Advances in the care of the aging athlete
Last year he couldn’t ski because of a degenerative left knee arthritic process and the inability to hold a ski pole in his left hand because of an arthritic wrist. In my Blog last week, I told you I was off to ski in Vail with wife, daughter and granddaughter, meeting up with my patient/ friend/ skiing companion who had undergone a Bone Marrow Aspirate/Stem Cell intervention to knee and wrist 12 weeks ago. Not only did we ski, we returned to the thrilling days of yester year skiing as hard as at age 40 while throwing caution to the wind.
Again and again, new patients tell me that the word in the orthopedic community for stem cells is “too soon, you need a joint replacement”. This year, the Stem cell for Life Foundation meeting this April in Rome, has a line-up of celebrities who will moderate the conference Including Merideth Vieira of the Today Show, Bill Hemmer of Fox News, and Peggy Noonan of the Wall Street Journal. Also included will be Tommy Thompson-former Governor and HHS Chief, Norm Coleman-Former Senator, Minnesota, and William Hurlbut-Former Member, President’s Council on Bioethics. Dr Centeno , my Regenexx, partner will be participating . Is it time for the orthopedic community to stop nay saying and start listening?
Stem Cells are unique in that they have the potential to develop into many different cell types in the body, but they also retain the ability to produce more stem cells, a process termed self-renewal. Adult, Bone Marrow derived Stem Cells are able to differentiate into bone, synovium, capsule, ligament, tendon and cartilage. While the promise of all stem cells for use in future therapies via scaffold building, tissue engineering, and induced pluripotent stem cells, is exciting, our clinical research and anecdote to date confirms a place now for bone marrow concentrate in relieving the pain, restoring the motion, returning the patient to improved functional capacity, and maybe even replacing the cartilage all adversely affected by Osteoarthritis.
If you are still uncertain and wonder why the barriers posed by the orthopedic community in contrast to the optimism of those of us affiliated with Regenexx, you may gain better understanding by accessing the Stem Cell Information resource at the National Institutes of Health. Better yet, call and make an appointment