Search Results for: episode 32

In May of 2014, Steven Strotman and his wife Cheryl started researching how much it would cost to get a battery of wellness tests to check on their overall health. As a retired couple they were mindful of the costs since they part of a self funded group. When they received the initial quote for just one test at over $700 each, they decided they needed to find some other options. After doing some research online, Steven came across a North Carolina based medical tourism company that offered the solution he was looking for. After researching that company, checking on the safety and political stability in Costa Rica on Wikipedia along checking out the medical facility where they would be receiving their tests, they decided that the time was right to travel.

After having a wonderful experience which included a short vacation, they have decided to go back for their next set of tests later in the year.

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The Resources

The Onwards Medical Breakthrough

Today, the majority of cancers are detected on the macroscopic level, when the tumor is already composed of millions of cancer cells and the disease is starting to advance into a more mature phase. But what if we could diagnose cancer before it took hold- while it was still only affecting a few localized cells? It would be like putting a fire out while it was still just a few sparks versus after having already caught on and spread to many areas of the house.

Fiona Cunningham shared the lifelong battle of her daughter Sarah Hughes with her illness that started when she was still an infant. Sarah lived normally when she was born but not until she turned 6 months old that they noticed lymph nodes on her legs while she was sitting up and crawling. Her temperatures at that time was at its peak and she started to get some rashes too. Fiona was advised by her sister to bring Sarah to Mayo Clinic which at 11-months old, Sarah was fully diagnosed to have Systemic Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis.

Sarah’s life was generally at risk due to her illness. Her systemic nature started attacking her digestive system and made it difficult for her to eat. At that time, she was on two doses of chemotherapy, steroids and taking 23 drugs literally just to keep her alive but her body wasn’t really responding to these treatments. Fortunately, Fiona was employed in the Arthritis Foundation to which she found out about Celltex and learned about stem cell treatments.

The decision to receive stem cell treatments, although not immediate, was an easier decision to make for Sarah. She had her first infusion on November 2014 of 600 million stem cells to which she received in Mexico. Prior to the stem cell infusion, Sarah was mostly at bed rest. However, 6 months after her stem cell treatment, she felt energetic and was able to eat food she had never eaten before.

Sarah’s life after stem cell treatment has changed a lot and seeing her now has given hope for people with no hope.

Find out more about this inspiring journey of Sarah and her mother, Fiona and how stem cell treatments paved way for things she had never done in a very long time.

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The Resources

The Onwards Medical Breakthrough

Scientists discover an on/off switch for aging cells

“Scientists at the Salk Institute have discovered an on-and-off “switch” in cells that may hold the key to healthy aging. This switch points to a way to encourage healthy cells to keep dividing and generating, for example, new lung or liver tissue, even in old age.”

“In our bodies, newly divided cells constantly replenish lungs, skin, liver and other organs. However, most human cells cannot divide indefinitely–with each division, a cellular timekeeper at the ends of chromosomes shortens. When this timekeeper, called a telomere, becomes too short, cells can no longer divide, causing organs and tissues to degenerate, as often happens in old age. But there is a way around this countdown: some cells produce an enzyme called telomerase, which rebuilds telomeres and allows cells to divide indefinitely.”

Dr. Robyn Benson is the Founder and CEO of Healthy Traveler’s Global Summit and the Founder of Santa Fe Soul Center for Optimal Health. She is also the author of the book called Healthy Traveler’s Guide: Retrain, Regain, and Renew Yourself – Eight Pathways to Smart and Conscious Travel.

Her 23 years of medical experience and her travel quests into 70 different countries have changed her life and have brought the best of her skills and knowledge to every treatment she provides her patients. Her passion is to take people through a major transformation in their healthcare as well as empower them to take charge of their own well being for years to come.

They provide different services which varies from Acupuncture, IV Therapies, Life Coaching, Chiropractic, Prolozone, Skin Regeneration, Therapeutic Massage and many others. They also provide a two-day retreat for patients who are determined on improving their healthcare.

This year Robyn will be hosting the Healthy Traveler’s Global Summit wherein she will be interviewing 30 highly-acclaimed medical and travel experts and hear insights from them about the health, wellness and travel industry.

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The Onwards Medical Breakthrough

Heated nanoparticles trigger immune systems deactivated by cancer

“Researchers at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Norris Cotton Cancer Center have developed a method to use heat with nanoparticles to wake up the immune system so it recognizes and attacks invading cancer cells, according to Steve Fiering, PhD, Norris Cotton Cancer Center researcher and professor of Microbiology and Immunology, and of Genetics at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth.”

“The innovation uses a well-known method of killing cancer cells: a metallic nanoparticle containing iron, silver, or gold injected into the cancer cell and then heated externally, using magnetic energy, infrared light, or radio waves;”

“But that method can’t kill all of the resilient cancer cells. What’s new is the use of heat to trigger the immune system to attack cancer cells — overcoming a tactic used by cancer cells to protect themselves by tricking the immune system into accepting everything as normal, even while cancer cells are dividing and spreading.”

Dr. Cristy Kessler is a motivational speaker, author, a tenured professor in University of Hawaii and a survivor. For the first 26 years of her life, Dr. Kessler has been in chronic pain and fatigue and in 2007 she was diagnosed with three rare autoimmune diseases: scleroderma, ankylosing spondylitis, and vasculitis. She received several treatments and medications in the different hospitals in the US which, apparently, did not seem to be a success because they were only treating the symptoms not the disease itself.

Because of this, Dr. Kessler, together with her rheumatologist, decided that she finds other healthcare options for her illness and made a choice to live. In 2011, she traveled to Istanbul, Turkey to receive stem cell transplant which literally saved and changed her life.

Find out more of this inspiring story!

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The Onwards Medical Breakthrough

Human skin cells reprogrammed directly into brain cells

“Scientists have described a way to convert human skin cells directly into a specific type of brain cell affected by Huntington’s disease, an ultimately fatal neurodegenerative disorder. Unlike other techniques that turn one cell type into another, this new process does not pass through a stem cell phase, avoiding the production of multiple cell types, the study’s authors report.”

“The researchers, at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, demonstrated that these converted cells survived at least six months after injection into the brains of mice and behaved similarly to native cells in the brain.”

Antony DeSousa is the Founder and CEO of Dental Destinations Cancun which is also an affiliate of Dentaris located in Cancun, Mexico. Cancun has been known as a beautiful destination for vacation and travel and is also known to offer not only quality medical treatments but dental treatments as well at a very affordable price. Because of their passion in providing quality dental treatment, Antony and his team of experienced dental experts have significantly changed the lives of their patients and have helped them gain their confidence back through their wonderful smiles.

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Abbi and Mark MacDonald are the founders of Venice Nutrition and Mark is also the author of the New York Time Best Selling book, Body Confidence. In this episode, they share the health challenges Abbi faced because of the autoimmune disease, fibromyalgia and how she overcame her symptoms using a combination of diet, scheduled sleep schedules and exercise. This is an incredibly inspiring story of a person who was told by many Doctors that she had no hope for a normal life and she refused to accept that.

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The Resources

The Onwards Medical Breakthrough

“Since stem cells were first hailed as a potential cure for a variety of diseases, we have witnessed setbacks, controversies, and failures. Now, however, human trials for the use of stem cells in treating degenerative eye disease have received the green light from an oversight committee in Japan after they agreed that the proposed treatment is safe.”

Servando Acuña is the President of Medical Tourism Association – Cancun. It was formed under ethical principles that basically helps create awareness to patients on the best available healthcare services in Mexico. They represent a group of healthcare institutions that aims to provide quality and certified care at an affordable cost.

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The Resources

The Onwards Medical Breakthrough

Miracle Powder Regrows Fingers, Now Thigh Muscle for Marine

“It was only a year ago that ACell’s “miracle powder” was sprinkled on amputated fingers and shown to stimulate the regeneration of fingertips. The world was both awed and skeptical of the powder’s regenerative power, touting that it would revolutionize regenerative medicine or calling it was quack science.”

“A fingertip is one thing. A thigh, quite another.”

“After losing most of his thigh muscle in a battlefield explosion, one marine was given a second chance when another such miracle powder caused much of his thigh to grow back. It’s not only a wonderful feel-good story, but demonstrating that the same substance can grow back different tissues suggests that we may have only seen a small part of its full regenerative potential.”

Magdalena Rutkowska is a very experienced medical facilitator from Warsaw, Poland who runs her own company called Medical Travel Europe. She was hired by the Polish government to help promote Poland as a destination for medical tourism. She was appointed to become a representative of one of the company who is in the Consortium who are promoting in behalf of their Ministry of Economy Polish Medical Tourism which runs a 3-year program targeted at 7 market countries including United States, UK, Germany, Russia, Scandinavia among others. Find out more in this episode how Magdalena takes part in helping Poland attract more international patients to experience their high quality – low cost treatments in their well-equipped medical facilities.

This interview was recorded at the World Medical Tourism Congress in Washington D.C. where John was a featured speaker in September 2014.

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In This Episode, You’ll Learn

About Magdalena Rutkowski and the company she owns and runs for almost 3 years

How they started to grow in and boast of different procedures

The perspective of success, mortality, complication and infection rates

Their program to promote Poland as a medical tourism destination

The common procedures that international patients go for in Poland

About the most common patients that visit their country to receive treatment

How Magdalena was hired by the Polish government to help promote the Polish medical tourism

The 3-year program that they run targeted at 7 market countries that will help promote Poland as medical destination

The price difference of procedures in Poland to US and other European countries

About the services they provide a patient after undergoing a certain procedure

The importance of doctor’s experience in terms of number of medical procedures performed, success rates of the hospitals, and prices and packages available when traveling abroad to receive medical treatments.

The Resources

The Onwards Medical Breakthrough

Biology made simpler with “clear” tissues

“A 3-D visualization of fluorescently-labeled brain cells within an intact brain tissue. Through the use of this novel whole-body clearing and staining method, researchers can make an organism’s tissues transparent—allowing them to look through the tissues of an organism for specific cells that have been labeled or stained.”

Dr. Ernesto Gutierrez is the President and Medical Director of World Stem Cells Clinic which is the stand-alone stem cell research center based in Cancun, Mexico where novel autologous stem cell therapeutic applications are being developed since 2010. They aim to provide advancements in the field of regenerative medicine, particularly stem cell therapy, to improve the patient’s quality and quantity of life. Dr. Gutierrez and his team are very much committed in moving a step further and improving their procedures and methods to address a wide variety of medical conditions. He is also passionate about training and developing medical professionals by allowing them to visit, learn and participate in World Stem Cells Clinic’s state-of-the-art laboratory and research facility.

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The Resources

The Onwards Medical Breakthrough

New gene discovered that stops the spread of deadly cancer

“Scientists at the Salk Institute have identified a gene responsible for stopping the movement of cancer from the lungs to other parts of the body, indicating a new way to fight one of the world’s deadliest cancers.”

“By identifying the cause of this metastasis—which often happens quickly in lung cancerand results in a bleak survival rate—Salk scientists are able to explain why some tumors are more prone to spreading than others. The newly discovered pathway, detailed today in Molecular Cell, may also help researchers understand and treat the spread of melanoma and cervical cancers.”

“Lung cancer, even when it’s discovered early, is often able to metastasize almost immediately and take hold throughout the body,” says Reuben J. Shaw, Salk professor of molecular and cell biology and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute early career scientist. “The reason behind why some tumors do that and others don’t has not been very well understood. Now, through this work, we are beginning to understand why some subsets of lung cancer are so invasive.”

Ieva Soblickaite is the co-founder and Chief Product Officer of Medigo launched in November 2013 in Berlin, Germany. In this episode, she is joined by Marianna Anderle who works on the Marketing and Quality Assurance sector of Medigo. Ieva leads the company’s product strategy to create an intuitive platform that both patients and clinics could enjoy. Medigo is basically like a marketplace for medical tourism companies and patients alike which helps simplify the complex process of booking medical travel. They help facilitate the searching, booking and arranging of treatment abroad, offering personal assistance every step of the way.

Their goal is to disrupt the entire healthcare industry by helping patients who desire affordable treatment, access to higher quality facilities or doctors, or who want to dramatically cut waiting times. Find out more about what they are working on and the services they offer to their patients which uphold their vision of making medical travel simple.

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The Onwards Medical Breakthrough

“Scientists at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) have developed a scalable, next-generation platelet bioreactor to generate fully functional human platelets in vitro. The work is a major biomedical advancement that will help address blood transfusion needs worldwide.”

“The study is published July 21, 2014 in Blood.”

“The ability to generate an alternative source of functional human platelets with virtually no disease transmission represents a paradigm shift in how we collect platelets that may allow us meet the growing need for blood transfusions,” said Jonathan Thon, PhD, Division of Hematology, BWH Department of Medicine, lead study author.”