Stem cell therapy has become the newest player in the quest to slow the aging process.

“It’s a fantastic tool,” says Dr. Chadwick C. Prodromos, who heads an institute that offers stem cell injections and conducts extensive research into the role stem cells can play in treating a variety of medical conditions.

Stem cell infusions — which do not require surgery — have proven successful, according to Dr. Prodromos, in countering short-term memory loss, brain fog and fatigue. Those conditions “diminish substantially,” after the injections, he reports. Stem cells, however, have not proven effective in treating Alzheimer’s disease. “Maybe some day,” the orthopedic surgeon says, “but not right now.”

Because the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has not yet approved this form of stem cell therapy, it is not available in the United States. But Dr. Prodromos’s institute, which is based in Chicago, offers the treatment in a number of other countries, including Mexico, Argentina and Antigua.

The Prodromos Stem Cell Institute began by treating patients with neurological disorders like spinal cord injuries, strokes, and cerebral palsy, and got “people out of their wheelchairs,” Dr. Prodromos says. They then adapted the process for anti-aging “not just for people with serious problems, but for people who want to, I hate to use the word, but rejuvenate their heart or their brain.”

Dr. Prodromos says he uses adult rather than embryonic stem cells. The therapy thus does not raise ethical concerns once claimed by abortion foes over fetal stem cells.