StemCell Therapy

Why havent you heard about this before?

In the grand scheme of things, stem cell therapy is still relatively new. More importantly, its still rapidly evolving.

While its been used by practitioners for roughly 50 years now, it was mostly blood cancer cases that seemed to have a positive response to stem cell treatment.

It wasnt until recently that practitioners have proved how universally effective stem cells can be in regenerating tissue after injuries or restoring the effects of natural wear-and-tear.

Our bodies are made of cells.

Muscle cells construct the muscle tissue. Nerve cells are the building blocks for the nervous system. In other words, all of the cells in our body have a specific set of functions.

Except stem cells. Their job is to regenerate other types of cells, should the need occur.

Stem cells are the silent hero that continuously repairs and regenerates all of our body parts. They act as the source that generates new, specialized cells, which can quickly adapt to an injury or natural wear-and-tear. The firemen who also happen to rebuild the house.

It can be a bit of a confusing subject, so why dont we kick things off with an analogy?

For example, think of a stem cell as a young human being.

As a child, you have complete freedom over what you can become. You can choose to be a physics teacher, play in a professional soccer team, or to head a successful business.

Over time, you make choices based on your decision. Young professors will read a lot of books, aspiring athletes will enroll to their local soccer team, and the entrepreneurs will open lemonade stands.

Enough time passes, and each of these kids will no longer have the same freedom of choicethey will be specialized.

The teacher could never learn to kick the ball as well as the soccer player, who could never build a multi-million dollar business. Each of them would be effective in their own areas, but they would have lost their ability to change function.

Stem cells behave very similarly.

One of the main properties of a stem cell is that they can transform into any other type of cell, taking on its functions and properties.

Namely, there are 7 main types of body cells:

A stem cell can become any one of these cells. Once they do, they reach maturity and function as the designated cell type.

In fact, this regenerative process happens all the time without us knowing.

One of the common myths we hear is that stem cells are some new invention that scientists have mixed in their laboratories, and are now looking to inject them into poor test subjects as a part of their grand experiment with the human race.

While some stem cells used in therapy do come from external sources (read: not from your own body), wed like to emphasize that stem cells are a natural building block of our bodies. Theyve always been therewe just werent aware of what they do and how to use them in therapy.

Current practical and academic research shows that stem cells are present in the:

Given that stem cells are spread all over our body, you might sense that theyre there for a reason.

The reason is that our bodies regenerate all the time without us knowing. Us and lizards, it turns out, were not so different after all.

Skin, for example, we regenerate fully within 2-3 weeks. As in, every month we get a new set of skin. We shed our skin seamlessly throughout the day.

Some of our inner organs also have amazing regenerative capabilities.

Liver, for example, is known to be extremely good at regenerating. So good, in fact, that it could regenerate fully from just a quarter (25%)[7] of the full organ mass.

The inner lining of our intestines, called the epithelium, regenerates fully every 5-7 days, too.

The point ismost of our body parts have innate regenerative abilities, powered by stem cells.

However, were not on par with the reptiles yet in the regeneration game.

Most of our body parts they need help to regenerate properly.

Thats where stem cell therapy comes in.

We wont go all technical about the mechanics of stem cells, but a couple of core things you should know before you read anything else:

In fact, it is three distinctive properties[8] that set stem cells apart from the rest:

If youve heard stories about stem cells, they were probably about how they are harvested.

Namely, you might have heard a notion that in order to get stem cells, you have to kill an embryo.

Let us shed some light on the topic.

What you need to know:

Embryonicor omnipotentstem cells are at the very core of the controversy surrounding the entire area of stem cell therapy.

As their name suggests, they are gathered from embryos in the early stages of growth. They develop in eggs fertilized in in vitro fertilization[9]clinics, and are subsequently donated for research after receiving consent from the donor herself.

Scientists take particular interest in embryonic stem cells because of their vast potential. In theory, they have the ability to transform into most any type of body cell, in unlimited quantities. Ethical or not, it can at least be understood why academics are so fascinated with embryonic stem cells.

In practice, however, these cells are not used.

For one, its illegal to do so[10] in the US and many other countries. Only closely monitored and highly regulated research projects can use specified amounts of embryonic stem cells for experimentation.

But then, you should also know that we have not yet figured out how to use embryonic stem cells in therapy safely. Once that day comes, however, societies across the world will have important ethical questions to solve.

What you need to know:

Adult stem cellsalso known as pluripotent stem cellshave been used in therapy since 1956.

Pluripotent stem cells are more limited in their differentiative and multiplicative abilities. That is, they cannot multiply an infinite amount of times, or transform into any other type of cells. There are limitations.

Major advancements in stem cell therapy are closely linked to these limitations. As we learn more about different sources of adult stem cells and about how to use them in therapy, we find new practical applications to treat diseases and injuries.

At first, scientists and practitioners have operated under the notion that adult stem cells could mostly be found in the bone marrowa soft, spongy tissue inside our bones, responsible for generation of new blood cells.

For this reason, the first stem cell transplants addressed various blood diseasessuch as leukemia. They did so successfully. (Yes, bone marrow transplant is also a stem cell transplant procedure.)

It wasnt until 2010 that adult stem cell therapy was acknowledged as a possible solution to many of our musculoskeletal problems and a viable alternative to surgical orthopaedic treatments. Once the first person received a stem cell transplant[11] to treat spinal injury, the orthopaedic world has changed for good.

What you need to know:

First things first: the ethical question.

Youve got this rightthere are stem cells in the umbilical cord of every newborn, and they can be used in therapy.

Since umbilical cord is no longer needed by the parents after birth, some of them choose to donate the cord for research and therapy purposes.

Certified clinic partners, such as ourselves, receive pre-specified doses of umbilical cord stem cells (in amounts of 5, 15 or 30 million) to be used in therapy.

Why would we want to use umbilical cord stem cells? Arent our own bone marrow and adipose tissue enough?

Well, in some cases, theyre not. This highly varies on a case-by-case basis, but some major considerations may include:

Can umbilical cord stem cells be rejected by your body, given their foreign nature?

While properly tested and securely harvested umbilical stem cells do not pose direct threat to the patients healththey do come in pre-specified amounts from a partner FDA approved clinic. Which means, we do not control the entire process from start to finish.

For this reason, we often steer patients towards autologousor your ownstem cells, since these pose no risk at all.

For now, its safe to say that umbilical cord stem cells are a good alternative to stem cells of your own, when, for some reason, the latter cant be used for therapy.

The science behind stem cells is as complicated as is it exciting.

The therapy itself, however, is remarkably simple. That is one of its major appeals.

There are many cultural references to what stem cell therapy might one day become. The cure-all; an injection of cells that could treat any disease and heal any injury, for anyone.

Heres how it goes in real life.

Depending on the chosen source of stem cellswhether its the patients bone marrow, adipose tissue (fat) or an umbilical cordthe first stage of stem cell therapy is to actually collect them.

With bone marrow stem cells:

With adipose tissue stem cells:

With umbilical cord stem cells:

This part is another source of controversy.

There is a big myth (mouthfed by marketers) that stem cells are somehow modified before transplantation.

Not only is this incorrect, it is also illegal. FDA has a clear policy[53] that only minimal manipulation[12] can be allowed in stem cell transplantation.

What exactly is minimal manipulation? Here is the answer:

This is very important, because chemically or otherwise manipulating stem cells before transplantation means its virtually impossible to predict how these cells would predict once in the patients body.

Its also important to emphasize that we do not multiply stem cells in the lab through manipulation.

All stem cells are naturally pre-programmed to divide a specific number of times:

The multiplication itself can happen in lab conditions or in the patients bodybut we have nothing to do with that. The cells themselves do the work.

So, then, what do we do before transplantation? Here is a quick rundown:

And thats basically it! We dont do any chemical or biological manipulation. Since stem cells already know what to do, theres no reason to interfere with their biological structure without compromising safety.

This is where the true magic happens.

A concentrated sample of activated stem cells is transplanted right into where theyre needed most: the injury site or chronic illness area. This is what has proven transformative in chronic and acute musculoskeletal diseases, such as arthritis and spinal injury.

Once again, the procedure is really simple:

Since theres no surgical incision (stem cell therapy is a non-invasive procedure), patients usually do not experience any serious side effects. Some soreness and pain are witnessed at times.

Its really that simple.

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Stem cell therapy isnt just a radical improvement in medicine; its a much needed one, too.

See, for the longest time, patients acute and chronic musculoskeletal injuries were faced with two groups of treatment options:

The downsides of surgery are the main reason why stem cell therapy has gained so much attention recently.

Due to the invasive nature of surgical intervention, these types of treatments always put patients at a serious risk.

From catching an infection at the incision site to the formation of blood clots which could lead to a heart attack, surgical intervention poses an entire array of health hazards[13].

Hip surgery, in particular, is an extremely dangerous endeavour.

One 2012 study found that as many as 35% of patients report unfavorable long-term pain[14] within a 5 year period after the surgery.

A more recent 2018 Finnish review discovered that as many as 4.6% of all hip surgery patients and 10% of all hip replacement patients[15] experience significant post-operational complications.

It also concluded that a number of conditionsincluding Parkinsons, osteoarthritis, rheumatic diseases, and a number of mental illnessesincrease the chance of a complication.

What is more, there is an up to 3% chance for nerve damage[16] during hip replacement, and an estimated 18% chance of fracturing one of your musculoskeletal components. Still think its worth the risk?

Spinal surgery also deserves a hall-of-fame spot in the area of surgical complications.

During a 2015 study of 95 test subjects who underwent a lower spine surgery, 23% of them experienced significant complications[17] including infections, blood clot formation and nerve injury.

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Stem Cell Therapy - Cellaxys

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