At a recent medical symposium at Harvard Medical School, stem cells were described as the “penicillin of the twenty-first century”. This is proving to be true. Stem cells have the capacity to rejuvenate and restore damaged tissue and to halt the progression of some neurological disorders.
It is anticipated that in thirty years, stem cells will become the nucleus of mainstream medicine. There will be a time when stem cell banks will be as common as blood banks. A patient will have a stroke, a heart attack, or a spinal cord injury, and the hospital will call up the stem cell bank and request neural stem cells, or heart cells or whatever the appropriate cells are for the patient’s particular condition. Unfortunately, that time is not here yet.
There are now a few clinical trials being conducted in the United States for some conditions. However, each clinical trial treats only a few patients with very narrow inclusion criteria. Unfortunately, these clinical trials are all using only one type of stem cell, and while there will be benefits derived by the use of one cell, the majority of conditions will need multiple types of stem cells to realize the optimum benefit of stem cell therapy. The FDA moves very slowly and cautiously, so for those patients who have exhausted their options with mainstream medicine, and cannot wait thirty years for the United States to catch up with other countries, their only option is to seek stem cell treatment outside of the United States.
This website will provide information about stem cells, stem cell therapy and the options that are currently available.