“Stem cells have been called everything from cure-alls to miracle treatments. Federal Drug Administration has issued a warning to consumers not to use cell therapies that are unapproved or unproven. What the seminar goers weren’t told is that, even in the U.S., the treatment is not covered by health insurance because it remains unproven.

The stem cells, she claimed, are both effective and safe, saying there had been no issues with cell rejection. “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is too good to be true.”Īt a recent seminar at a west-end Ottawa hotel meeting room, Roseanna Ammendolea of the Vermont Center for Regenerative Medicine told a packed room that her clinic and others like it had successfully treated people for pain related to arthritis, neuropathy and other ailments that affected joints using mesenchymal stem cells from umbilical cords. Michael Rudnicki, director of the regenerative medicine program and Sprott Centre for Stem Cell Research at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute. “These patients are in pain and they are suffering and they are looking for help and they are being exploited,” said Dr. Health officials say the clinics are misusing the promise of stem cell therapy to exploit vulnerable patients. Michael Rudnicki is director of the regenerative medicine program and Sprott Centre for Stem Cell Research at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, says of stem cell therapy claims: ‘If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is too good to be true.’ jpg Other patients have been infected with unsterilized equipment and others have developed tumours at the site of stem cell injections.Ī common harm, critics say, is exploitation. There have been cases of harm as a result of treatments, including two women who had permanent damage to their sight after stem cells were injected into their eyes at a Florida clinic. Another says it stopped marketing in Canada after receiving a warning from Health Canada. One clinic has been holding back-to-back seminars. Earlier this year, Health Canada sent Canadian clinics, including some in Ottawa, cease-and-desist letters.Ĭlinics in Vermont, near the Canadian border, appear to have ramped up marketing to Canadians since then. While research progresses, private stem cell clinics have popped up around the world making promises for treatments not yet proven safe or effective.Ī 2018 study by Leigh Turner of the University of Minnesota Center for Bioethics found 43 clinics offering stem cell treatments in Canada and 750 in the U.S. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Manage Print Subscription / Tax Receipt.National Capital Region's Top Employers.

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