Stem cell therapy is one of the most exciting advancements in regenerative medicine. It taps into the body’s natural healing potential to offer hope for treating a number of injuries and chronic conditions. Unlike traditional treatment approaches, which focus on symptom management, stem cell therapy targets the root cause of symptoms by encouraging the repair and regeneration of damaged tissues. But how does stem cell therapy work?
What Is Stem Cell Therapy?
Stem cell therapy is a kind of regenerative medicine. Regenerative medicine is an approach that uses the body’s natural healing properties to heal injured or diseased cells, tissues, or organs. Unlike “traditional” medical approaches, which use medication or repeated steroid injections to treat symptoms, regenerative medicine treats the condition’s root cause.
Stem cell therapy is a regenerative therapy that harnesses the properties of stem cells to promote the healing process in injured, diseased, or dysfunctional tissues, generating healthy cells to replace cells affected by disease. Stem cells are found in almost all of the body’s tissues, and they have two distinct and important characteristics that make them unique from all other kinds of cells:
- They can self-renew, meaning they can make more of themselves
- In the right conditions, they can develop into other cells, including muscle, bone, cartilage, blood, or nerve cells. This process is known as differentiation.
Other cells, like muscle cells, nerve cells, or blood cells, do not replicate. Stem cells’ remarkable ability to self-renew and, in some cases, recreate functional tissues sets them apart from all other kinds of cells and explains why so much ongoing research is focused on investigating the many potential benefits of stem cell therapy.
Types of Stem Cells
There are many different types of stem cells. Most fall into one of two categories:
Pluripotent Stem Cells
Pluripotent stem cells (including embryonic stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells) do not have any tissue-specific characteristics. Because of this, they are extremely versatile and capable of generating all of the other types of cells in the body, from muscle cells to brain cells.
Adult Stem Cells
Nonembryonic or somatic stem cells, also known as adult stem cells, are found in small numbers in most adult tissues and organs. They remain dormant until activated by the body’s need to regenerate cells lost to wear and tear, injury, and disease. Because they are associated with specific tissues, adult stem cells are more limited than pluripotent stem cells.
How Does Stem Cell Therapy Work?
So, how does stem cell therapy work? During stem cell therapy, stem cells are injected into the damaged tissue in any joint or soft structure, such as the shoulders, knees, hips, wrists, ankles, elbows, tendons, ligaments, and non-healing bone fractures. Stem cell therapy injections can also be placed in the spine, where they regenerate discs, or given through an IV for systemic diseases. In all cases, stem therapy introduces stem cells to the damaged or diseased tissues to promote regeneration and healing.
After the procedure, patients may need to avoid anti-inflammatory medications and limit activity for several weeks while healing. Results, such as pain relief and improved function, may be noticeable within six weeks.
What Disease Processes Benefit from Stem Cell Therapy?
Stem cell therapy can treat chronic and acute joints and soft tissue conditions. A bounty of research is focused on its potential to improve function and reduce pain in patients with arthritis, including chronic osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. Other disease processes that benefit from stem cell therapy include the following:
- Tendon and ligament tears
- Degenerative disc disease
- Desiccation of spinal disc
- Rheumatoid arthritis
- Fibromyalgia
- Post-surgical healing
- Slow-healing wounds
Stem cells can also interact with other blood cells, stimulating the immune system and acting as a potent anti-inflammatory.
Interested in learning more about whether stem cell therapy may be right for you? If you live in the Springfield, Missouri, area, reach out to C.O.R.A.MED HRT & Regeneration Center. Our dedicated care team is committed to providing personalized, accessible, and integrated care, focusing on the root causes of health issues and employing advanced medical technology. No referral is required, and C.O.R.A.MED will create a custom care plan tailored to your unique needs. To learn more, please give us a call at 417-207-2441 or send us a message online.
