Be careful with stem cell injection -- it is very expensive, and it has not been proven from any studies I have seen to help with neuropathy. We want the pain to go away so badly, that we will jump at anything that we think might work. Read the following article from Consumer Reports (March 2018 issue)

Could this cell save your life?

Stem cell therapy is an accepted treatment for just a short list of medical conditions. And yet some cell stem treatments are being offered for a wide range of illnesses. Those treatments are often ineffective and sometimes dangerous.

“There is an important difference between the stem cell treatments emerging from slow and careful study and the ones being sold for the thousands of dollars without any evidence of safety or efficacy,” states Orly Avitzur, M.D., Consumer Reports’ medical director. “But that difference is not being made clear to consumers.”
“Some institutions use patient testimonials to promote treatments that have not been scientifically proven. They create the impression that even though it’s experimental, it really works.” says Leigh Turner PhD, Bioethicist, University of Minnesota.

How to protect yourself
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the international Society for Stem Cell research, and Consumer Reports medical experts advise you to be cautious when considering stem cell therapy.

Beware of the hype and hefty fees. Doctors testing stem cell treatment in carefully controlled clinical trials usually don’t promote their offerings with big, flashing advertisements that promised dramatic improvements or total cures. They also don’t charge a lot. There may be some minor fees for travel or other personal expenses, but the treatment itself should be free or low-cost to participants. “A large price tag – especially in the range of thousands of dollars – should be a major red flag,” says Marvin M Littman M.D., Consumer Reports chief medical adviser. So should any doctor claiming to treat a wide range of medical conditions, such as autism, arthritis, and erectile dysfunction, with the same therapy. Different organs and body systems require different expertise – and different medicine – to treat, which is why most doctors specialize.

Ask questions. Any doctor who offers stem cell therapy should be able to explain where the cells will come from, what will be done to them before they’re injected into your body, and how, exactly, they will resolve your illness or injury. He or she should also be able to offer you proof of safety and efficacy, even for experimental treatments. Don’t settle for patient testimonials. Ask how many people the proposed therapy has been tested on – the more the better – and whether those tests were done in clinical trials or individual case studies. (Randomized controlled trials, where people given a treatment are compared with a control group that wasn’t, are best.) It’s also important to find out what the outcomes were. Ideally, side effects were minimal and significantly more people improved than did not.

Read the fine print. If the treatment is being offered as a clinical trial, make sure the trial has been vetted by the FDA, a process known as securing investigative new drug approval. The agency advises that you ask to see the actual approval letter to make sure it has been issued specifically for the treatment you’re considering. Treatments that have cleared this hurdle are much more likely to be safe than those that have not. You should also make sure that any informed consent document – an explanation of the experimental treatments that study participants are usually asked to sign – provides a clear description of the treatment being offered along with the risks, alternative options, and details about what to expect in the days and weeks after the procedure. It should not indemnify doctors or their institutions against liability for negligence.

Excerpts from Consumer Reports -- March 2018 issue