HealthDay Reporter
MONDAY, Nov. 8, 2021 (HealthDay Information) — The sale of unproven and unapproved stem cell treatments has skyrocketed in america, in keeping with a brand new five-year research.
The research discovered a fourfold bounce since 2016 within the availability of the remedies, which declare to do all the pieces from relieving pain to slowing getting old.
Individuals who use these remedies are needlessly spending hundreds of {dollars} and could possibly be placing their well being in danger, research creator Leigh Turner warned.
“One of the vital troubling options of this market is that companies promoting unproven and non-FDA-approved stem cell merchandise typically use advertising misrepresentations and aggressive gross sales ways to use the hope, struggling, worry or desperation of sufferers,” stated Turner, a professor of well being, society and habits on the College of California (UC), Irvine.
Utilizing on-line search instruments, the study recognized 1,480 U.S. companies and a pair of,754 clinics providing purported stem cell remedies. That compares to 351 companies and 570 clinics that did so 5 years in the past.
America now has extra places providing such remedies than every other nation, together with those who have been as soon as sizzling spots for so-called “stem cell tourism,” the findings confirmed.
Stem cell remedy, also called regenerative drugs, has resulted in life-saving remedy of sufferers with sure varieties of most cancers and blood illnesses. However the security and effectiveness of stem cell merchandise wants additional testing, in keeping with a college information launch.
On this research, the states with the best variety of stem cell clinics are California (347), Texas (333) and Florida (310).
The findings have been revealed on-line Nov. 4 within the journal Cell Stem Cell.
“Many of those ‘clinics’ are selling unlicensed and unproven stem cell merchandise and declare their interventions don’t require FDA approval,” stated Turner, a member of UC-Irvine’s stem cell analysis heart and ethics chief at its Institute for Medical and Translational Science. “Nevertheless, that could not be farther from the reality.”
Turner stated there’s widespread promotion of merchandise that do require authorization by the U.S. Meals and Drug Administration earlier than advertising.
“In lots of circumstances, these clinics are utilizing deceptive promoting and predatory advertising strategies,” he warned.
Claims concerning the remedies embrace serving to with ache (85%+), orthopedic illnesses and accidents (46%+), and sports-related accidents (22%+). The claims vary from serving to with hair loss and slowing the getting old course of to strengthening the immune system to guard towards SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
Out-of-pocket prices for the remedies vary from $1,200 to $28,000, with a mean of about $5,100.
Unproven and unapproved stem cell merchandise pose quite a few dangers to sufferers and have prompted some severe hurt to some, in keeping with Turner, who added that the state of affairs is more likely to proceed except the FDA and different companies step up enforcement.
Extra info
Learn a U.S. Meals and Drug Administration warning about unapproved stem cell therapies.
SOURCE: College of California, Irvine, information launch, Nov. 4, 2021
