For pain doctor Mark Wallace, arthritis meant his hobby of competitive swimming was becoming too painful.
“Every stroke was like an ice pick in my shoulder,” said Wallace, chief of the division of pain medicine at UC San Diego. Cortisone shots relieved the pain for about a month, and then it would return.
For philanthropist Denny Sanford, even walking was too painful. He sought relief for his arthritis with a right knee replacement, but that didn’t work well. So to treat his other knee, he looked for an alternative.
Wallace and Sanford said they found that relief with stem cells; Wallace at UC San Diego using cells from his bone marrow, and Sanford at a clinic in Germany using cells from his fat tissue. Their cases — particularly Wallace’s — illustrate how the use of stem cells to relieve joint pain is becoming an accepted part of orthopedic medicine.
With millions of baby boomers experiencing the miseries of arthritis, the need is great and growing.
Scott Wolf, CEO and Director of Research of Grace Century comments: “Regenerative medicine is gradually becoming part of mainstream healthcare and it is only a matter of time until it becomes essential. So watch our projects in this space.”
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