Stem Cell Treatment for Back Pain and Joint Disease

May 1, 2015

Relieve Chronic Pain without Surgery Stem Cell Treatment for Back Pain and Joint Disease

Joint diseases are known for the pain they cause. Then there is the back pain that many people are tied to without relief. There is little that is done to avail the much needed permanent relief to the patients enduring the chronic back and joint pains. To some people pain may be synonymous to addiction as that is where their addiction stemmed from. The common way of dealing with pain is to give the patients pain medication that in most the case is to help them endure the pain rather than correcting the mishap in the joints and promote healing. The opioids that are mostly used by pain patients often cause addiction and dependence when used for a long time. However there is now a ray of hope for these patients suffering from chronic back pain and joint diseases.

It has been reported that Medical researchers are trying a new treatment for low back pain. Their hope is that harvesting and then re-injecting the body’s own bone marrow which is rich in stem cells may repair worn-out discs in the spine and promote recovery. The stem cells have been a center of focus in degenerative medicine and several experiments that have been done on the use of stem cells for treatment of degenerative disease have raised hope of patients. Already there are doctors using the stem cell therapy in treating their patients suffering from various diseases.

The researchers are reported to have done a small study in which none of the patients reported any adverse effects on their pain after they were treated with the bone marrow derived stem cells. Therefore the study is deemed safe and effective. However the team of researchers admitted that there is still more research that is needed to be done on the area but still they maintained that it is a promising cutting-edge treatment.

“I tell everybody that this is experimental, with a capital E,” said Dr. Joseph Meyer Jr., an anesthesiologist and pain medicine specialist at the Columbia Interventional Pain Center, in St. Louis. “We don’t know if it works. I do believe that it’s safe, but it might not do anything for you.”

For the study, Meyer and his colleagues reviewed the case histories of 24 patients who were injected with their own bone marrow aspirate cellular concentrate (BMAC). Bone marrow concentrate contains adult stem cells, which have been called the body’s own repair kit because they can change into different cells and tissues in the body and potentially heal different kinds of tissues that are often affected by various diseases.

The patients that Dr. Meyer used in the experiment were reported to have suffered from chronic low back pain for anywhere from three months to 12 years and had had shown some evidence of degeneration, or damage, to the discs that cushion the bones of the spine. Disc degeneration is common with age, and it is thought to be a major cause of low back pain. Most of the times patients will be advise to exercise and reduce weight but if these methods fail to give any desirable results then the only option available for the patients has been invasive spinal fusion surgery.

“Fusion is a big, big step with questionable effectiveness,” he said. “Often, you’re back in the same boat a year later.”

As noted by Dr. Meyer, the invasive spinal fusion surgery is not really a lasting solution but rather helps temporarily as the problem will reoccur later most even more unbearable. He therefore opines that the stem cell treatment is potentially the best treatment that patients should consider before delving into spinal fusion surgery.

The healing potential of the stem cells

Joint disease From the experiment that Dr. Meyer conducted, a procedure that he did by using a long needle with which he harvested stem cells from the bone marrow of the patients and re-injected it into the spinal discs that had problems, half the patients used in the in the experiment went back to their other procedures over the next 30 months, making it impossible to know what might have affected their back pain. Of the other 12 who had no other kinds of treatment, 10 reported that their pain lessened in the two to four months after their injections. After a year, eight patients were still reporting significant pain relief, while three said their back pain had not improved. One patient had not yet reached the 12-month mark. After two years, five said their back pain was better, and three had no improvement. For the other four, it was still too early to tell.

Nevertheless, the healing powers of the mesenchymal stem cells have been hailed by different doctors, institutions and researchers. The stem cells owe their ability to treat to their unique properties; they are capable of dividing and renewing themselves for long periods; they are unspecialized; and they can give rise to specialized cell types. It is these distinct characteristics of the stem cells that make them effective in treatment of degenerative diseases.

With research that has been done on the effects of stem cells injection in healing the patients suffering from joint pain and other pains, it can be concluded that there is more hope for those suffering from these diseases. Dr. Dalal Akoury (MD) is an expert in integrative medicine and a founder of AWAREmed Health and Wellness Center located at Myrtle Beach South Caroline. Visit her for more information on most lifestyle diseases.

Relieve Chronic Pain without Surgery Stem Cell Treatment for Back Pain and Joint Disease

Stem Cell Treatment For Knee Joints

May 1, 2015

Stem Cell Treatment as an Alternative to Your Knee Surgery

Diseases of the joint are not very popular, they are characterized by pain that patients can never do away with without pain drugs. as much as these diseases are common, there is still no conventional cure that helps repair the worn joints and restore proper functioning of the joint but rather the treatment that do not involve surgery only aim at dealing with the symptoms of the disease, in fact most people suffering from knee joint disease are only given pain medication to quell the pain. Till now knee surgery is the most commonly used treatment but it too has its share of risks and pitfalls. The major pitfall is that it never focuses on regeneration of worn cartilage and offer long-term solution.

However this should not be the case as the knee joint is a crucial joint that joins the upper leg to the bones of the lower leg. The joint bone should allow hinge-like movement while providing stability and strength to support the weight of the body. Flexibility, strength, and stability are needed for standing and for motions like walking, running, crouching, jumping, and turning but when the knee is affected the patient will be debilitated. The knee joint is made up of bone, cartilage, ligaments and fluid. Muscles and tendons help the knee joint move. When either of these components of the knee joint is affected then a person will suffer knee problems which eventually make walking painful and difficult.

To those who are suffering from or have suffered from chronic knee pain due to osteoarthritis or due to other medical conditions you should not despair as there is hope with a stem cell treatment that is seen as a possible alternative to knee surgery. As mentioned earlier the knee joint is made up of cartilage, ligaments and fluid. These should support free movement and reduce the grinding on the upper bone to the lower bone but when exposed to tear and wear or as a result of other diseases the cartilage may get eroded and this is the genesis of a nightmare of the chronic knee joint pain.

The stem cell treatment is a simple, out-patient, natural alternative for many patients who would wish to avoid the costly and risky orthopedic surgeries that also require long recovery periods. There are also patients who have gone through the knee surgery before but the knee joint pain since reoccurred, they are naturally inclined to source for a different alternative that may work even better for them, and they should consider the stem cell treatment as it offers better results convenience as opposed to surgical treatment of the knee joint.

Osteoarthritis is known as the common disease of the knee. In case of osteoarthritis the cartilage in the knee that helps in smooth joint movements will gradually wear away thus leading to pain and inflammation of the knee joint. Osteoarthritis of the knees is a problem that has disabled many people barring them from participating in sporting activities and making their own lives a nightmare as they struggle to even walk or even stand up from a sitting position. A part from osteoarthritis of the knees, other injuries to the tendons and ligaments can cause knee joint problems with the most common injury being the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL). The ACL is majorly injured by a sudden twisting motion. This type of injury is common in sports. The traditional treatments for these knee injuries include arthroscopic joint surgery and total knee or hip joint replacement. These knee treatments are not only excessively expensive but host risks associated with orthopedic surgeries, a patient is always put through several months of rehabilitation after surgery.

Stem Cell Therapy for Articular Cartilage Regeneration

As mentioned earlier most knee joint problems are caused as a result of cartilage erosion, with stem cell therapy the cartilage on the knee joint can be regenerated. Owing to its regenerative properties, this stem cell treatment has been targeted by prolotherapy doctors. The doctors use the stem cell to repair the ligaments and the tendons and help restore stability and prevent excessive movement on the knee joint. With stem cell therapy the cartilage erosion can be corrected by cartilage regeneration without any need for surgery.

The stem cell therapy is a better alternative to joint replacement, since it is equally successful but even simpler and cheaper. Most patients are now considering the stem cell therapy because it has lower risks too when compared to other surgical procedures on the knee joint. As compared to joint replacement, stem cell therapy involves just harvesting the stem cell from the patient’s body and injecting them into the affected knee, this is more attractive for many patients than to go through orthopedic surgery and replacement of the whole joint with artificial materials.

In this stem cell therapy, the mesenchymal stem cells have been noted for their efficacy in treatment of not only bone diseases but also other diseases, together with the hematopoietic stem cells they have been found to be effective in regeneration of tissues, cartilage, muscles, tendons and ligaments. With autologous stem cell therapy the risk of tissue rejection is done away with as the cells are from the patient’s own body.

The joint diseases are common today and you need help of an integrative doctor to sail through this nightmare. Dr. Dalal Akoury (MD) is an expert in integrative medicine and a founder of AWAREmed Health and Wellness Center located at Myrtle Beach South Caroline. Visit her for more information on most lifestyle diseases.