Stem Cell Treatment for Osteoporosis

One study with 10 patients makes me think much more research must be done. Stem cell therapy is a complicated process and is much more than just an infusion of your own cells. I have a friend that did it for Multiple Myeloma. It worked but it didn’t go smoothly. She did pre-treatment only to be delayed because something happened to her cells in the lab rendering them unusable. She had to start all over again!

@bswpb
Very true and I agree with you. Much larger studies over time will tell if this is actually a safe and viable alternative to the osteo meds. This is still promising to me, and I'm hoping for more research.

@psmnonna it is promising but I don’t think it’s something I would consider for osteoporosis.

@bswpb , still, those results are very alluring!

"In the first two years after treatment, fractures caused by weakened bones fell by 94%, from eight fractures per year to 0.5 fractures per year, across the group. Post-treatment bone biopsies showed that the mean bone tissue area nearly doubled in just four months."

Wow! I know that ten subjects is very small, and likely skews toward healthy subjects due to self selection, but still pretty impressive. I read studies on lots of subjects, and often the increase/decrease in the average study is just barely beyond statistical insignificance. Can't wait to see this repeated on a larger scale.
It's good to have hope.

@boneoptimist yes it seems impressive but I would like to see a bigger study over a longer period of time and from more than one source! I have enough issues without putting myself through the pretreatment process for an unknown!

@bswpb , absolutely agree! I've never been a jump on the band wagon person!

Thanks for letting us know about the study—even if it is small; it is promising. We at least can hope for the ones coming after us that they will have better options.

Stem cell doesn't work for everyone or for every disorder. My friend underwent it for diffuse systemic scleroderma. For her it failed, and she lost the battle.