Multiple Sclerosis
Patient Will Take Treatments in Costa Rica
By Amy Hamilton/The Grand Junction Daily
Sentinel
Multiple sclerosis will have to try harder
to get the best of Mary Posta. Thanks to an
outpouring of donations in the past 10
months, the 59-year-old Ridgway, Colorado,
woman is slated to receive adult stem-cell
treatments at a clinic in Costa Rica in the
hopes of stalling symptoms of her disease.
“Everything has been falling into place way
too easy,” Posta said. “Through the past few
months, I’ve gotten letters and phone calls
of people saying they’re watching me and
want me to keep them updated on what
happens.”
Last April, Posta became interested in the
prospect of getting stem-cell treatments to
treat her disease, secondary progressive
multiple sclerosis.
While perusing the Web, she found the
Institute for Cellular Medicine in San Jose,
Costa Rica. It quoted a $30,000 price tag
for four weeks of treatments and all the
associated living costs. Posta initially
dismissed it as being much too expensive to
consider.
Posta considered waiting the 10 years
generally estimated for when use of adult
stem cells will be approved by the U.S. Food
and Drug Administration for treating
patients inside the United States.
But then she became worried that she if she
waited, she might have another attack like
the one in November 2005 that left her
bedridden for months, fighting to walk
again.
“I’m 59,” she said. “I just don’t have the
time to wait for the U.S. to legalize it.”
She also was concerned about symptoms
progressing and losing precious time with
her grandchildren. She wondered if the
abundance of drugs she takes to manage pain
and symptoms was taking a larger toll on her
health.
“I talked to four doctors. One of them said,
‘What have you got to lose?’ ” Posta said.
“No one is saying that is a cure. But if I
get 5 percent improvement, that’s 5 percent
more than I have now.”
Posta began talking to everyone she could
think of about her plight, including writing
letters to celebrities such as Dolly Parton,
Oprah and Donald Trump.
Donations from family, friends and complete
strangers came rolling in. Some said they
donated because she represented hope in the
fight against multiple sclerosis, and they
wanted to see her succeed.
“Mostly, other MS victims say they’re
watching me,” Posta said. “It’s OK. I’m
willing to be the guinea pig. I would be
doing a lot of damage if I didn’t go for
it.”
Thanks to hard-working family members, Posta
raised an initial $6,000 this year during an
annual open house model train show. A recent
anonymous donation of $10,000 gave Posta the
final push needed to pay for the procedures.
Posta is scheduled to begin the process Feb.
8, and she’ll return home in early March.
Posta was diagnosed with relapsing-remitting
multiple sclerosis in 1987, and the disease
was in remission until the 2005 attack.
Posta slowly built her strength up after the
attack, walking at first with the help of a
walker. Her disease regressed into what’s
called secondary-progressive multiple
sclerosis, meaning it shifted from a
relapsing condition to one which increases
in severity of symptoms.
Posta said she is lucky because she can
still walk. Multiple sclerosis patients can
lose the ability to walk and function
normally as the autoimmune condition attacks
the body’s central nervous system.
Posta relies on her husband’s arm to get
around outside of the home. Multiple
sclerosis impeded her speech. She doesn’t
generally have pain, though she is slowly
losing the use of her right hand.
Posta’s treatments will include the
extraction of her own stem cells from fatty
tissues. Because the stem cells contain her
DNA, there’s no risk of her body rejecting
them when they are reinserted. It’s
estimated that it can take up to six months
to see results, but Posta has heard of
multiple sclerosis patients regaining speech
in the first month after treatments.
Some research has shown multiple sclerosis
patients may have success with adult
stem-cell injections as they limit the
immune reaction and help the body regenerate
the damaged tissue.
According to a 2008 study published in the
Journal of Translational Medicine, three
multiple sclerosis patients showed
improvement after being treated with stromal
vascular fraction cells (the stem cells
taken from fatty tissues).
One of the patients, who had frequent
seizures, reported the seizures stopped
after treatment and that he had improvements
in cognition and less trembling in his
limbs. The other two patients reported
improvements in balance and coordination,
the study showed. The study was conducted by
Thomas Ichim from Medistem Inc. and Dr.
Boris Minev from the Division of
Neurosurgery, University of California, San
Diego.
According to www.stemcell researchcures.com,
73 different diseases have been treated with
adult stem cells. Adult stem cells are not
to be confused with embryonic stem cells,
which are derived from embryos.
Last January, the FDA approved the
first-ever embryonic stem cell research
trial.
The National Multiple Sclerosis Society
supports research using all types of stem
cells because it “holds great promise,
potential and hope for people with MS.”
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