Tag Archives: Stem cell

Treating Diabetes With Stem Cells

May 2, 2015

Stem Cell Therapy for Diabetes

DiabetesDiabetes is a serious disease that has continued to debilitate the human race. This disease comes in two forms namely the diabetes type 1 which is also known as juvenile and the type 2 diabetes which is also known as adult diabetes. The type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disorder which occurs when the immune system mistakenly attacks and kills the beta cells of the pancreas. When this happens the release of insulin in the body will be interfered with adversely. Consequently, sugar builds up in the blood instead of being used as energy. About five to 10 per cent of people with diabetes have type 1 diabetes. Type 1 diabetes generally develops in childhood or adolescence, but can also develop in adulthood. Type 1 diabetes is always treated with insulin. However some dietary approaches can be used to help in keeping the sugar level right.

Diabetes is one of the top ten leading causes of death worldwide according to a recent WHO report; in 2012 the global prevalence of diabetes was estimated to be more than 10% among adults. The most prevalent type of diabetes is the type 2 and it is rampant in adult population. Diabetic patients develop hypertension and cardiovascular diseases, which account for high rates of morbidity and mortality among adult patients. In the past treatment of diabetes has been marred by different factors, oral medications that were the major form of treatment are not as effective as after sometime the patient may develop insulin dependence. Oral insulin medication is also not so effective since exogenous insulin cannot provide the tight glycemic control exerted by the pancreas-derived insulin secretion. Researchers consequently have been prompted to come up with better ways of addressing this menace. Stem cell therapy is the new effective way that is hoped to save the human race. It works by replacing the damaged cells and normalizing the blood sugar level.

Autologous stem cell transplant for treatment of diabetes

The stem cells are very important owing to their crucial functions in the body. These cells are present in the bone marrow and in the adipose tissues. Owing to their ability to form other cells and tissues, they can be harvested from either the bone marrows or the adipose tissues and be used to heal or replace cells in the affected places. When the harvest of the stem cells is done from the patient’s own body and the used within his body then it is called autologous stem cells transplant. Autologous stem cell transplant is safer since the cells are from the body and therefore there is no risk of them getting rejected neither to induce unpleasant allergic reaction nor require need for immunotherapy. The autologous stem cell therapy can be used to replace the affected cells and help restore proper functioning.

In autologous stem cell transplants, the doctors use peripheral blood stem cell transplantation. With peripheral blood stem cell transplantation, the stem cells are taken from blood. The growth factor G-CSF may be used to stimulate the growth of new stem cells so they spill over into the blood. G-CSF is a protein that is produced naturally in the body. The blood is removed from a vein and passed through a machine that separates the stem cells. The machine then returns the remaining blood through a needle in the person’s arm or through a central venous catheter. This way of collecting stem cells is called apheresis

Using mesenchymal cells yields best results

DiabetesBefore the use of autologous stem cell transplant, the islet transplantation was majorly used in cell based therapy for diabetes treatment. This method however successfully used in the past has its own disadvantages. Its major pitfalls included the following; limited donors, graft rejection, the need for continued immune suppression and exhaustion of the donor cell pool. To help fill these pitfalls that made this treatment unpleasurable, researchers targeted the stem cell therapy as a better alternative and they were not wrong, it has been noted that the stem cell therapy works better for diabetic patients who fail to control hyperglycemia even with insulin injection. This is because autologous cells are readily available and do not entail prolonged hospital stays or sustained immunotoxic therapy. Among autologous adult stem cells, mesenchymal stem cells therapy has been applied with varying degrees of success in both animal models and in clinical trials.

The cell based therapies had been introduced in treatment of diabetes for diabetes mellitus and it surely achieved success. It involved the use of islet transplantation. It was so successful especially in treatment of diabetes type 1 but it had some other failures that could not be overlooked and it’s these failures that are now addressed by the stem cell therapy. Stem cell therapy is a solution to some of the drawbacks of islet transplantation especially the shortage of donors. Autologous stem cell therapy allows for a person’s on organs to be used in the transplant.

The mesenchymal stem cells are used as they are able to proliferate and form new more effective cells replacing the damaged cells. They are mostly harvested in both the bone marrow and the adipose tissues where they are available in the highest amount. The mesenchymal stem cells help maintain the capacity of multilineage differentiation potential, both within and across lineage barriers. They are easy to cultivate and expand, and maintain pluripotentiality after prolonged culture conditions.

Diabetes is a killer disease; visit us at AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Centre at Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Dr. Dalal Akoury (MD) an expert in integrative and regenerative medicine will be able to help.

Stem Cell Therapy for Diabetes

 

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Stem Cell Therapy and Osteoarthritis of the Elbow

May 1, 2015

Stem Cell Therapy for Osteoarthritis of the Elbows

OsteoarthritisOsteoarthritis is a disease that many people are suffering from and is one of the diseases that are not very easy to treat. According to Mayo clinic, Osteoarthritis is the most common form of arthritis, affecting millions of people worldwide. It occurs when the protective cartilage on the ends of your bones wears down over time. Although osteoarthritis can damage any joint in your body, the disorder most commonly affects joints in your hands, knees, hips and spine. Osteoarthritis of the elbow is also common. This disease often begins gradually but worsens with time. However till now there is no conventional cure for osteoarthritis. even those medicines that are used to mitigate on the symptoms of osteoarthritis none of the conventional treatments addresses the damage that is caused on the joints neither is there any avenue in the mainstream medicine through which the cartilage erosion on the elbow joints, knee joint or any other joint can be done away with. most of the time a person who is suffering from osteoarthritis of any kind is told to stay active, maintain a healthy weight and use other available treatments to help mitigate on effects of the disease; reduce the joint pain and function.

Due to the absence of mainstream treatment for osteoarthritis, patients have been facing untold horror of a lifetime. This inconvenience and pain that osteoarthritis patients have been put through as a result of this vacuum in the medical field, researchers have been working on different issues to come up with the best treatment for this disease. Researchers have mostly centered on the need for tissue regeneration therapies as this will be the only viable approach to healing the eroded cartilage on the joints. The erosion of cartilage on the elbow joint is the major characteristic of osteoarthritis of the elbow.

The bone diseases have been a major problem in the field of medicine with osteoarthritis being the major culprit affecting about 27 million people in America. Some of the common risk factors include increasing age, obesity, previous joint injury, overuse of the joint, weak thigh muscles, and genetics. In the past patients of this disease had no hope of ever breaking its chains but with recent studies on mesenchymal stem cells, a lot are changing in relation to the way doctors treat bone diseases. Stem cells have been used for the treatment of osteogenesis imperfecta, hypophosphatasia, osteonecrosis of the femoral head, osteoporosis, rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis of the elbow.

Today there are several hospitals that offer treatments to the joint diseases. Shoulders, knees, and hips joints are amongst the most common. However, there are other areas that can be treated with stem cell therapy are thumbs, toes and wrists. People who are active golfers, tennis or racquetball players, and avid bowlers may experience more pain from overuse of the elbow joint. Mild to moderate osteoarthritis is one of the main causes of a painful joint. This explains why most NFL players have gone for stem cell therapy to correct defects in their joint injuries.

Stem cell therapy for elbows may be an ideal nonsurgical alternative for those who suffer from elbow pain because of injury or pain related to osteoarthritis, or muscle sprains and strains. Traditional surgery for the elbows can be difficult because of the complexity of the joint, and it often requires a painful, lengthy rehabilitation process to restore the full range of motion. Before making the leap into a surgical procedure, you need to consider having a stem cell treatment as that may have better results.

Mesenchymal stem cells in joint disease and repair

OsteoathritisThe mesenchymal have been known for their unique abilities. They are able to form other body cells and tissues and so can be used to replace the worn out tissues at the joints. Apart from their ability to form new cell types that can replace the worn out cartilage, the mesenchymal stem cells have a potential for articular cartilage regeneration, however this favorable research is centered on surgical implant of the stem cells. Now doctors have found that for the treatment of generalized cartilage loss in osteoarthritis, an alternative delivery strategy would be more appropriate and that is injection therapy. The advantage of the injection therapy is that there will be no need for any surgery.

The adverse effects of osteoarthritis can never be overemphasized, those who have fallen victims know much of the nightmares it causes, and the pain that these patients have to endure can never be overlooked. The research surrounding an effective treatment for osteoarthritis has yet to find an approved pharmacological intervention, biologic therapy or procedure that prevents the progressive destruction of the osteoarthritis joint. Stem cell injections for osteoarthritis can help maintenance healthy tissues by acting as repair cells or to reduce inflammation. The injection of Mesenchymal stem cells has produced promising outcomes in preclinical models of joint disease. It is hoped that the use of stem cell therapy in treatment of osteoarthritis of the elbow will be of help to those already suffering from the disease.

Finally, degenerative diseases like osteoarthritis have debilitated many people. In spite of the fact that it has never been treated in the past, it is hoped that with stem cell therapy, osteoarthritis will be a treatable disease. 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.

Stem Cell Therapy for Osteoarthritis of the Elbows

 

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Inflammatory Neurodegenerative Disorders

April 23, 2015

Adipose Derived Stem Cells to Treat Inflammatory Neurodegenerative Disorders

There are very many neurodegenerative disorders that we humans have to battle with. Some of these neurodegenerative disorders are inflammatory. Inflammation is a common feature in some neurodegenerative diseases such Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and multiple sclerosis. Microglial cells, the resident macrophages of the central nervous system, become chronically activated and mediate pathology inducing inflammatory responses. This inflammation may be initiated as an immune response and while it does not cause the disease, it has been shown to aggravate the progression of the inflammatory neurodegenerative diseases. Contrary to what many people think, inflammation does not initiate neurodegenerative disease but there is evidence that chronic inflammation involving microglia and astrocytes contribute to disease progression. The inflammatory response has been implicated in Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and MS. Currently, a major question is whether inhibition of the inflammatory response has the ability to reverse or slow the symptoms of disease.

Typically, inflammation is a defense mechanism against diverse insults, designed to remove noxious agents and to inhibit their detrimental effects. It consists of an astounding range of molecular and cellular mechanisms and an intricate network of controls to keep them in check. In neurodegenerative diseases, inflammation may be triggered by the accumulation of proteins with abnormal conformations or by signals emanating from injured neurons. Given the multiple functions of many inflammatory factors, it has been difficult to pinpoint their roles in specific pathological situations. Studies of genetically modified mice and of molecular pathways in activated glia are beginning to shed light on this issue. Through different studies it has been found that altered expression of different inflammatory factors can either aggravate or counteract neurodegenerative processes. Normally, inflammation should be beneficial but for some reasons inflammation in neurodegenerative disorders can form grounds for aggravation of these neurodegenerative disorders and so a viable means of treatment that should suppress inflammation and inhibit progression of these disorders should be utilized to help in treatment of these inflammatory neurodegenerative disorders.

Adipose Derived Stem Cells

Inflammation and Parkinson’s disease

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a common neurodegenerative disease that is characterized by the degeneration of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra pars compacta. According to a new study, there are markers of inflammation in the cerebrospinal fluid that protects the brain and spine from injury. This study linked these markers to symptoms like fatigue, depression and anxiety in patients with Parkinson’s disease and it is hoped that this discovery may make the treatment of this disease much easier.

This study was led by Lena Brundin who is an associate professor at the College of Human Medicine at Michigan State University. This research was carried out as part of a team from Lund University in Sweden, Skåne University Hospital in Sweden and the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine in Jacksonville, Florida. The team measured a number of inflammatory markers in fluid samples of patients with Parkinson’s and in a control group without the disease.

“The degree of neuroinflammation was significantly associated with more severe depression, fatigue, and cognitive impairment even after controlling for factors such as age, gender and disease duration.” Prof. Brundin told the press.

However this is not the first study to link brain inflammation to Parkinson’s disease, there are previous studies that have linked it to non-motor symptoms like depression, fatigue and cognitive impairment. These past studies have indicated that inflammation in the brain could drive cell death, and drugs that target this process could offer new treatments to slow progression of the disease. For instance, a study published as far back as 2007 suggested that brain cell death in Parkinson’s may be reduced by blocking enzyme activity.

According to Prof. Brundin most of these previous studies looking at inflammatory markers in the cerebrospinal fluid of Parkinson’s patients have involved only small numbers of patients, often without comparing them to healthy controls. Despite this view, it is still evident that brain inflammation still has a role to play in aggravating neurodegenerative disorders.

Inflammation and Multiple Sclerosis

Multiple sclerosis is a disease of the Central Nervous System that is characterized by demyelination and inflammation. In a nutshell, MS is often described as an inflammatory demyelinating condition. Myelin is a layer of fatty that covers the nerves maintaining their health and flexibility. It is demyelination that causes spasms that are common with MS patients.

Adipose Derived Stem Cells

Adipose derived stem cell therapy for these inflammatory neurodegenerative disorders

Owing to the ability of the stem cells to differentiate many times and form different body cells, they have been used in the past to regenerate or better yet to replace damaged cells in the body and this has made them a target for treatment of vey many conditions, including neurodegenerative disorders.

The stem cell therapy is now being used to grow dopamine producing nerve cells in laboratories to aid the treatment of this disease. The stem cells are majorly used in the labs when the genetic cause of the disease is known. The disease destroys cells but through stem cells therapy, the damaged cells can be replaced by healthy new cells of the same type. There are also researchers who have since done extensive work in applicability of stem cell therapy in treating PD. through research it has been shown that by releasing various kinds of noxious factors such as cytokines or proinflammatory molecules microglia may damage CNS cells. The stem cell therapy can be used to restore the parts of the nervous system that are destroyed as a result of release of cytokines in inflammatory neurodegenerative disorders.

Finally, Neurodegenerative disorders have debilitating effects on patients and should be fought by all means. This is why we at AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center are committed to availing help to patients by availing integrative and safe treatment options to all our patients. In case you are troubled by any of these disorders, just call on Dr. Dalal Akoury (MD) today and begin your journey to victory against neurodegenerative disorders

Adipose Derived Stem Cells to Treat In Inflammatory Neurodegenerative Disorders

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Stem Cell Therapy for Huntington’s disease

March 26, 2015

The Use of Stem Cell Therapy for Huntington’s disease

Huntington's diseaseHuntington’s disease was first described in medical literature in 1872 by Dr. George Huntington. He was a physician from Long Island, New York. This disease mainly affects nerve cells in the brain called medium spiny neurons (MSNs). The MSNs are crucial in the brain as they receive and coordinate information from other neurons in the brain to control movement of the body, face and eyes. Huntington’s disease is hereditary neurodegenerative disease that affects about 1 out of every 10,000 people in the USA, Europe and Australia. This disease causes involuntary movements of the face and body and dementia. The symptoms of this disease may begin mildly but they worsen with time eventually it will make the affected individual totally dependent on other people for help. Till now there are no known effective treatments for this disease.

This disease leads to damage and destruction of the crucial MSNs. however it doesn’t affect the MSNs only, other types of neurons in the brain that apparently are also affected by this disease are the cortical neurons. This disease is common in adults and patients will mostly notice the first symptom of the disease when they are aged 35-50 years old. In the beginning the disease might show symptoms as weak spasmodic movements of the muscles in the face and limbs. However as the disease worsens these spasmodic movements become more evident and frequent and other symptoms appear. Patients are affected in different ways, but symptoms may include difficulty speaking and swallowing, dementia or trouble concentrating.

As mentioned earlier Huntington’s disease is hereditary and children with an affected parent have a 50% chance of inheriting the genetic fault that causes the disease. This fault occurs in the gene that holds the code for a protein called Huntingtin. The defective gene causes the body to make a faulty, toxic version of the Huntingtin protein and this eventually results in the loss of MSNs and other neurons which worsens the health of the patient.

 

Presently, there are no accepted standard treatment of Huntington’s disease, a disease characterized by wasting away of certain nerve cells in the brain and improper muscle coordination. Despite this fact, there are therapies that have been thought of as potent enough to help in the treatment of this disease. One of the therapies mentioned is the stem cell therapy.

Currently, there is a study that has reported that stem cell therapy can be used in treating Huntington’s disease. The study published on March 15 in the journal Cell Stem Cell reports that there is a special type of brain cell created from stem cells that could help restore the muscle coordination deficits that are responsible for uncontrollable spasms, a common symptom of the disease. The researchers demonstrated that movement in mice with a Huntington’s-like condition could be restored.

Research study linking stem cells to Treatment of Huntington’s disease

The study was led by Su-Chun Zhang who is a neuroscientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Mr. Zhang is also an expert in creating various types of brain cells from human embryonic or induce pluripotent stem cells. In this research he and his team focused on GABA neurons. They worked on the GABA because of the theory that the degradation of GABA cells results in the breakdown of a vital neural circuit and loss of motor function in individuals suffering from Huntington’s disease.

According to Zhang, GABA neurons generate a vital neurotransmitter, a chemical that helps support the communication network in the brain that coordinates movement. In this study Zhang and his colleagues looked for various ways of generating large quantities of GABA neurons from human embryonic stem cells. Owing to the ability of stem cells to change shape and multiply the team hoped that the stem cells will be able to be safely integrated into the brain of a mouse model of Huntington’s disease. As they had expected the stem cells were safely integrated into the brain. The stem cells were also able to restore the damaged communication network and restore motor function.

The results of this study presents hope not only to patients but to the entire medical fraternity, he explained why they had targeted the GABA circuitry; “This circuitry is essential for motor coordination and it is what is broken in Huntington patients. The GABA neurons exert their influence at a distance through this circuit. Their cell targets are far away. Many in the field feel that successful cell transplants would be impossible because it would require rebuilding the circuitry. But what we’ve shown is that the GABA neurons can remake the circuitry and produce the right neurotransmitter.”

Huntington's diseaseThe finding of this research presents hope as they show that in the future, the stem cell therapy can be used in the treatment of the Huntington’s disease. This experiment also shows that the human brain can also be a good target for treatment of neurodegenerative diseases.

The leader of the team that conducted this research, Mr. Zhang however notes that though this research shows some success it might take some time before the stem cell therapy can be used in treating humans suffering from Huntington’s disease.

There are diseases like Huntington’s disease which still do not have known orthodox treatments; this is why here at AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center we are committed to availing the best integrative approaches to treatment of diseases. We advocate for dietary as well as natural healing to diseases wherever possible. Visit as at Myrtle Beach, South Carolina where Dr. Dalal Akoury (MD) will be of help.

The Use of Stem Cell Therapy for Huntington’s disease

 

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Facial Rejuvenation

March 24, 2015

Adipose Derived Stem Cell Therapy for Facial Rejuvenation

Facial RejuvenationBeauty is in the eye. I’d rather stop it at that rather than completing the common say. Women know this better than men do and this is why they invest so much in their appearance. Their faces ought to be at their best, glistening, moistened and generally healthy. To every woman beauty is an important factor that not only determines how she is perceived but also how she will interact with people herself. When a woman knows that she is beautiful her level of confidence is heightened, she believes in her abilities and will not be deterred by any other factor. Despite our women doing much to enhance their beauty, there is more that they can’t easily handle by themselves and needs medical assistance. There are hormones that are very essential to ensure that women are in good shape and appearance, these hormones has much to do with their weight, the glowing of the skin and their flawlessness. However as women approach 50 years of age a lot will change about them. This is because the production of these hormones will be low or will stop and their input in ensuring that women’s beauty is maintained will no longer be attended to. He names estrogen and progesterone are not new to anybody and their contributions in beauty are known. Today we are looking at another factor that can be utilized so as to help achieve beauty by rejuvenating the face: the stem cells.

Why stem cells for facial rejuvenation?

The face is exposed to all sorts of danger ranging from sunburn to degenerative diseases. As a person is growing old it has always been seen that their faces will tend to lose their lusture and flawlessness, the face will become rough, dried and discolored. This is evidence that some cells are maimed and have malfunctioned or worse still have died. The stem cells’ most popular characteristic is that they have the ability to become any type of cell in the body and so can be used to replace cells that have died or have malfunctioned and this will help restore the face leaving it beautiful and rejuvenated. Therefore ways of supplementing stem cells into the affected tissues can be utilized to ensure that the stem cells are in optimum levels so as to take care of the damaged tissues.

The adult stem cells especially the mesenchymal stem cells are good for this procedure; these stem cells can be collected from the adipose tissues of the patient. When the stem cells are withdrawn from the individual on whom they are used again, it is referred to as autologous stem cell therapy. The best thing with autologous stem cell therapy is that you do not need any donor and secondly the stem cells are from the same individual and so there are no chances of the body rejecting them. There is no risk of any dangerous reaction that may occur when the antibodies begin fighting the stem cells supplemented as foreign bodies. The stem cells are from you and can never be foreign.

Facial rejuvenation with adipose Derived stem cells does not require surgery. The procedure is safe as it avoids any incision in its quest to rejuvenate the face and leave the skin healthy. The stem cell therapy will not only replace the worn out or dead cells on the face just to restore its youthful contours but will also help in restoring the shape of the face. As mentioned earlier, aging interferes or rather degrades the skin quality, exposure to sunlight will also lead to ‘cooking of the face’ a condition known to many as sunburn, with adipose stem cells therapy, the quality of the skin can be restored and is the color irregularities that are caused by exposure to sun and other environmental factors.

facial rejuvenationAnother advantage that a patient can get when she has undergone facial rejuvenation with stem cells therapy is that she will not need some of the frequently used maintenance procedures like the botulinum toxin and cosmetic filler injections. the stem cells ability to rejuvenate the face is owed to the regenerative capacity of the mesenchymal stem cells that divide many times giving rise to highly differentiated cells of different types. Due to their importance in the regenerative medicine, of all the trillion cells in the body, the stem cells have since been regarded as the most important category of cells. They are among the few cells in the body that are specialized and have the potential to become a particular cell type and replace worn and damage cells.

The adipose or fat tissues contain large numbers of the stem cells and several studies have shown that these stem cells can be used to heal degenerative diseases as they can survive when removed from the adipose tissues and planted into affected areas where they will work by either correcting the defects in the cells or replacing the worn out cells all together. Stem cell therapy is a safe and effective approach to facial rejuvenation. When transplanted into the affected areas the adipose Derived stem cells help to restore lost fats, enhancing the volume of the face, and skin elements which would improve both the quality and texture of the skin hence improving health of the skin and beauty.

Finally, the pursuit of beauty has seen many women suffer when they chose to go for some dangerous surgeries; by choosing stem cell therapy you are choosing a safer approach. Dr. Dalal Akoury (MD), founder of the AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center Located at Myrtle Beach, North Caroline is an expert in the treatment of degenerative diseases. Call on her for help.

Adipose Derived Stem Cell Therapy for Facial Rejuvenation

 

 

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