Dr. David Ikudayisi is a regenerative medicine specialist and Medical Director, Glory Wellness & Regenerative Centre, a multi-specialty health care centre, in the United States, Lagos, and Abuja. He is a U.S. Board Certified Internist and pioneered regenerative medicine in Nigeria. In this interview, he explains how regenerative medicine treats diseases; its potential and ways Nigerians can harness the branch of medicine, among others.
What is regenerative medicine, and how is it different from conventional medicine?
Regenerative Medicine is a branch of medicine that aims to restore normal function by repairing or replacing damaged or malfunctioning cells and tissues in patients who have lost tissue or organ function due to age, disease, or congenital defects. It comprises different components including, Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) Therapy and Adult Stem Cell (ASC) Therapy.
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Conventional medicine uses anything from conservative management, the use of medication, or surgery at the other extreme to help maintain good health or get us as close to it as possible.
Regenerative medicine on the other hand leverages the body’s natural healing mechanisms and attempts to accentuate their effects by increasing their availability to the specific organs needing regeneration.
The ability to harness the body’s natural healing mechanisms using Adult Stem Cell Therapy (a subcategory of regenerative medicine) while minimising adverse effects confers on regenerative medicine a considerably greater safety profile than conventional medicine.
Regenerative Medicine is not the secret sauce to fix all health problems. However, it is a great tool provided by modern medicine to provide an answer to many health challenges that conventional medicine had deemed unfixable. Conditions that have been considered incurable by conventional medicine due to their degenerative effects are now made “curable” in the practical sense as regenerative medicine takes care of the organ degeneration.
The scientific or physiological bases of the therapeutic effects of regenerative medicine, specifically Adult Stem Cell Therapy, create endless opportunities for its application. Think about it this way; if the medical condition is of a degenerative nature, then regenerative medicine can be a viable option.
It is great to see that Nigeria is catching up with the possibilities of regenerative medicine for our health.
I will continue to recommend regenerative medicine to anyone in need of treatment because where conventional medicine fails, it offers hope and delivers results beyond what conventional medicine can offer in most cases. The benefits are even more noticeable in acute phases of degeneration.
Does this branch of medicine treat specific ailments or all types?
The scope of application is broad and multisystemic. This means it can be used for various systems and functions in the body. While the exceptions are diseases of a non-degenerative nature such as genetic or chromosome-related diseases; nonetheless, people with these challenges can see a reduction or improvement in symptoms even though it is not cured. Healthy people use it for anti-ageing to feel stronger and healthier as well as look younger as they age.
Regenerative medicine is not here to replace other branches of medicine but, like other new innovations in medicine, it can add value to other forms of medicine. For example, a patient with a displaced fracture needs the intervention of an orthopedic surgeon, not regenerative medicine. However, it can be added during or after orthopedic surgery to accelerate the healing process.
Here at Glory Wellness & Regenerative Centre in Lagos, Nigeria, we have seen so many success stories with this branch of medicine. We have treated patients with complex quadriplegia (two years old injury before our involvement due to partial transection of cervical spinal cord) and another with over nine years with cerebral palsy, both of whom have now gained the ability to move some of their extremities independently.
We have also seen patients with uncontrolled diabetes with hypertension who now have blood pressures and hemoglobin A1C levels within the normal range as a result of these treatments.
We have also seen great results in patients treated for female/male sexual dysfunction, pain in their joints, neck, and back, and acute stroke (especially when the acute stroke is treated very early to prevent permanent residual symptoms).
All patients with autoimmune disorders can also benefit from regenerative medicine; however, they will need continuous treatments to maintain the relief of the symptoms. Autistic patients in Nigeria are also benefiting from it, especially if the cause is autoimmune related (since up to 25% of the autistic spectrum disorder could be caused by autoimmune diseases).
Patients with chronic kidney disease in the early stages are not left out, but they will need more than one treatment session. This is just to mention a few medical conditions. One of the many joys we get is talking to people about their ailments and seeing how regenerative medicine can play a role in rejuvenating their health.
Many of the patients treated at Glory Wellness and Regenerative Centre are delighted at their results, so much so that they are spreading the word from person to person. We get a great number of them who are so pleasantly surprised by the outcome, as they also see improvements in areas they did not even think to mention to us.
It is noteworthy that the therapeutic benefits they have received from regenerative medicine had been practically impossible with conventional medicine, hence their satisfaction, joy, and excitement.
An example is the case of a man with left testicular atrophy (the shrinking of your testicles, which are the two male reproductive glands located in the scrotum) and low testosterone (a male hormone).
After one session of autologous treatment, the left testicle grew back to normal size and the production of testosterone significantly increased. People who have infertility issues, both male and female, should not give up without considering the regenerative medicine protocol, especially those women that have tried In-vitro Fertilisation (IVF).
How affordable is regenerative medicine?
It is truly relatively expensive due to the demand for medical manpower and the present cost of the required materials. However, the costs are gradually coming down which we hope is sustained and accelerated so that more people can benefit.
Our goal is to get these treatments to as many people as possible. Furthermore, there are alternative options of treatment with varying costs: this makes these treatments ultimately accessible to more people. The latest biggest price reduction is for people with pain in their peripheral joints, female and male sexual dysfunction, female urinary incontinence, chronic non-healing wounds, facial acne, and uneven skin tone.
I would like to mention that middle class to low-income patients in Nigeria have also benefited from some of our regenerative medicine protocol.
What is the success rate of regenerative medicine treatment protocol?
The success rate has been generally high both in the USA and Nigeria at all the centres where I work. The results differ from one patient to another, and some other centres do have low success rates.
I too have had a couple of patients with delayed onset of the effectiveness of treatment or patients needing additional or second treatment sessions before they begin to see positive results. It is important to mention or remind ourselves that there is no guarantee in medicine despite the hype surrounding Adult Stem Cell Therapy or regenerative medicine as a whole. It does not work 100 percent of the time.
Nonetheless, there is a very high success rate amongst the patients with non-bleeding acute stroke when treatment is done within a couple of days to a few weeks, with the goal of preventing permanent residual symptoms post-stroke. The general rule of thumb is that the earlier the treatment is given in acute injuries, the higher the success rate.
My team and I are always available to answer questions about regenerative medicine and we welcome it on all our social platforms as well. We really hope it catches up soon enough to maximise these great benefits for many more patients in dire need of these amazing solutions.
You pioneered regenerative medicine in Nigeria. Why did you specialise in it?
It is a privilege and a blessing to be a pioneer of regenerative medicine in this country; a country that has given so much to me. It is also a huge responsibility and challenge considering the radically different nature of the Nigerian social, economic, and business climate by comparison to the western experience abroad.
My interest in regenerative medicine was first drawn into Platelet Rich Plasma Therapy (another subcategory of regenerative medicine), which involves using the patient’s own blood to stimulate and accelerate repair of the damage tissues and organs in the body.
This happened when I was looking for a way to get my patients off medications that were likely to lead to chronic addiction. I realised that a modern way of processing Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) which produces a more effective PRP Therapy, unlike what some doctors experienced a decade or two before, was now possible; as well as the use of Autologous Adult Stem Cells as a tool for therapy.
The results that we were getting at the medical centre where I worked in the USA blew my mind away, and I had no option but to investigate these therapies even further. As I did my research, I began to develop a very strong passion for this novel branch of medicine. It was clear even then the endless possibilities that were available for my patients.
How can regenerative medicine help with COVID-19?
One regenerative medicine protocol (which is also available at Glory Wellness & Regenerative Centre) was approved for COVID-19 purposes; leveraging its immune-modulatory effect to calm the potentially fatal “cytokine storm” of the disease. It also has the benefit of preventing or limiting lung scarring. Another protocol is in the early phase of clinical trial. While we are not a COVID-19 treating centre, it is important to note that regenerative medicine can play a role in the reduction of many of the adverse effects caused by COVID-19.
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