Ethical Considerations

Is Saline a Placebo or a Treatment?

In the world of pain and arthritis research, it’s been a long-held belief that the gold standard is a placebo group that receives saline. However, these past 5-10 years there’s been pushback on that idea by the research community. Meaning many now believe that saline is a treatment by itself. Hence, what if saline isn’t…read more

MiMedx Reports Results of FDA Trials: Does This Spell Trouble?

Does amniotic tissue help knee arthritis pain? That’s been an open question for some time. Thankfully this question is beginning to get answered by FDA clinical trials, the earliest of which are now beginning to report results. One such report this week could spell trouble for the other half dozen companies involved in knee arthritis…read more

TMB Cracks Down on Faux Chiro “Stem Cell” Clinic Medical Director

One of the crazier and frankly more insulting components of the Stem Cell Wild West are “faux medical directors”. As you’ll see this scam is often run by chiropractic clinics offering fake birth tissue “stem cell” treatments. Let’s dig into what the Texas Medical Board just did to one of these medical directors and why…read more

Finally a Good Amniotic Tissue Company? My Review of Axolotl

You might say to yourself, that since Chris Centeno only ever posts negative stuff about the birth tissues injury, he obviously has an axe to grind. However, so far, I have yet to meet many honest players. This week I investigated Axolotl and I have to say I was overall pleasantly surprised. So now, here’s…read more

Regenarative Labs and Tempting The Flying Ginsu Missile

Last week was big in that Medicare and the Department of Justice began sending out Civil Investigative Demands (CIDs) to health care providers who had billed for amniotic injections to treat arthritis, orthopedic, or spine conditions. I was pretty sure that the birth tissues Medicare scam was dead in the water until of course, a…read more

New Medicare CAC Meeting on Amniotic Reimbursement: No Surprises Here

I have been tracking the Medicare billing scams involving amniotic fluid for some time now. This week, Medicare held a critical CAC meeting. What the heck is that and why should you care? Let’s dig in. Medicare Billing for Amniotic injections Medicare doesn’t cover amniotic injections for arthritis, tendon/ligament issues, or spinal pain. Period. End…read more

Should Naturopaths Be Able to Perform Complex Spinal Procedures?

I’ve covered this issue a few times on this blog. We have naturopaths with limited medical training who are performing complex interventional spine and surgical procedures. As I have reviewed their practice acts, IMHO many are violating these acts, but the medical boards that could stop this are asleep at the wheel. Let’s dig in.…read more

VSELs – State of the Art Regen Med or Fairy Dust?

There has been a two-decade-long debate in Regenerative Medicine concerning tiny stem cells. I had largely forgotten about these Very Small Embryonic Like (VSEL) stem cells until a patient came into the clinic claiming that he had been treated with them. So what is this and why should we care? Let’s dig in. What Are…read more