Here's my comment on SlashDot. I also commented on the other site. Hope to see some of you there too!
I'm pretty surprised at some of the naive comments on here. Many seem to be completely in the dark about the differences in stem cells and stem cell therapies. Several years ago, there were few visionary doctors and scientists out there willing to stick their necks out. Fortunately, for those of us with serious chronic and terminal diseases, there may be a renewed campaign to allow us to opt for stem cell therapy if we wish. So much research nowadays is to me, nothing but a jobs program or a way for a university to get more money through grants. It has to stop.The FDA has ties to Big Pharma and everyone knows that. The safety cry is getting old when the public is well aware of the Vioxx and now the Avandia boondoggles by the FDA. They are short on funds they claim. I suspect they are also short on science and too influenced by drug companies to be effective any more. It is time to clean house. Other countries are surpassing the U.S. in stem cell clinicals and treatment clinics. We not only lose economically, but we lose as far as being a country that is visionary and caring about its citizens, be they well or sick. I have never seen so many armchair critics who don't give a hoot about those of us that are very ill who believe that stem cell therapy may halt the progression of our disease and heal and regenerate. Dr. Centeno is a respected doctor. I live in Colorado. We are proud of him. I also am co-founder of the Stem Cell Pioneers. This is a patient moderated forum. Dr. Centeno has devoted a great deal of his time to ICMS, an organization that advocates safe stem cell therapy with guidelines and a patient registry that member doctors must agree to. Instead of spending valuable time conjecturing or bashing or keeping your head in the sand, I would invite you to join ICMS and get active. Millions of people are dying in this country. The medications I can get, no longer help with my disease. I have gone offshore to have stem cell therapy and it has saved my life. Others are not able to physically travel to offshore clinics. We need to be able to make the decision to have autologous stem cell therapy with our doctors, not a regulatory agency. Prior to my becoming ill, I probably would not have realized the magnitude of the problem that chronically and terminally ill patients face in this country. To deny us treatment or use scare tactics to convince us we are likely going to get cancer or something else quite dreadful from stem cell therapy is ridiculous. No, the long term (20-30 years down the road) is not known, but if stem cell therapy can reverse my disease that is 20-30 years I would never have in the first place. I'll take my chances thank you. Read the ICMS guidelines for safe stem cell treatment. I think you would agree that this is something that makes far more sense than hit and miss clinical trials that involve billions of dollars and many long years to be completed. Fertility clinics have been operating for years with such guidelines. Why the double standard? I think we all know the answer to that.
