Guest Post: Stem Cell Therapy in the USA from an Industry Insider

Do you know the top reasons why people both go to the doctor AND seek alternative medicine? Pain of the joints or spine. Pain is the leading cause of disability worldwide, but because it doesn’t kill people, it doesn’t receive nearly the research dollars as cancer and heart disease do.

Embracing your purpose in life is a central theme at MEA. If your purpose in life in any way involves the use of your body, then chronic pain, in a very real way, runs the risk of robbing you of purpose!

You’ve heard of the emerging field of stem cell medicine, and if you are like many Americans, you may think you have to travel abroad to undergo treatment. This is untrue. 

Allow me to give you the inside scoop from someone who has been in the middle of the regenerative medicine industry for 25 years. 

In my 20’s, my life revolved around rock climbing. I was training for a trip to France, the birthplace of modern sport climbing when I heard a revolving ‘pop’ in my shoulder. The surgeon I consulted said I had two choices. One, he could put a scope in my shoulder and cut away the cartilage I had torn. He said it would help in the short term, but it would probably result in arthritis in years to come. Alternately, he offered a steroid injection which similarly would help in the short term but would demineralize the bone and put me at risk for fracture later in life. 

Faced with these unsavory options, I discovered Regenerative Injection Therapy, also known as prolotherapy, the injection of natural substances which are simultaneously nutritive and slightly irritating, intended to essentially trick the body into thinking there has been a new injury and thereby launching the body’s natural healing response. 

I underwent treatment, my trip to France was splendid, and my life path unfolded before me. 

Four years into a full time prolotherapy practice, Platelet Rich Plasma hit the scene. This was exactly the same concept as prolotherapy, except we use the patient’s own blood platelets, which are directly responsible for healing tissue after injury by activating endogenous stem cells in the body. 

After six years of a full time PRP practice, I learned how to aspirate and concentrate bone marrow stem cells, and soon after that, how to isolate stem cells from lipo-aspiratated fat tissue, thereby going directly to the source of healing.

After a dozen years of doing thousands of bone marrow and fat stem cell procedures, I began to employ umbilical cord stem cells; MUCH gentiler for patients to undergo, more rapid recovery.

Now here we are, and most Americans think you must go abroad to be treated. Why is this? 

These are the main reasons why most think stem cell therapy is unavailable in the U.S.:

1. The use of stem cells from your own body and the use of umbilical cord tissues are not FDA approved. This does not mean we cannot use them. If something not being FDA approved meant it was illegal, then almost the entire nutraceutical industry wouldn’t exist. We can use these items in clinical practice, we simply cannot give the impression that they are indeed FDA approved. 
2. There are currently big-name health influencers who have financial interest in international stem cell clinics. These conflicted influencers use their platform to push the false narrative that you “have to go abroad” to get care. You don’t. 
3. Here in the US, we can use “naïve” stem cells from birth tissues. We cannot “culture expand” them, meaning grow them out in a lab. The only advantage to growing cells out in the lab is it significantly reduces the cost to the patient. That’s it… it’s cheaper. The very same influencers named in the prior point are quick to point out that the huge numbers of cells produced through culture expansion are required for maximal benefit. This simply is not true. 
4. While the pharmaceutical industry is a top advertiser, most search engines have bans on “novel” medical treatment modalities. So, while you see tons of drug ads on Google, you see zero stem cell therapy ads.
5. Insurance does not cover stem cell therapy. In the minds of many, this means that it must be fringe due to its own inadequacies. It’s beyond the scope of this quick piece to unpack this one, but the truth is, stem cell therapy doesn’t fit into the conventional medical-industrial-complex financial model. Check out my book, The Stem Cell Solution, available for free download on my website to read a full explanation of this phenomenon.

The stem cell world has been my whole existence for the last quarter-century, and I’m grateful to MEA for its help contextualizing the entire experience and helping to jettison me into the next phase. 

-Harry

Harry Adelson N.D. was entered into the MEA fold in January, 2025 after undergoing the ‘Purpose’ workshop and soon after returned for the Arthur Brooks workshop in Santa Fe. He lives in Park City, Utah with his wife and two daughters and his practice Docere Clinics is where he performs his Full Body Stem Cell Makeover®. He is the Chief of Regenerative Medicine for Humanaut Health, which is based in Austin, Texas, and is about to roll out all over the US. Humanaut Health and MEA are currently exploring how to best collaborate in order to help achieve optimal health among the MEA tribe.