How Do Stem Cells Benefit The Body?
Since the last decade, stem cell therapy has evolved significantly. At this time, stem cell therapy is not beneficial but the safest treatment you can receive. Stem cell therapy successfully resolves several difficult issues to treat in the past. For replacing the surgical options and invasive procedures, stem cell therapy is the best treatment by now. Moreover, several ethical issues are also resolvable via stem cell therapy to have a good prognosis of any disease.
How does stem cell therapy benefit the human body?
Stem cell therapy is the best alternative to various diseases and disorders. There are different benefits of the SCT, which make it the most suitable treatment option in the modern age.
• The versatility of treatment:
The best trait of stem cell therapy is that it is applicable for a variety of clinical applications. Different medical studies are progressively showing the positive results of stem cell therapy for most complex diseases as well.
For instance, the most common conditions which are now effectively cured by stem cell therapy are:
• Joints-related issues – arthritis is an autoimmune disease that has been the most difficult disease to treat. Normally, the cartilage in the joints is not an alive structure that can not regrow on its own. Therefore, when the cartilage is damaged, the joint loses its integrity and causes pain and mobility issues. Stem cell therapy has been the most effective treatment for hip and knee osteoarthritis in the last few years.
• Spinal problems – spinal discs are present between two consecutive vertebras, which work as a shock absorber. In the case of disc degeneration, it can cause serious health problems. Disc bulging and herniation are the most common causes of nerve impingements. The only option left in the spinal problems is mostly surgery. However, stem cell therapy is playing its role as an effective and safe treatment for disc-related problems.
• Musculoskeletal injury – in most cases, musculoskeletal injuries take a long time and effort for complete recovery. Muscle tears and muscle damage include painful procedures and long-term plans for a good prognosis. In stem cell therapy, mesenchymal stem cells can help restore the damaged tissues and strengthen the surrounding tissues. These therapies tend to work well when combined with extra care and preventive measures like rest and avoiding muscle overuse.
Similarly, in the case of ligamentous injury, surgery and rest are the only options left for treatment. Due to the anatomical location of ligaments, they don’t receive enough blood flow, leading to slower healing. Injection of stem cells to the targeted area can help with the speedy recovery of the ligaments in shorter time duration.
• Nervous disorders – nerve damage and nervous disorders are the most complex problems to treat. The most common nervous injuries/disorders results are poor motor control, pain, and cognition problems. Stem cell therapy can help with increasing the nerve cells to help patients going through Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson's disease, ALS, multiple sclerosis, and nerve injuries.
• Prognosis:
Most conventional treatments and therapies require longer post-op time for better healing and a good prognosis. In the case of stem cell therapy, the patient doesn’t need to wait for the longer post-op duration to get better.
SCT is a faster treatment that consists of a few steps for operation and then a little time for prognosis.
Most of the time, the preparation of donor stem cells requires a little incision and small liposuction of the stem cells to be used in stem cell therapy. Surgeries can take several hours and pre-op preparations. While on the other hand, SCT can be the 1-2 sitting procedure, which can hardly take 1-2 hours for operation. After stem cell therapy, the patient doesn’t need to take extensive precautions and can see the improvements in a few weeks.
• Safe treatment:
The safety profile of stem cell therapy is on the top in terms of a hierarchy of the treatments. SCT is a less invasive treatment that doesn’t cause any damage to the body's natural mechanisms. By utilizing the body’s natural healing process, SCT can effectively heal injuries and disorders without extensively invasive procedures.
Moreover, stem cell therapy also saves from the long-term use of drugs and medications. Excessive opiates prescription can relieve pain but can also result in addiction. Medications aren’t the cure of the pathology but only the management of the symptoms. Therefore, stem cell therapy provides a solution to the root problem instead of covering symptoms. Moreover, there is not any risk of systemic side effects or addiction, unlike the medications and drug therapies.
• Treatment of the targeted area:
In most cases, doctors prescribe multiple medications for one problem. The reason behind it is that these medications need to pass through the whole body and systems and can cause adverse effects to certain structures. Therefore, it is advised to take multiple medications to avoid the problems. In the case of stem cell therapy, the cells are injected into the targeted area, which doesn’t need to revolve around the other structures in the body. The bioavailability of the treatment is more in SCT in comparison to other non-invasive therapies or treatments. SCT also helps prevent nerve damage to the surrounding tissues, which can commonly occur in the case of invasive treatments.
• Age-friendly treatment:
Age is the most concerning factor while checking the treatment options. For instance, in the case of older ages, doctors fear performing procedures that include general anesthesia due to the patient's health concerns. In the case of stem cell therapy or treatment, the harvesting and administration of stem cells both are minimally invasive. This treatment doesn’t require general anesthesia, making it an even safer option for patients with weakness or health problems.
In some cases, the doctor can apply local anesthesia for the patient's comfort, which doesn’t cause any side-effect.
Takeaway:
Stem cell therapy is an innovative treatment approach that includes a higher safety profile and a good prognosis. There are several health benefits of the SCT, making it the best alternative approach in the modern age.
References:
• https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1613723
• https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11033-018-4499-7
• https://academic.oup.com/ageing/article-abstract/40/1/7/11574
