Gordie Howe's 'Miracle' in Mexico Stirs Experts' Doubts About Stem-Cell Therapy Sheryl Ubelacker - The Globe and Mail
go to original February 13, 2015

Hockey legend Gordie Howe’s stroke symptoms have improved since his treatment with stem cells at a Mexican clinic in early December, his son says. (Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press)

Gordie Howe’s son says the hockey legend’s stroke symptoms have improved since his treatment with stem cells at a Mexican clinic in early December and he wants him to repeat the procedure.

But regenerative medicine experts say there’s no scientific evidence such therapies work, and in some cases they can be seriously harmful or even deadly.
 
The 86-year-old Howe suffered two disabling strokes late last year. In December, the family took him to a Tijuana clinic where he received stem-cell injections as part of a clinical trial being run under a licensing agreement with Stemedica Cell Technologies of San Diego, Calif.

The experimental treatment involved injecting neural stem cells into Howe’s spinal canal, along with intravenous infusions of mesenchymal stem cells, which are found in bone marrow, fat and umbilical cord blood.

Marty Howe said his father can walk again, his speech is improving and he is regaining some of the weight he lost following the strokes.

“After his stem cell treatment, the doctor told us it was kind of an awakening of the body, and it was all that,” he told The Canadian Press while in Calgary for a hockey promotion event Tuesday. “They call it the miracle of stem cells and it was nothing less than a miracle.”

However, experts in the field question whether stem cells are responsible for Howe’s improvement and caution that most so-called stem-cell therapies have not gone through rigorous scientific trials, nor have they been approved as treatments by Health Canada or the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Read the rest at The Globe and Mail

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