Basically stem cells are cells that haven't gone through The process to be a specific cell. So depending on how they are used they mature into new specific cells the body needs.

It's not kooky, but it doesn't have a high success rate for a lot of things yet. Before I had knee surgery I was thinking about doing it for my PCL. My ortho said for what I needed it wasn't going to help. So I would also talk to another doc who doesn't do stem cell to see what their take is on that specific procedure.

There are a lot of therapies being offered with little to no evidence of efficacy. There is also a lot of promise with stem cells.

Just be skeptical but not cynical.

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who's smarter than you're? i'm!

I'm a bit cynical in this case. Mom has researched this particular doctor but I don't know that her sources are exactly trustworthy as she's exceedingly impressed that he has a youtube video. The old gal is damn near 80, diagnosed with arthritis but refuses to accept the natural degeneration of her body and after years of PT, she's now switched her focus to eating particular spices and purple rice.
And after being advised not to buy the condo with the 15 stairs on the outside, to get into it, she now has to have stem cell therapy b/c it hurts to go up and down the stairs.

Stem cell therapy is used for blood related cancer (Multiple Myeloma) procedures. The primary treatment is to use ones own stem cells by causing the stem cells in the bone marrow to exit through the bones into the blood stream where they can be harvested like plasma, red blood cells, etc. Once they are harvested, the bone marrow is destroyed via chemotherapy or radiation, and after a period of time the harvested stem cells are returned to the patients blood where over 2-5 days they migrate back into the marrow where they rebuild the marrow, immune system and begin to produce the blood products again after a few weeks.

I myself will be going through that procedure sometime in the next few months. If you want to read on how the procedure works from someone who is going through it, there is a website called the Myeloma Beacon that has it. Just go to the forums and click on Treatments and Side Effects, then the first pinned thread, you will find a listing of autologous (self) and one allogeniec (donor) stem cell procedures.

There is also a lesser used, less effective treatment where a donor's stem cells are used. The process is generally the same as the self donated procedure, but with the added potential of the body rejecting the donated cells and drugs to prevent the rejection.

Good luck vecchia capra.
I had an allogeneic stem cell transplant 5 years ago for leukemia (AML) and I'm doing pretty well..