swiss medicaAutism spectrum disorder (ASD), usually simply called autism, is one of the top neurodevelopmental diseases in the world. In 2018, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimated that 1 in 44 children living in the U.S. is diagnosed with autism.
When a child has an autism spectrum disorder (ASD), the manifestation of their symptoms is not hard to miss. Usually, they have major problems communicating with or responding to people. Simple actions like displaying a gesture, forming complete sentences, making facial expressions to depict their feelings or interacting with friends are not something that comes easy to them.
Autism can present symptoms that reduce the quality of life of a person if the disorder is not properly managed. Autistic symptoms include:
- Trouble understanding what people say or feel.
- Inability to communicate their intent or emotions.
- Finding it hard to make gestures or understand them.
- Problems with learning.
- Not wanting to make eye contact.
- Getting upset over minor changes.
- Inability to adapt to a new environment.
- Shunning social interactions and wanting to be alone.
- Developing repetitive behaviors or rituals.
- Being super active and having a short attention span.
- Epilepsy or seizures.
- Gastrointestinal issues and eating disorders.
- Abstaining from human contact such as handshakes and hugs.
The conventional treatment used to treat autism after diagnosis helps to mitigate the symptoms as there is no single cure for autism spectrum disorder. The development of novel medical treatment methods to better relieve these signs and improve the quality of life for people with autism is top priority and one of these treatments is stem cell therapy. Stem cell therapy is not an entirely new form of medical treatment as its use in regenerative medicine dates back to the 1900s. Today, stem cell treatment is used in addition to some other specifically selected therapies to treat the behavioral and cognitive symptoms of people with autism. Several stem cell for autism reviews details the experiences of various people going for cell therapy treatment for autism.
In this article, you will learn about some stem cell therapy for autism testimonials detailing the experiences of parents who have a child with autism and how their decision to subscribe to stem cell treatment lead to the improvements in their child they’ve been waiting for. You’ll also get to know how stem cells for autism work.
History of the Family with a Child with Autism
Sheva Reiner — patient’s mother:
“Hi, my name is Sheva Reiner. I am a mom and a nurse. I work here in Israel in the hospital. I have four children, three of them have autism and epilepsy. All three of them either had or are going to get stem cell and cord blood treatments, and we’re going to share our story here today.”
Manifestation of Autism Symptoms in Patient
“Dolev wasn’t eating food. He was mainly fed by either breast milk or formula. As time grew, it was more and more formula. He wasn’t sleeping at all, he could sleep two or three hours for 24-hours. He was having a lot of seizures. He wasn’t speaking. He wasn’t making any gestures. So, no pointing, he didn’t clap, he didn’t manage to express himself with any physical signs of what he wanted. He didn’t communicate. He didn’t look us in the eyes. There was no ”mommy, I love you”. So, it was very, very difficult. And he wasn’t getting any better with time.”
“He received the full paramedical treatment, speech therapy, occupational therapies, swimming, horse riding, anything you can imagine. We had the therapy room at home. He would bang his head on the wall, which was very dangerous. He would bite himself. He would hit himself. He would hit and bite other people. He was doing very poorly.”
“In January 2019, I was in nursing school. What I did at the time was surgery. So, I was in the surgery room. We were working on a patient and my phone rang in the middle of surgery. It was his preschool kindergarten teacher. She was calling to say that my son was taken in an ambulance to the ER because he had such a bad seizure. I had somebody cover for me and ran up to meet him in the emergency room, and he wasn’t responding.”
“The following day, he had some tests done and the neurologist said that he thinks that his seizures are going to get so bad that he will never see his sixth birthday. And there’s nothing he can do other than implant a sort of a pacemaker to try and regulate it. And he couldn’t do it before he turned six. And so, we realized that our time was finished. We started looking for other alternatives and that was it. We started to have very serious fears about the quality of life that Dolev was going to have.”
Expectations for Therapy. Stem Cell Treatment Procedure
Patient’s father:
“We wanted to try to improve the quality of life that he was having. We heard about stem cell therapy and were trying to research how to get to it. We started writing to different clinics, different programs, and they all said “no” because he had epilepsy.”
Patient’s mother:
“He wasn’t available for the program or research. And eventually, we reached two clinics, one of them was Swiss Medica. And they said, “Okay, we can try.” Our hope was that the communication skills will increase, and will improve well enough that if he has a seizure, he will tell us. And that will help us keep him alive longer.”
Patient’s father:
“We were hoping that he would suffer less from the neurological condition. And even if that is what his fate is to die at six years old, at least he would have a possibility of a slightly improved quality of life. So, the expectations weren’t really that high. We were hoping that he will maybe improve using picture words to explain how he feels and what he wants. We were hoping that maybe he’d start speaking in two, three-word sentences. And that’s all we were hoping to see.”
“We weren’t putting any more hopes on seeing something bigger than that. The doctor said, don’t go. They said it’s dangerous. There were stories of people getting hurt from stem cell therapy. But we did our research and we knew that the people that are reported in the news to get hurt did something else, it was a different type of treatment, it’s not the same type of stem cells. So, we ignored what our doctors recommended, and we went for the treatment anyway.”
“Also, because even if they were correct, for us, it was life or death. We were told he’s not going to live so we had nothing to lose at this point. So, we decided to go to Moscow. Dolev, at the time, was five years and eight months old. So, he was getting really close to the time that we were told he will probably not reach. We got on a plane to Moscow. It was a very scary flight. We were afraid the whole time that something would happen on the flight with his epilepsy. We were afraid of this treatment even though we did some research on it, it’s not an easy decision. But we got on the plane and we got to the treatment.”
After Therapy Period. The Improvements
Patient’s father:
“We were really surprised when he was improving a lot faster than we thought. We thought it would take a few months before we’d even see any improvements. That it would be hard to make the connection between the treatment and the improvements that we see. But we were very lucky, and for him the improvement was immediate.”
“Within a few days of the treatment, he said, “I want to eat a meal with hamburger and french fries,” pointing at McDonald’s. It was just crazy. He’s never said more than one-word sentences. Two, three words were very hard for him to copy. And then, suddenly, he says it on his own initiative. It was just crazy that this was a week after the treatment. And I know it doesn’t happen to everyone. So, we weren’t expecting that to happen. But when it did, it was incredible.”
Patient’s mother:
“We saw the change gradually. What we saw is little things that became better and better with time. So, on the very first night we came home, our son had taken out a toy from the suitcase and showed it to his siblings, something that he’s never ever done, and showed them how to play with it with no words, just gestures, which was also something that we didn’t really have. Then gradually, in the first few weeks, he started having words. And words became sentences. Also, his day-to-day life had improved. He started sleeping. Even though he received melatonin in the past, it didn’t really affect. But now it has full effect, and he sleeps through most of the night.”
“He started eating food, which was something that was very difficult to handle because he wasn’t able to eat. And the most important thing, he was able to communicate how he feels. After our first treatment, he started saying that his stomach hurts. In the past, what happened was that he would just scream for hours and hours and we didn’t know what was wrong. And after the second treatment, we started seeing more improvements. We found out he has a stomach condition that’s caused by a food allergy. So, now he’s on a restrictive diet and he can tell you what he’s allowed to eat and what he’s not allowed to eat because he’s able to look at the back of the packaging, read what it says, and tell us, “Oh, this is not the kind of food I’m allowed to eat.” Which is amazing, considering this child, up until the age of five and eight months was not able to communicate at all.”
Final words — patient’s mother:
“There is no doubt that our journey in this is amazing, it’s unbelievable, the experience has been unexpected, and incredible. We really are blessed. And if you are out there and you are wondering, what’s there for your child, seek medical help. Consult with professionals in this area. And do not hear the word “no”, because there’s always something to do.”
Treatment Approaches for Autism at the Clinic
Various treatment approaches are combined to form a treatment strategy for persons with autism. The most common is the applied behavioral analysis (ABA) which was found to help patients improve behavior and acquire new skills. The pharmacological approach entails the administration of drugs to improve symptoms surrounding the digestive, immune, and neurological systems.
While other therapies like speech, occupational, behavioral, play-based and relationship-based therapies can help improve communication and participation in everyday activities. On the other hand, stem cell therapy for autism involves the use of mesenchymal stem cells from the umbilical cord or the placenta to treat symptoms of ASD. After-treatment expectations from the procedure include:
- Better cognitive function
- Improved social interaction
- Reduced hyperactivity
- Less repetitive behaviors
- Improved attention span
- Ability to make eye contact
- Capacity to understand what others say or feel
- Better speech function
- No disturbances during sleep
- Improved digestive system function
Many autism cure stem cell reviews like the one shared above reflect the effectiveness of the treatment. Note that these stem cell treatment for autism reviews did not mention cell therapy as the only approach for you. The best treatment strategy combines stem cell therapy with other conventional therapies for a better outcome.
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Medical Advisor, Swiss Medica doctor
