As a revered stem cell researcher and renowned cardiologist in Beverly Hills, Ernst von Schwarz, MD notes that stem cell therapy is considered to be the most important discovery in modern medicine, likely bigger than the discovery of penicillin or the detection of the tuberculous bacteria.
“It is the path to rethinking the traditional dogmas of several pathophysiologic concepts,”. “It also made us reconsider the definitions and meaning of cell death, processes of aging and degeneration, and the natural course of diseases.”
Says Dr. Schwarz
Dr. Schwarz’s new book, The Secret World of Stem Cell Therapy is an exemplary primer for everything you ever wanted to know about stem cells but didn’t know what to ask. This book tells the current state of scientific data surrounding stem cell therapy from an insider’s point of view. In addition, Dr. Schwarz does a fine job of highlighting the numerous unapproved therapies that lack scientific data but confuse the consumer about what stem cells can and can’t do for the body.
Dr. Ernst von Schwarz chats with the Los Angeles Post Examiner about his book, The Secret World of Stem Cell Therapy, and the future of modern medicine.
What is the state of stem cell therapies in America as compared to other countries?
In the past, stem cell therapies were more restricted in the US, therefore, many patients went to Europe getting stem cell injections (Kobe Bryant as an example, went to Germany for knee injections). Nowadays, still many go abroad (Mel Gibson goes to Panama), mainly because they think that stem cell injections are not allowed in the US, which is a myth. Stem cell injections are allowed, but heavily regulated, and not officially FDA approved or recommended. The sources and the handling of stem cell products in the US in general undergo much stricter regulations than in any other part of the world, ensuring usually much more safety and a much higher quality.
Our group has dedicated protocols for stem cell therapies for different conditions and data are critically and systematically analyzed and scientifically interpreted and then published, in contrast to other countries where usually no follow up data or scientific analyses are provided.
What are some promising therapeutic stem cell therapy solutions for heart disease that you are excited about?
As a transplant cardiologist, I started using stem cell therapies for patients with congestive heart failure who were deemed to be candidates for heart transplantation, but could not get it, usually because of contraindications, advanced age or concomitant diseases. In these patients, we saw a tremendous improvement of functional capacity and improved quality of life (though no cure of heart disease), with a significant improvement of symptoms and less need for hospital admissions. Furthermore, in patients with severe peripheral vascular disease, usually secondary to advanced diabetes, we treated many patients with non-healing foot ulcers deemed for leg amputations in whom we could save the legs with simple stem cell injections to heal the ulcers, close open wounds, and improve the circulation tremendously.
What are the public’s biggest misconceptions about stem cell therapies?
If you google stem cell therapies for something like erectile dysfunction, there are within 0.2 seconds more than 90 million hits, however, 99.99% of those is pure advertising without any scientific data. On the other hand, stem cell therapy has been shown by our group in two recent publications to be very successful in treating sexual dysfunction (in men and women).
Moreover, people think stem cell therapy is something that cannot be done at the current time because most doctors do not know enough about it. The biggest problem for modern stem cell therapy is the large discrepancy between false advertising on one hand and demonstrated scientific facts on the other hand. The main thing to know is, however, that stem cell therapy represents the future of medicine for many in particular chronic degenerative diseases (from the heart to the skin to the joints to the brain among others).
Your book clarifies many technical scientific terminology about Stem Cells & medical practices. Why did you write the book and who is it for?
The book is meant to inform the consumer, a potential patient, all of us about the enormous potential of regenerative therapy which changes the practice of medicine in the very near future in order to fight chronic diseases, age related degeneration and aging itself.
What are the three most important messages in your book that you’d like the public to understand?
The most important messages from the book are:
1. Understand the potential of stem cell therapy.
2. Don’t trust in pure advertising.
3. Learn to ask the right questions.
Is there anything else you’d like to comment about?
The uniqueness of this book is that I am an insider who has deepest knowledge of the basic research in regenerative therapy since I was among the first in the world using embryonic and stem cells in experimental animal models to treat heart disease, but also, I’m a practicing cardiologist who has conducted several clinical trials including stem cell studies and has a very high academic reputation among the scientific community.
In contrast, other booklets that are on the market so far on stem cell therapy are either written by PhDs without much clinical knowledge or experience or by clinicians without any scientific background. Therefore, this is the only book on the market that provides everything one should know about the current state of stem cell therapy, from the scientific background to the legal and FDA regulations to the clinical trial data to the practical use for physicians interested in stem cell therapy and for the public.
To purchase the book click HERE
