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Home Tag: "cure"

Tag: cure

13Jan

Autism, which is more clinically referred to as Autism Spectrum Disorder, or ASD, is a complex medical condition that has taken to generations to document an even basic understanding. For centuries, ASD was not even recognized as its own distinct medical condition, and even throughout the majority of the 20th century, it was often misdiagnosed as other disorders, such as schizophrenia, and subject to treatments for those conditions.

Today, ASD is now properly recognized as a far-ranging condition with a broad array of different symptoms at different intensities, which is why it is referred to as a spectrum instead of a single disease or disorder with a shortlist of symptoms. The challenge of the 21st century is now in addressing the many unique needs of children and adults diagnosed with ASD. One emerging method of treatment is known as stem cell therapy, which is a new treatment technology that is still being heavily researched.

But can stem cells cure ASD where other treatments can’t? What are stem cells, and what makes them so different?

The Complexity Of ASD

First, it’s important to understand some of the basics of Autism Spectrum Disorder. It is an enormously complex condition that can be contracted by individuals in a few different ways. It’s not as simple as measles or the flu, where exposure to others with the condition leads to illness. ASD can be genetic, where an ASD diagnosed parent has children also diagnosed with the condition. However, ASD can also be prenatal, where a pregnant mother contracting illness such as rubella, may inadvertently have that infection cause neural damage to a developing baby, also resulting in ASD.

ASD, like diabetes, or asthma, is a lifelong condition. It doesn’t respond to antibiotics or vaccines and carries a huge series of different symptoms that range from behavioral to neurological and even physical. As a result, there is no one universal approach or treatment for ASD, and like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s Disease, or diabetes, there is currently no known cure. The best that can be achieved is that some of the symptoms of ASD can be managed.

The Stem Cell Alternative

Some forms of ASD treatment, like behavioral therapy, teach ASD patients important skills that help them to overcome some ASD symptoms consciously. Learning to maintain eye contact through behavioral therapy, for example, may be a more effective and overall more valuable long term treatment strategy than relying on medication. Some forms of treatment, however, do use medication, such as antipsychotics for more extreme forms of ASD behavior.

Where stem cell therapy differs is that it does not suppress or overcome symptoms, it goes to one of the possible causes. One element of ASD is that it may be a neurological disorder, with nerve cells, neurotransmitters, or other components of the nervous system not working as intended. This can result in some symptoms like hostility, inability to pay attention for sustained periods, or communication difficulties. Stem cell therapy can repair some of the neurological damage and reduce or eliminate some of these symptoms.

How It Works

Stem cells have the nickname in medical science of “master cells” because they are pluripotent, a unique property not found in other cells in humans. A pluripotent stem cell can change or “reprogram” itself to become any cell in the body. This can mean very common cells, such as skin or hair cells that reproduce all the time, or even heart cells, that, once formed, can never reproduce, meaning that heart damage is permanent damage.

Stem cells are generated during pregnancy, and it is because of stem cells that a fertilized egg can divide continuously. Then, unlike hair or skin cells, which can only produce copies of themselves, the stem cell can branch out and specialize into the hair, brain, heart, lung, liver, eye, kidney, and many other cells required to create the organs that make up a baby.

Stem Cell Therapy

Stem cell therapy uses stem cells harvested from “cord blood,” the fluids left in the umbilical cord after a child is born. This ensures maximum biological compatibility with a recipient if the option is available. If a child being treated for ASD with stem cell therapy does not have stem cells available, a supply from a sibling, if available, can also be used. If that option is also unavailable, the less versatile “multipotent” stem cells in bone marrow can be harvested from the patient, but this involves some surgery to access and collect the stem cells.

Once the stem cells have been acquired, they are injected, usually intrathecally, into the spinal column. From there, the stem cells can repair any compromised or faulty neurological cells by growing new, undamaged ones. However, this type of treatment is currently unavailable in the United States. Only other countries, such as Georgia, for example, currently offer a legal option for these treatments. The USA only authorizes stem cell therapy for the public in blood/leukemia related medical situations.

26Nov

Autism is today, more correctly known as Autism Spectrum Disorder, or ASD. For generations, this was a largely misunderstood condition, due to its size and complexity, and it wasn’t until the 1980s that medical texts even recognized it as a distinct condition on its own. Before that time, some of its symptoms were classified as unique conditions on their own, like Asperger’s Syndrome, while other symptoms were misdiagnosed—and mistreated—as completely different conditions, like schizophrenia.

Today, medical science has a better understanding of both the nature and scope of ASD, and it’s proving to be a far larger, more complex condition that medical professionals initially suspected. While more research is now uncovering more details about this condition, fighting it is still an ongoing battle with many unknowns. Of course, one of the biggest concerns with ASD is, whether it can be cured or not, and some people, having heard of new developments like stem cell therapy, wonder if this might be the answer. But is it? Let’s take a closer look.

What Is ASD?

One of the biggest challenges with tackling ASD is how multi-faceted the disorder is. It’s not purely behavioral, like depression or anorexia. It’s not entirely neurological like cerebral palsy, but it’s not completely organ-related either, like cancer.

Instead, ASD takes a little of all three of these characteristics for its symptoms and adds a vast range of different behaviors, and these behaviors are also at varying intensity levels. This is why there was so much confusion for years about what ASD was, and which symptoms constituted ASD. For example, one common physical symptom ASD is gastrointestinal complications, but medical science is currently unsure as to why GI symptoms are so commonly paired with ASD.

On the other hand, the behavioral symptoms of ASD are so wide and so varied that some of them were thought to be individual conditions. It wasn’t until ASD was formally recognized in the 1980s, for example, that Asperger’s was correctly included as just a variant of ASD and not a distinct condition. Conversely, some symptoms of ASD were so severe in terms of hostility, intensity, or unresponsiveness that ASD patients were sometimes misdiagnosed as being schizophrenic. This misdiagnosis was further complicated by the fact that some schizophrenic treatments, such as prescribing antipsychotics did work, and are still one possible treatment alternative even today.

ASD As A Condition

One of the greatest challenges when it comes to addressing ASD is the fact that little is still known about its causes. There is a definite genetic component to ASD, as someone diagnosed with it can pass the condition on to children. However, even if a person doesn’t have ASD, certain pre-natal and post-natal factors can also cause ASD to manifest. A pregnant woman who contracts rubella, for example, can then give birth to a child that is later diagnosed with ASD.

This means, unfortunately, that like diabetes or asthma, ASD is a lifelong condition. There is no vaccine or surgical technique that be done to make ASD go away. ASD’s various symptoms can, however, be managed. In some cases, a psychological approach works best, such as behavioral therapy. With therapy treatments, and ASD patient recognizes and confronts the issues of concern, such as not looking people in the eye during a conversation, or being unable to tie shoes correctly. Through careful training and positive reinforcement, the ASD patient consciously confronts the symptoms, and trains to overcome them.

The Stem Cell Alternative

So if ASD is a permanent, lifelong condition, with no cure, what do stem cells bring to the table? Stem cells are a very special type of “master cell” that can “reprogram” themselves to become any cell in the body. Whereas hair cells can only reproduce to grow more hair, and skin cells can only create more skin cells, a stem cell can become a hair cell, brain cell, nerve cell, bone cell, or any other type of cell in the body, even ones that normally don’t reproduce in large numbers after birth, like heart or kidney cells. Because of this, stem cells have been used in a treatment known as stem cell therapy, and they have proven to be very effective at fighting some forms of cancer, such as leukemia, which affects blood cells.

While the exact mechanisms are not fully understood, and research continues, stem cell therapy is set to be a promising form of treatment for many other disorders and has already shown some good results with ASD. Some of the symptoms of ASD that therapy may not be able to address, such as hostility, inattentiveness or the ability to focus, are improved through stem cell therapy. This indicates that while stem cell therapy, like other forms of treatment, isn’t a cure, it can be effective at suppressing or eliminating some of the symptoms of ASD that other treatments may not be as effective at addressing.

19Sep

Autism, or autism spectrum disorder (ASD) as it is more properly referred to, is a growing concern for people all over the world. There’s always going to be some debate about whether or not autism is becoming more widespread, or whether what is happening is a greater awareness of ASD, and more accurate diagnoses occurring, versus the medical professionals misdiagnosing it frequently until now.

After all, it wasn’t until the 1980s that autism was even recognized as a distinct, unique medical condition. Before its appearance in American mental disorder classification systems and literature, ASD and its many different symptoms were often thought to be a form of schizophrenia. This means that until the 1980s, there’s no telling how many thousands or hundreds of thousands of people throughout history had ASD, but medical science didn’t realize it at the time.

Because serious study and understanding ASD is comparatively recent, there’s still a lot to learn about this condition. Moreover, without that complete understanding of autism, what it is and how it comes about, treating it is a challenge, especially with so many different treatment options available for different symptoms.

Now, however, we have a new form of treatment that has been getting some promising results. It’s known as stem cell therapy. But what many people want to know is can stem cells cure autism?

What Is A Stem Cell?

Stem cells are informally nicknamed by medical sciences “Master Cells.” The reason stem cells earned this nickname is because of their incredible versatility. Under normal conditions, if a person grows more hair after a shave, or heals skin after a cut, it is because the existing cells are capable of reproducing more of themselves. Hair cells grow more hair, and skin cells grow more skin. Cells from different sources can’t normally do this, which is why people don’t have liver cells turning into lung cells, or brain cells growing fingernails.

Stem cells, on the other hand, can do this. While it is an amazing piece of human biology, it is far from unusual, as this same process occurs in every pregnant mother during childbirth. A single fertilized egg cell must go from one unspecialized, undifferentiated cell to an entire baby, with distinct lungs, kidneys, eyes, a brain, and all the other highly specialized organs. Stem cells are what make this growth and specialization possible.

The Application Of Stem Cell Therapy

Stem cell therapy is currently only in FDA approved use for one type of medical treatment, and that is blood cancer, specifically leukemia. It was found that stem cells, when introduced into the malignant environment of blood cells reproducing incorrectly due to cancer, could reverse this process. As the stem cells converted over to healthy, normal blood cells, they could encourage the cancerous system to also reproduce proper blood cells, instead of the malignant, cancerous ones.

Because of this, stem cell therapy is now an effective form of cancer treatment, with far fewer side-effects for the patient than the more “scorched earth” approach of chemotherapy or radiation therapy. Both of these therapies kill cancerous cells—as well as any other cells in the area—with the hope that cancer has “burned out” and healthy cells will grow in their place.

Stem Cells Therapy’s Legal Status

For the moment in the United States, the Food & Drug Administration, or FDA has only given general legal approval to the use of stem cell therapy for leukemia treatment. For other disorders, stem cell therapy has not yet been given full approval.

This means, at least in the USA, while it is not criminal to administer stem cell therapy for other conditions, doctors are not performing a legal treatment either. Stem cell therapies for other conditions, such as autism are, however, legal in other countries, such as Panama, Mexico, and Georgia. This means that in these countries, treatment, in addition to further research are both ongoing. In the United States stem cell therapy for other conditions is only available for research purposes, though this may change at some point in the future.

Stem Cell Therapy For Autism

Because stem cells can replace—or create an environment—where the growth of healthy cells is once again possible, it was believed that some types of autism might benefit from stem cell therapy. ASD is a very complex disorder in that many of its symptoms are behavioral, such as introversion, repetitive motions, an insistence on routine, but these symptoms may have roots in physical conditions such as possible brain or neural disorders.

Stem cell therapy can help to manage some of these symptoms by replacing damaged cells with newer, healthier ones. However, it’s important for parents to realize that while this can help to reduce or manage some aspects of autism, it cannot cure ASD. And in some cases, behavioral therapy or other psychological approaches may have more profound, positive affects. Always get a thorough medical consultation before deciding that stem cell therapy is the best solution for ASD treatment.




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