A very knowledgeable patient told me just this week about a stem cell group whose well-produced promotional materials had greatly impressed him. They were treating a variety of diseases with great success he felt. I looked into them for him at his request. I found that they were using techniques that were not FDA-approved. And unfortunately, there have been multiple serious health problems in patients treated by them.
It is important to follow FDA guidelines and use techniques that are proven to be safe. In addition, it is much safer to use your own (autologous) tissue, as opposed to tissue from other persons, as you cannot have a reaction to your own tissue as you can to the tissue of others or to pharmaceuticals and you really can never be sure what is in tissue that comes from the outside. Autogenous tissue has also shown the greatest effectiveness so far. We are happy to evaluate outside techniques for patients when they bring them in to see if they follow FDA guidelines and use autologous tissue (as we do at our center.)
