Stem Cells, Curse or Cure
It seems most of the news in medicine recently revolves around stem cells and the miraculous cures they offer. Is it a credit for our care providers that all of them are trying to get into stem cell offerings while promising to cure everything? Isn’t it wonderful that so many people want to help their fellow man? More people are getting on board this boat than the few that rally around the latest cure for cancer.
Fortunately, money is not the driving force like everything else in medicine. According to the CBC Canada, the cost of stem cell therapy is $5,000 to $8,000 per stem cell treatment for patients. According to a Twitter poll by BioInformant, the cost can be even higher. A May 2018 poll found stem cell treatments can cost as much as $25,000 or more. Well maybe money does have something to do with it. A friend who is involved in stem cell therapy says his friend who runs a stem cell treatment clinic in Panama makes $8,000,000 per month. That sounds a little outrageous to me, but I can see why so many of these clinics are popping up. I am sure they are all based on altruistic humanitarian purposes, but just suppose they are based on the almighty dollar.
The following is a question posed to the Mayo Clinic. How long do stem cell injections last?
As part of the therapy, you will undergo a stem cell collection procedure so your stem cells can be gathered and injected into the areas where they are needed. Some protocols can last for 1-4 weeks and consist of 3-6 sessions depending on your unique needs. This is from Bone marrow transplant - Mayo Clinic
Just think, you may be getting one week to one month of treatments and may need three to six sessions. It seems to me with this protocol your treatments could cost as little as $15 - $30,000 on the low end to as high as $150,000 on the high end. So if this is done to make money, it generates a ton of it.
The Mayo Clinic does not do tests or treatments based on making money. Their doctors receive the same pay if they order a thousand tests or order none. I personally know of no other clinic that works this way and does not pay based on how many charges the healthcare professional can ring up as is the case with most medical care given in the United States.
Indeed, most of medicine has a perverse incentive to charge as much as possible and insurance companies love the doctors that charge the most. They keep a percentage by law. So they are happier paying a surgeon that does a total knee for $88,000 that the reasonable surgeon who charges $8,000 as happened right here in our own area code in the same time period. How do we put an end to this when the high charges make both the surgeon and the insurance company so happy?
The problem with stem cells is we have no licensing boards to make sure people are being helped or indeed even receiving the stem cells they are draining their billfold for. There are numerous journal articles and stem cell clinics advertising about the good stem cells can do.
What is perplexing to me is that none of the ills of stem cell therapy are presented. I am talking about the pulmonary embolization and deaths that come from giving stem cells intravenously. Most of the stories involving deaths do not seem to make it into the books suggesting the miraculous cures.
Another thing to remember is that intravenous stem cell administration by vein is illegal in the United States of America. You have to wonder why clinicians set up clinics in various parts of the world so they can give the stem cells intravenously. The only reason I can think of for doing this is to make money. These clinics charge small fortunes for intravenous stem cells and you are not given disclaimers regarding inadvertent deaths. That is not even mentioned as part of the equation.
Please stay tuned for more information on Stem Cells from the Maverick Doctor,
Rick R. Redalen, M.D.
God bless you all.
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Dr. Rick is a retired American physician, entrepreneur and philanthropist who has done mission work around the country and around the world. He is now on a mission to improve healthcare in America. Visit maverickdoctor.com or email him at rickr@maverickdoctor.com.