Have you had stem cell therapy for back pain?

Thanks. Now I'll look into this for myself.

Amneal Pharmaceutical. I never receive the branded product anymore and both should work the same. If the dose you’re receiving isn’t holding you an increase is necessary. I was started on 15mcg/7 days but after a week it wasn’t strong enough and was increased to 20mcg/7 days. The system docs must use when converting a patient from an oral narcotic is called MME (morphine med equivalent) that requires docs to begin low and go up. I love being on this as my primary pain control.

Thank you.

In 2015, I paid $10,000 for stem cell therapy to help with my neuropathy in my feet. I wasted my money and if there was any validity to Stem cell Therapy by now it would be covered by insurance. Hope you get better.

Hi musimary,
I appreciate responses to your question as well! I'm doing massive research on Regenerative Cell Therapy for debilitating arthritis in my foot and for Parkinson's. I read julkun’s discouraging post about spending $10K on stem cell therapy with no positive results.

My 30 year old son (lives in LA) keeps steering me in this direction because he knows of numerous professional athletes who have undergone successful stem cell therapy abroad, far more recently than 2015. He's very skeptical of Big Pharma and believes they stand to lose billions if stem cell therapy were mainstream in the US.

I’m exhausted by conflicting studies and articles, but also hopeful. I’ll post news if I learn anything definitive or close to it.
Best to you!

Stem cell therapy has not been approved by the FDA as yet. No clinical trials have shown any benefit of the few that there are.

@jenatsky Thanks for posting I was told about this for my stenosis but never heard of the success rate .Lionessp

I had 3 operations for a herniated L4 disc [one at Mayo] Now chronic lumbar pain, worsening. Seriously considering stem cell therapy for relief. 84 year old male, otherwise healthy.

Hello @salamanca, Welcome to Connect. I've never had any spine surgeries but do have degenerative disc disease and lower back and neck issues that affect my walking. I'm 81 but really not wanting to have any more surgeries. Stem cell treatment sounds promising according to this NIH article from March 2023.

-- Helping the Body Heal Itself: Injected Stem Cells for Back Pain - Trying to coax the body into repairing vertebral discs: https://heal.nih.gov/news/stories/injected-stem-cells-back-pain

Have you done any research into the cost or locations doing this type of treatment?

I had two stem cell treatments last year for arthritis. One for cervical spine and the other for hip.

Cervical spine has advanced degenerative disc disease with multiple osteophytes and herniated discs. Treatment was BMAC -Bone Marrow Aspirate Concentrate. Cells were harvested from my ilium and injected into the facet joints on both sides of C4-7. Done under anesthesia, it takes about an hour. There was a suture for the harvest site in my low back to the side. No sutures in neck. The important thing to remember is to STOP all nsaids and other medications for reducing inflammation. That is the hardest thing for stem cells but vital for the procedure to work. Inflammation is necessary for the stem cells to do their functions of repair and producing chemokines that combat over production of inflammatory cytokines. Even supplements that combat inflammation must be completely out of your system for 4 weeks before the procedure and at least 2 months afterwards. So be prepared for a lot of pain/flare for 3 months if you have autoimmune arthritis. I didn't know this until after i had bilateral hip injections of steroids. That was enough to negate the stem cell activity in my neck. BMAC is covered by most insurance companies, nany drs aren't aware of this. Contact your insurer directly to ask them.
My second procedure was an adipose fat derived stem cell transplant taken from my abdomen by liposuction and injected into my hip for torn soft tissue repair. That was 2 months ago and my body went into full flare mode immediately. I'm only just beginning to be able to walk without a cane short distances. It has been incredibly painful and i feel like i may as well just had a traditional surgery for it. I have since learned that liposuction is major surgery in terms if the body's response and has a 3 month recovery. I don't know if there is another simpler way to harvest adipose fat cells. This one is not covered by insurance.
Please feel free to ask anymore questions you may have on this matter. There are not a lot of cases for stem cell treatments for arthritis. I came on this site hoping to find answers about whole body flare and rejection of Autologous cell transplants. So far, in my 5 years' research into whole body Psoriatic Spondylitis Mayo has not been a helpful source of information. I post in detail on this topic under the same name, Pitac, at MySpondylitisteam. Com. Best of luck! Please overlook typos. This site doesn't allow for proofreading and corrections,