In addition to diagnosing conditions, medical experts spend years searching for potentially alternative methods of treating these conditions. Doctors use technological advancements to test if substances once considered medically irrelevant can provide a successful alternative to traditional medical treatments.
The world is full of medically impairing conditions, and in some cases these conditions become life threatening. Treatments for medical illnesses such as leukemia, diabetes, heart disease, and spinal cord injury were once extremely limited. But as technology evolved and allowed doctors to expand their research beyond conventional options, they realized that alternative sources for potential treatments were right in front of them all along.
One alternative became common practice when doctors collected umbilical cord blood from newborn babies. Cord blood is blood leftover in the umbilical cord following a baby’s birth, which was once considered afterbirth thrown away by the attending doctors. The cord blood collection process is not invasive, and poses no significant health risk to either the mother or the newborn child.
Researchers realized that cord blood is a rich source of viable stem cells, which are capable of developing into other blood cells over time. Tests indicate that cord blood stem cells are capable of becoming fully grown red blood cells, which help distribute oxygen throughout the body, as well as disease-fighting immune cells. These cells have the potential to help a patient with leukemia, heart disease, and dozens of other illnesses improve the chances their condition will go into remission.
Unlike bone marrow cells, a baby’s cord blood stem cells remain a viable genetic match to that child at any point throughout his/her life. Due to genetics, other members of the family are also likely to benefit from the cord blood should the need arise.
As a result, doctors routinely advise families to register with cord blood banking facilities as a precaution. Once the cord blood is banked, the sample is available as its own form of health insurance should the need ever arise in a child’s life.
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Image is from The Microsoft Office Clipart Collection
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Gary Parkinson
A young and creative writer, Gary is a very opinionated person who is not afraid to speak his mind. He uses writing to express his thoughts, and feels attached to his work. Gary believes that an article or a post is both an expression of the writer’s beliefs, but it should also challenge the reader to develop an opinion of their own. As a result, Gary expresses his own opinion within his writing, while leaving room for readers to agree or disagree with thoughts of their own.
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