Why Choose Regenerative Medicine?
Death is a part of life. We lose our loved ones to accidents or disease. But what is worse is living in pain and being unable to do anything but hope for a miracle. When you or your loved one lose an organ or tissue to an injury or disease, you are motivated to find a solution to this problem. Regenerative medicine does just that.
What is Regenerative Medicine?
Some parts of our body repair and heal by themselves while some do not. Several species like the salamanders and planarians regrow a missing or damaged part of their bodies. This process is called regeneration. Some human organs, also regenerate when they are damaged. Regeneration can happen using tissue-specific stem cells or without stem cells at all.
Regenerative medicine is that branch of medicine that develops methods to repair, replace or regrow diseased or damaged tissues, organs, or cells as well as normalize congenital disabilities. Unlike the liver and skin, other organs in the human body do not regenerate. The goal of regenerative medicine is to find ways for different organs and tissues to repair and regrow. Regenerative medicine attempts to restore the structure and function of damaged tissue and organs. It includes the generation and use of stem cells, tissue engineering, as well as the production of artificial organs.
What Does Regenerative Medicine Consist Of?
There are four concentrations in the field of regenerative medicine which are:
Medical device and artificial organs
Do you know what spina bifida means? It occurs when the spinal cord and vertebrae fail to develop properly in the womb. Most people that have spina bifida will have continence issues. It is a congenital disability in which a person must manually empty his or her bladder. This inability to urinate at-will also leads to life-threatening damage to the kidney. Regenerative Medicine is attempting to make life easier and is working to improve the quality of life for several patients. Several children and teenagers have received urinary bladders grown from their cells, the first-ever transplant of a laboratory-grown organ placed into a human.people all over the world.
Tissue engineering and biomaterials
Some diseases are so destructive that the only cure is to give patients entirely new organs. The goal is to maintain the body in such a way that there will be no need to replace whole organs. Organ donation has increased over the years and saves lives. If you or your loved one needs an organ, you will be waiting for years to find a suitable donor. You or your loved one may receive an organ from another donor, but the body may reject it. The best example of tissue engineering is the successful creation of heart valves from human cells that prevents a patient from undergoing a heart transplant.
Cellular therapy
Stem cells are a natural mechanism for healing tissues that are diseased, damaged, or destroyed due to injury or disease. Stem cells which are abundant in every person can help repair the damaged parts of the body. There are adult stem cells that are located throughout the body, especially in the adipose tissue. Additionally, the umbilical cord of a new-born baby, that is usually discarded, contains blood with many stem cells. The blood can be stored in blood banks or donated to those in need.
Clinical translation
Regenerative medicine is making significant progress each day. Clinical translation is a promising therapy that is not widely used in present times. It uses healthy cells from the patient’s own body as a cure. It is a form of regenerative medicine that can cure diabetes, stroke, heart disease, and several other severe health conditions.
As a doctor, Dr. Rafiq Rahimi hopes to cure the below with the help of regenerative medicine:
- Liver and lung disease
- Heart and blood vessel weakness
- Bone, muscle, cartilage, and tendon repair
Benefits of Regenerative Medicine
Traditional doctors treat symptoms of severe disease with medication, transplants, and lifestyle change, which decreases your quality of life. In addition to that, it is likely the condition will return. Regenerative medicine will go beyond the symptoms to provide a permanent cure. The goal is to complete the healing using your own cells, blood, and tissue.