Stem cell therapy is one of the most exciting and rapidly advancing fields in modern medicine. It offers the potential to repair, regenerate, and restore damaged tissues in ways that traditional treatments cannot. To understand why stem cell therapy has become so widely discussed, it’s important to start with the basics: what stem cells are and how they work inside the body.
What Are Stem Cells?
Stem cells are the way our bodies repair and regenerate. They are the only thing that regenerates us. Stem cells are the body’s master cells—primitive, powerful cells capable of becoming many different types of specialized cells. Unlike typical cells that have one specific function (like skin cells or muscle cells), stem cells can differentiate, meaning they can transform into different cell types depending on what the body needs.
Key Properties of Stem Cells
- Surveillance Stem cells spend the vast majority of their time as Surveillance or Satellite cells, which monitor conditions in their immediate area. When there is an injury or damage, they are activated and transform into full blown, active stem cells.
- Self-Renewal
Stem cells can divide and create more stem cells, allowing a constant source for repair and regeneration.
- Differentiation
They can develop into various types of cells, including bone, cartilage, nerve, muscle, blood, and others.
- Regeneration
Stem cells help replace damaged or dead cells, making them crucial for healing and maintaining tissue health.
Types of Stem Cells Used in Therapy
Several types of stem cells are used in research and medical treatments, each with its own purpose:
1. Adult Stem Cells (Mesenchymal Stem Cells – MSCs). There are two primary sources of Mesenchymal Stem Cells (AKA Medical Signaling Cells): Those harvested from your own body or that of another, and those harvested from Umbilical Cords of full term, healthy, C-section deliveries.
- Found throughout the body, primarily on the outside of our blood vessels as well as in bone marrow, fat tissue, and umbilical cord tissue. At any given time, some will also be circulating in the blood.
- MSCs are the only type being used in regenerative treatments
- Known for reducing inflammation and supporting tissue repair
2. Embryonic Stem Cells
- Very powerful in research, but tightly regulated due to ethical issues
- Not used in standard medical treatments by any doctor I’ve encountered.
- Outside of select research settings, they are illegal to use.
3. Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (iPSCs)
- Adult cells reprogrammed back into a “stem-like” state
- Used mostly in research, disease modeling, and future therapies
What Is Stem Cell Therapy?
Stem cell therapy is a regenerative treatment that uses stem cells to repair damaged tissues, reduce inflammation, and support healing in targeted areas of the body. It is used in medical clinics, orthopedic medicine, sports injury repair, and experimental treatments for various diseases.
In simple terms:
Stem cell therapy sends powerful repair cells directly to the area that needs healing. Remember what I said earlier about Medicinal Signalling Cells? The researcher who coined the term mesenchymal stem cell now proposes renaming them to this newer, more accurate name.
How Stem Cell Therapy Works
1. Finding the Problem Area
Doctors identify the tissue or organ that is damaged—such as a knee joint, spinal disc, nerve, muscle, brain, heart, or other organ.
2. Delivering Stem Cells & Or Exosomes to the Target
Stem cells are injected, infused, or delivered into the affected area. These cells act like “biological instructions,” telling the body to begin repairing itself. They also contain exosomes that have not yet been released. Exosomes are extracellular vesicles produced and released by stem cells. Actually, all cells produce exosomes to some degree, but the ones made by stem cells are special. They contain repair materials and instructions, including a couple of hundred growth factors, cell signalling molecules, and messenger RNA. All of these substances help to stimulate and support the regeneration process.
3. Reducing Inflammation
Stem cells release molecules that calm and reduce inflammation & modulate pain. Degeneration, injury, and inappropriate inflammation all contribute to pain and further degeneration.
4. Triggering Regeneration
Stem cells help stimulate new tissue growth by:
- Enhancing collagen production
- Supporting blood vessel formation
- Replacing damaged cells with healthier ones
5. Ongoing Repair
The benefits can continue for weeks or months as the cells work to rebuild tissue and balance the immune response.
What Conditions Can Stem Cell Therapy Help?
Current uses and research focus on:
- Joint pain and cartilage damage
- Tendon and ligament injuries
- Back pain and disc degeneration
- Autoimmune disorders
- Neurological dysfunctions and degeneration (such as Dementia, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and Huntington’s diseases).
- Heart and vascular repair
- Some cosmetic and anti-aging applications
Here’s the kicker: despite being used successfully in ‘modern medicine’ for over 65 years, they have only been approved for several types of cancer. Most people aren’t aware of this because it went by and still goes by a different name, Bone Marrow Transplant. That is simply a relatively low dose stem cell procedure that clearly works.
What’s taking so long to be approved for the 70 or so things that they are being used to treat around the world? Simple, money. Stem cells are naturally occurring and produced by our bodies; therefore, they cannot be patented. No patent means that no one will spend the one to two billion dollars needed to take them through the FDA approval process for every application.
There have been well over 70,000 published studies on stem cell and/or exosome therapy.
Why Stem Cells Are Considered a Breakthrough
Stem cells don’t just mask symptoms; they aim to repair the underlying cause of the problem by regenerating the damaged tissues. This makes them the major focus of regenerative medicine, offering possibilities that go far beyond what traditional treatments can achieve.
To learn more about whether stem cell therapy might help you, contact us. Stem Regen / Age Reversal Technology Center, 941-806-5511. Website ARTC.health.