Posted on 03/15/2005 8:18:42 PM PST by baseball_fan
MOSCOW - While scientists worldwide are only studying stem cells, dozens of Russian clinics and beauty salons claim they are already using both adult and embryonic stem cells to treat everything from wrinkles to Parkinson's disease (news - web sites) to impotence.
Scientists warn that while stem cells are still being researched in laboratories, treatment by clinics claiming to use stem cells may cost patients their health and fortunes. Moreover, they say, even though it's illegal, enforcement is lax and no one knows if the injections patients are getting contain stem cells.
When Svetlana Galiyeva found a clinic offering to treat her multiple sclerosis with embryonic stem cells, she grabbed the opportunity. Twenty-thousand dollars later she is still in a wheelchair and desperate. And there is no proof her injections had anything to do with stem cells.
Stem cells are the building blocks of the human body — immature cells that can grow into bone, muscle and other tissues. They are plentiful in the embryo and fetus and are believed to be more versatile than stem cells from adult bone marrow and fat. But embryonic stem cells are controversial because they involve destruction of human embryos.
In leading clinics around the world, most stem cell research is limited to the lab dish and animals. In Russia, however, it's a different story.
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(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Scary!
dozens of Russian clinics and beauty salons claim they are already using both adult and embryonic stem cells to treat everything from wrinkles
What a medical break thru! NOT!
Remember the time when our marketing geniuses were putting lemon in every imaginable product, including radial-ply tires and term life insurance?
Woo-hoo!! Off to Russia I go. I'll show that phony "Bob" of enzyte fame. I'm getting some stem cells growing where they'll do me some good.
Oh, my God. Killing little human beings to smooth wrinkles! The Tower of Babylon is here again!
Exactly. It's amazing what people will do. With these kinds of testimonials, will it be possible to keep it off our own doorstep?:
Dr. Roman Knyazev's "Cellulite," a clinic in central Moscow, advertises injections of stem cells from aborted fetuses into thighs, buttocks and stomach to help women get rid of cellulite and look younger.
Yelena, a 37-year-old Moscow entrepreneur, says they worked for her. "After giving birth my belly was hanging like a rag and I had lots of stretch marks. Now it's all gone," she said after shelling out $2,850 for injections at Knyazev's clinic. She declined to give her last name.
Conmen only have to put "AS REPORTED IN AMERICAN MEDIA" on their flyers.
Russia has followed Europe in some of the less validated areas of medicine. From goat & monkey glands to stem cells is not much of a step for quacks.
As long as there are those who think they can buy a reversal of the effects of aging, there will be those ready and willing to separate such fools from their money.
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