3 month stroke results

[karl wagner]

I spoke with my friend today that had stem cell treatment in Mexico three months ago with Dr. Payne. He reports minor improvement in his speech. Some words come a little quicker but no improvement in mobility. It's still a little early so mabe there is more to come. My thoughts are that he is three years out from his stroke and therefore not the best candidate for this treatment. I don't think dead brain tissue can be resurrected. If cells were given immediately after the stroke and your talking about damaged, injured ,or scared tissue then stem cells could help.This was the strongest treatment i could find for him it included direct injection via catheter.

[barbara]

It's hard to tell if he will see any more improvement. With this type of condition, I hope that the doctor made him fully aware that it was something highly experimental they were doing and he might or might not get any results.

Does he plan to get any more treatments? I know that patients for the most part, are told that they can still expect to see improvements up to 6 months, some even say 9 months, but my experience is that if you haven't noticed anything in the first 3 months, you probably aren't going to experience anything major as far as feeling physically improved. If someone has a story to the contrary, I hope they will post it.

Just my opinion, but since so few clinics document or do clinical trials, we only have patients' reports as to when or if they noticed any changes and most report these changes early on. I do hope your friend will remain positive. He is a Pioneer for sure. I am not trying to be negative, but I sure would like to see some real research and documentation done so patients could evaluate these experimental treatments more efficiently.

[michaelsdad00]

Karl, I wonder if stem cell therapy for neurological conditions such as stroke, cerebral palsy and other somewhat static brain injuries isn't somewhat like Hyberbaric Oxygen therapy in that it can be considered an 'adjunctive therapy', meaning that it is a vital supplemental therapy to be used in addition to the standard therapies. If the brain responds and adapts/grows to being stimulated with requests made of it then it seems that an intensive therapeutic environment would be good during and following either a course of Hypberbaric Oxygen therapy and or stem cell therapy.
Dave Snow

[karl wagner]

It's my understanding that hyberbaric therapy is only squeezing more oxygen to places that need it to heal. Such as a diabetics foot would heal better. Any place with poor circulation would benefit from it. Stem cells thrive in the oxygen so yes the combination would be a good team.The brain is so complex. Maybe you could grow new tissue where dead tissue exists but can you grow back memory. I'm really just guessing based on a small amount of research for a friend but i think the new part of the brain or other parts have to relearn what has been lost and rehab would be the best therapy for that. The guy I'm tring to help has unlimited time and resources and has been all over the country to the best rehab places and several rounds of hyberbaric therapy. In the last three years he had two stem cells treatments in the U. S. that were wastes of precious time and money in my opinion. Rehab and the chamber brought him back about 10%. He has had the intensive therapeutic environment, i don't know why some people come all the way back and others don't. I studied as many stroke stem cell cases as i could find and only a small percentage had big results. Thanks for your thoughts dave.

[michaelsdad00]

My son is in somewhat of a similar situation. He has had 5 stem cell treatments in the last 7 years and we haven't hit a home run yet. Here is an interesting article posted on his Neurologist's website on Hyperbaric Oxygen and Stem Cell mobilization. There may be more to HBOT than just Oxygen utilization...

[Kaci's Mom]

I am also a BIG believer in HBOT! I attribute much of Kaci's progress in her early years to that. I am currently in process of getting a mild pressure hyperbaric chamber at home to try now that Kaci is 2 months post stem cell treatment. By the way she's doing well!
Kristin