marrow based stem cell treatments which means they are NOT covered by either Medicare or private health insurance plans. The attendant costs are born by the patient, but are reasonable with payment options such as use of credit cards.
To learn more call toll free 1-800-300-1063.
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