For many years, bone marrow and organ transplants have been used to treat serious ailments. These days, regenerative medicine has excelled beyond these procedures to include stem cell therapy, which has many exciting applications in the world of health care. Here are a few things you should know about the revolutionary approach and how it can help you.

Approaches of Regenerative Medicine

In general, regenerative medicine has three approaches: rejuvenation, replacement, and regeneration. Rejuvenation involves enhancing the body’s natural healing abilities, particularly within the lungs and heart where cell division is more complex. Tissues can also be replaced using specimens acquired from either living or dead donors. This is how organ transplants work.

Regeneration is the third approach, in which new cells are directly introduced into damaged tissue. Stem cells are an example of this. Stem cells are valuable to health care because they have the ability to reproduce limitlessly, and they can replicate many different types of cells and functions. In terms of applications, cancer victims, people who’ve experienced strokes, people with Parkinson's, and those afflicted with type 1 diabetes can all be treated using stem cell therapy.

How Stem Cells Can Help You

Stem cells have shown some promise when it comes to the treatment of back pain and other ailments, at least according to early studies. In one case, people with disc injuries received bone marrow injections in the spine. Bone marrow is rich in stem cells, and the injections relieved some participants’ symptoms for up to two years. Treatments were also deemed safe for patients, with most reporting no side effects after stem cell treatment. 

In other cases, the use of amniotic stem cells has proven successful in relieving inflammation and helping reduce scar tissue. To do this, amniotic tissue is taken directly from the amniotic sac and injected into damaged tissue. The stem cells go to the target site and help your own cells regenerate the damaged tissue, promoting healing.  Amniotic stem cells also contain cytokines, which are proteins secreted by the immune system to reduce inflammation.

On the cutting edge of medicine in Cornelia, GA, Spectrum Healthcare offers innovative amniotic stem cell treatments like AmnioFix. This process utilizes a combination of amniotic and placental tissues, which are distributed directly into damaged ligaments and cartilage. These cells interact with your body during healing, reducing inflammation and relieving pain and stiffness. If you’d like to schedule an appointment to see if AmnioFix is right for you, contact a health care professional today at (706) 778-0077. To learn more about Spectrum Healthcare’s approach to regenerative medicine, visit them online.