"Regenerative medicine" gets thrown around a lot without much explanation — which is exactly the gap Mark Anthony set out to close in this conversation with the team from Fortis Healthcare, a family-run clinic in San Antonio, Texas. He was joined by Dr. Shannan Ballard, a second-generation chiropractor now in her 14th year of practice, her brother Michael Silva, a registered nurse with a master's in family medicine who is now pursuing a doctorate in psychiatric medicine, and Alejandra, a longtime healthcare professional on the clinic's team who also joined partway through as a patient sharing her own story.
Ballard's father, a chiropractor with a neurology specialty, started the practice's regenerative work well before regenerative medicine was a mainstream conversation. Ballard joined him around 2012 and says the clinic began offering knee mesenchymal stem cell treatments around 2013 or 2014; the Fortis Healthcare name itself is newer, entering its second year at the time of this recording. Both Ballard and Silva also credited seminars with Dr. Andy Barlo — whom Mark Anthony named as part of the inspiration for starting the show — as formative to their own path into the field.
Key Takeaways
- At Fortis Healthcare, "regenerative medicine" covers several distinct tools — mesenchymal stem cell injections, exosome therapy, PRP, and amniotic wound grafts — used for different problems, not one single treatment.
- The team described using these tools for chronic wound care, joint and tissue injuries, fibromyalgia, chronic migraines, and, for children starting around age three, certain neurodevelopmental cases.
- Alejandra, a member of the clinic's own team, described years of chronic, debilitating migraines that hadn't responded to nerve blocks, Botox, trigger point injections, or physical therapy — and a noticeable, if not permanent, improvement after starting IV exosome therapy combined with targeted stem cell injections.
- Most regenerative treatments remain cash-pay because insurers still classify them as experimental, though Ballard pointed to narrow exceptions — including FDA-approved stem cell products for wound care and pediatric tissue regeneration, and extended coverage for certain joint injections she said TRICARE West has offered.
- Both Ballard and Silva were direct that results are patient- and protocol-specific — the cases discussed on the episode were presented as individual outcomes, not guarantees.
What "Regenerative Medicine" Actually Covers at Fortis Healthcare
Ballard and Silva described several tools that fall under the regenerative medicine umbrella at their clinic. Mesenchymal stem cell injections are used to target a specific joint or area of tissue damage. Exosome therapy is typically delivered by IV, which the team described as a more systemic approach, and can be paired with a localized injection to the affected area in the same visit. PRP — platelet-rich plasma, made from a patient's own blood — came up as another option patients had tried. For wound care specifically, Silva described using amniotic grafts alongside injections to help chronic wounds, including diabetic wounds, close faster; he said the clinic has seen fewer infections, less wound reopening, and a lower chance of amputation as a result.
Across the conversation, the team connected these tools to a wide range of conditions: joint and tissue injuries, fibromyalgia, chronic migraines, autoimmune-related inflammation, and — a topic Ballard returned to with particular personal investment — early neurodevelopmental cases in young children.
Real Patient Outcomes Described in the Episode
The most detailed account came from Alejandra herself. She described chronic, debilitating migraines dating back to her teenage years — bad enough that she'd sometimes have to pull over while driving. Over the years she said she tried chiropractic care, spinal decompression, trigger point injections, nerve blocks, physical therapy, Botox, and hormone replacement therapy, without lasting relief. She also described developing Stevens-Johnson syndrome after years of relying on Tylenol as her only effective option, which became part of what pushed her to finally try exosome therapy.
"That first day I did not wake up with the headache. This is how it feels to be normal. This is what it feels like not to be in pain for years."
— Alejandra, on her first round of exosome therapyAlejandra described her migraines as a constant 10 out of 10 before starting treatment, dropping to roughly a 5 at the time of the conversation, with lower points in between — though she noted the effect faded as she went overdue for her next round, which is part of why the clinic anticipated she'd need several more rounds given how long she'd had the condition. Her protocol combined IV exosome therapy with a targeted mesenchymal stem cell injection to the sub-occipital and posterior cervical area, alongside continued chiropractic care, exercise, spinal decompression, and dietary changes.
Ballard also described her mother's case: a bucket-tear meniscus injury that left her unable to bend or straighten her knee and confined to a wheelchair, roughly six to seven weeks before a planned family trip to Disney World. After a stem cell injection, she was walking the parks with her granddaughter within about four to five weeks. Separately, the team described a longtime patient with fibromyalgia who had been on gabapentin for nearly a decade; after a stem cell injection to both SI joints and an IV exosome treatment, she reported reduced back pain and, notably, went from a two-week continuous headache to no headaches at all from October through the time of this recording. Silva mentioned he'd had exosome treatment himself in 2018 and described a noticeable boost in energy afterward.
Access, Insurance, and Why Most of This Is Still Cash-Pay
Ballard was candid that most regenerative treatments aren't covered by insurance because carriers still classify them as experimental — even as evidence accumulates. She noted the FDA has approved specific stem cell products for use in wound care and in pediatric cases involving tissue regeneration, and that mesenchymal stem cells are currently regulated as biologics, similar to blood and tissue transfer, which is why they're sourced through blood and tissue banks. She also referenced TRICARE West as having extended coverage for certain stem cell joint injections, though she and Silva acknowledged on air they weren't fully certain of the details. By contrast, she pointed out that steroid injections — a standard insurance-approved option — are typically limited to three per year because of how hard they are on the body long-term.
Both were frank about frustration with the broader insurance system, including Ballard's assertion that AI-driven claims review now denies a large share of requests — she cited a figure of roughly 80% in conversation. Their broader point was less about any single statistic and more about framing: patients weighing regenerative treatment against years of copays, deductibles, and appointments that hadn't worked were, in their telling, often making a considered financial decision rather than a reckless one.
Where Ballard and Silva See the Field Heading
Ballard spoke about her own son, Theodore, born with congenital cytomegalovirus, which affected his neurological development, vision, and hearing. Children become candidates for certain regenerative treatments starting around 36 months, and Ballard said she's watching that window approach for him. She also described a case relayed to her by a colleague treating a teenager with autism and a cognitive impairment, whose reading level reportedly moved from a first-grade to a sixth-grade level after three exosome IV treatments over roughly six to nine months. On the physical health side, Silva pointed to emerging research on exosomes and cytokine storm/ARDS in the context of long COVID, and said the clinic has a nebulizer-based treatment planned for an upcoming COPD patient. Both were optimistic that broader acceptance — and eventually more insurance coverage — will follow as more outcome data accumulates.
Alejandra was careful to frame her own experience as one case, not a promise: "everybody's different," she said, and "nothing's guaranteed in medicine." For listeners dealing with a chronic condition that hasn't responded to standard, insurance-covered care, this conversation is a plain-language look at what a family-run regenerative medicine practice says it can — and can't — offer.
