CO-CURE: *CFS and Stem Cells: A Warning*

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Sat, 18 Jul 2009 16:50:56 -0500

DFW CFIDS <dfwcfids58

NOT, MED: From Dr. Cheney: CFS and Stem Cells: a Warning

 

*CFS and Stem Cells: A Warning*

* *

by Carol Sieverling

 

Paul Cheney, MD, PhD has accompanied two groups of CFS/ME patients to stem

cells clinics in Costa Rica and Panama this year, and many more will be

going to Panama this fall. The stem cells come from the afterbirth (placenta

and umbilical cord) of healthy new born infants and are thus considered

adult stem cells, not fetal. Future patients will also be given their own stem

cells derived from belly fat in addition to the afterbirth stem cells.

 

Though it*s early yet to know the full benefit of the stem cell

transfusions or how long such benefits will last, initial results range from

good to

spectacular. This has prompted several CFS/ME patients to seek out stem

cell therapy on their own.

 

Dr. Cheney has three concerns regarding CFS/ME patients undergoing stem

cell therapy.

 

*1) Re-Boot Gene Expression with Cell Signaling Factors*

Dr. Cheney believes that better and longer lasting results will be

obtained from stem cell therapy if patients first shift or *re-boot* their gene

expression to a more normal genetic expression. **Gene expression** may not

make sense to some, so here*s a simple explanation. Individual genes are

either *on* or *off*. If they are off, something may trigger them into turning

on, such as diet, environmental exposures, pathogens, toxins, stress, etc.

Once on, it*s a matter of degree, like a dimmer switch. They can be on

just a little, on moderately, or on all the way.

 

In all chronic illnesses, the body attempts to compensate or adapt to the

illness. Doing so shifts the gene expression. The gene expression of a

person with CFS/ME is far from normal - it reflects the illness. The overall

gene expression is difficult to change. Even if you address the underlying

cause(s) of an illness, it can take months or even years for the body to

realize the illness is gone and allow the gene expression to gradually shift

back to normal.

 

A great example of this is Dr. Cheney*s own heart transplant made

necessary by a diagnosis of idiopathic cardiomyopathy. After two years of

increasingly severe symptoms, the underlying problem of heart failure was

corrected

surgically in a matter of hours. However, even after an outstandingly

successful transplant, a resulting cardiac output of someone in their 20s, and

time to recover from the surgery itself, Dr. Cheney*s functional capacity

was still very much what it had been before the transplant. He asked his

doctors why he still felt so incapacitated. One doctor told him, **Well, your

body adapted to the reality of failing heart in order to survive and now

that your heart is fixed, it will take a year or two for your body to

re-adapt back to the reality of your new heart.**

 

In other words, all chronic illness always has two problems to solve:

the problem at the core of the illness and the adaptation the body makes

to survive.

The first can sometimes be fixed very quickly (hours to weeks) but the

latter takes time. There is no *hours to weeks fix* to the second problem of

adaptation because it becomes programmed into ones gene expression, also

known as phenotype.

 

Since his surgery and adaptive cure from heart failure, Dr. Cheney has

found that certain low molecular weight peptides called Cell Signaling Factors

(CSF's) have the ability to more quickly shift gene expression towards

normal as measured by echocardiography. CSFs can often improve function within

90 days, though tests results show progress well before the patient

actually experiences it. For instance, measurements of cardiac diastolic

function

typically improve months before patients report feeling better and doing

more. There is also the problem of genotype corruption which can only be

addressed by stem cells.

 

Over the last three or four years he has determined which CSFs are most

beneficial to CFS/ME patients. He does not order them from a company, but has

arranged for his own private production of heart, pancreas, liver and

kidney from the respective organs of bison. The brain CSF, also privately

produced, is of porcine (pig) origin. The CSFs are in a cream-like form and are

typically rubbed into the forearms three times per week to daily.

 

The use of bison as the primary source for the CSFs stems from several

factors. Bison are incredibly aerobic animals with vast aerobic energetic

potential. They are significantly more organic than virtually any other meat

source. Finally, they are only one of two known animals who never get cancer,

the other being shark. They also live three to four times longer than beef

cattle and they do not have " mad-cow " disease, though skin cream makes

this a non-issue. Finally, bison CSFs are 50-100% more potent than comparable

porcine or bovine CSFs, as measured on echo.

 

Dr. Cheney uses adrenal and thymus CSF's for testing purposes only never

for treatment. CFS/ME patients respond very negatively to them, usually with

a major drop in energy on echo. Adrenal and thymus CSF's should never be

taken by CFS/ME patients. Porcine Liver also has a very negative effect in

CFS patients and should not be used either for therapy.

 

Dr. Cheney is the only source of CSF's made from bison because at this

time he feels that they need to be used only under the care of a medical

professional familiar with their use. For this reason, he only sells them to

his

own patients. He plans to also sell them to a few other physicians who are

currently learning about their use, how to incorporate appropriate

pretreatments, and how to individualize the CSF protocol for their patients.

Information about the physicians who have access to the CSF*s and know how to

use them will soon be posted on the Cheney Clinic web site ( cheneyclinic.co

m ).

 

There is anecdotal evidence that the use of CSF's can significantly

improve the benefits of stem cells. An 80-year-old man with Parkinson*s Disease

as well as Coronary Artery Heart Disease (history of two heart attacks) was

part of the group that received four consecutive daily transfusions

totaling 45 million stem cells the last week of May. (He does not have CFS/ME

but

is related to one of the CFS/ME patients.) He*d been using four of the

CSF's for 18 months. While still in Panama receiving the stem cells, the

tremors began disappearing and he was able to hold a fork and eat peas for the

first time in two years.

 

One week after his last transfusion, an echo revealed that an area of his

left ventricle (a chamber of the heart) that prior to the stem cell

transfusions was dead and not moving, was now alive and moving. At that time he

also had much less hand tremor, was walking more upright with much less

shuffle and swinging his legs much better when he walked. He threw away his

cane. The allergic bags under his eyes disappeared. He looks, acts and talks as

if he were 10 years younger. His face is pink now rather than pale and

gray. He is more alert and doesn't slur his words. He feels much better and has

much less foot edema. He even went back to work part-time.

 

The doctors at the Stem Cell Institute, who are familiar with Parkinson's

cases, were astonished at the degree of benefit he experienced, and so

quickly. They are very intrigued by the potential of CSF*s to increase the

benefits of stem cells.

 

Three studies* of patients who received stem cell transplants in the 90s

revealed that despite initial success, about ten years later the stem cells

had been corrupted and the patients* disease returned. Though the stem

cells worked as expected and lasted 10 years, they were eventually corrupted by

the same disease process that damaged the very cells they were replacing.

 

Dr. Cheney believes that CSF=92s are necessary both before and after the

transfusions to increase both effectiveness and durability of the stem

cells. According to Dr. Cheney, **Putting stem cells into a corrupted

environment will eventually corrupt the stem cells and blunt their otherwise

potentially impressive benefits.** To use another of Dr. Cheney*s analogies, if

you

correct the *software* problem first (shift phenotype with CSFs) and then

address the *hardware* issue (shift genotype with stem cells), you*ll get

much better results. You don*t expose a new hard drive to corrupted software

programs, or the system will crash again! This is why he recommends that

his patients continue to use the CSFs even after the stem cell transfusions.

Doing so is designed to prevent the gene expression from shifting back to

the configuration of the original illness and corrupting the stem cells.

 

*2) **Care must be given to a corrupted gut ecology before receiving stem

cells.*

Recent publications, especially by Kenny DeMeirleir out of Belgium, as

well as others, suggest that corrupted gut ecology is playing a very large

role in a subset of the sickest CFS/ME patients. This corruption must be

addressed or it may thwart the effects of stem cells or degrade their benefits

over time. The gut ecology must be measured by appropriate tests (such as

the GI [2] panel from Diagnos-Techs, diagnostechs.com) and an integrated

effort made to reduce the effects of this corrupted gut ecology on CFS/ME

physiology. Stem cells can help attack the root causes of this corruption but

the gut corruption and its consequences need to be minimized ahead of the

stem cell transfusions.

The core approach to improving the gut ecology is a modified elimination

diet, copious use of digestive enzymes, immune support using bovine derived

antibodies and immune factors (colostrum) and the judicious and careful use

of probiotics with special attention to support of commensal E.Coli (a

beneficial form of E.Coli marketed as Mutaflor).

 

*3) Go to a high quality stem cell clinic affiliated with a US company.*

Dr. Cheney*s third concern is the quality of the stem cell laboratory and

clinic doing the stem cell transfusions. Dr. Cheney chose MediStem, Inc

(medisteminc.com), only after careful research and consideration of quality

control issues. Medistem Inc. is a US-based company that assists in the

operation of two clinics in Central America (cellmedicine.com)because those

locations allow them to offer the treatment at a quarter of the cost of the same

treatment in a clinic in the United States.

 

Dr. Cheney met with Neil Riordan PhD, the laboratory director and CEO of

both clinics, and toured their facilities in Costa Rica and Panama before

taking patients there. The clinic in Panama is located near, and its doctors

associated with, the newest and best hospital in that country. The Punta

Pacifica Hospital (hospitalpuntapacifica.com) is located in downtown Panama

City and is professionally tied to the Johns-Hopkins University Medical

Center. There is, however, no direct association of the stem cell clinic to

Johns-Hopkins.

 

The clinic stem cell laboratory, which produces the afterbirth derived

stem cells used in treatment, is located in The City of Knowledge in the

former US Canal Zone. Before a company can be established in this prestigious

high technology development site, a thorough vetting process and due

diligence approval from the Panamanian government is required.

The fact that the laboratory is located here signifies its high standards

and excellent quality control.

 

Touring a stem cell clinic and meeting its clinical staff is not the way

to judge the level of treatment one will receive. The key to evaluating the

quality of stem cells used and the effectiveness of the treatment received

is to be found in the laboratory and its quality control operations, as

well as the expertise of the laboratory personnel. Bear in mind that the

laboratory and the clinic may be located in separate buildings, perhaps even

very separate areas of a city.

 

There are serious concerns about stem cell clinics operating in Mexico and

elsewhere. There are many bad actors and poor actors. Some actually

transfuse patients with saline and claim that it*s stem cells. Others have no

quality control and do not test the viability of their stem cells, which means

they may have little power to effect healing. Poor quality control could

also lead to lack of sterile procedures and at worst patients could end up

with no stem cells and an infection!

 

Dr. Cheney strongly recommends that clinics and their laboratories in

Mexico and elsewhere be carefully scrutinized, especially their quality control

procedures, personnel and capitalization. Good stem cell laboratories

require millions of dollars to capitalize and cost over a hundred thousand

dollars per month to run just for laboratory expenses.

They require deep pockets and a decade or more of expertise in the area of

quality stem cell production and propagation from afterbirth.

Significant capitalization acts to ensure quality control to protect the

investment of millions of dollars.

 

Adult stem cell therapy holds immense hope and possibilities for CFS/ME,

but requires a significant investment. Prospective patients should consider

such a major investment very carefully and make decisions that ensure the

safest, most effective, and longest lasting treatment possible.

 

For more information about the Cheney Clinic and Dr. Cheney=92s research,

see cheneyclinic.com and cheneyresearch.com

 

 

* Kordower JH et al. Mov Disord 2008 Dec 15; 23:2303

Nat Med 2008; 14:501 and 504 (two separate articles)

 

*************

 

[This article is available as Word document. Email dfwcfids5858

for a copy.]

 

Please distribute to other groups, lists and organizations.

 

 

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