A look at stem cell therapy trends

Stem cell therapies have been with us for about 30 years now. For some conditions such as leukemia and lymphoma, it is a vital tool. In fact, bone marrow transplants were one of the earliest forms of stem cell therapy to be proven to work.

It was the success of this treatment that lead, in part, to research being stepped up into Stem Cell therapy treatment to prevent and treat all kinds of diseases. 

Today, this medical discipline is reaching maturity and is starting to make a huge difference to people’s health. Here are just examples of this and others that are well on their way to becoming mainstream treatment options.

Using stem cells to treat erectile dysfunction

One of the most promising stem cell treatment options is that which is used to treat erectile dysfunction. Numerous studies, including this recent one, have shown it to be effective for many men. 

This is especially good news for those men who cannot use tablets and injections because of other health issues. The fact that the treatment enables a man to achieve an erection in a natural and unplanned way means that the demand for this form of stem cell therapy is likely to be very high. 

Men will also be attracted by the fact that in most clinics it is their own stem cells that are used for the treatment. This means there are no ethical issues for them to worry about.

Stem cell therapies that treat pain

Millions of people, across the world, suffer from chronic pain. In many cases, it is so bad that they are unable to lead normal lives.

For decades, clinicians have been injecting anti-inflammatory products, pain meds and local anesthetics into painful joints and other parts of the body. Delivering medication directly to the site of the pain has helped some patients quite a bit.

So, research into doing something similar with stem cells got underway. Years later that research has borne fruit. It has proven to be helpful in slowing the rate of degeneration of bones and tissue, especially for degenerative disc disease. But, it is very important to realize that this form of treatment is still very much at the research stage.

It is still early days

Stem cell therapies are gradually going from being viewed with some suspicion to becoming recognized medical treatments. However, there are still some unscrupulous clinics out there who are claiming that this form of therapy can cure any disease. As things stand, it can’t. 

So, patients still need to be cautious when seeking stem cell therapies. They need to do their research and make sure that the clinician is fully trained and is offering treatments that have been proven to be effective.

In time proper regulation will be put in place and fully supervised clinical trials will be done. Until that happens patients will need to rely on local research and use their own judgment when deciding whether to give stem cell therapy a try. Increasingly, people are deciding to do so.