Continual stress on our cells necessitates constant repair mechanisms to maintain optimal function. This delicate balance can quickly get out of control with aging or injury. Cellular damage ensues leading to tissue damage, organ damage, degeneration, and disease.
Current evidence-based and palliative treatments are increasingly unable to keep pace with patients' needs, especially given our aging population and degree of environmental exposures. There are few effective ways to treat the root causes of many diseases. Often, clinicians can only manage patients' symptoms using medications or surgery.
Regenerative medicine itself isn't new — the first bone marrow and solid-organ transplants were decades ago. But advances in developmental and cell biology, stem cell research, immunology, and other fields have unlocked new opportunities to refine existing regenerative therapies and develop novel ones focusing on functional restoration of specific tissue and/or organs, in the state where our bodies own regenerative responses do not suffice.
Regenerative medicine is a game-changing area of medicine with the potential to heal damaged tissues and organs, offering solutions for people who have conditions that were previously considered beyond repair. It is a quickly growing field of medicine, fueled by a desire to maintain health, and attractive for its anti-aging potential. It is important to note that aging affects our internal biology long before it shows on the outside.
• Rejuvenation. Rejuvenation is the action or process of giving new energy or vigor to something or the restoration of a youthful appearance to something. Cells once thought to be terminally differentiated (no longer able to divide) — including the highly specialized cells constituting the heart, lungs, and nerves — have been shown to be able to remodel and possess some ability to self-heal. Acoustic sound wave therapy for treating Erectile Dysfunction, microneedling and platelet rich plasma applications, photobiomodulation and pulsed electromagnetic frequency therapies are examples.
• Regeneration. Regeneration involves delivering specific types of cells or cell products to diseased tissues to restore tissue and organ function, or stimulating the body's own repair mechanisms to heal impaired tissue. This can be done through cell-based therapy or by using cell products, such as growth factors. Stem cell therapy, exosome therapy and PRP (platelet rich plasma) are examples.
As well as increasing life expectancy, regenerative medicine therapies could greatly improve the health-related quality of life (health-span) of many patients with chronic diseases or chronic pain.
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