Health Advantages

Stem cells have helped dogs and horses through tendon, joint, and ligament problems because of their own stem cells. Stem cells have treated 1,700 dogs and 3,600 horses for these problems. The stem cells could be used to help humans with medical problems too. Scientists have learned that there is a large amount of stem cells in fat that we already use to heal minor bruises and cuts. There are some medical problems that do not get completely healed by stem cells because they stop trying to heal so they can continue waiting for another injury. Arthritis is one example, because the stem cells stop healing the joint injury, and that causes pain. There used to only be medications that help to deal with the pain, but now, with stem cells, doctors can actually heal injuries. Soon, stem cells will be able to cure Multiple Sclerosis.

Here is an example of someone who has already been treated with stem cells:

In 2004, there was enough known about stem cells to repair a 7 year old girl’s skull in Germany.  19 square inches of skull had to be repaired. This was the first surgery of its kind. The girl had gone to several doctors over the course of 2 years and eventually found Doctor Howaldt. He knew that this problem would not be solved by grafts from her bones. He decided to use stem cells mixed with bits of bone. After a few weeks, the girl’s skull was completely fixed. The bone was taken from her pelvis and the fat from her buttocks. The bone was cut into chips about 1/10 of an inch thick and stem cells were extracted from the fat. The bone chips were placed in the gap of her skull, and the stem cells were placed on top of them. The bone cells caused the stem cells to produce more bone cells.