Taking Apart Stem Cell Miracle Cure Websites: Chiro Edition

Man, it’s crazy out there! Seems like I can’t go a whole day without seeing another stem cell scam. Let me be clear, these are being offered by mostly chiropractic offices, but MD/DO physicians and Naturopaths are a close second. Today, I’ll focus on how to take apart a chiro stem cell website and then later a medical website. Why? All the websites look great, but I can instantly see issues whereas they may be invisible to the average person.

The Chiropractic Clinic Miracle Cure Category

For my first category—the chiropractic clinic miracle cure category—in this new series, I’ve chosen a random website to review after searching for stem cell therapy. This one, Feel Amazing Institute, is in Naples, Florida. This could be any chiro website as many are very similar. Be sure to watch my video above as I walk you through images on this website and explain what I encounter as I go. Let’s start with the free documentary mentioned on the website.

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Stem Cell Healing Miracles Documentary

The first thing I notice on the website’s stem cell page is an invitation to sign up to watch a stem cell documentary. This documentary by a filmmaker named Jeff Hayes and is titled “The Healing Miracle.” I’ve blogged on this one before, specifically on the fact that the documentary is more harmful to the field of regenerative medicine than helpful. There’s a ton of hype included in it that simply isn’t realistic. So it’s important to understand that before signing up.

Where Do the Cells Come From? Birth Tissues

This clinic’s website states it gets its cells from amniotic membrane, placental cells, and other birth tissues. And they may be getting cells from these tissues, but there’s one problem: they are using nonviable tissues that are regulated by the FDA to be dead tissue. In other words, there’s no living anything, cells or otherwise, in these tissues. See my video below on this topic:

In addition to the FDA regulation, we have also tested these birth-tissue products in our advanced research lab, and others have also tested them, and all testing to date has confirmed that these are nonviable tissues with no living stem cells. So this truly is a total scam to claim they are providing you with stem cells derived from these tissues. Let’s delve a bit further on the clinic’s stem cell page. See my video below on this topic:

World-Recognized Breakthrough Stem Cell Joint Therapy?

So we know they’re using dead tissues, which are derived from the products of birth and then processed for clinical use. So they aren’t using any live stem cells, and we know this because these products are regulated as dead-cell tissues and we have never tested any of these products with live and functional stem cells. Feel Amazing Institute is touting the benefits of its stem cell joint therapy based on this statement: “there are now close to 9000 published studies on the benefits of stem cell joint therapy.” This simply is false and total hype! These would be clinical papers they are referring to, and the real published number is around 100. In fact, almost all of these studies used bone marrow stem cells. A hanful used fat stem cells. And only one used any type of commercial birth tissue product. Here is the literature review I did a few months back (click on the picture to see a copy of the document where each circle is a link to a study):

Interestingly, they provide two dates when discussing stem cell research and practice. One is 1997, which is the date when Philippe Hernigou, in Paris, published on pioneering the use of bone marrow stem cells to treat bones. The other is 2005—this is when we pioneered orthopedic stem cell procedures to treat joints at the Centeno-Schultz Clinic in the U.S. Much of the orthopedic stem cell research out there is ours and Hernigou’s, and what this clinic in Naples, Florida, is doing has nothing to do with what either our clinic or his has published. Meaning, by offering a reference to Hernigou’s research and ours, the clinic suggesting that the technique they use is the same used by the authors that published this original research. Nothing could be further from the truth.

How Stem Cell Therapy Works, According to the Website

Keep in mind, again, that this clinic is not using viable, living stem cells. The birth tissues the cells come from are all dead tissues. So knowing they are claiming the ability to heal using stem cell therapy with stem cells sourced from dead tissue tells us right away this is a problem. However, digging further, we see that this site also mentions “zero antigens and near zero rejection” with their stem cell therapy. This is also fiction! When we use any of these amnio products as an extracellular matrix and then add your own real stem cells into that, we get a much, much bigger inflammatory response, specifically because of those antigens.

The Evidence of Cartilage Regrowth IS NOT in the X-Ray

Let me explain. There is an X-ray on the website (watch my video above where I explain the X-ray in more detail) that I can only describe as comical. Why? Because I actually demonstrated something similar to this using my own knee a few months ago, where by simply adjusting the angle on the X-ray beam, it made it appear that I’d grown new knee cartilage in a matter of seconds. I was making a disturbing point, but this clinic is actually using a similar image to claim its “stem cell therapy” is effective.

In the first image, they measure the joint space as 3.22 mm. If you know how to read X-rays, you likely see the problem. You can’t see through the joint space, so that means the X-ray beam is tilted. In the second image of the same joint space, they show a measurement of 4.7 mm, so it might seem as if more cartilage has grown and, hence, more space in the joint. On the second image, however, you can see through the joint space. What does this mean? The tilting of the beam on the first image makes it appear as if there is less joint space, and, therefore, the width is underestimated. The X-ray beam on the second image was properly positioned, so it provides a more accurate measurement. In other words, it is completely false in this case that any cartilage was regrown. The effect was created simply by changing the angle of the beam as I demonstrated in the link of my own knee above. See my pics below for more explanation:

knee stem cell xray

The upshot? My goal here is to teach you how to read through the hype! To become an educated consumer and understand what’s behind the slick website. Hope this helps!

Chris Centeno, MD is a specialist in regenerative medicine and the new field of Interventional Orthopedics. Centeno pioneered orthopedic stem cell procedures in 2005 and is responsible for a large amount of the published research on stem cell use for orthopedic applications. View Profile

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NOTE: This blog post provides general information to help the reader better understand regenerative medicine, musculoskeletal health, and related subjects. All content provided in this blog, website, or any linked materials, including text, graphics, images, patient profiles, outcomes, and information, are not intended and should not be considered or used as a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Please always consult with a professional and certified healthcare provider to discuss if a treatment is right for you.

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