SRegenerative g
medicine using stem cells
For many in in
their senior years, the specter of a joint replacement
placement is a mixed m
blessing. No one wants surgery and it
conjures up pictures pict
of the bionic man and woman, but the
promise of relief relief
from pain and continued mobility is a welcome
thought and after all, what else is there? The doctor says
it is time, the part is worn out and the synthetic part is the only
replacement available. But what if the original part could be
refurbished making removal and replacement unnecessary?
Impossible? Not according to Dennis J. Courtney, MD of
Courtney Medical Group in Zephyrhills. Dr. Courtney practices
regenerative medicine using stem cells to, in effect, repeat
some of the original cell-building processes providing evidence
that the practice of joint replacement should itself be replaced
as the usual end to joint problems.
“You get to the point where the surgeon says, ‘OK we’ve
tried everything to avoid this but now we’re at the last step.
You should now consider getting a total hip replacement,’ Dr.
Courtney said. “For the last 60 years or so, this is so honed
and so well-greased and lubricated that it works seamlessly
throughout the country. My successes with treating joints tells
me that this surgery should be at best considered only rarely.
Everybody is just consigned to the fact that ultimately they are
going to have to have a joint replaced. I can tell you that now
there is absolutely something that allows surgery to be put in
its proper place and that proper place is at the last resort. If we
use that model it is going to be extremely rare, and I mean extremely
rare, that a surgery is going to be requested on the part
of the patient because their problem is going to be corrected
stem cell is a blank cell that has not yet determined what it
is going to become. In a way this shouldn’t be mysterious because
each and every one of us, after our own conception, for
ball of stem cells. Every cell in that cluster was a stem cell and it
could ultimately determine what it was going to become. Once
the embryological phases really begin one group of stem cells
decide they are going to become nervous system and from the
moment they decide they will never be able to go backwards
again.
They will always generate nerve cells and the likewise for
the GI system and the likewise for the cardiovascular and the
“In our 50s, 60s and older the pathologies of our lifetime
-
mately we’re diagnosed usually with some form of arthritis
and that leads us on a road to having that dastardly surgery
The doctor used the knee joint to explain his process.
“There’s a capsule that surrounds both the head of the femur
-
sule. They are bone and membrane around the bone called synovium,
there’s cartilage
in between the bone and
there are ligaments and
tendons that strap the
bone in place. Any joint
in the body has the same
happen to be talking
about the knee.
capsule - and I can - and
inject these stem cells,
these blank cells, then
they are going to randomly
land upon one of
landing they will declare
to become a brand new
and healthy one of those.
If the cells land on bone
then they determine that
they are going to declare
to become bone never
going back now they
continue to divide every
three to six weeks and
only develop healthy
bone. The same thing for
cartilage, and the ligaments
and the tendons
Dr. Dennis J. Courtney knows the
promise of relief from pain and
continued mobility is possible
with joint replacement.
and the synovium. Once
these decisions are made,
every three to six weeks
there is a division and if you start out, as I do, with 10 million
cells, in three to six weeks we have 20 million brand new and
healthy cells of that joint and then we have 40 million three
to six weeks later, and then 80, and then 160, and we go on
and on until ultimately we have the ability to reach a critical
mass and completely regenerate brand new and healthy cells
never duplicating the pathology only reading the original code
which is your DNA, and your DNA today is the same as it was
when you were conceived. That code is the true code that gets
read by stem cells. The pathology was provided by you over
fact that we walk the planet is a miraculous thing. This is not
some brand new gizmo invented by some PhD. physicist. Why
did it take all this time to understand that we could harvest
these cells and then deliver them? This should have happened
a long time ago. It’s only been available since 2005 or around
that time and it has evolved to where it is now, which still isn’t
Dr. Courtney believes that there are practical applications
for stem cell in all areas of the human body – not just joints.
24 • NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2018 813.682.9364 FLORIDA WOMEN MAGAZINE