Stem Cell Research - Will This Be The Long Awaited Cure For Arthritis?
For anyone desperate for arthritis pain relief, stem cells may be the answer to the long awaited cure for arthritis. Now I am not talking about embryonic stem cells. This can be a controversial issue and is best left to other forums.
Rather I am talking about using a patient?s own stem cells to grow new tissue which can be used to replace that damaged by arthritis.
According to The Australian Readers Digest (March 2006) a research team at Australia?s Newcastle Hunter Medical Research Institute is conducting clinical trials on severely ill coronary patients. In the trials, bone marrow is extracted from the patient and specialist stem cells are isolated from the marrow.
These stem cells are then cultured into billions of cells over a period of six to eight weeks and then injected back into the patient?s heart muscle to prompt new blood vessel growth. Some success is also reported in restoring sight, growing skin and regenerating livers.
But the big news for arthritis sufferers is that Genzyme Biosurgery in Massachusetts has grown human knee cartilage in a
laboratory.
How does this impact on arthritis sufferers?
Because stem cells appear to have the ability to regenerate damaged tissue and bone it appears that the long awaited arthritis pain relief cure may be more than a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel.
?Stem Cell Therapies? report that some types of stem cells are having ?significant effects on a variety of autoimmune type of problems such as rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, lupus ?? etc.
As with most areas of stem cell research, the treatment of arthritis and rheumatoid arthritis is early days. But most researchers suggest that stem cells appear to hold good potential for regenerating damaged arthritic tissue, although they caution that the long term behaviour of implanted stem cells in joints needs further research.
So although it appears that although there are still some years of research ahead, arthritis sufferers at long last have some hope that arthritis pain relief is in sight.
In the meantime it?s important to do what you can now to help yourself. Glucosamine is reported to be having good results by helping to rebuild damaged cartilage.
Maintaining mobility is especially important for arthritis sufferers and exercise should be part of your daily routine.
Eating the correct diet is important as it has been suggested that some foods can trigger arthritis pain while others may provide arthritis pain relief. A correct diet will also lead to loss of excess weight, taking pressure off arthritic joints.
To read more about how glucosamine and diet can help click on the link in the resource box below.
