Stem cell therapy has been defined in several ways, but as far as the authors can summarize, this latest yet most exciting application in regenerative medicine, where the building blocks of the body, stem cells used to mend or replace damaged tissues and cells. Serious attempts are made to study the use of stem cells in mending anything and everything, right from blood cancers to orthopedic injury.
Essentially, stem cells are responsible for the growth, repair, and maintenance of organs, bones, and tissues in the human body. The definition of stem cells, to a certain extent, differentiates them from the regular cells: the property of being able to differentiate into a wide variety of cell types is what makes them eligible for healing and regeneration.
However, an unfortunate consequence of the growing public interest in stem cell therapy is a surge of misinformation that has been instrumental in creating many dubious clinics offering untested therapy for extortionate fees.
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Types of Stem Cell Therapy
Two main distinctions can be made concerning stem cell therapies: these are FDA-approved and unofficial, experimental therapies.
FDA-Approved Stem Cell Therapies
Hematopoietic (blood) stem cells transplantation is one, and the only, FDA-approved stem cell therapy presently in practice. Most would undergo the procedure in particular for situations like leukemia, lymphoma, and other blood disorders. The procedure goes this way:
- Using either chemotherapy or radiation, the diseased or damaged bone marrow cells are destroyed.
- Then, transplanted into the patient are healthy blood-forming stem cells obtained from a donor.
- Once engrafted, these stem cells grow healthy new bone marrow and start to produce new blood cells.
There is now an extensive body of clinical evidence for this therapy, the success of which has been continuously documented over the last few decades. The FDA also regulates other products made through the application of stem cells, but only under very restrictive guidelines and in very limited circumstances.
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Non-Approved Stem Cell Therapies
An increasing number of commercial stem cell clinics in the U.S. are advertising unapproved treatments for anything from Parkinson’s and MS to less serious complaints such as joint pain and facial rejuvenation.
Some of the therapies being used, however, are largely those that do not involve purely functional stem cells. In effect, such clinics would simply take tissues purported to contain adult stem cells, such as fat or bone marrow, do some minimal processing, and inject the cells into some other site in the body, claiming that those injections would somehow heal the diseased area. Such treatments also tend to advertise without proper scientific evidence and are not part of any genuine clinical trials.
How Soon Does Stem Cell Therapy Work?
Concerning stem cell therapy, most patients would understandably like speedy and miraculous results. With FDA-approved therapy, healing does not happen overnight in this case.
Blood stem cell transplantations subject patients to long recovery periods of several weeks and a plethora of setbacks associated primarily with immune suppression or infection.
If stem cell therapy treatment is performed in controlled clinical trial settings, pain relief from or functional improvement of orthopedic conditions like knee osteoarthritis may be evaluated in a matter of weeks or sometimes even months.
Yet another very important thing to be aware of is that stem cell therapy is not a magical panacea. Changes, if any, will mostly take time and vary according to individual conditions, type of stem cells used, and manner of use.
What Are the Risks and Side Effects of Stem Cell Therapy?
Safe as they may seem when compared with surgical or medicinal interventions, it is true that stem cell therapy can have the downside of incurring threats, especially when carried out under poor medical conditions.
Possible Side Effects May Include:
Infection Associated With Injection
Immune system rejection (especially concerning the so-called allogeneic, or donor-based, therapies)
Severe Inflammatory Reactions
- Damage to tissue or even the unwanted creation of cells.
- Blindness or loss of function (when injecting the tissues into the eye or the spinal cord).
- Tumor formation (very rarely).
Norms of safety are often nonexistent in these uncontrolled settings, whilst the methods are suspected of being improperly applied. In disturbingly many instances, patients were subjected to irreversible damage or even death, due to intervention under no supervision, badly done work with stem cells.
Financial and Ethical Ruins
Another major consideration with these non-FDA-approved therapies would be their costs. Most health insurance companies do not provide any reimbursement for stem cell treatments carried out in commercial clinics, since these procedures are not FDA-approved. The patients find themselves in the situation of paying tens of thousands of dollars out of pocket.
These clinics also scam the gullible, among whom exist persons suffering from chronic ailments, the elderly, or any other perceived unfortunate soul left without another option for better health care. Cutting-edge therapies allure all of them, who tend to forget that the procedure has no backing from science and clinical validation.
The most recent avant-garde applications for stem cell therapy entail regenerative orthopaedics, autoimmunity, or cancers. That being said, the first necessary step is to distinguish between scientifically supported practices versus those that are commercially marketed-whether they are regulated therapies or rather therapies with no or little scientific backing.
If you are asking whether he/she is a candidate for one or more stem cell therapies:
- Get a consultation with a licensed medical practitioner or regenerative medicine specialist.
- Find out if the treatment is FDA-approved or is considered under clinical trials.
- Stay clear of clinics promising miraculous results overnight in return for exorbitant fees, without showing any evidence of success.
Summing Up!
Procedures in stem cell are promising indeed; so much so, that with every new advancement, there comes perilous concern, science, and ethics directed to the patient; such trifold facets that make this treatment a far cry from any other.
If you are interested in stem cell therapy, make it a point to begin your journey with a team you can trust. We truly have healing treatments medically supervised, scientifically-founded, and safety-designed for you.
Do not risk going through untested procedures. Meet Dvida Medical Spa for a consultation to find out how advanced regenerative health treatments could safely and effectively invigorate, reduce pain, and support the body’s natural healing.
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