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Home Tag: "therapy"

Tag: therapy

16Feb

Medical science continues to advance in many different areas. Prosthetic limbs, for example, are now being created that are starting to resemble cybernetic implants from science fiction films. New vaccines and surgical techniques make it possible for once fatal diseases to be treated. And then there is the ongoing research and treatment of various medical conditions through the use of a new technique known as stem cell therapy.

But what is stem cell therapy? Why is it such a recent addition to the medical arsenal for fighting illnesses, and just how effective is it? The answers to these questions aren’t simple, but, with time, are becoming more promising.

What Is Stem Cell Therapy?

The name is a strong descriptor for this technique. Stem cell therapy is a form of medical treatment that uses a very special biological component known as stem cells. Stem cells, however, are a very recent development in medical science, although theoretically, knowledge has existed of stem cells for a very long time. It just took more advances in medical technology and a better understanding of medical science to finally confirm, locate, and ultimately make use of stem cells.

Stem cell therapy is, in a way, a regenerative form of medical treatment. It is not like an organ transplant, where a donor provides a whole new piece of anatomy that must be integrated into the body. Instead, stem cells are placed in the affected area and encourage the healing and formation of new healthy cells and tissue to replace areas damaged by disease or injury.

How Can Stem Cells Do This?

The reason that stem cells have the regenerative ability to encourage new cell growth is because this is exactly what stem cells do during the pregnancy process. Stem cells have a very powerful ability that makes them “pluripotent,” and thus, they have earned the nickname in the medical community of “master cells.” This is because stem cells are the basic building blocks of the human body. If the DNA that comes from sperm fertilizing egg creates the blueprint, stem cells are the raw material that follows the blueprint and results in a baby.

Stem cells multiply as all cells do. However, after birth, most cells can only reproduce new versions of themselves. Hair cells can only reproduce more hair; they can’t create lung cells or muscle tissue. And some cells, like heart muscle, are only created at birth, and can never reproduce again, which is why damage to the heart muscle is always serious since no new heart muscle cells can replace them.

Stem cells, however, can become every cell in the body. So when a baby is growing in the mother’s womb, it is the stem cells that first multiply into sufficient numbers and then branch off and specialize, forming brain cells, heart cells, eye cells and everything else required to form a human baby. After birth, however, those stem cells are no longer produced by either the baby or the mother.

What Can Stem Cell Therapy Treat?

The most widely used form of stem cell therapy is for the treatment of blood-related cancer conditions. Leukemia, lymphoma, and others are all forms of cancer that cause cells—in this case, blood cells—to reproduce incorrectly. Eventually, the defective/non-functioning cells outnumber the healthy ones. Blood cells are created in bone marrow, and one very effective form of treatment is stem cell therapy. Stem cells are transferred to the cancerous areas, replace the cancerous cells with healthy ones that reproduce correctly.

However, stem cells can be used for more than just cancer. Research continues on many possible new avenues of treatment, such as Alzheimer’s, but while the FDA in America hasn’t yet approved of treatments beyond blood cancer in the USA, many clinics throughout America, and around the world, have already seen the results of stem cell therapy for injuries, and even conditions like Autism Spectrum Disorder, and offer therapy for these conditions. So while the USA lags in using stem cell therapy for other conditions, countries like Georgia, for example, have already legalized and offered stem cell therapy for ASD.

The Success Rate

As with any medical treatment, there are no guarantees for stem cell therapy. Even vaccines, for example, can’t claim a 100% success rate for protecting people from illness. However, with the right medical evaluation, and an informed opinion looking at a medical condition, the rates always increase. For leukemia patients, for example, if there is no recurrence of leukemia two years after treatment, there is an 80% chance the cancer will never return.

For other forms of treatment, such as ASD, and muscular injury to the knees from arthritis or injury, the statistics are still being compiled. It’s important to remember that it is up to a medical professional to decide whether stem cell therapy is the best treatment for a medical issue. Always consult with an expert first if you’re considering this option.

20Jan

Autism is today, more clinically referred to as Autism Spectrum Disorder, or ASD, and has been one of the more challenging medical conditions to document and treat. For many centuries, ASD wasn’t even considered a distinct condition and was often misdiagnosed as other conditions entirely, such as some people with ASD being treated for schizophrenia.

The modern approach to ASD is much more flexible, doing away with categorizations or classifications of different types of ASD, and instead, putting those diagnosed on a “spectrum” of different symptoms at different intensities. This way, no one gets put into a classification with recommended treatments that may not be appropriate because they are not finely tuned to individual needs, and instead, try to address categorial requirements.

However, managing ASD continues to be a challenge. There are different ways to approach ASD, including more psychological approaches, such as behavioral therapy, and medications, such as antipsychotics. What there isn’t, with current medical science, is a cure, although stem cell therapy is emerging as a promising new form of treatment. So what is stem cell therapy, and how can it add to the arsenal of ASD treatment?

The Challenge Of ASD

The reason no cure currently exists for ASD is that unlike many illnesses, such as pneumonia, for example, ASD is not a viral or bacteriological infection. In other words, there is no antibiotic, serum, or other treatment that can eliminate an outside agent causing the issue. ASD can be contracted in multiple ways, and even these methods of transmission are still not fully understood.

ASD has a genetic component since parents diagnosed with ASD can give birth to children that are also diagnosed with it. However, ASD also has a prenatal component, where a pregnant woman who contracts an illness during pregnancy, such as rubella, may result in neurological damage to the developing embryo that leads to ASD. There are also theorized to be post-natal factors, though these have yet to be definitively cataloged. What is known, however, is that ASD, once diagnosed, cannot be removed from the patient.

What Stem Cells Do

Stem cell therapy is a relatively new arrival in medical treatment. It uses, as the name suggests, stem cells for treatment. Stem cells are the basic building block of life. If the DNA that comes from the union of the egg and sperm creates the “blueprint” for how to make a human being, the stem cells are the actual materials used to build the person from nothing.

In medical science, stem cells have the nickname “master cell” because they are “pluripotent,” which allows them to do something no other human cell can do. Stem cells start “blank” and can “reprogram” themselves into any cell of the human body. Human cells like skin cells, for example, normally reproduce only new versions of themselves. A heart cell, on the other hand, cannot reproduce at all, and once a heart experiences cellular loss, it can’t grow anymore to replace the lost cells.

Stem cells, on the other hand, are the powerhouse cells that create a human baby. After the sperm has fertilized the egg, the first thing that happens is that more cells are created to create enough “rough material” to grow into a baby. All of those cells are stem cells, and once there are enough of them, the stem cells eventually specialize into the cells that DNA requires, becoming hair cells, eye cells, brain cells, lung cells and others. These pluripotent stem cells are produced in massive quantities by a pregnant mother as a baby grows.

Once the baby is born, however, the need for pluripotent stem cells ceases, and no more are produced. A lesser version of these stem cells is found in all human beings, in the bone marrow, but these cells are limited in their capability, able to become other blood cells, but not every other available cell in the human body.

Stem Cell Therapy & ASD

Stem cell therapy is a recent treatment where harvested stem cells are injected into a patient. If there are affected or damaged neurological cells, the presence of stem cells may repair this damage by forming new, unaffected cells. In children with ASD, this may result in improvements in speech, attention span, or even a reduction in hostility.

However, for stem cell therapy to be effective, stem cells must be compatible with the recipient. This means either using stem cells harvested on request at the birth of the child or using closely related stem cells from the cord blood of a sibling if younger children had stem cells harvested by the ASD patient did not. A final option for harvesting stem cells is to collect them from the bone marrow, but this is a surgical procedure, and thus more invasive.

Stem cell therapy for ASD treatment is not currently available in the United States. The FDA in America authorizes only leukemia treatments using stem cells. Other countries, such as Georgia, do offer stem cell therapy for other disorders, including ASD.

19Dec

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD), commonly referred to as autism, refers to a range of neurodevelopmental conditions that affect a child’s ability to communicate or interact with other people and behave appropriately in social situations. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), one in every 160 children has autism.

A child with ASD shows impairment in communication or social skills and repetitive or restricted behavior. Some may also show an unusual response to sensory signals. For example, they may tend to avoid bright lights.

Treating Autism

Researchers and scientists have conducted many studies on this disorder. However, there is still no single cure for ASD. However, some therapies can help reduce symptoms. To properly address the said symptoms, it is crucial to diagnose the problem as early as possible.

Therapies aim to improve the patients’ abilities and alleviate the effects of the symptoms. The chances of success can improve the earlier you start medical therapy for autism. However, do not think that it may be too late for your child to start. An early start can help, but it does not mean that you have to give up if you were not able to make your child undergo therapy early.

Occupational Therapy

Perhaps one of the most effective therapies for children with autism, according to parents, is occupational therapy. Through the activities that this therapy promotes, children can learn to do everyday tasks. From simple tasks like holding a fork properly to school-, play-, or work-related activities, the therapist will adjust the focus depending on the needs of your child. Therapists base every occupational therapy program on the individual evaluations and goals of patients.

The good thing about occupational therapy is that it targets the treatment of sensory integration issues, which is often associated with ASD. Through this, your child can also learn life skills that involve the use of motor movements.

Speech Therapy

One aspect that ASD affects is communication. Speech therapy helps children with autism with their speaking, communication, and interaction skills. This form of therapy does not only include verbal communication, but it also covers non-verbal skills. A licensed speech pathologist will help your child learn to express his wants and needs in a better way. However, it is necessary to note that parents, other family members, and teachers should work with the speech pathologist for this therapy to be effective.

Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA)

In this therapy, parents or caregivers receive training on how to give the child with autism moment-by-moment feedback. It also uses reinforcement or rewards for positive behaviors and when teaching a new skill. The goals of the treatment will depend on the patient. This therapy may include communication, personal care, and social skills. There are various types of ABA.

  • Discrete Trial Training (DTT)

This ABA is when one breaks down the teaching of a skill or behavior in smaller steps. It also uses rewards or prompts for every step.

  • Early intensive Behavioral Intervention (EIBI)

EIBI is for younger children who have ASD. These children are usually under the age of five.

  • Pivotal Response Treatment (PRT)

This variation aims to increase the motivation of a child to learn, monitor his or her behavior, or initiate communication with other people. The focus of this ABA is on the key areas of a child’s development, including social, play, and language skills.

  • Verbal Behavioral Intervention

This ABA aims to improve the verbal skills of a child with ASD.

Physical Therapy

When we hear of physical therapy, we often think of treating injuries. However, it can also help improve the gross motor skills of a child with ASD. This therapy can also teach children to handle issues on sensory integration. Like occupational therapy, this treatment also helps improve an individual’s ability to participate in various everyday activities.

Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS)

Some parents opt to use PECS as a form of therapy. PECS is a system that is suitable for those who do not speak, those who cannot understand, and those who are having difficulty understanding. During therapy, children trade pictures for activities or items. People who tried PECS said they saw improvements in communication. However, some said they did not see positive effects on speech.

Medications

Some pharmaceutical medicine can help alleviate some behavioral symptoms that people with ASD show. Among these symptoms are irritability, aggression, and behavior that lead to self-injuries. However, medications require the prescription and monitoring of a qualified physician.

Stem Cell Therapy

Stem cell therapy replaces diseased cells with healthy, new cells. One of the main symptoms of ASD is inflammation. Thus, the ability of some types of stem cells to reduce inflammation can help. There are two ways that one can choose from when using this medical therapy for autism – bone marrow and umbilical cord.

19Nov

Everyone deals with a medical issue at some point in their lives, but in these cases, medical attention is always a temporary imposition on life. Whether it’s surgery or an illness, professional medical attention in the form of a diagnosis, professional treatment, or a prescription with directions to follow may be all that’s required to get over the problem. And while medical treatment can be expensive, for some countries, such as Canada, for example, critical medical treatment is taken care of by the government, so, fortunately, there are no exorbitant costs.

Sadly, however, not every medical problem is something that can be cleared up with a single procedure, and not every country has invested in a medicare infrastructure like Canada. Some medical conditions, like autism, otherwise known as autism spectrum disorder, or ASD, have no known cure, and the symptoms can only be managed. And the management of those symptoms has a cost.

One emerging form of treatment for ASD is known as stem cell therapy. But what is it, and what can people expect to pay for such a procedure?

The Stem Cell Revolution

Stem cell therapy is a relatively recent form of medical treatment, and is still being intensely researched for myriad applications, although it is already in heavy use in the United States as an effective—but very limited—form of medical treatment. It relies on the usage of stem cells, which, surprisingly, is not a brand new synthetic invention of medical laboratories, but instead the usage of something so natural that it’s an essential part of the pregnancy process.

Stem cells are also known as “master cells” because they can “convert” or “reprogram” themselves into any cell of the human body. Where blood cells can only create more blood cells, and hair cells can only grow more hair, a stem cell can turn into a nerve cell, brain cell, lung cell, or whatever else is required. This is no big surprise, as it is from stem cells, during pregnancy, that a group of undifferentiated cells can divide and eventually specialize into the different organs that make up the human body. Without stem cells, humans couldn’t grow from a single, unfertilized cell into a multi-cellular organism with many organs.

How Therapy Works

Stem cell therapy takes stem cells and reintroduces them into the human body. This is normally done through some type of injection, a common point of insertion being the spinal cord. However, stem cells are unique to a person, which means that there are only two types of stem cells that can be used and accepted by the body. “Cord blood” refers to the fluids in the umbilical cord and placenta after birth, the “leftovers” of stem cells used to grow a baby to maturity. To use these stem cells, they must be harvested after birth and stored.

The other option is to harvest less powerful stem cells after birth within the human body, within the bone marrow. This is a much more extensive procedure that will require surgery in addition to the stem cell injection itself. These two types of stem cells and their harvesting methods are currently the only means of introducing stem cells into a body that won’t be rejected. The results, however, are that certain types of cancer, such as leukemia, are cured, as cancerous blood cells are replaced with newly grown healthy ones. Now stem cell therapy is being researched and applied to other conditions such as ALS, multiple sclerosis, and ASD.

Limited FDA Approval

One of the biggest barriers to cost for stem cell therapy as a treatment for autism is the need for travel. For the moment, stem cell therapy, while promising massive potential for a range of different conditions, is only legally approved in the United States for treatments of specific types of cancer of the blood, such as leukemia. Any other use of stem cell therapy, including ALS, or ASD, is currently not approved by the FDA, and therefore, not legally available in the United States.

There are other countries, however, such as Mexico in the Americas, and Georgia, in Europe, that have fully-staffed and experienced stem cell therapy specialists, but this does require budgeting for travel and accommodation in addition to the procedure itself.

The Procedure Cost

Once travel to a destination country has been factored in, there is the matter of the cost of the procedure. If you’ve had the foresight to have cord blood stored after pregnancy, then you’ve already paid some of the costs for storage, and will now need to pay for safe transport to the clinic site. However, this option isn’t available to you, then there is an additional cost for the surgery to harvest stem cells from bone marrow.

In general, the stem cell procedure averages between USD$12000-15000 depending on the country and technique. In Georgia clinics, as one example, people can expect to pay about USD$12000 + VAT for all procedures.

2Oct

In some ways, the biology of certain animals is far more robust and effective than that of mammals like apes and humans. More “primitive” organisms, like earthworms, for example, can recover from injuries—such as being cut in half—that would kill a human being. Even some more complex organisms, like some reptiles, can lose an entire extremity, like a tail, but grow it back given enough time to recover, so it’s like the limb was never lost.

This kind of “regenerative healing” is not something that extremely complex organisms like mammals are capable of. If we get injured and lose a limb to amputation, or get into an accident and lose an eye, or lose an organ to disease, such as a kidney, that part of our body is gone and can’t be replaced.

However, this is only the case when it comes to mammals after birth, when they are out in the world and maturing. In actuality, there is a time during the development of human life when it is possible to grow any limb or organ from nothing, and that is the promise of stem cell therapy, a relatively recent development in medical science that is working to unlock the secrets of regenerative healing. But what is it, and how did we get here?

The Power Of Stem Cells

As the name implies, the secret of stem cell therapy lies with a very special group of cells known as stem cells. Stem cells are defined as “pluripotent,” meaning that they are flexible and versatile. A stem cell by itself doesn’t appear to have any use, because it’s not a skin cell, a blood cell, or a brain cell. However, under the right circumstances, a stem cell can become any of these cells.

Stem cells are what is created and used during pregnancy to grow a fully developed baby from a collection of unspecialized cells. Stem cells are sometimes referred to as “master cells” because, unlike most cells in the body after birth, stem cells can “program” themselves to become anything. Once we are born, we largely lose this ability for cells to grow into whatever is required, at least, in the larger numbers that would allow us to replace organs.

The 1960s Discovery

Stem cells are the result of old fashioned scientific investigation. In this case, the discovery came from that most common of scientific resources, lab animals, specifically mice. It was in the 1960s that scientists, working with mice, were able to isolate the properties of certain cells to go beyond the ability to duplicate whatever cell they happened to be. In humans, for example, skin could always grow more skin, and hair could always grow more hair, but hair couldn’t grow nerve cells, or kidney cells, it could only make more of itself.

With mice in the 1960s, however, “low level” stem cells were discovered in blood. Scientists realized that while these low-level stem cells couldn’t grow into hair, skin, or muscle, they could turn into any blood cell required, whether it was red blood cells, white blood cells, or others. This made them “multipotent” and gave scientists their first clues on where to start looking.

It also greatly accelerated medical research, as scientists finally tracked down “pluripotent” cells that are the stem cells they were looking for. By locating and modifying these stem cells, scientists were now able to breed mice with the specific physical characteristics they were looking for. They began to conduct more research on finding the equivalent cells in humans.

Stem Cells & Cancer

It was in the 1980s that medical science felt confident enough about its understanding and application of stem cells that it was deemed safe enough to start using these techniques with humans. As with mice, medical technology “played it safe” and began treatment with “multipotent” stem cells that were less versatile than the pluripotent versions found at birth.

Multipotent stem cells are located in bone marrow, and so these stem cells were used to fight a very specific type of cancer, leukemia. Cancer, in general, is a wide-ranging disease that affects many different parts of the body, but the one common symptom all cancers have is causing a specific part of the body to reproduce flawed/mutant versions of the cells. Eventually these flawed copies outnumber the healthy cells.

Medical science applied stem cells to leukemia treatment, fighting the tendency of cancerous cells to multiply by introducing stem cells that reproduced only healthy blood cells and even encouraged cells around them to do the same. The results were so impressive that stem cell therapy is now one of the official treatments for leukemia.

Research Continues

Because of the effectiveness of stem cells in cancer treatment, there is now a lot of enthusiasm and research being done to apply stem cell therapy to other difficult, or even incurable conditions. From ALS to Alzheimer’s to Autism, there are many applications for stem cell therapy.

15Sep

Autism, today more accurately referred to as autism spectrum disorder, or ASD has had a very long journey through medical science, and one that is still far from complete. While diseases such as measles have been understood for centuries, with clear documentation about their formation, infection, causes and cures, ASD is still a much more complex and mysterious condition.

It wasn’t until the 1980s that ASD was even acknowledged as a unique category. Before that, people with ASD symptoms were believed to have some varied symptoms of schizophrenia and were misdiagnosed as such, treated with antipsychotics and other medications. This was further complicated by the fact that some ASD symptoms do respond to anti-psychotic or anti-depressant medication, while others do not.

Today, however, we have a better understanding of ASD, but that understanding has only illustrated how complex the condition is, not how simple it would be to cure. With current medical technology, no cure for ASD exists, so the condition can only be managed through various forms of treatment.

One of these is stem cell therapy, a very recent development in ASD treatment. But what is this form of treatment? How does it work? And what can you do to ensure you get the possible chance at a successful treatment, with qualified medical professionals?

How Stem Cell Therapy Works

In normal medical circumstances, the human body, while resilient, can’t replace large scale damage to the body. A cut on the finger is small, and skin cells can easily reproduce in the numbers required for new skin to grow over a cut and regenerate, usually without even showing a scar. In the same way, when you get a hair cut, the cells in hair can easily reproduce to create more hair.

However, if you get into an accident that requires the amputation of a leg, or an arm, the bone, muscle, and nerve cells can’t reproduce in the numbers required to allow the limb to grow back. Many of these cells are too specialized to allow that kind of mass growth. Of course, this wasn’t always the case with your body.

When a baby is developing in the mother’s womb, it starts as a single fertilized egg cell. That cell then divides rapidly, to create more cells, which are known as stem cells. Stem cells are “blank cells” that can take on the role of any cell required, whether it is brain, heart, bone or lung. With enough stem cells, any part of the body can be regrown, which is how it is possible for babies to develop during pregnancy.

Stem Cell Therapy For Autism

Where stem cell therapy for ASD enters the equation is in helping to manage the symptoms. ASD is believed to have multiple causes at this point, from genetic, to pre-natal to post-natal, and as a result, curing it is not something medical science is capable of.

However, with stem cell therapy, an transfusion of “fresh” stem cells—ideally ones that have been collected from the birth mother of the child—can enter the system and grow into undamaged, “replacement” cells to help augment neural or brain development. There have already been promising results with ASD treatment, where recipients of stem cell therapy have shown improved behavior, reduced hostility, and even receptiveness to communication.

Treatment Limitations

However, especially in the United States, stem cell therapy, while proven to work, is only approved of by the Food & Drug Administration for use in general hospital treatment with cancer patients, specifically for blood-related cancer like leukemia. This is the one area where abundant research, documentation, and medical treatment have all been approved for general use.

This means that while administering stem cell therapy for conditions other than leukemia is not considered a criminal act, doctors who do are in a very risky legal area. As a result in the USA, stem cell therapy for ASD is not legally available, and people must go to other countries to receive such treatment.

The Trust Factor

There are other countries, with clinics that offer safe, legal stem cell therapy services for people interested in stem cell therapy for autism. In the Americas, countries like Panama and Mexico both have clinics, while countries like Georgia offer the same quality services in Europe.

However, it is important when considering stem cell therapy to make sure you choose safely and wisely. This is why it’s important to do your research. When you hear about a stem cell therapy clinic in Georgia, for example, don’t just immediately book an appointment. Instead, carefully research the organization, their qualifications, and above all, look at reviews. When people have had good results with a clinic, they will say so. Even more importantly, if a clinic doesn’t offer satisfactory service, it’s good to know in advance. Looking at reviews is one of your best ways to make the right choice.




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