Healing in the News: Amazing New Health Advancements

By implementing everything from impressive technology, to stem cells, researchers continue finding treatments for a host of medical conditions. The amazing advances in modern medicine offer hope to millions of people suffering from a vast array of maladies. Stem cells play a large part in many current and future treatment methods.

Mending Broken Hearts

When individuals suffer myocardial infarctions, more commonly known as heart attacks, the lack of oxygen causes tissue death and scarring. However, a recent study performed at Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute discovered that stem cells greatly reduced the scarring, and enabled hearts to grow new healthy tissue. The researchers learned that cardiac patients treated with stem cells experienced up to a 50% reduction of scarring that commonly follow a heart attack. The healing occurred within 12 months after receiving the treatment. This remarkable therapy also decreases the chances of future heart failure.

Skin Spray

Using a healthy skin sample about the size of a postage stamp, physicians combine the tissue with enzymes found in pigs to create an aerosol method of replacing the skin in burn victims. By spraying the preparation directly onto the affected site, the cells begin rapidly reproducing and eventually create new skin that has the capability of covering areas comparable to that of the size of a page from a book.

DIY Lab Grown Body Parts

From tracheas to urethras and bladders, using stem cells donated from the patient, physicians now have the ability to recreate certain tissues. Physicians first create a mold or supporting structural device made from biodegradable material. Using the patient’s own cells, technicians add the donated cells to the structure. The cells reproduce and grow around the structure, creating the tissue of choice. This option eliminates the possibility of tissue rejection or waiting for a suitable donor.

Headache Relief

Physicians at the Cleveland Clinic devised a means of controlling cluster headaches via remote control technology. The researchers developed a surgical implant measuring about the size of an almond. Surgeons implant the technology behind the upper jaw. When headaches occur, using a remote control pressed to the cheek, the patient stimulates the implant with radio frequencies that eliminated the discomfort. Research continues and the team is currently working on the device for treating migraines.

Acne Treating Viruses

Leaving many scarred, acne remains a problem for adolescents and adults alike. However, researchers are taking treatment to a whole new level with the help of harmless viruses. The bacteria fighting viruses used, commonly reside within the surface of the skin. By increasing the number, scientists found that the virus invaded the offending bacteria, which causes the microbe to self-destruct. Researchers developed a topical cream filled with the necessary virus. By applying the cream to areas affected by acne, bacteria die and the skin begins healing.

While the human body continuously produce stem cells, in the event of certain disease processes or treatments, bone marrow may suffer damage. Having another resource of stem cells from facilities like familycord gives patients another alternative and a chance to fight dozens of formerly untreatable medical conditions.