Canada is doing far less to protect Canadians from junk science — in this case, trendy, pricey and unproven stem cell therapies — than the U.S., a new paper argues.
However in Canada, the response from regulators has been “relatively mute” by comparison, according to the authors ofHealth Canada and the Competition Bureau have been slow to act against unscrupulous clinics, and medical colleges seem unwilling to tell doctors to cease and desist offering and marketing “evidence-free” therapies, the authors wrote.Stem cell therapies have become wildly popularized by celebrities from Tiger Woods to William Shatner, who recently shared with his 2.
Stem cell treatments are being aggressively marketed for arthritis, fractures, ligament or tendon injuries, tennis or golf elbow, rotator cuff tears and pitcher’s elbow, the 2018 study found. Some clinics peddle stem cells for conditions ranging from ALS to Parkinson’s disease, others for wrinkles and “face/neck sagging.” In most cases, risks were played down, if mentioned at all.
These are mostly for-profit clinics. I really think we need careful oversight by the regulatory bodies, like the colleges of physicians and surgeons The Competition Bureau should also weed out statements that aren’t supported by the science, he and his co-author, Blake Murdoch, a research associate at the U of Alberta’s Health Law Institute, wrote.
Canada’s slow at everything.