Nepsis Institute has ceased doing business. Dr Ramirez still has his own clinic.
This month's Ask The Doctor host is Fernando Ramirez, MD, Medical Director of Inbicto-Ortholab, a progressive clinic affiliated with the Nepsis Institute (Mexico) located in Tijuana. Dr. Ramirez collaborated with Nepsis consulting biomedical theoretician, Dr. Anthony G. Payne
1) Have you participated in any procedure that clearly showed regeneration in the lung of a patient? If so, to what extent was the procedure successful?
The complete regeneration of a patient's lungs? No. But I have seen improvements in emphysema patient's lung function that indicates that some degree of recovery of function has taken place ? and I am talking here about not just cell therapy of various kinds, but also the use of various drugs, hormones and neutraceuticals. For instance, in early stage emphysema patients pure cord blood stem cells have produced notable improvements in some patients. However, advanced emphysema patients did not show lasting, significant clinical responses to cord blood stem cell therapy. On-the-other-hand, during June my medical team commenced treating patients with emphysema and other serious lung diseases using autologous bone marrow and fat tissue derived stem cells that have been intrinsically programmed to home in on diseased lung tissue and effect repair and reduce inflammation (This involves licensed use of some of the most advanced stem cell technology and lab methods in existence anywhere). It is too early yet to discuss outcomes as we are only five months out from launch.
2) Is Nepsis now taking pediatric patients (mine is 7) for the treatment of cerebral palsy? If so, what is the procedure from beginning to end, including the duration of time involved?
Yes we are. The choice of therapeutic approach depends on many factors including the age and condition of the child. Many very young children benefit from a simple IV of pure cord blood stem cells, something I have been involved in doing since 2003. Of course, with the introduction of Nepsis?s incredible stem cell programming technology we can now take a small sample of bone marrow from suitable pediatric candidates, extract specific progenitor & stem cells, prime them to become neurons and other needed brain cells, and then infuse them by IV (In older children a catheterization approach can be used). When cord blood stem cells only are used, the whole process is a one day affair start-to-finish. When bone marrow is harvested and the stem cells processed and used, the process requires two days (Patients and their caregivers can opt to stay in Mexico or at a hotel in San Diego and be shuttled to and from my clinic).
3) What is the criteria that Nepsis is using to approve or disapprove patient enrollment for stem cell therapy with Nepsis?
We look at many factors, many of which are specific to the disease or condition. Sometimes prior clinical experience plus input from the published science tells us that a particular disease is unlikely to respond to stem cell therapy of any kind. Sometimes the patient is just too debilitated and near death to risk even travel to my clinic. Conversely, others are good candidates because we know from prior success that their condition will respond or they come to us with a condition that the published science and the work of our own scientists suggest will do so. There is a lot of cost v. benefits analysis that goes into our evaluative process.
4) My doctor recently said I have the knees of an 80-year old at age 58 due to the running I did in my younger days. I have had arthroscopic surgery of both knees in the past 20 years and now I am told that I need knee replacement surgery. Do you think stem cell treatment would work for me?
Possibly. I am an orthopedic surgeon who is acquainted with standard medicine as well as the newer ways to reconstruct and regenerate joints using stem cells and bioscaffolds. My medical team and I will do an evaluation for which there is no cost or obligation to you.
5) What is the future direction of lung regeneration with stem cells and what is the likely timetable (excluding the FDA approval) that patients might get to benefit from this procedure. Some of us are on a tight time schedule so that sooner is better than later.
I cannot speak to all that is going on in the world of medicine with regard to lung regeneration ? too much territory to cover -- but can assure you that we in the Nepsis program are doing some pretty innovative things to turn the tables on emphysema in the near term. We are, in fact, gearing up right now to combine our disease-specific programmed stem cell therapy with a unique drug-growth factor-hormonal regimen aimed at general lung repair plus alveologenesis, i.e., replacement of diseased alveoli with healthy versions.
6) Are you or can you treat sensory neural hearing loss with adult autologous stem cells? If not, do you expect to in the next year? Do you know of any doctors treating hearing loss at this point, if Nepsis does not?
Actually, we have two patients with sensory neural hearing loss who will be undergoing stem cell treatment in the next two months. The approach is unique and proprietary, so I can?t get into specifics at this time.
7) If you could only advise a person to take two supplements for better health, which two would they be?
The two would depend on the person ? sex, age, state-of-health, hereditary tendencies and pedigree, and more. I prefer a tailored approach to a one-size-fits-all.
8) Do most conditions require more than one treatment? Is this included in the initial price?
Progressive diseases typically require more than one treatment, but how many follow-up treatments and how often hinges on the nature of the disease and the rate of progression following stem cell therapy. People with non-progressive diseases and conditions who see clinical improvements following treatment typically retain these and when they are sufficient may not need re-treatment. Others make gains but want to build on this and thus do additional treatments.
When patients come in who obviously will need or opt for more than one treatment, yes our team works hard to set the price as low as possible for the initial and all subsequent ones.
9) What can iPS cells do that other stem cells cannot? What do you feel will change in the world of stem cell therapy, once iPS cells are available for treatments? I hear a lot about iPS cells and yet don't really understand all that is going on with them.
It is felt that iPS cells are closer to having the kind of biological plasticity associated with embryonic stem cells than other pluripotent stem cells (Say those from cord blood or bone marrow). This means an iPS cell is more likely to become more different cell types than anything but an embryonic stem cell. The trick is to induce this primitive pluripotent state and wind up with a safe stem cell. Researchers at Harvard and Kyoto and elsewhere have been able to take (for instance) skin cells and make them pluripotent but to do so they rely heavily on activating specific genes using viruses or potentially cell-damaging chemicals. Nepsis has licensed the world?s only method for safely creating iPS cells that is utterly unique, patent pending and exclusive to my clinic in Mexico (This method was the result of truly Nobel caliber work that is literally light years ahead of what even most advanced stem cell research centers in the US and elsewhere have been able to come up with). We are now working on funding to get this technology up & running in my clinic ? something we hope proves true by spring 2010.
10) Does Nepsis belong to ICMS?
No
This month's Ask The Doctor host is Fernando Ramirez, MD, Medical Director of Inbicto-Ortholab, a progressive clinic affiliated with the Nepsis Institute (Mexico) located in Tijuana. Dr. Ramirez collaborated with Nepsis consulting biomedical theoretician, Dr. Anthony G. Payne
1) Have you participated in any procedure that clearly showed regeneration in the lung of a patient? If so, to what extent was the procedure successful?
The complete regeneration of a patient's lungs? No. But I have seen improvements in emphysema patient's lung function that indicates that some degree of recovery of function has taken place ? and I am talking here about not just cell therapy of various kinds, but also the use of various drugs, hormones and neutraceuticals. For instance, in early stage emphysema patients pure cord blood stem cells have produced notable improvements in some patients. However, advanced emphysema patients did not show lasting, significant clinical responses to cord blood stem cell therapy. On-the-other-hand, during June my medical team commenced treating patients with emphysema and other serious lung diseases using autologous bone marrow and fat tissue derived stem cells that have been intrinsically programmed to home in on diseased lung tissue and effect repair and reduce inflammation (This involves licensed use of some of the most advanced stem cell technology and lab methods in existence anywhere). It is too early yet to discuss outcomes as we are only five months out from launch.
2) Is Nepsis now taking pediatric patients (mine is 7) for the treatment of cerebral palsy? If so, what is the procedure from beginning to end, including the duration of time involved?
Yes we are. The choice of therapeutic approach depends on many factors including the age and condition of the child. Many very young children benefit from a simple IV of pure cord blood stem cells, something I have been involved in doing since 2003. Of course, with the introduction of Nepsis?s incredible stem cell programming technology we can now take a small sample of bone marrow from suitable pediatric candidates, extract specific progenitor & stem cells, prime them to become neurons and other needed brain cells, and then infuse them by IV (In older children a catheterization approach can be used). When cord blood stem cells only are used, the whole process is a one day affair start-to-finish. When bone marrow is harvested and the stem cells processed and used, the process requires two days (Patients and their caregivers can opt to stay in Mexico or at a hotel in San Diego and be shuttled to and from my clinic).
3) What is the criteria that Nepsis is using to approve or disapprove patient enrollment for stem cell therapy with Nepsis?
We look at many factors, many of which are specific to the disease or condition. Sometimes prior clinical experience plus input from the published science tells us that a particular disease is unlikely to respond to stem cell therapy of any kind. Sometimes the patient is just too debilitated and near death to risk even travel to my clinic. Conversely, others are good candidates because we know from prior success that their condition will respond or they come to us with a condition that the published science and the work of our own scientists suggest will do so. There is a lot of cost v. benefits analysis that goes into our evaluative process.
4) My doctor recently said I have the knees of an 80-year old at age 58 due to the running I did in my younger days. I have had arthroscopic surgery of both knees in the past 20 years and now I am told that I need knee replacement surgery. Do you think stem cell treatment would work for me?
Possibly. I am an orthopedic surgeon who is acquainted with standard medicine as well as the newer ways to reconstruct and regenerate joints using stem cells and bioscaffolds. My medical team and I will do an evaluation for which there is no cost or obligation to you.
5) What is the future direction of lung regeneration with stem cells and what is the likely timetable (excluding the FDA approval) that patients might get to benefit from this procedure. Some of us are on a tight time schedule so that sooner is better than later.
I cannot speak to all that is going on in the world of medicine with regard to lung regeneration ? too much territory to cover -- but can assure you that we in the Nepsis program are doing some pretty innovative things to turn the tables on emphysema in the near term. We are, in fact, gearing up right now to combine our disease-specific programmed stem cell therapy with a unique drug-growth factor-hormonal regimen aimed at general lung repair plus alveologenesis, i.e., replacement of diseased alveoli with healthy versions.
6) Are you or can you treat sensory neural hearing loss with adult autologous stem cells? If not, do you expect to in the next year? Do you know of any doctors treating hearing loss at this point, if Nepsis does not?
Actually, we have two patients with sensory neural hearing loss who will be undergoing stem cell treatment in the next two months. The approach is unique and proprietary, so I can?t get into specifics at this time.
7) If you could only advise a person to take two supplements for better health, which two would they be?
The two would depend on the person ? sex, age, state-of-health, hereditary tendencies and pedigree, and more. I prefer a tailored approach to a one-size-fits-all.
8) Do most conditions require more than one treatment? Is this included in the initial price?
Progressive diseases typically require more than one treatment, but how many follow-up treatments and how often hinges on the nature of the disease and the rate of progression following stem cell therapy. People with non-progressive diseases and conditions who see clinical improvements following treatment typically retain these and when they are sufficient may not need re-treatment. Others make gains but want to build on this and thus do additional treatments.
When patients come in who obviously will need or opt for more than one treatment, yes our team works hard to set the price as low as possible for the initial and all subsequent ones.
9) What can iPS cells do that other stem cells cannot? What do you feel will change in the world of stem cell therapy, once iPS cells are available for treatments? I hear a lot about iPS cells and yet don't really understand all that is going on with them.
It is felt that iPS cells are closer to having the kind of biological plasticity associated with embryonic stem cells than other pluripotent stem cells (Say those from cord blood or bone marrow). This means an iPS cell is more likely to become more different cell types than anything but an embryonic stem cell. The trick is to induce this primitive pluripotent state and wind up with a safe stem cell. Researchers at Harvard and Kyoto and elsewhere have been able to take (for instance) skin cells and make them pluripotent but to do so they rely heavily on activating specific genes using viruses or potentially cell-damaging chemicals. Nepsis has licensed the world?s only method for safely creating iPS cells that is utterly unique, patent pending and exclusive to my clinic in Mexico (This method was the result of truly Nobel caliber work that is literally light years ahead of what even most advanced stem cell research centers in the US and elsewhere have been able to come up with). We are now working on funding to get this technology up & running in my clinic ? something we hope proves true by spring 2010.
10) Does Nepsis belong to ICMS?
No
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