Jun
05
2023

More Stem Cell Treatments of my lower Cervical and upper Thoracic Spine

By | Arthritis, stem cells

Previously treated, I now needed more stem cell treatments of my lower cervical and upper thoracic spine. I reported before about stem cell therapy of my left knee and my spine.  My knee continues to do well. I go to the gym for regular exercises and do ballroom dancing with my wife.

But my lower neck started aching again after about 3 months. Surprisingly, the lower back stayed well. This is where I had stem cell treatments of the facet joints of L4 to S1 one year earlier. I have chronically poor posture in the lower cervical/upper thoracic spine. It is not surprising that some of the symptoms of chronic pain in my lower neck/upper thoracic spine came back. My chiropractor told me that it was the C4/5 area of the lower cervical spine and the T3/4 area of the thoracic spine, which were stiff and likely caused my recurrent pain.

Specific details of my repeat stem cell treatment

I saw Dr. Weber on March 27 and 28. He did a liposuction on March 27, 2023. The fat sample was processed in a cell separator to get a highly concentrated stem cell fraction. I received a portion of this in normal saline intravenously. On March 28 Dr. Weber inserted interstitial needles right down to the facet joint bones of C4/5 bilaterally and to T3/4 bilaterally. Each side received 1.5 ml of stem cells and PRP. PRP stands for platelet rich plasma, which contains growth factors to stimulate the stem cells. I explained this in detail under the above link regarding last year’s treatment. Subsequently Dr. Weber used several laser frequencies for 20 minutes each to stimulate the injected stem cells, after which he removed the interstitial needles.

Follow-up following stem cell treatment

For about two weeks I felt a slight increase of pain in the injected areas. But using the Weber Laser watch with extension I treated the lower neck/upper back daily. This halved the pain and made it acceptable. In the third week after treatment, I occasionally forgot to treat with the laser, because the pain had improved. In the fourth week after the treatment, I treated my neck and upper thoracic spine only two to three times per week. My range of motion in the neck has improved by about 30%. My dance instructor noted that my upper back posture has significantly improved.

Discussion

When you read about stem cell treatments, you often get no information about follow-up data. Others tell you that one treatment would be good for 10 to 15 years. My own experience tells me differently. My left knee seems to be cured of the degenerative changes it presented with before. But my lower neck/upper thoracic spine suffered postural problems and stiffness since age 12. This means that we are trying to cure 66 years of poor posture with one session. Obviously, this is not likely to happen. I can be glad, if there is a gradual improvement and that pain issues are dealt with as time goes on. The good news is that stem cells will always be in my fat tissue as a potential resource. If needed, I can always return in 1 or 2 years and have another stem cell treatment to my lower neck/upper thoracic spine area and see more improvement as a result of this.

More Stem Cell Treatments of my lower Cervical and upper Thoracic Spine

More Stem Cell Treatments of my lower Cervical and upper Thoracic Spine

Conclusion

Stem cell therapy from your own fatty tissue is an accepted treatment modality for degenerative changes in joints. These joints can be knees, hips, but also the small facet joints along the spine. Here I am describing a follow-up treatment for lower cervical/upper thoracic spine pain. One treatment alone may not give you complete relief. But stem cell treatments can be repeated in the next one or two years to get more relief than before. I do not know how many more treatments I will need, but I know that there is considerable improvement for a 66-year-old postural problem even now after two stem cell treatments. Time will tell, if I will become completely pain free. The important message to learn from this is that stem cell therapy can be repeated when it is only partially effective. You carry with you an endless supply of stem cells that you can tap into when you need it. And you can be certain that each treatment will result in improvement.

Jul
18
2022

Stem Cell Therapy Is a New Way to Treat Osteoarthritis

By | Arthritis, back pain, chronic pain, osteoarthritis, Pain, regenerative medicine, stem cells

Traditional treatment for osteoarthritis is not very successful, but stem cell therapy is a new way to treat osteoarthritis.

Traditional treatment of osteoarthritis

Osteoarthritis is a common degenerative type of arthritis. Wear and tear are diminishing the hyaline cartilage that coats joint bones. The lubrication of synovial fluid is diminishing as well. The end result is that the patient suffers pain from bone rubbing on bone in affected joints with swelling of the synovial membranes. The physician usually prescribes diclofenac topical solution for the affected joints and also gives anti-inflammatory drugs by mouth (diclofenac or ibuprofen). Unfortunately, the patient may develop side effects of the anti-inflammatory medication, such as kidney damage and gastritis. The end result after years of suffering is that the joints turn stiff and the joint pain becomes unbearable.

Joint replacement surgery

This is when the doctor refers the patient to an orthopedic surgeon, and an artificial hip or a knee joint replacement is the next suggestion. These surgical procedures are not without dangers. Postsurgically blood clots can develop and cause pulmonary emboli. Infection and sepsis can also develop. Often the surgery does not solve all of the problems and leaves the patient with a permanent limp.

Stem cell therapy to treat osteoarthritis

Regenerative medicine has developed an alternative to the conventional treatment of osteoarthritis. I described this new approach to osteoarthritis before here.

Stem cells are harvested from fatty tissue of the patient and injected into the affected joint. Stem cell stimulators like platelet rich plasma and low-dose laser therapy activate the stem cells that were lying dormant in the fatty tissue. These type of stem cells are mesenchymal in origin, so they go by the name of mesenchymal stem cells. When injected into a joint with osteoarthritis they can transform into any tissue that is needed to repair the damage of the joint. A defect of the hyaline cartilage is covered by stem cells transforming into cartilage cells and fixing the hyaline cartilage defect.

What stem cells do

Stem cells fix any meniscal degeneration in the knee joint by mending what is degenerated.  They can form new tissue that over-bridged mini tears in the meniscus. If the synovial membranes that produce joint lubrication are damaged, the stem cells rejuvenate the old tissue and joint lubrication normalizes. The end result following stem cell treatment is that the osteoarthritic joint becomes regenerated with normal function. Stem cell treatment normalizes the osteoarthritic process in the joint, and down the road no joint replacements are necessary. This is a huge advantage in comparison to the conventional treatment of osteoarthritis.

My own experience with stem cell therapy for osteoarthritis of my left knee

I have experienced mild left knee arthritis for 5 years. It was not severe enough to treat with anti-inflammatory pills. I used higher amounts of fish oil capsules, which helped somewhat. I heard that Dr. Michael Weber from Lauenförde, Germany treats osteoarthritis with stem cell therapy.

He had treated my back successfully on several occasions in the past. I had previous stem cell treatment 4 years earlier as summarized here.  Part of this was stem cell therapy for my left knee. During the Covid time I could not go to the gym for a period of time. Instead, I went for long walks on a nature trail that was bumpy and had many roots. This flared up my previous problem with my left knee. But in early June 2022 I made my way back to Dr. Weber’s clinic for more stem cell therapy.

The following summarizes how he treated my left knee with stem cells.

Liposuction to harvest stem cells for treatment

The doctor used a local anesthetic to freeze the skin and subcutaneous tissue on the right flank. Subsequently a solution of normal saline that contained adrenaline and bicarbonate was injected. This allowed Dr. Weber to withdraw fatty tissue easier 20 minutes after the normal saline injection. The generous portion of fatty tissue harvested was brought to a cell separator, which separated stem cells, fat cells and connective tissue. The stem cells were counted by a technician. They were found to be 100% viable and there was a total of 980 million stem cells.

Intravenous stem cells

Dr. Weber administered one portion of the total stem cell harvest intravenously. I was told that this ensured that stem cells would be delivered to tissues that needed renewal through stem cell therapy. There are several methods to stimulate stem cells. One of these methods is to give oxygen intravenously with a device with the name Oxyven (from Swiss Medica) . This procedure took 20 minutes. A second method to stimulate stem cells is with low-dose laser therapy. Dr. Weber used intravenous red, green, blue and yellow lasers, for 20 minutes each.

The laboratory kept the rest of the stem cells overnight at room temperature. Dr. Weber told me that it would have been a mistake to keep the stem cells in the refrigerator overnight as the cold temperature kills all of the stem cells!

Targeted stem cell therapy

The following day I received treatments with my stem cells harvested the day before. The doctor drew blood up first, which underwent centrifugation. The interface between the red blood cell portion and the plasma contains PRP (platelet rich plasma). Dr. Weber mixed PRP in with the stem cells. PRP is a powerful stimulator of stem cells.

Dr. Weber inserted a needle into my left knee and injected stem cells (and PRP) into the left knee. Following this he inserted a thin sterile fiberglass applicator. This served to introduce four laser lights into the knee, namely red, green, blue and yellow low-dose laser beams. Dr. Weber connected each for 20 minutes. He explained that the laser light activates the stem cells, similar to PRP and to oxygen (Oxyven, Swiss Media).

Lower cervical spine, upper thoracic spine and lower lumbar spine also treated

I get monthly chiropractic manipulations to my spine to stabilize it. My chiropractor told me that it would help to have stem cell therapy in the C4 to T4 area of the upper spine and in the L4 to S1 region in the lower spine. Dr. Weber concentrated his treatments on exactly these levels of my spine. He placed interstitial needles over the facet joints bilaterally in the lower cervical spine, upper thoracic spine and lower lumbar spine. Subsequently he injected the stem cell/PRP mix and followed this up with the four laser lights for 20 minutes each.

Follow up after the stem cell treatments

There was a lot of swelling in my left knee during the first two days after the stem cell treatment. I also experienced pain with walking. But on the third day the swelling disappeared completely. After 1 week the previous mild left knee pain improved significantly. After 1 month the left knee no longer ached with stairs or uneven ground. Presently I am still completely pain-free. My back pain also disappeared within 2 to 3 weeks.

Stem Cell Therapy Is a New Way to Treat Osteoarthritis

Stem Cell Therapy Is a New Way to Treat Osteoarthritis

Conclusion

When it comes to the treatment for osteoarthritis, conventional medicine offers topical and oral anti-inflammatory medicine. Usually, the physician also recommends active exercises and heat applications by a physiotherapist. When anti-inflammatories no longer work and bone rubs on bone in a hip or knee joint, total hip or total knee replacement by an orthopedic surgeon is usually the next step. Unfortunately, these surgical procedures have a certain complication rate. They often do not lead to perfect end results with residual pain and possibly a limp

Stem cell therapy is usually not what a family practitioner recommends. But when the physician does stem cell therapy at an early stage, the success rate is good and as in my case you can always do another stem cell therapy to improve the knee or hip joint further. There are three procedures that help to stimulate stem cells: platelet rich plasma (PRP), intravenous oxygen (Oxyven, Swiss Media) and low-dose laser activation. In my case Dr. Weber applied all of these methods together with stem cell therapy. Improvement in my case was very rapid, and it was a delight to witness the result of stem cell therapy as a patient.

Oct
26
2019

Steroid Injections Are Doing Harm, But Stem Cells Help

By | Arthritis, osteoarthritis, Pain

When a person has osteoarthritis, steroid injections are doing harm, but stem cells help. A new study published in the journal “Radiology” came to the conclusion that steroid injections are doing harm.

The article was published on October 15, 2019. 459 patients with osteoarthritis of knees or hips received injections with intraarticular corticosteroids or placebo to conduct this study. As a matter of fact steroid injections are a standard treatment for moderate to severe osteoarthritis. The injections consisted of triamcinolone 40 mg mixed with a local anesthetic. 36 of these patients (8%) had adverse events in their joints.

Here is the break down of these negative events following intraarticular corticosteroid injections.

  • Accelerated osteoarthritis progression (6%)
  • Subchondral insufficiency fracture (0.9%)
  • Osteonecrosis (0.7%)
  • Rapid joint destruction with bone loss (0.7%)

Critical analysis of effects of intraarticular corticosteroid injections

The authors reviewed the literature and came across an evidence-based review by the Cochrane Musculoskeletal Group involving 1767 participants. The review showed an overall low evidence for all outcomes. Intraarticular corticosteroid injections were inconsistent and variations between trials were high. Certainly, there was a moderate improvement of joint pain, and physical joint function improved as well.

But then again more severe osteoarthritis in knee or hip joints showed a lack of improvement and in many cases even joint deterioration. With this in mind, these cases often ended up with total hip or total knee replacements. Overall the Cochrane review showed a lack of objective evidence of symptom improvement after intraarticular corticosteroid injections in people with osteoarthritis.

Mesenchymal stem cell injections for osteoarthritis

A fairly recent alternative approach to treating osteoarthritis is by mesenchymal stem cell injection with platelet-rich plasma activation. Researchers conducted a meta-analysis of 35 studies regarding knee osteoarthritis and mesenchymal stem cell injections in 2018. There were minor adverse events like knee pain and swelling. No serious side effects of the stem cell treatments were noted. The outcome of the treatment was classified as “very low” to “low”. The reason for this were poor study designs, large heterogeneity among the studies and wide variation among the 95% confidence intervals regarding study outcomes.

Australian study of mesenchymal stem cell injections into symptomatic knees

A short-term study from Australia examined 30 patients with mesenchymal stem cell therapy for knee osteoarthritis. There were two treatment groups. One group received 100 million adipose tissue derived mesenchymal stem cells into symptomatic osteoarthritis knee joints. Another treatment group received 100 million mesenchymal stem cells twice, namely at baseline and at 6 months after the first injection. The third group served as a control with continued conservative management. All of the groups had baseline MRI scans (magnetic resonance imaging) to assess the knee conditions. Both treatment groups had pain and inflammation at baseline. After 1 year following the initial treatment the patients had repeat MRI scans. They showed modification of the disease process in the treatment arm, while the controls had deteriorating osteoarthritis. The researchers concluded that adipose derived mesenchymal stem cell treatment of knee osteoarthritis has the potential of preventing disease progression.

Why stem cells help with osteoarthritis of the knees and the hips

Here is a research project between researchers from Palm Harbor, Florida and researchers from Serbia. The Center for Molecular Medicine and Stem Cell Research, Faculty of Medical Sciences University of Kragujevac, Serbia reviewed the literature on treatment of osteoarthritis.

The researchers explain that the physician can easily harvest mesenchymal stem cells by doing a liposuction of fat cells. These stem cells maintain their differentiation potential and there is only minor immunological rejection because of low histocompatibility antigen expression. As a result mesenchymal stem cells stay in the joint where they are injected.

Two processes that occur with injected stem cells

Two main advantages of mesenchymal stem cells stand out. Mesenchymal stem cells are capable of building up hyaline cartilage and in addition they have immunosuppressive characteristics. In comparison with controls patients who receive intraarticular injections of mesenteric stem cells have less pain and less swelling.

This review paper cites all the major animal and human studies regarding mesenchymal stem cell therapy for osteoarthritis. It concludes that stem cell therapy is most effective in mild to moderate osteoarthritis cases. It stresses the point that stem cells can regenerate joint tissues and that the inflammatory process of osteoarthritis is interrupted by the stem cells. This stabilized the osteoarthritic condition.

Steroid Injections Are Doing Harm, But Stem Cells Help

Steroid Injections Are Doing Harm, But Stem Cells Help

Conclusion

Mesenchymal stem cells derived from fatty tissue will repair tissue defects in joints afflicted by osteoarthritis. The stem cells also take care of the inflammation, which takes care of pain and swelling. Range of motion of the joint increases following stem cell treatment. Other studies have shown that intraarticular steroid injections do not interrupt the degenerative process. MRI scan studies have shown deterioration of the joint tissues following steroid injections. All in all, stem cell treatments of joints with osteoarthritis are superior to a treatment with steroid injections.