Preface to
The Stem Cell Cure: Remake Your Body and Mind by Gaurav K. Goswami MD & Kerry Johnson MBA PhD
From the turn of the century, stem cells have been a burning topic. That will continue for the next several years. With anything new comes a whole range of opinions—responses that may or may not be rooted in the facts. Stem cells are making news, sometimes for the right reasons and other times for the wrong reasons. There are advocates who swear by stem cells and groups that denounce them. All of this can get very confusing for you, the consumer. How do you separate fact from fiction? That was the underlying motivation in deciding to write this book. We have tried to present the foundations as you consider stem cell treatments. We will address various conditions that can potentially be helped with stem cell treatments. Unlike other books on stem cells, we have tried to be as objective as possible. We don’t advocate a particular type of treatment. Our goal is to provide you with as comprehensive an introduction to the world of stem cells as possible.
Nikola Tesla championed electromagnetic theory. But it took years to apply that discovery to cell phones and electric transportation. A similar revolution in medicine is taking place. In technology, the basic concepts of physics were discovered long ago. In medicine we have also known for as long that the fundamental units of our body are cells. It’s at the cellular level that things go wrong. This ultimately manifests in disease. We have overused pharmaceuticals and complicated surgeries to fix our health. While both of these have and will continue to play a role in certain conditions, the majority of our day-to-day medical needs can be addressed without them.
Introducing the Authors
It is rare for a physician and his patient to join hands and write about their experiences. One author was a patient and the other his physician. From two different vantage points, we hope you will get a balanced view of where things stand. For the physician in the book, Dr. Goswami, the journey has spread across continents, clinics, hospitals, university medical centers, and specialties. Dr. Goswami is cross-trained in both surgery and then interventional radiology. These trainings complement each other. While the role of a surgeon is clear, that of an interventional radiologist is often poorly understood. Unlike the radiologists who read imaging studies such as X-rays, CT scans, MRIs, or mammograms, interventional radiologists perform minimally invasive procedures using imaging guidance. Utilizing X-ray, ultrasound, and CT guidance allows them to offer techniques beyond open surgery.
A surgeon at heart, Dr. Goswami embraced the mindset that a surgeon dies with his scrubs on. The underlying guiding principle through all his professional and personal development has been about patient care, providing the best and most advanced treatments. Sports is the ultimate eponym for performance. An athlete has to be on stage in front of other people. All other professions can be disguised. Performance, both good and bad, is not always visible. Certainly not in real time. This can breed mediocrity and apathy especially in a healthcare system that at times offers very little incentive to excel. The system promotes volume at the cost of quality. Middlemen in the system grab major profits. They don’t often contribute to better patient care.
Dr. Goswami was naturally drawn to sports and athletes. This meant going outside the constraints of mainstream medicine, not an easy route and certainly not the path to riches. One thing never wavered, finding the best treatments for his patients. During multiple sabbaticals over a three-year period, Dr. Goswami traveled, read, learned, and observed natural healing. He realized the potential of one’s own stem cells. Much of this process involved unlearning what mainstream medicine had taught him. It was a journey that helped Dr. Goswami not only find the true meaning of healing but also regain his joy in the practice of medicine.
It is unfair for a physician to claim all the credit for successful outcomes. There are some patients who do not do as well. A true physician always learns from patients who have poor outcomes or unexpected complications. Successful patients contribute to their own well-being by taking care of their bodies and focusing on performance. Successful patients fade from memory. The unsuccessful ones stay with the physician for the rest of his life.
The patient author in this book, Kerry Johnson, followed his own journey in the world of professional tennis by battering his body. Living with pain, he continued to play. Fighting pain requires tremendous courage and strength. The wisdom gained through those hard years turned him into a bestselling author and award-winning professional speaker. Writing and speaking at conferences around the world have been his main goals.
After 12 books on a variety of business/motivational topics and 100 speeches a year around the world for four decades, he found a topic he could become even more passionate about. Being in pain is a hard slog. There is no hope. The only objective is to gather enough strength to endure. One report revealed 50% of chronic pain sufferers contemplate suicide. Kerry was one. Stem cell therapy was not only a relief, in many ways it was a salvation. In Kerry’s words, “I am now an evangelist of this treatment.”
When he sees competitors on the tennis court limping, he asks about their pain. Often these athletes only know of surgery as a last resort. Many can no longer play the sports that brought them enjoyment and emotional release. Kerry now offers a different approach. There is no downside to your own stem cell therapy. It should be the first option before surgery. There are dozens of athletes Kerry wishes he could have counseled before they went under the knife. More than half are worse off as a result of surgery. Their only sin was not knowing about stem cell therapy.
Kerry has become the Billy Graham of the stem cell cure. Wouldn’t you be if the only pain relief that has ever worked for you is stem cell intervention? Wouldn’t you become a preacher if you could only help that next person get out of pain? How guilty would you feel if you knew how to help a friend but didn’t reach out?
Kerry speaks around the world to corporations from Halifax to Hong Kong, from Moscow to Marrakech. His career has been very successful for 40 years. But now there is even more passion. You don’t need to accept your injury. You don’t need to accept your pain. There is help. Your own cells are the answer. You have hope. The answer lies in your own body’s ability to heal. Your own body will heal your pain.
The authors’ destinies were bound to intersect. We have shared our knowledge and understanding of stem cells in this book. We have consciously stayed away from medical jargon. The concepts in this book have been oversimplified to make them understandable for the average reader. We assume you have little medical background. Yet you will be able to understand important stem cell concepts.About this Book
The purpose of this book is to provide you with a basic understanding of the rapidly growing field of stem cell therapy.
- What are the sources of stem cells?
- What are the different types of stem cells?
- How do stem cells work?
- Which stem cells work better for your specific condition?
- What are the differences between foreign stem cells and your own stem cells?
- What are the limitations of stem cells?
As you read this book, you should be able to find answers to these important questions. We also hope the book raises more questions. Only then can medicine truly progress. And ultimately, if you can save some hard-earned money by not falling for a sham “stem cell” treatment, it will be well worth it.
For any treatment to be effective, it is extremely important to understand its scope as well as potential limitations. This book is a culmination of the experience of a physician and several patients. We will attempt to clarify certain concepts, not only about stem cells, but also why we need treatments in the first place. To this end, we have gone beyond the basics of stem cells and addressed concepts that can help you lead a healthy and productive life. We will also discuss the role of nutrition, proper physical conditioning, and injury prevention as well as how to control your emotions and mind. In the end, all healing takes place from within. It’s extremely important that we value the precious body nature has given us.
Hopefully the book piques your interest as to the potential of stem cells and their application. The chapters are designed to address conditions for which stem cell therapy may have a potential role. The purpose of patient case histories is to identify and understand their conditions. In order to protect the identity of patients, names have been changed. Several stem cell therapies are emerging, and more data is required to prove their effectiveness.
Each chapter ends with certain key points that can help you decide what’s best for you and your family. This book is not a prescription for your condition, neither is it a recommendation for what you should do. Treatment advice should come from a physician who is familiar with your specific condition. Stem cell therapy is a rapidly evolving field involving many different ways (and often claims) of achieving results. Most of these claims unfortunately cannot be truly verified. It is important for you as a potential patient to decipher the vast information. This book will help you cut through the noise so you can make a well-informed decision for you and your loved ones. No single book is comprehensive enough to cover this entire vast topic. We hope through the science and patient experiences shared in this book, you will find the book enlightening and informative as well as entertaining. Ultimately the success of this endeavor lies in patients all over the world making better choices regarding their own health.
Stem cell therapies are extremely new, and with anything new there will be great highs and great lows. This book is ultimately dedicated to the patients who are willing to push the boundaries beyond traditional thinking in an effort to look at better ways of naturally healing themselves.
