While I tend to be a "rainbows and unicorns" kind of guy, I really enjoy the frankness, candor and spirit of your interviewee. I especially like his comments about CCSVI. The best part of CCSVI is that people are thinking outside the box and that is a good thing.

 Thank you, Lisa, for introducing me to- him. I think I am going to subscribe to his blog.

While US courts conduct legal battles over the ethics of stem cell research and Big Pharma shuts down clinical trials citing ‘tighter budgets’, North Americans wait for solid proof of stem cell efficacy for many disease conditions. Health organizations such as the National Cancer Institute issue continual warnings about lack of proof for stem cell therapy. National media shows like CBSs’ 60 Minutes, paid for by their advertisers that include Big Pharma, perform razor-sharp hatchet jobs on those quack clinics doing fake stem cell therapy, but in the process paint every other clinic everywhere doing stem cell research and therapy with the same brush.

In the meantime, medical institutions in other countries plough along with research from trials that not only provide good evidence on the safety of stem cells, but also their efficacy for many disease conditions with autoimmune causes. For example, the current accepted treatment strategies for MS are only known to decrease inflammation but have no effect on repairing material damage to the CNS, effectively reversing the disease. What isn’t yet accepted in the medical community is that stem cell transplantation demonstrates a new approach for supporting restoration of tissue through remyelination. Through multiple clinical trials that have already proceeded to phase III, it has been well-established that mesenchymal stem cells moderate responses of the disease and stimulate repair of the central nervous system. In these studies, adult autologous mesenchymal stem cells have not only been safely administered to MS patients but have proven effective as a potential therapy for MS. Approved Clinical Trials involving small numbers of patients have occurred for the past half decade in medical centers outside of North America. As a result, various medical treatment centers have already derived protocols for extraction, culture, and treatment of MS patients with autologous stem cells. A review of popular medical journals actually reveals a widespread consensus on the efficacy of mesenchymal stem cell transplantation as a therapy for MS patients.

After 18 months of treating MS patients, CCSVI Clinic is well along with its program. “Success means different things to different people, but I’d say we’ve had much more than we could have hoped for when we first started.” says Dr. Avneesh Gupte, Neurosurgeon with CCSVI Clinic. “For the past year we’ve been adding autologous mesenchymal stem cell transplantation to the liberation therapy procedure and that’s when we really started to notice a significant change in patient outcomes”. Autologous Mesenchymal stem cell transplantation (AMSCT) means that the stem cells are taken from the patient’s own body and are cultured prior to transplantation at various times over an extended period. With the patient as the donor, there is no risk of transplantation leading to cancer as opposed to the risks of transplanting embryonic stem cells. AMSCT is now regularly used in North America for the treatment of Hodgkin’s lymphoma and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma as well as other diseases with remarkable results including cure for many patients. “If it works for some diseases, is safe and well-tolerated by the patient, then why not other diseases? We believe that Multiple Sclerosis can now be added to that list.” says Gupte.

In the past four years Gupte has performed over 1500 autologous stem cell transplantations for many types of neuro-degenerative diseases, including MS, cerebral palsy, ALS, Crohn’s Disease, Huntington’s, and Parkinson’s among others.

For the past year, CCSVI Clinic has not done the ‘liberation therapy’ for MS alone without the combined stem cell transplantation in the same 12-day protocol sequence. “Once we saw how dramatic and long-lasting the outcomes were with the addition of the stem cells, it didn’t make sense to do it any other way.” says Gupte. Most MS patients would agree. Lawrence Vermeersch of Kenora, Canada is convinced that it’s the stem cells that are continuing to make the difference in his recovery. “I’m thinking it will take a year to full recovery, but I’m continuing to improve every day.”

Jessica Davis, diagnosed with MS in 2003, of Somerset, UK agrees: “I have my life back thanks to CCSVI Clinic and it’s the best thing I ever did for myself. They weren’t easy to find but I did my homework.” She continues: “I had to be my own advocate for both liberation therapy and the stem cells because I got no help from my own neurologist. From the day I was diagnosed, my MS was aggressive. I didn’t have much time to take action before I would get to the point where just getting out of the flat would become impossible. I was using a cane and so tired all the time. After the 12 days at CCSVI Clinic, the first thing that cleared up was the head fog and my (incontinence) and the rest has come back over the past six months. I am working again and I consider myself cured.”

“These are typical stories for all types of neuro-degenerative diseases we are treating through CCSVI Clinic. At least with MS we are seeing significant improvement in many patients and I believe this trend of outcomes will continue” says Gupte. “We have also had some significantly positive outcomes with ALS and (cerebral) palsy. With the results we have seen in the past year, I think that the promise of stem cells is coming closer to matching the reality.” For more details visit http://ccsviclinic.ca/?p=882

David Summers, a 37 year old MS patient from Murfreesboro, Tennessee was a score of 8.0 on the Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) when he had the Combination Liberation Therapy and Stem Cell Transplantation at CCSVI Clinic in March of 2012. Having been diagnosed in 1996 he had been in a wheelchair for the past decade without any sensation below the waist or use of his legs.
“It was late 2011 and I didn’t have much future to look forward to” says David. “My MS was getting more progressive and ravaging my body. I was diagnosed as an 8.0 on the EDSS scale; 1 being mild symptoms, 10 being death. There were many new lesions on my optic nerves, in my brain and on my spinal cord. My neurologist just told me: ‘be prepared to deteriorate’. I knew that he was telling me I didn’t have much time left, or at least not much with any quality.” David had previously sought out the liberation therapy in 2010 and had it done in a clinic in Duluth Georgia. “The Interventional Radiologist who did it told me that 50% of all MS patients who have the jugular vein-clearing therapy eventually restenose. I didn’t believe that would happen to me if I could get it done. But I have had MS for 16 years and apparently my veins were pretty twisted up”. Within 90 days, David’s veins had narrowed again, and worse, they were now blocked in even more places than before his procedure.
“I was so happy after my original procedure in 2010. I immediately lost all of the typical symptoms of MS. The cog fog disappeared, my speech came back, the vision in my right eye improved, I was able to regulate my body temperature again, and some of the sensation in my hands came back. But as much as I wanted to believe I felt something, there was nothing below the waist. I kind of knew that I wouldn’t get anything back in my legs. There was just way too much nerve damage now”. But any improvements felt by David lasted for just a few months.
After his relapse, David and his family were frustrated but undaunted. They had seen what opening the jugular veins could do to improve him. Because the veins had closed so quickly after his liberation procedure, they considered another clinic that advocated stent implants to keep the veins open, but upon doing their due diligence, they decided it was just too risky. They kept on searching the many CCSVI information sites that were cropping up on the Internet for something that offered more hope. Finding a suitable treatment, especially where there was no known cure for the disease was also a race against time. David was still suffering new attacks and was definitely deteriorating. Then David’s mother Janice began reading some patient blogs about a Clinic that was offering both the liberation therapy and adult autologous stem cell injections in a series of procedures during a hospital stay. “These patients were reporting a ‘full recovery’ of their neurodegenerative deficits” says Janice, “I hadn’t seen anything like that anywhere else”. She contacted CCSVI Clinic in late 2011 and after a succession of calls with the researchers and surgeons they decided in favor of the combination therapies.
“I went to CCSVI Clinic in India without knowing what to expect” says David, “but I basically had one shot left and this was it. I was becoming pretty disabled, and I couldn’t think very clearly”. David was triaged with a clinic intake of other MS patients and had the liberation therapy on March 27, 2012. They also drew bone marrow from his hip bone in the same procedure. When he woke up from the procedure, he again felt the immediate effect of the widening of the veins. “In case anyone doesn’t believe that the liberation therapy works, I can tell them that this is much more than placebo effect.” The MS symptoms described earlier again disappeared. Four days later he had the first of the stem cell injections from the cultured cells taken from his hip bone during the liberation therapy. The first transplant was injected into the area just below his spine. Over the next 4 days he would receive about 100 million stem cells cultured in specific growth factors for differentiated effect.
He was not quite prepared for what happened next. A few hours after the first transplant, he was taken back into his hospital room and was transferred to the hospital bed. “I’m not completely helpless when it comes to moving from a chair or a bed”, says David, “One of the things I can do for myself is to use my arms to throw my leg into a position to be able to shift the rest of my body weight over to where I’m going. But this time to my amazement, I didn’t have to pick up the dead weight of my leg and throw it. It moved on its own, exactly where my brain told it to go”. Shortly after his first stem cell transplant procedure, some motor function in his lower body had returned. “This was the first time in 10 years I had any sensation or motor function below my waste so it was quite a shock.”
In the next month, most every motor nerve and body function has either returned or is on its way to recovery. “It’s been over a decade since I’ve had any power over my elimination functions. Now it’s all come back. I have total bladder control”. He’s also working out every day, following the physiotherapy routine given him by the clinic. “For years, I haven’t been able to work out without getting sick for a couple of days afterward. Now I have muscles popping out all over the place where I haven’t seen them since my MS became progressive…and I can work out as hard or as much as I want. With my ability to do the hard work my balance is improving each day and I’m able to take steps unassisted. I’m definitely going to be coming all the way back.”
Dr. Av Gupte, the neurosurgeon who has now done over 2000 adult autologous stem cell transplants for various neurologic disease conditions says that the stem cells in David’s body will continue to work their healing process for the next year. “With the incredible progress I’ve seen so far, I won’t need a year”, says David. “It’s only been a little over two months and I have most everything back. I can’t wait to get up each day to check out my improvements. My right hand is completely back to normal without any numbness and the left is on its way. I have good strength in my legs now and I’m working on the balance”.
Other MS patients treated with the combination therapy over the past 18 months have seen similar improvements but none have been as disabled as David. “If I can come back from where I was, most everyone with MS could too. For me, CCSVI Clinic has been my miracle and I can’t say enough about the doctors, researchers and staff who are helping me to recover. For me, MS was my previous diagnosis”.For more information please visit http://www.ccsviclinic.ca/?p=904