How Stem Cell Treatment Centers Give Patients Another Chance

By Paul Jones


One can only marvel at the numerous advanced that have been made in the field of medicine during the past decades. Many diseases that were considered an almost certain death sentence and now successfully treated. New techniques and new medicines have helped millions of people to lead healthier and more satisfying lives. No doubt there are many more surprises waiting. Stem cell treatment centers may just be the next very big surprise.

This type of therapy is commonly known as bone marrow transplants. It is not new but in the past it was not all that effective and was mainly used in patients suffering from diseases of the blood, such as leukaemia and lymphoma. These patients routinely get chemotherapy but this unfortunately kills all cells indiscriminately. A bone marrow transplant can help such patients to grow healthy new cells and to boost their immune systems.

To this day it is mainly cancer patients that receive bone marrow transplants. However, researchers are confident that these transplants will eventually become commonplace in the management and even curing of many other diseases. Research is still considered to be at an experimental stage and a lot of work will have to be done before this therapy will be considered safe for general use on human patients.

It is foreseen that patients suffering from serious brain degeneration conditions such as Alzheimer and parkinson will be benefiting from bone marrow transplants. New cell growth in the brain will counter the effects of steady degeneration of the brain. Those with spinal injuries and even physical injuries to the brain will also benefit. It is even foreseen that these transplants will be able to reverse the horrendous effects of strokes.

Another exciting potential application of bone marrow transplants is to stimulate the growths of new cells and muscles in the heart. Currently, heart disease in its various forms is one of the biggest medical problems faced by humans. Much can already be done, but physical damage to the heart cannot yet be treated. Bone marrow transplants promise to remedy this drawback and give millions a new lease on life.

There are many critics of this field of research. They argue that bone marrow transplants opens a very big door for unethical behaviour. They base this allegation on the fact that it is not always actual bone marrow that is transplanted, but also the blood from the umbilical cords of foetuses. Critics also point out that unsuccessful transplant almost always result in the death of the patient.

Critics also point out that researchers are raising the hopes of people without providing any evidence of the progress they claim to be making. They say that such claims are years prematurely but that researchers create these expectations simply to raise more money and to increase the profits of facilities already offering these transplants to desperate patients. In short, critics say, this field is still in the early experimental phase.

Nobody is in any doubt that there will be revolutionary breakthroughs in the medical field. Bone marrow transplant researchers are adamant that this type of therapy will prove to be one of the safest and most versatile therapies ever. One really hopes that they are correct.




About the Author: