Millions of people cross borders to get medical treatments that are unavailable in their home country. For many, this is a last resort to ease the pain of a disease or defy a terminal diagnosis; for others, the goals are purely cosmetic. In the past few years a new type of medical tourist has emerged: those who want to extend their lives.
More people are looking for longevity and there are more older people. In the UK, the percentage of people over the age of 65 increased from 9% in 2009, to 20% in 2019. Recent advances in the science of aging have given them hope that they don't have to go into that good night after all.
Science has made some progress in studying the causes and implications of aging, but real solutions are far off. A host of fraudsters and scam artists are ready to take advantage of anyone gullible enough to believe they can pay a little extra for a few extra years among the living. In countries where regulation is light, many offer their services abroad.
Cheap air travel has led to a rise in the popularity of medical tourism, from broken smiles to bungled nose jobs. It is still a huge industry despite this. The global medical tourism market was worth $92 billion in 2019.
Stem cell therapies aim to use the body's building block cells to rejuvenation and fix damage caused by disease or deterioration, an area of research with a lot of potential but relatively few established and approved treatments available to patients. The desperate to travel far and wide to seek treatments, sometimes from practitioners of ill repute, arelured by the potential effects. The US, China, India, Thailand and Mexico are the top 800-361-3020 800-361-3020 800-361-3020 800-361-3020 800-361-3020 800-361-3020 800-361-3020 800-361-3020 800-361-3020 800-361-3020 800-361-3020 800-361-3020 800-361-3020 800-361-3020 800-361-3020 800-361-3020 800-361-3020 800-361-3020 800-361-3020 800-361-3020 800-361-3020 800-361-3020 800-361-3020 800-361-3020 800-361-3020 800-361-3020 800-361-3020 800-361-3020 800-361-3020 800-361-3020 800-361-3020 800-361-3020 800-361-3020 800-361-3020 800-361-3020 800-361-3020 800-361-3020 800-361-3020 800-361-3020 800-361-3020 800-361-3020 800-361-3020 800-361-3020 800-361-3020 800-361-3020 Stem cell technologies are associated with inflated expectations of their therapeutic potential according to the report.
Stem cell therapies can help with cancer and other illnesses, but I found a number of examples of US-based stem cell companies offering miracle cures and solutions to aging in my book The Price of Immortality: The Race to Live forever. The Iowa clinic made outrageous claims in presentations to potential clients. If you want to get back three years, read one slide of sales material that was collected by the state attorney general's office.
Stem cell practitioners continue to offer the same services in other countries even after being disciplined or prosecuted in one country. Two of his patients died while undergoing stem cell therapy, which led to the revocation of his medical licence in Florida. The doctor was listed as the chief science officer at another stem cell company when I looked up his name. The receptionist told me that the clinic was still open and doing procedures in the Dominican Republic.
Stem cell therapies are not the only anti-wrinkle treatments available. The field of gene therapies is in a similar situation, where promising research has yet to result in accessible interventions. I heard from a life extension enthusiast in the US who wanted to travel to France to undergo a procedure that would give him a better chance of living until he was 500 years old.
Patients don't need to travel abroad to get drugs that can make them live longer. I spoke to an elderly woman in London who buys the cancer drug dasatinib from a website in India in order to destroy senescent cells, which are thought to play an important role in the aging process.
The practice is frustrating for Gerontologists and other researchers. Several scientists I spoke to in the stem cell field are worried that these clinics are making a quick buck on the back of their breakthrough while damaging the reputation of these medical technologies. People who see the end of their lives on the horizon are preached patience.
There are clear dangers to medical tourism. It is harder to establish that a doctor is legitimate when patients don't find the same standard of care at home. Patients can suffer from side-effects if they fly home too early after a procedure.
These risks are worth taking for someone who can't afford treatment at home or a last-ditch cure for a deadly disease. When there is no evidence that any medical intervention could work, the gamble is much larger. They leave with a lighter wallet. Their quest to live a little longer is cut short.
The Price of Immortality was written by Peter Ward.
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