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Making Gains on Pain

Just off Red Road in South Miami, people who suffer from any number of ailmentsโ€”from aches and pains to more-serious conditions like brain injuries and kidney diseaseโ€”use their own bodies to treat themselve

It happens inside the American Stem Cell Research Center, which celebrated the opening of a 3,500-square-foot regenerative medicine clinic in South Miami in 2017. There, patients use their own stem cells to alleviateโ€”and sometimes eliminateโ€”autoimmune, orthopedic, degenerative and even neurological conditions.ย 

โ€œYour body uses stem cells all day to keep you alive,โ€ says Michelle Parlo, the centerโ€™s director of clinical operations. โ€œYou canโ€™t live an hour without functioning stem cells. What we do is take them from one place in the body and put them directly where we want them to be workingโ€”like the hip, elbow or foot.โ€

Regenerative medicine is more than just harvesting healthy cells and transplanting them to inflamed areas; it also incorporates intravenous nutrition, diet counseling and blood samples. Through a blend of treatments, patients often are able to improve their quality of life and conquer chronic pain.

โ€œWherever you have inflammation, your body calls for help,โ€ Parlo says. โ€œStem cells work on whatโ€™s most critical to keep you alive. If you didnโ€™t get enough sleep or you drank too much, thatโ€™s what theyโ€™ll be used for. Priority for healing chronic pain, like an old knee injury, gets moved to the back compared to what needs to be healed right away for survival.โ€

Think of it as cleaning out a cluttered closet, Parlo says. โ€œThereโ€™s never enough time. Maybe if you had all the resources and some more time, those chronic issues would heal,โ€ she says. โ€œAs children, thereโ€™s not much to fix. But as you get older, everything takes more time and effort.โ€

Parlo, who has worked in the field for more than four years, says the results can be life-changing. She says patients have begun walking after using wheelchairs, and multiple sclerosis patients have found new strength. One patient who had been struck by lightning, she says, regained some of his vision after repeated treatments.

All new patients receive a screening before their first treatment, in which the centerโ€™s medical staff determines which therapies are best-suited for an individual. Once treatment begins, some patients experience side effects that include low-grade fever, lightheadedness and dizziness, Parlo says. Most treatments last for less than five minutes.

Treatments are not covered by insurance, however. Procedures average $6,000, but Parlo says the center offers payment and financing plans. โ€œWe will do whatever we can to help someone get treated,โ€ she says.

The center, which also has offices in Dallas and Los Angeles, has treated thousands of patients since its 2001 opening, Parlo says. Last year, for example, retired professional basketball player John Salley sought treatment for ligament damage.

โ€œStem cell treatments have gotten a lot more mainstream,โ€ she says. โ€œThereโ€™s a lot more research out there that supports what weโ€™re doing. All weโ€™re doing is giving the body some extra help and resources to rehabilitate areas of pain.โ€

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