Everything You Need To Know About Stem Cell Treatment
Stem cell treatment or therapy is a form of regenerative medicine designed to repair damaged cells within the body. Here’s more about it.
Stem cell research is turning out to be one of the most important scientific discoveries of our time. It holds a great deal of potential in terms of use in the medical field and has already been successfully proven to help people with different diseases or maladies.
Though stem cell therapy is still an ongoing process, researchers have been able to discover it may someday be used to repair or replace tissues and organs lost to age or disease. Quite fascinating, right?
These cells are a category of unspecialized cells that have the ability to develop into various types of cells, such as brain, blood, and muscle cells.
In many tissues, the term cells serve as an internal repair system of sorts that essentially divide without limit so it can replenish other cells.
Here are important things to note about this stem cell treatment and therapy.
What Is Stem Cell Therapy?
The first thing you need to know is what stem cell therapy actually is. We already explained what stem cells are in the introduction.
As explained by Springs Rejuvenation, these cells help the body heal and repair itself. Stem cell therapy, on the other hand, is the process of injecting stem cells into tissues where they’re able to regenerate healthy tissue by growing new blood vessels, which in turn increases tissue growth.
Stem cell therapy is a treatment option for people suffering from heart disease, brain cancer, and neurodegenerative diseases like ALS, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and neurological diseases.
However, this is not a definitive list. In the future, many other diseases may be treated using stem cell therapy.
The Benefits Of Stem Cell Therapy
One of the main benefits of stem cell therapy is its potential to be an alternative cure for people suffering from different diseases.
Stem cells are undifferentiated cells that can develop into various types of specialized cells, depending on the environment they react with.
These undifferentiated cells when injected into humans with damaged or deficient tissue can transform themselves into cells that can help repair or replace the damaged or deficient tissue.
Another benefit of stem cell therapy is it is an ethically responsible treatment option since it can be extracted from the patient’s own body.
It is a regenerative treatment process that uses a patient’s healthy cells to regenerate their own tissue, which is the body’s natural way of healing itself.
What Are Its Side Effects?
Stem cell therapy side effects may include fever, chills, and fatigue during the first few days after the treatment.
You may also experience muscle aches or a headache depending on your tolerance to medications.
Most stem cell therapy side effects are temporary and will disappear in a few days or weeks.
How Is Stem Cell Treatment Performed?
Stem cell therapy is conducted in one of two methods. The first method, called autologous transplantation, takes stem cells from the patient’s own body with no rejection or immune response issues.
This method employs a process called apheresis. During the apheresis, a machine separates stem cells from a patient’s blood and then returns the rest of the blood back to the body.
The second method, called allogeneic transplantation, involves taking stem cells from a donor’s body and injecting it into the patient’s body.
Who Makes Up The Stem Cell Therapy Team?
There are various healthcare professionals involved in administering stem cell therapy, including:
- A surgeon trained in stem cell therapy;
- An anesthesiologist who administers the anesthesia;
- A stem cell transplant nurse assists with prepping the patient’s body for treatment and post-procedure care.
Who Is Supposed To Regulate The Stem Cell Treatment Industry?
Stem cell therapy is regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Before stem cells can be used for treatment, they must undergo rigorous testing to investigate their effectiveness in treating certain diseases.
The FDA ensures that these tests are conducted under proper scientific guidelines before any stem cell treatment can be administered to a patient.
There are still many companies out there who claim to have stem cell therapy products available for human consumption or application without any documentation or evidence of its safety or efficacy.
These companies may be conducting stem cell therapy experiments on their own. And since the FDA does not regulate doctors who treat patients with experimental therapies, they would be operating outside of public health regulations.
The Takeaway
As stem cell therapy becomes more and more popular, it is important to be aware of the potential risks and benefits associated with the treatment.
There are a number of things you need to know before deciding if stem cell therapy is right for you or your loved ones.
Hopefully, the information made available here would help you make an informed decision about whether or not this treatment is right for you.
