My dad was bilingual and could read in a third language. His diet was 90% Mediterranean, 10% junk. He had a healthy BMI and he exercised. He was well-read and a STEM professional. But he had a lot of trauma in his life starting in his late 50s (my mom died of cancer–it was a horrendous course of treatment for 7 years), then he went deaf in one ear, then my sister died of an overdose (I think he gave up then), then he retired, and then he started complaining about his memory problems. He gave up a little more with each loss. The last two years were very difficult. He died at 85, complications from Alzheimer’s.
BajaBrent, you might be interested in this stem cell clinical trial
The clinician is Herr Prof. Dr. Dr. Ernst von Schwarz.
He is also my Cardiologist in Murrieta CA
He wrote this book
https://www.amazon.com/Secret-World-Stem-Cell-Therapy/dp/1631957074/
These websites are mentioned in the book, or are related.
http://heartstem.org/
http://thomasadvancedmedical.com/
http://www.nustem.net/
https://pacificheart.net/
https://npiregistry.cms.hhs.gov/registry/provider-view/1679634984
-Steffan
My wife is presently receiving stem cell therapy: 3 sessions in last 9mos. We are headed to #4 in next couple weeks. Most (95%) of stem cell clinics received cells from processors who receive from hospital source. MANY TIMES there may be intermediaries who also manipulate in between source and administrating clinic. I have found that even many highly promoted clinics/docs do NOT verify # of SC or their viability at the time of administration. They are clueless, but BECAUSE a vile says “20 milllion MSC” they ASSUME it to be true and the content is live…they have NO IDEA. pLS REMEMBER they are supposed to be injecting a LIVING STEM CELL. and given the processing/distribution etc. quality control is essential. I have no idea what Dr Schwarz does and this is NOT meant to challenge her, however, if i were to use ANYONE they must begin by answering my “battery” of questions related to treatment. and out of more than 70 clinics only 7 survived that first round.
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BajaBrent, (I hope these posts are public on the website, and not just between you and me).
I hope you submit your screening questions to
Contact: Paul C Bogaardt, PhD(c), MSc, MBA 866 864 7789 paul@thomasadvancedmedical.com
From https://classic.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04684602
He is the person running the stem cell clinical trial. If this trial and Dr. Ernst Schwarz pass your filter then I think that would be useful information for people, like me, who would prefer treatment under the oversight of a major US University rather than a clinic in Mexico.
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BajaBrent, With methylene blue I put a small amount of powdered vitamin C in an ounce or so of water, then add 20 drops (10 mg) of 1% methylene blue solution (pharmaceutical grade). I used the least amount of vitamin C that showed good effect. I stir it, put it aside, and let the chemical reaction complete. After this, the liquid will be clear to slightly bluish, and doesn’t stain my mouth so much when I drink it (rather quickly). The mouth staining will go away reasonably soon, but avoid swishing it through your teeth because staining there may be noticeable longer. However, be aware that it is a strong dye if you spill it on something. I’m taking a break from it now, but plan to try it again later. I can’t say that I noticed anything with my first trial, though.
Do some research on Francisco Gonzalez-Lima (Univ. of Texas) plus methylene blue. You may find more useful information.
Hello Steffan, and thanks for your feedback. My following comments are “my opinion” only and should not be construed as medical, legal, or professional advice, nor are they based upon any extensive research of the Drs/entities you have recommended. First, you seemed to question the propriety of the “clinic in Mexico” however, I do not recall disclosing any information about that entity. Mexico, has very high standards, perhaps higher, than the USA when it comes to stem cell therapy at this time. The US FDA does NOT review, regulate or oversee stem cell therapy at the clinical level at this time. The only oversight, to some extent, is at initial ‘harvest” of MSCs long before being sent to the administering physician, according to my research.
In Mexico ONLY a very few Doc, hospitals, etc. are permitted to “harvest” and administer as regulated by COFEPRIS. The Mexican cardiologist we go to has that certification, which he not only showed (pursuant to my contract) but also allowed me to photograph for my own records.
Next, this is AGAIN just my “personal opinion” but according to the link you provided: “clinicaltrials.gov; the administering entity (and sponsor of the trial(s) is NUSTEM, WHICH is a CLINIC in Beverly Hills! Its not conducted at a University per se. Perhaps there is a relationship–as is generally the case with “clinical studies”-- as they are oftentimes funded by government grants to the University that then gives money to the Dr or clinic conducting the “trial”. There really is “no oversight” by a University hospital etc. in fact quite the opposite. The university helps the doc get funded, but the doc is REALLY the expert, not the other way around. Chances are the patient will also go to a clinic…which apparently is NuStems in the BH. So lets not confuse attempt to critique one clinic vs another. As for the “clinicaltrials.gov”, this is NOT a “policing body” that conducts any type of oversight. Any individual or “sponsor”(NuStem) can and/must list in order to get funded. Just because an entity does so, by itself, does not necessarily lend legitimacy to the “trial” being conducted. In fact, there are several ‘renown” docs conducting stem cell ‘trials” ad naseum, using the ‘clinicaltrials.gov” to convince patients that their research is —in fact—legitimate, when reality suggests otherwise. Again, I have researched many organizations offering “trials” in USA and have discovered issues with many.
Third your Drs STEM cell trial/research looks very general (as it states): covering “Autoimmune Diseases; Cardiovascular Disorders; Diabetes Complications; Integumentary Disease; Musculoskeletal Disorders; Neurodegenerative Disorders; Neurologic Disorders; Pulmonary Disorders; Sexual Dysfunction; Urologic Disorders; Viral Illness” THAT is a HUGE list, none of which specifically addresses BVFTD which is my wife’s purported disease. And your docs program gives ONE injection, and then 12 mos of so-called monitoring, and to 5000 patients, with the program ending in 2030! That sounds too little, and the results are too late.
FINALLY, what I have discovered, in my research, that regardless of the Docs credentials, and perhaps their “sincere intent”, they still rely on the EXACT SAME acquisition, process, and distribution system to obtain the stem cells used in their study. Ultimately when a patient shows up, the doc breaks out a little “sealed” bag/vile stamped with “50Million”; 100 M or whatever MSC labeled on the side. The stem cells are NOT harvested on site, but at some far off medical facility THEN cryo-frozen and shipped to/through God knows how many other manipulators. The final administering entity is 100% reliant on “what” is stamped on the side of the vile/bag. The doc then (purportedly) defrost the sample, then —without any verification-- whatsoever proceeds to inject the ‘serum’ into the patient. There is absolutely ZERO confirmation as to the actual “quantity’ of the cells being administered, and MORE IMPORTANTLY how many of those are ACTUALLY ALIVE!!! AND THAT IS CRITICAL! Those MSCs MUST BE LIVE, at injection time, or its all pointless. But unbelievably, I have pushed docs/clinics thru all of this….and they insist/confirm everything is “kosher”, UNTIL I hand them my contract that specifies that they need to verify quantity/viability at the MOMENT of injection. And that’s when they all run like the cockroaches because they CANNOT verify. OR—more pathetic-- I have actually had a couple, after being pinned on this exact issue, retort “it doesn’t matter whether the MSCs are live or dead” , blah blah blah…The fact THEY CAN verify, at the point of administration! there is a computerized “verifier” available exactly for this process, but very few end using clinics invest in the same, or know they REALLY DO NOT want to know.
Again, my comments here are not intended to be directed at NuStem or your Dr who you rely upon in Beverly Hills, Murrietta or wherever, but I spent SIX MONTHS scrutinizing all sorts of Docs, PHds, chiros, clinics etc. and have heard it all.
In Guadalajara, where we go, the “clinic” is actually contained within a very upscale medium sized hospital in a beautiful neighborhood. The administering physician IS a board certified cardiologist as well. His offices host a dozen staff members including 2 other fulltime physicians. They disclosed all the documents related to the DONOR mother; the fact it was cesarean birth umbilical cord, and her medical history. (certain portions were redacted for privacy purposes). The MSCs are likewise cryo-frozen but right there at the same hospital at the administering clinic! At the time of harvest, we are present, to witness, at which point they THEN place a sample into the computerized measuring device that generates a report as to the quantity (total # of SC) and their “viability” (% alive)count right at that time. If all passes my muster, it is then injected into my wife (and myself). They actually FEED live video of the transport of the vile from the testing lab to the hospital room where we are located. Its about a 3 minute walk, but we watch the whole thing! TRY THAT IN THE USA!
So Steffan, perhaps, in the future, you should educate yourself in these matters before you “assume’ there is something amiss with Mexican stem cell therapy? That is NOT to say its all good, in fact, there are shysters, and con men on ALL sides of the borders…as we say in the legal practice: “caveat emptor”.
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Hello BajaBrent. Wow. My hat is off to you for this information. Writing that reply was no small amount of time. The live video feed at your clinic showing chain of custody is impressive. If I ever intend to become a consumer of stem cells, I’m definitely going to contact you for advice. I hope your comments on this board are searchable because the information you have provided would be useful for a much wider audience.
Best regards (Truly),
Steffan
If I have AD and need around the clock care, I want to be in Thailand. Certainly, there is a cost advantage there, but the main thing that attracts me is that the Thai culture revolves around respect for their elders. So working in such a facility is a prestigious job. That is not the case in the US, unfortunately. There are some great YouTube videos about some of the facilities.
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Hey Steffan, I apologize if any of that came off as “harsh” not my intent. I just reread it looking for “chain of custody” as that is the EXACT terminology I use(d) to negotiate with ALL the docs et. al. That is MOST important from the time the harvested-cryo-frozen MSCs begin their journey from lab to whomever administers. I have found in MANY OCCASSIONS, there can be SEVERAL intermediaries, who receive from originator, defrost, extract for their own purpose, "EXPANDor “cultivate” (their exact terminology) then ySELL it again downline to the next guy…this can go on indefinitely. It is widely known that EVEN UNDER BEST conditions, each time this is done, the end product loses 10% or more viability. You can only melt the ice cream so many times, before it morphs into something else. So YES unless YOU verify the chain of custody, from original cultivation, til it lands in your dox office, you have no idea, how many times its been “beaten up”. And in USA, FDA only focuses upon step 1.
Hi. What you say may be completely true, but many of us here take a skeptical view on things and my general approach to life is “extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence”…
Like many people here I’ve travelled a fair amount in Mexico and I follow the news, and while I appreciate that in many areas things are progressing in countries like Mexico as it relates to medical tourism and such, I have great concerns about corruption in the country.
Transparency International’s 2022 Corruption Perceptions Index scored Mexico at 31 on a scale from 0 (“highly corrupt”) to 100 (“very clean”). When ranked by score, Mexico ranked 126th among the 180 countries in the Index, where the country ranked first is perceived to have the most honest public sector.
Source:
so while there may in fact be very high standards written down somewhere in the country related to relevant medical procedures, I have significant concerns in the following areas:
- Are those procedures and standards practiced regularly in all clinics, by medical providers?
- Are there un-corrupted experts who oversee the standards and regulate them properly with competent governmental and legal entity enforcement?
- Are there uncorrupted legal systems and procedures in place to provide the accountability if services are not provided in a way that meets the standards?
For all these reasons, I would avoid any medical treatments of significance in Mexico. But this is just my opinion, and obviously its a much larger discussion than what we are having here. Just wanted to bring up the larger concerns in case people are not aware of them.
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corruption in Mexico??? Are you aware what is happening in USA? I really do not wish to engage in politics on this forum, but PLS do not pontificate about Mexican corruption, as long as Big Pharma and Big tech, run the health care system in the USA. And now the 2 lead candidates for USA for office of presidency are BOTH embroiled in claims of corruption unprecedented in the US history. Corruption has no territorial boundary and is not unique to any particular country or government. My comment is specific to the entity that I researched, not to the entire system, so perhaps we should focus on that and not generalize.
As for MY COMMENTS, if there is anything SPECIFICALLY that you question or wish to debate, pls feel free. My post was not intended to induce anyone to do anything. I was responding to another post. I specifically referred to COFEPRIS as the Mexican regulatory entity that sanctions stem cell harvest/administration, So do you have irrefutable evidence, or even ANY evidence (at all) as to the alleged corruption at “COFREPRIS” OR that a statement or claim i am making here is false or dubious, perhaps you can enlighten me? (or us). Lets not distract readers with generalized claims based upon “wiki-whatever”. Pls focus on the topic, thnks
Whataboutism has reached astronomical levels.
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I didnt intiate this dialogue about corruption. I posted about stem cells
thanks Jay, I am going to look into this further Problem is that this is for my wife suffering from dementia. I can see where she may not ingest the fluid quickly enough to bypass the “bluing” affect. I may fall back to putting it in a capsule, but problem is THERE she chews ALL of her supplements before ingesting…kinda funny habit, but its ok with me. there is research that indicates that “chewing” something actually is better for the efficacy of digestion anyway (although chewing up the fish oil pills cant be pleasant—but she’s atrooper). sooooo I thought by totally diluting the “blue” in 12 oz of trying to figure it out.
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BajaBrent, Try it yourself to see what you think. An ounce or two goes down fast and methylene blue has no taste. I did it before coffee. Then, I had breakfast and brushed my teeth. I didn’t notice any mouth blueing after that. One more note is that my reading indicated to start with one or two drops for a few days, then 3 or 4 drops for a few days and so on until you get to 20 drops (10 mg). The point seems to be to look for any type of effect. As I said, I noticed nothing, but plan to try again in a few weeks. This appears to be a safe low-dose amount and may have a gradual impact on improving mitochondrial function, especially in the brain. I believe this is what Dr. Gonzalez-Lima is seeking in his clinical trial (last link below).
The information I’ve read connects methylene blue with possible improvements in Alzheimer’s which is not your wife’s problem. But, that doesn’t mean that it would be of no benefit. I suppose it’s just a matter of research, possibly followed by a low-dose trial. Here are some articles you may have already read. Again, they’re specifically connected with Alzheimer’s, but there may be something useful anyway. The first one is general information about potentially useful supplements for cognition. The last one I included because it gives timelines and dosages, I think. Otherwise, the last link has nothing useful.
Sure - there is unquestionably corruption in every country of the world at some level.
I guess all I’m saying is that I trust that the people providing the medical procedures (doctors, nurses and the professional oversight groups) and the manufacturing and quality control systems for the medicines and biologics in the US / Canada, Japan and Western European countries more than in countries that have fewer years experience in these areas.
I’m much more familiar with the example of India and the manufacturing of generic medicines because I’ve read the book by Kathleen Eban about the Indian Generics industry and the corruption in that industry Why and How to Test Your Rapamycin for Purity, Dosage and Contaminants
And, I’ve worked closely with many companies in China - both on the tech engineering and manufacturing side and chemicals side, and in other areas of business, so I know the daily levels of corruption in that country also, and the issues are well documented in the nutritional supplements market. See this post and related links: Buy Rapamycin Online - List of Reliable Pharmacies - #63 by RapAdmin
But - I suspect that the issue is the same in all countries outside the top 10 or 15 developed countries providing medical services and medications or biologics. I’m not singling out Mexico - I suspect the issue is equally true in many other countries (I use the corruption index as a simple way to identify the “riskier” countries).
I’m sure there are many situations where you have excellent medical services and medications/biologics in these countries - but given the difficulty of evaluating the quality of medical services and medications - I default to less risky. I just believe the distribution curve of the quality is much flatter (more standard deviations of variance from the mean).
My belief is that as a biohacker / early adopter, I’m already taking risks that most people would not take, so I don’t want to take unnecessary risks when it comes to medical services or medications (I would not have purchased medications from India without seeing lab test results (see here: Sirolimus Lab Test Results), and talking with experts who do the lab tests frequently on Indian medications).
Everyone is welcome to take whatever risks they want with their health. I tend to avoid getting healthcare products and services countries that don’t rate well on this list (unless I can get them evaluated by independent third parties):
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‘I tend to avoid getting healthcare products and services countries that don’t rate well on this list (unless I can get them evaluated by independent third parties):’
So to continue off-topic, I’ll put in a good word for Tijuana dentistry. I’ll even recommend a specific dentist: https://advancedsmilesdentistry.com/
I’ve had two implants done there. Not every procedure they do saves all that much, but the implants saved about $2,000 each. And they’re not made of wood. Ask a local dentist if Straumann implants are a good choice.
Everyone speaks excellent English. It’s about $10 parking at the border, and another $10 round-trip to the office by Uber. Of course living in San Diego makes this a lot easier.
I recently had an extraction done. My regular US dentist can’t cut, and he thought that might be necessary, so he referred me to someone locally. Their estimate: $1600 (after insurance). Including $600 for sedation. I assume they were rolling the dice to see if they had a live one on the hook. I had the extraction done at Advanced Smiles for $150. Net $45 after insurance.
Replacing a six-unit bridge that is my lower front teeth there on Monday. Exciting!
Hundreds of reviews on Yelp for Tijuana dentists. Leave it to you to decide if they’re phony or not.
I don’t disagree that there can be some great deals via medical tourism, i would just do a lot more Validation and research.
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I’m surprised no one has ever posted this 2023 paper: Reduced Prevalence of Dementia in Patients Prescribed Tacrolimus, Sirolimus, or Cyclosporine
All drugs examined reduced dementia prevalence compared to the general population-like control.
Converging mechanisms of action between tacrolimus and sirolimus likely explain the similar dementia prevalence between the cohorts. Calcineurin inhibition within the brain has a greater probability of reducing dementia relative to peripherally-restricted calcineurin inhibition. Overall, immunosuppressants provide a promising therapeutic avenue for dementia, with emphasis on the brain-penetrant CNI tacrolimus.
However, some argue that immunosuppressants may prevent AD (and other NDDs) but that post-diagnosis, they might aggravate the condition: Rapamycin and Alzheimer disease: a double-edged sword? 2019
We’ll soon know the results of this phase 2 trial anyway: Rapamycin - Effects on Alzheimer’s and Cognitive Health (REACH)
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