Stem Cells : Future of Medicine
With advancement in Medical technology, Stem Cells are touted to emerge as tomorrow’s pills─ yes live cells will rejuvenate the diseased organs and tissue systems and in not so distant a future, will even regrow them entirely. The future inched in closer when President Barack Obama overturned an important medical research policy of Bush regime by ending restrictions on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research which is considered crucial for the development of new medical treatments. It is a miracle waiting in the wings to arise sooner than later. The glimpse of the miracle can be had in the case of Kamini Patel who recovered from a terminal heart condition after having stem cell therapy in Shalby under the able guidance of Dr Shalin Thakore.
Shalby Stem Cell Therapy :
Seeing her now, it would be difficult to believe that 33 year old Kamini Patel, a housewife and mother, was on the verge of dying a few years ago. Six days after her baby was born Kamini developed severe breathlessness. She suffered from Dilated Cardiomyopathy – a condition in which her Ejection Fraction (EF), a parameter to measure the performance of the heart was only 4% (A normal healthy individual’s EF is about 60%). The breathlessness was so severe that all she could do was sit. She could neither walk, move or even sleep because her breathlessness worsened with any activity.
The Stem Cell Therapy involved harvesting stem cells by processing the blood which took approximately four days. The Stem Cells were delivered to her sick heart muscles through a process similar to coronary angiography by passing a catheter from an artery of her thigh into the heart. Within 10 days her EF increased to 15% and she was able to walk and within seven days Kamini was able to sleep without discomfort. The stem cells had saved her from sure death.
Stem Cell as Panacea:
Diabetes, cancer, heart ailments, Alzheimer's--all are deadly and often incurable diseases but stem cells will soon relegate them to history. These aren't the only conditions that stem cells have the potential to cure but also other diseases of kidney, Parkinson, spinal paralysis and severe burns etc. Substituting deceased brain cells with healthy new ones could cure Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and stroke-related damage. Similarly replenishing dead pancreatic cells with new insulin-producing islet cells could banish diabetes or injecting fresh liver cells could totally rejuvenate a sick liver. The list of potential cures is almost unending.
Although it may sound like Sci-fi, predictions of how stem cells cure a myriad of diseases are based upon solid evidence. The unique case of Kamini in Shalby is a case in point. Stem cells from a variety of sources have shown amazing potential in animals and in the lab Stem cells probably are realization of the mythical stories about panacea or the ‘elixir of life’ that we all have encountered in fables and mythological tales. Only now they are turning out to be so real.
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