Stem Cells and Heart Regeneration: Pioneering Cardiac Medicine

Greetings to my favourite science community online StemSocial,

It's @skyehi and I'm back once again to continue my series on Stem Cell and Stem Cell Therapy

In my previous blog post we discussed the role of Stem Cell Therapy as a solution for orthopedic injuries. The conclusion of that blog post was that the body has the ability to heal itself however Stem Cell therapy or procedure basically speeds up the whole process.

In today's blog post we'll be discussing the role of Stem Cell Therapy as a solution for Heart or Cardiac issues.

Original Image Source by succo from Pixabay

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So the main question for today is how can stem cells help your heart get back on track?

Heart diseases and cardiac arrests have been a major medical issue for a lot of folks especially the old folks.

Some heart issues are genetically induced on a person but I believe most of them are from habits like getting angry all the time, arguing with close friends, partners and relatives, strong anxiety over long periods of time and being quick tempered.

Hearts issues could also come from the kinds of food we eat, and a major cause would be the rise of your cholesterol levels which blocks or chokes the veins.

As the veins get choked the pressure of blood flow rises which causes the heart muscles to increase in size. The heart has to do a harder job of pumping more blood which could basically make the heart stop. That's literally how people suddenly fall down out of a cardiac arrest.

Now what happens during a heart attack is that some of the heart cells get damaged and the heart cannot function properly.

The good news is that, Stem Cell therapy can come in to fix the problem.

For the benefit of those that could not follow the previous blogs about the entirety of what Stem Cells are, let's discuss a little about it.

Getting to Know Stem Cells:

First off, what are stem cells, you may ask?

I have already extensively described them but I'll use a simple analogy.

Think of Stem Cells as the superheroes of the cell world in your body. They're very incredible and unique cells that can turn into pretty much any cell your body needs.

Every cells of your body is specialized to perform a specific task and only that task. Like for example your red blood cells are responsible for transporting oxygen from the lungs to the rest of the body.

They are designed perfectly for that job and stick to that job.

With Stem Cells like I explained in my previous blogs, they can turn into any type of cell and perform that particular cell's function. Isn't that a wonder?

This amazing and unique feature gives Stem cells the prospect of being a powerful healing solution for various medical conditions which we have discussed extensively in the previous blogs.

Now like I mentioned before, we've got two main types of Stem Cells: the ones from embryos and the grown-up ones from your own body.

We're not going to get into the ethics debate of how doctors extract embryonic stem cells from the embryo. There will be a specially dedicated blog post for that another day.

Lets just focus on the grown-up ones for today's blog because they're much less controversial and more ethical. Now we get these ones mainly from the Bone Marrows and few other parts of the body.

The Bone Marrow - Your Body's Ultimate Repair Shop

Now have you ever heard of bone marrow?

Its popularly known function is the production of blood cells however it's not just for making blood cells.

It's basically like your body's spare parts store. Like going into a garage to get some parts for your broken down car.

Medical researchers found out that stem cells from bone marrow can literally be coaxed into becoming heart cells. By coaxed it basically means made or influenced to change or transform.

This technique is a complete game changer in procedures to fix heart issues and damages.

Now imagine you've got a damaged heart, filled with anxiety and the fear of one day having a heart attack and dieing.

With Stem Cell Therapy there's an actual solution.

What the doctors do is to take some of these stem cells from your bone marrow or the bone marrow of a donor and put them where they're needed in the body. This process is very similar to how blood transfusion is done .

With Stem Cell Therapy, the damaged heart muscles can be fixed or the dead heart cells will be replaced.

Getting Stem Cells from Skin Cells

Now here's another cool way of getting Stem cells.

You know those skin cells you've got on your skin? Medical researchers and scientists can actually reprogram the skin cells into what they call "induced pluripotent stem cells" or iPSCs for short. These iPSCs can then become heart muscle cells.

So it's basically Skin Cell To Stem Cell to Heart Muscle.

It's like turning a regular foot soldier into a heart healer. Like a regular soldier trains in the paramedic squad.

So if you have heart issues, the doctors could actually use your skin cells to help fix the damaged heart muscles.

Let's me give you real-life scenarios to understand the wonders of this therapy.

A patient Bouncing Back from a Heart Attack

Imagine a man named Frederick had a heart attack, so his heart's taken a hit. He probably has a lot of damaged heart muscles and dead cells.

The doctors might use stem cell therapy to help his heart recover.

What they do is to take some of Fredrick's stem cells or they take the stem cells from the body of a good donor.

Through a careful transfusion procedure, they send the stem cells into Frederick's body as reinforcements to repair the damaged tissues of the heart.

Fredrick's heart now gets a chance to bounce back, and he gets a second shot at a healthier life.

This increases the chances of people recovering from heart issues.

A Much Better Start for Little Hearts

Now, think about babies born with wonky hearts. Here's the real truth about myself, I'm a twin and unfortunately during child birth, the positioning was not set right until it was a bit too late. I had a few complications with my birth while my brother was basically ok.

I came out with a weak heart but thankfully it got better and I'm perfectly fine like nothing ever happened. This could have ended in fatal way but I was graced with life.

With some babies the unfortunate case of fatality occurs. It's really tough.

But stem cell treatments or therapy could step in to make things better. With the Stem Cell therapy, the doctors can quickly and effectively fix up those tiny hearts helping kids to grow up healthier and happier.

The challenges involved in Stem Cell therapy

I'm not gonna lie, there are some challenges to tackle with worldwide adoption of Stem Cell Therapy.

In yesterday's blog post about Stem Cell Therapy as solution for Orthopedic injuries, one reader @ireti made a good comment about how difficult it will be to come by such sophisticated procedures.

He said this;

Stem cells sound like a very great option, better than the surgeries, but they seem like they won't be easy to come by too. - ireti

Indeed the world of science and technology would definitely need more time to advance enough to make Stem Cell Therapy more accessible and affordable for all.

Big trials are happening to ensure these treatments are safe and really do the trick without any complications.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read today's blog post as well. I hope you enjoyed this one and found it both informative and intriguing.

As always my blog posts are open for questions and any comment related to the blog topic. I would be glad to respond to it.

Have a lovely day and catch you next time om StemSocial. Goodbye ❤️

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