Some patients who have undergone the therapy — which is illegal in Australia — for heart disease say it has given them "a new lease on life".

But leading scientists warn that patients are putting themselves at grave risk by undergoing a treatment not yet fully tested on humans.

Mike Bartlett, who promotes the clinic as part of an organisation calling itself International Clinics of Regenerative Medicine, said more than 300 patients had been successfully treated for heart disease, diabetes and Parkinson's disease in South America and Asia.

He said the treatment would be marketed by email to the 32 million members of FANZA Inc, a worldwide mobile phone owners' club, of which he is a director, and $US130 million in research — funded by British Virgin Islands companies GlobalNRG and Arcadia Oil — had been spent on devising the treatment.

Mr Bartlett spent last week in Sydney meeting diabetes specialists and cardiologists to encourage them to refer patients. To date, 31 Australians with type 2 diabetes and seven with heart disease had indicated a wish to travel to Argentina, he said.

Dr Ross Walker, a Sydney Adventist Hospital cardiologist and author of The Cell Factor, said he would visit San Nicolas Clinic early next year to assess the claims. "I want to see solid scientific evidence that it doesn't do any harm before recommending it," he said.

Australian Medical Association president Rosanna Capolingua said anyone who signed up might be putting their health and finances at risk.

"I would warn Australian patients to be extremely cautious … until the relevant clinical scrutiny has been given to the procedure," Dr Capolingua said.

"It (diabetes) is disheartening and difficult, but let's continue to find the cure without putting individuals at risk or exploiting them."

San Nicolas Clinic sends 250 millilitres of a patient's blood to a laboratory in Israel called TheraVitae, where it is manipulated to yield stem cells. They are then sent back to the clinic for injection into the diseased organ or tissue.

Queenslander Keith Fanning said the money he spent flying his father, Mick, 75, to Bangkok for the therapy was "the best $70,000 I ever spent".

Oxygen-dependent and barely able to walk before the procedure in July, Mr Fanning snr can now breathe, talk and eat unaided. His insulin dependency is down and violent shaking from Parkinson's has virtually gone. "I'm the ultimate sceptic and it's the closest thing I've seen to a miracle," his son said.

In October, 62-year-old Lynley White, from Melbourne, spent $45,000 to have 30 stem cell injections at Bangkok Heart Hospital after traditional drugs failed to improve her cardiomyopathy.

"My doctors laughed at me and said I had rocks in my head, but so far so good, I'm feeling more and more energetic," she said.

Dr Teija Peura, director of human embryonic stem cell laboratories at the Australian Stem Cell Centre, said: "It's understandable that patients who are desperate can't wait for treatment to go through the approval process, but it's dangerous because these countries are giving treatment which they don't know how or why (it) works."

The International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) said the only stem-cell therapy with proven efficacy was bone marrow transplantation for blood disorders and leukaemia.

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