Peyton Manning won’t be the last star linked to stem cell therapy

Jim Bradley understands the season-on-the-brink desperation that, according to Fox Sports, sent Peyton Manning and his ailing neck to Europe this summer, seeking the experimental promise of stem cells. For the past two decades as the Steelers orthopedist, Bradley has listened to injured athletes beg him to be creative in getting them back onto the field. “In the last year, I’ve seen half a dozen guys go to South Korea, Japan, Germany, even Russia for stem cell procedures,” says Bradley, a past president of the NFL Physician’s Society. “And there’s going to be plenty more.”

In case you haven’t logged long hours watching House, stem cells are immature cells with life-changing potential; scientists think they could possibly do everything from reverse the sinister effects of aging to fend off cancer and make hearts healthier. Doctors in athletic circles are particularly optimistic about a specific line called mesenchymal stem cells, which they can extract in sizable numbers from fat and bone marrow. When properly cultivated and injected into an injured body part, the cells might be able to repair a banged-up jock’s cartilage, bones, tendons and muscles dramatically faster than conventional surgical methods.

Clinics around the world report amazing results using these minimally invasive cellular procedures to repair torn ACLs. And that’s the problem: The most exciting action is happening overseas.

Thanks to a mix of politics, bureaucratic foot-dragging and scientific caution, American doctors are prohibited from culturing stem cells, let alone culturing them into stages as advanced as their foreign counterparts. Hence Manning’s trip abroad. Bradley, a former Penn State defensive back, doesn’t mince words. “We’re at least 10 years behind the rest of the world,” he says.

The 57-year-old doctor should know. In January 2009, after Hines Ward left the AFC championship game with a torn MCL, Bradley administered a form of platelet-rich plasma (PRP) therapy, a strange and novel procedure at the time. Placing a sample of Ward’s blood in a centrifuge, Bradley isolated the plasma and platelets, which contain natural repair engines, then reinjected the serum into the receiver’s injured knee. Ward returned to the field two weeks later for Super Bowl XLIII, a remarkable recovery he and Bradley credit to the procedure. Had the Steeler opted for rest and physical therapy instead, the two say Ward likely would have watched the big game from the sideline.

At the time, Bradley was hailed as a genius; weekend warriors everywhere started asking for the “Hines Ward treatment.” But compared with the latest stem cell technologies, PRP looks about as revolutionary as leeches. Instead of relying on the relatively small number of stem cells that swim in blood, cellular scientists elsewhere in the world are extracting millions more out of bone marrow and fat, then engineering them into injury-fighting miracle workers. In Europe, healthy top-level soccer players are already having their stem cells harvested and grown into lines of bone and connective tissue in case of injury. “They’re doing it so they’ll have a ligament line ready if they get a tear during the season,” Bradley says.

Much like the steroids scandals a decade ago, this stem cell gold rush is testing sports’ ethical boundaries — but this time the issue is about aiding recovery instead of enhancing performance. Antidoping authorities and federal regulators find themselves in uncharted territory, raising questions about whether our own blood can be considered a drug. In this new reality, the cutting edge is no longer just what jocks are putting into their bodies. It’s about what they’re putting back into their bodies.

Christopher Centeno has paid the price for being on the front lines of this culture war.

Until last year, Centeno was doing a booming business culturing mesenchymal stem cells at his Broomfield, Colo., clinic called Regenerative Sciences. When NFL defensive end Jarvis Green visited the doctor in 2010 after two failed knee surgeries, the player faced the end of an eight-year career with New England. Shortly after receiving his stem cell treatment, Green was back in the NFL. “Before, I couldn’t walk up the stairs,” he told The Mag. “Three weeks later, I went to an NFL training camp and didn’t miss a day.”

Green’s recovery gave him one more season, with Houston, before he retired. But he had one of the last seats on Centeno’s cultured stem cell miracle train. In August 2010, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration brought the hammer down on Regenerative Sciences, filing a federal injunction to prevent Centeno from culturing. The FDA claims he was “adulterating” blood in a way that turned it into an unapproved new drug. Centeno, who still provides same-day stem cell procedures, has spent $500,000 fighting the agency’s controversial opinion and even more money moving his culturing operation to a new clinic offshore in the Cayman Islands. “The FDA has pushed this therapy out of the U.S.,” he says.

A representative for the FDA declined to comment, saying only that U.S. policy is to allow the injection of stem cells that are treated with “minimal manipulation,” which federal regulations define as “processing that does not alter the relevant biological characteristics of cells or tissues.”

Yankees starter Bartolo Colon was treated using those kinds of stem cells in March 2010, when he was still unsigned and struggling to throw 80 mph after rotator cuff surgery. Orthopedist Joseph Purita, who runs the Institute of Regenerative & Molecular Orthopaedics in Boca Raton, Fla., traveled to the Dominican Republic to perform the procedure at Colon’s request. There Purita harvested marrow from the then 36-year-old pitcher’s pelvis and spun it in a high-speed centrifuge to procure a syringe full of thick, mesenchymal-rich serum. But instead of waiting weeks for those cells to multiply and grow as cultures, Purita stayed within FDA guidelines and injected Colon’s cells directly into his right shoulder and elbow. The process took about an hour.

Skeptics say that minimally manipulated stem cells are a crapshoot because they are so unpredictable. Maybe they’ll turn into ligaments or cartilage. Or maybe they won’t. “There’s very little evidence that bone marrow stem cells taken from one site and injected into another will do anything,” says Theodore Friedmann, a University of California at San Diego geneticist who heads the World Anti-Doping Agency’s gene doping panel and is charged with advising WADA on stem cell policy. “The most likely outcome is that if you put stem cells in places that are unfamiliar to them, like a knee or shoulder, most of them will just die.”

Colon’s impressive start this season — he compiled a 64 record with a 3.20 ERA before the All-Star break — caught MLB’s attention, and league investigators asked for the records of his treatment, wondering whether something other than stem cells deserved credit in his recovery. When two MLB representatives visited Purita in June, he acknowledged using small amounts of human growth hormone when performing the same procedure on his everyday patients in Florida. But he also said that he did not give the banned substance to the pitcher. “I don’t make the rules, but I follow them,” he says. “I’m not here to create a controversy.”

MLB continues to look into the treatment, but the league’s medical director, Gary Green, isn’t exactly sure what to make of this new sports medicine frontier. “There’s always a fine line between what’s a performance-enhancing drug and a therapeutic one,” he says. “It’s what all the leagues have to struggle with.”

Similarly, WADA, which was built to police substances that athletes put into their bodies, seems unsure what, if anything, should be done about these latest advancements. When the agency first started looking at what it terms blood-spinning therapies, it banned all of them. But after studies failed to show that athletes were getting the kind of gains from PRP that come from steroids, WADA did an about-face earlier this year and lifted all its restrictions.

Now the antidoping cops are struggling with what they should do about stem cells. Friedmann favors WADA’s doing nothing — at least at the moment — because of his skepticism about whether the treatments work. “I have no doubt that this science will become feasible,” he says. “I just don’t think it is now.”

Yet the gold rush continues, with ambitious physicians using the rich, powerful and desperate as guinea pigs. Manning went to Europe hoping his neck would respond the same way as Green’s knee and Colon’s shoulder and elbow. It was a stretch. Stem cells have not been widely used to address nerve issues, as Manning is thought to have pursued, the way they have muscle, bone, tendons and cartilage. Few papers have been published on the topic, and no one in the field knows of any credible clinical trials. “Safety is an issue,” says John Gearhart, director of the University of Pennsylvania’s Institute for Regenerative Medicine and one of the nation’s foremost experts. “You can’t predict what will happen when you put a stem cell in a place where you don’t normally find it.”

But technology is driven by Darwinism and by capitalism, evolving quickest where there’s a financial interest. And there’s even talk among stem cell experts about Chinese labs genetically engineering human stem cells from enzymes and nutrients. If that advance ever becomes a reality, it likely would make the plates and screws used in modern orthopedics look like medieval bone saws and hot irons.

That’s one day. Stem cell treatments are still a work in progress, as evidenced by a certain Super Bowl MVP’s turning to traditional orthopedic surgery when his medical Hail Mary fell short. Manning likely will miss the rest of the season, and his time on the bench is exactly what Bradley says will continue to push the quarterback and his peers to the corners of the world for any chance to extend their careers.

“When I got into this, I thought these treatments — not plates and screws — were the next big things in orthopedics,” he says. “And I still do. This is just beginning. Guys like Peyton are part of the first wave.”

Platelet-Rich Plasma ‘A Promising Treatment for Heart Attacks’

Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) has already been identified as a novel biologic treatment for wound healing and sports-related injuries. But it was only recently that scientists began studying PRP’s potential in repairing damaged cardiovascular tissue.

Studies indicate PRP stimulates cell repair via growth factor release and by attracting reparative cells.

Lead author Allan Mishra and his colleagues studied the effects of RevaTen PRP (a proprietary formulation of concentrated platelets and white blood cells) on cardiac function after inducing cardiac ischemia (damage to myocardial tissue caused by blood restriction) in mice.

In this study of 28 mice, they induced ischemia by either permanently occluding the left anterior descending artery (Group A) or temporarily ligating it for 45 minutes (Group B).

The hearts were then injected with RevaTen PRP or saline control.

In both groups, mice that received PRP after ischemia had significantly better cardiac function as measured by left ventricular ejection fraction on MRI than those that had been injected with saline only.

In group A, the RevaTen-treated animals had 38 percent better ejection fraction compared to saline controls.

In group B, the RevaTen-treated animals had 28 percent improvement in ejection fraction compared to controls.

“Although this is an observational study using an animal model, PRP might someday be employed at the point of care to treat patients who have had a heart attack. This could preserve cardiac function and limit the progression to congestive heart failure,” said Mishra.

“Since myocardial infarction remains the leading cause of death in industrial nations, RevaTen PRP may become a powerful biologic tool in fighting heart disease and provide cost savings,” he added.

The findings were published online in Cardiovascular Revascularization Medicine. (ANI)

ANI – Thaindian News

Dr. Magaziner and Staff,

I wanted to thank you for everything you did for me. I was in such pain and could not even sit up or stand up. Your staff understood and gave me an appointment in a very short time. They were professional and friendly in my time of strife. Your thorough review of my MRI and bone scan helped me to understand the extent of my problem. I especially valued the myofascial release treatment you performed on my contracted back muscles, it gave me immediate relief. The steroid shot you administered has given me 97% pain relief and I am now able to return to my normal routine.

Thanks so much.

Treatment: Prolotherapy of C spine

Comments: I was first referred to Dr. Magaziner in 1999 for treatment of degeneration and pain in my cervical spine. The treatment brought relief and i needed no further medication or treatment. He told me this would not last forever, but i could expect 6-7 years of relief. He was right on target. I have been back now for boosters and have remained pain free in an area where i have always carried a great deal of tension and discomfort.

I don’t know why anyone would not want to get this kind of relief!

He has a supportive manner, and great staff….and all of that goes a long way when you started out in pain.

Dr Magaziner,

I am writing this to inform others, and to Thank you for the kind caring medical attention I have received from your self and your professional staff at your Center for Spine, Sports, Pain Management.

I have had issues with my neck for the past 10 years. I have been diagnosed with small bulged cervical disc at multiple levels, with narrowing and arthritic conditions. Previous treatments have included anti inflammatory medications, Physical therapy, Chiropractic treatment, heat and ultrasound, and traction. So as you can see I have tried most every treatment option available without surgery and without much relief from my chronic neck issues.

I searched the Internet for additional healing options, and found information pertaining to prolotherapy. I had no previous knowledge of this therapy, but figured I had nothing to lose by trying this therapy. Thank god I tried it! It is an amazing therapy, with long lasting positive results. The problem is, their are no doctor’s in Maryland (Where I live) that perform this therapy. So I have had to travel out of state to various prolo doctors seeking the best outcome. After experiencing the treatment from 2 other practitioners, I finally had the wonderful opportunity to visit Dr Magaziner and his staff.

Over the past few years I visited Dr Magaziner 2 to 3 different times for treatment, for typically 3-5 treatment sessions. I don’t feel I would have needed to visit as frequently had I not re-injured my neck due to the strong physical fitness demands I have put my body through. I have been an avid weight lifter and karate instructor. I also played very competitive softball and have coached baseball and softball over the years.

The prolotherapy treatments have always resolved my neck/arm pain throughout this period. I have heard of the problems and issues involving spinal surgery and have been strongly opposed to that option. I do have to admit though, had I not found prolotherapy and it’s benefits I would have had to seriously consider surgical options. Please do yourself a Hugh favor and say no to surgery and yes to prolotherapy, Dr Magaziner and his awesome staff. Dr Mag, as I call him is the BEST of the BEST!!!

v/r,

BC
Bel Air, Md.

“I wanted to write and thank Dr. Magaziner for his God given talent. I began seeing Dr. Magaziner about 1.5 years ago on the suggestion of my supervisor. I had severe pain in my left shoulder and had seen a family doctor who sent me for an MRI which revealed the beginning stages of arthritis. To understand the condition I could not drive long distances without moving my left arm to different positions to relieve the tension and even holding my arms above my head did not help. I would wake up in the middle of the night and try and stretch out the pain, nothing helped. I attended physical therapy and took pain medications, which helped at first, however the pain would return. Dr. Magaziner suggested Prolotherapy, after my first session with Dr. Magaziner and began feeling results. After five sessions with Dr. Magaziner I am now pain free and there is no need for medications with side affects, or physical therapy. I am now taking treatment for my left thumb which tends to lock up along side of my hand while working.

I have had three sessions for this condition and have began seeing dramatic results. What I like most is that Dr. Magaziner is honest and will not try just any treatment without knowing he can help his patients. Thank you Dr. Magaziner and his staff for this wonderful opportunity to live pain free without surgery or medications.”

“Dr. Magaziner, Please find the below feedback for my treatment. I have also fill out the ratings in the websites you have given.
Dr. Magaziner is dedicated to his patients, and is very kind and pleasant. He is very easy-going and humble. I have 5 Prolo Therapy sessions for my SI and facet Joints. I am 75-80 %beter now. I have stop taking all of my pain medications. I would recommend him 100 % and would love to refer anyboday to him. I went to 4 pain management docs and one sergeon without getting any better for 2.5 years. With Prolo Therapy i am 80 % pain free now. His office staff is very friendly and caring. “

Pilates instructor was in such pain she couldn’t lift her right arm. A SLAP tear, rotator cuff injury and partially separated shoulder left her in agony most of the time. “If I moved it, it was sharp pain,” says patient, 58. As a result, she was unable to work. The former dancer tried more traditional forms of treatment, including cortisone shots and physical therapy, but nothing provided long-term relief. “I could never get beyond a certain point,” she says. After undergoing four to five PRP treatments with Dr. Magaziner, patient says, “I’m 100%” better and “I have my full range” of shoulder movement back. Patient says she is particularly impressed with her improvement, since people “don’t usually get 100% mobility back from SLAP tears, especially at my age.”

” You are, indeed, a miracle worker. There’s magic in your very talented hands. When I came to you just a short while ago, I felt so completely hopeless, with so much pain, in so many different places, coming from so many different sources. As of now, my body is unbelievably free of much of that pain, which is actually bringing me a new and optimistic lease on life. With much appreciation and so many thanks.

“I thought I should write and tell you that my sister and I made it back home safely. We had a really long day – the morning treatment, then the train, then a couple of flights. I actually took a different flight home and ended up staying overnight in Chicago as my flight from Newark let 3 hours late, thus causing me to miss my connection! However, I did make it home on Friday morning and am glad to be here. I am really grateful to all of you for your help, compassion and kindness. The past year and a half has been extremely painful for me – both physically and emotionally. Facing a future of pain has been quite discouraging. Thankfully I did find Dr. Magaziner and I am so glad that I made the trip! I was so exhausted the first few days of being home that I wasn’t able to accurately assess my pain level. But, already as of Sunday, I have not taken any Percocet, but have instead been managing on some lower level pain killers (of course not anything anti-inflammatory!). There’s a long way to go, but I do feel considerably better, for which I am incredibly thankful. Dr. Magaziner – I cannot thank you enough! Coming to see you was a lot of work, but it was absolutely 100% worth it. I thank you for taking so much time with me, listening to me (I go on, and on, and on..!) and of course for treating me. The PRP to my Psoas felt like nothing I’ve ever felt before – in an amazing way. The release of the tension/taughtness of that muscle was beyond words. I’ve met so many heath practitioners along this journey and your patience, expertise and kindess are top notch! I will continue to keep you posted and I am considering a return trip. It would be well worth it to come again- I just need to organize some things before I can decide on that… Thanks as well to all of you in the office – particularly Lori, Sandy and Eryn. My sister and I felt your genuine care and concern. Meeting all of you was such a pleasure and left us with great feelings that there truly are great people in this big world. Its so nice to be able to come home and tell my friends and family how well we were treated. I would love to write a novel of thanks to you all – especially Dr. Magaziner – but I will try to end here. Many, many thanks and I will touch base again soon! “

“I sincerely hope that you receive all the blessings in life that you have given to me and so many others. I hope you remaining in the business of healing others because I believe you have that God-given talent. For me Prolotheraphy did the job and saved me from unnecessary surgery which may have not been successful.”

“The therapy you recommended has greatly improved my mobility and my pain is almost gone. The treatment has really made a difference in my life.”

“The wonders that the shots have done are immeasurable, I only wish I would have met with you earlier in my life, I would not have missed out on many things that I wasn’t able to do for so long.”

“Of all the doctors I have visited, I have found you to be the most understanding and sympathetic to my pain. Thank you for everything you have done to allow me to do my everyday task, even things that I couldn’t even consider doing before.”

“I thank you for your medical expertise and for the special person you are in delivering care”

“Dr. Magaziner’s treatments have produced amazing results. I am grateful to him for his innovative approaches to healing.”

“To my delight my elbow is 100% pain free today! I can do anything I want with my left arm. No more ice, heat, massage or physical therapy, most important, no surgery.”

“I just wanted to drop Dr. Magaziner a note with a big thanks for everything he has done for me. An injury to my left hip during Judo practice in my late twenties eventually contributed to my premature retirement from the martial arts. The chronic pain and laxity in my hip made it impossible to run, and in recent years impacted my ability to carry out daily activities like picking up my son, or carrying my laptop bag. After Dr. Magaziner’s treatment, I am now able to do something I’ve been unable to do in over 15 years; double-time the length of 34th street between 6th avenue and Penn Station to catch my train, and moreover, I can do it while wearing my laptop backpack. I am now able to pick up and run after my son, and have started teaching martial arts again. I am now doing on a daily basis things which, 10 years ago, I thought I would *never* do again. Thanks Dr. Magaziner!”

“I am absolutely thrilled with the results of my mesotherapy treatments. My fat and cellulite was localized in my lower half and was unbelievably stubborn. Learning how much safer mesotherapy is over the surgery alternatives, the choice was a no-brainer. The fat and cellulite melted away in a natural way; no one knew I was doing it. My skin is much smoother and firmer, I lost a number of pant sizes, and for the first time in a long time, I like the way I look. A few years ago I received prolotherapy treatments from Dr. Magaziner, so I was already completely confident in his expertise. He and his staff go out of their way to provide the best possible experience, and are genuinely compassionate and supportive. I would recommend mesotherapy and Dr. Magaziner without hesitation. “

“I wanted to thankyou for helping me out with my knee and I wanted to tell my story so others can be made aware of your amazing treatment. About 3 years ago I developed right knee pain and could not bend it or walk long distances without pain, nor could I enjoy dancing which I frequently like to do. When I saw you we discussed my treatment options and I went for physical therapy and had injections with Supartz which is the standard treatment for my problem as covered by Medicare.The bennifit only lasted 3 months and than I was back where I started. You recommended Prolotherapy for my knee and after 3 sessions once per month I was back to all my activities and I was dancing up a storm again. I was so happy with the results I came to your office 3 years later with a problem with my hip. As we discussed to my delight the knee continues to be doing fine and I am still able to dance without a problem. Dr Magaziner, I would like to thankyou for helping me and having the knowledge and skill to be able to offer treatments that work. You are a very caring individual and I found you and your office staff to be professional and easy to work with. Yours truly, “