Informative Essay: Stem Cell Therapy

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Stem Cell Therapy Special Topic Essay Stem cell therapy, also known as regenerative medication, has been an increasingly utilized therapy in recent years. The cells that are added to the body interact with the surrounding cells, making the regenerative process available to begin the healing process of the cells at the site of injury (R. (2014)). These therapies are used to heal common sport injuries, knee issues, diseases, arthritis, and many other crippling effects that may occur in the human body (R. (2014)). Many of the stem cells that are used from the therapies can come from bone marrow, fat, and blood from the patient or even cells from more controversial areas such human embryos. Stem cell therapy has shown a lot of promising effects, …show more content…
After interviewing Dr. Santos about stem cell therapies and their importance, I was told one of his best success stories. Shirley Smith from Greene, Iowa had Parkinson’s disease and eventually lost her ability to walk. When Shirley heard about the successful results from stem cell therapy, she decided to try it to see if this therapy could in fact help her walk again. This was Dr. Santos’s first Parkinson’s patient, so he was eager to try his best to help her. The first treatment was given to her by taking stem cells from her abdomen by doing a liposuction and injecting those cells into her spine. After this treatment, could set into her spine it showed a little improvement by giving her a little strength in her legs. After seeing the effect, Shirley was ready to get her second operation. Following the second treatment, they used umbilical cord stem cells and injected those into her spine. This showed a little more improvement, after a week of letting the stem cells settle into her spinal cord. When this happened a miracle soon became relevant and Shirley, who had previously lost her ability to walk, was now able to stand up and walk independently again ( M. (2016, August 05). Greene Parkinson’s ). These stories highlight the importance of stem cell therapy and how incredible the outcomes can be for the patients. Stem cell therapy can regenerate cells and heal diseases …show more content…
From receiving consent from the donors of the human embryos, researchers and scientists could use them as a source of fresh stem cells, the stem cells would come from the early-stage embryos (Staff, M. C. (2016)). Some problems may occur where the stem cells that were extracted from the human embryos may grow irregularly or specialize in different cell types. With these issues of using human embryos, many people find this practice unethical. Stem cell therapy has more advantages than disadvantages. The disadvantages of stem cell therapies are that the therapy is very expensive. After interviewing Dr. Santos, it was found out that regular blood and liposuctions cost around a thousand dollars and the cost only rises for increasingly risky and complex procedures. Even though this disadvantage can be very crippling, the advantages are worth

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