Stem cells have been making waves for a while now and continue to make big changes in the world of medicine thanks to advancement in things like genetic reprogramming and also Wharton’s Jelly. It’s become a beacon of hope in regenerative medicine, but before you go jumping on the bandwagon, know that it’s important to stay realistic.
One of the most important questions to ask yourself before you invest in stem cell treatment is how long does stem cell therapy take?
To help you understand how long the treatment takes to work, let’s first get into how stem cell treatments work in the first place.
What is Stem Cell Therapy?
Let’s start with what are stem cells, what they do, and what makes them so special. In simplest terms, stem cells are the building blocks of all cells. Embryonic stem cells, which we only have when we are embryos, have the potential to become any of the cells in the body. As we age, we do still have stem cells, but they’re a bit more locked into their own roles. A bone marrow transplant, for example, where stem cells are sourced from bone marrow, can only become other red or white blood cells.
How Does Stem Cell Therapy Work?
Stem cell treatments work by taking those stem cells, which are healthy cells, and injecting them into the patient. The method used depends on your condition, and what you need out of stem cells. Either way, once those cells in your body acclimate, they’ll start to transform into the cells needed. This helps your potentially body heal and rejuvenate, eliminating certain conditions, or at least minimizing symptoms (in the case of degenerative conditions).
As for what are stem cell injections, and what’s in them, know that it mostly is stem cells from various sources, including cord blood. There may be additional components designed to help the stem cells grow and work hard, but these will all be disclosed to you before your treatment.
Now, the sad fact is that although stem cell treatment is a regenerative medicine, it doesn’t work for everyone. That’s why not everyone who wants stem cell treatment will be a good fit. Patients’ qualification depends on various aspects, such as:
- Your overall health
- State of your immune system
- Type of disorder
- Stem cell availability
- Insurance coverage
Note, the only time you can get stem cell injections covered is if it’s a bone marrow transplant of healthy cells, and it’s for the treatment of a blood or bone marrow disease. The rest, unfortunately, must be covered out of pocket (for now).
What Is Stem Cell Therapy Used to Treat?
Stem cell therapy can be used to treat many different conditions when you go to a specialized clinic like Bioxcellerator. With us, you can get treatment for:
- Orthopedic: Osteoarthritis, Ligament and tendon tears, and fractures.
- Autoimmune: Rheumatoid arthritis and lupus
- Neurological: Multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injury, Parkinson’s disease
- Chronic pain: Degenerative Disc Disease
- And more
How Long Does It Take to Feel the Effects?
The timeline of how long does stem cell therapy take varies massively. Some patients feel better within weeks, while others may need several months to have prominent changes. Major factors that factor into how quickly you recover can include things like your overall health, your personal recovery speed, your diet, environmental factors, and, of course, the condition being treated.
In general, most patients will feel some changes in their condition within 1 to 3 months after surgery. It’s also important to remember that stem cell injections cannot work magic. Not only that, but in some cases “success” is determined beyond how you feel.
For example, using stem cell therapy to help with blood conditions may not immediately help you feel better, but it may end up with you requiring fewer transfusions in the future.
A good way to help you test if you feel effects is to monitor your condition. If you have chronic pain, create a diary and list on a set of scales how bad your pain is that day. This can be as generic or as specific as you want, though the more specific you are the more you can track changes as they go.
How Long Do the Benefits Last?
This is a difficult question to answer, because the long-term effects of stem cell treatments are still being studied. Some conditions, so far, see permanent improvements, as the stem cell treatment worked to heal the underlying cause of their condition.
With others, like osteoarthritis, you may notice the benefits you previously experienced start to fade over time.
How effective it is depends entirely on how well the stem cell treatment helped heal the underlying condition. A degenerative condition, unfortunately, only gets worse over time, and therefore you may need to get a repeat of the stem cell treatment.
Is It Necessary to Have Multiple Sessions?
With the stem cell therapy cost running into the tens of thousands, you may be wondering just how many sessions you need. The number of stem cell injections depends greatly on the condition being treated, as well as how the body responds to the first treatment. Some conditions only one session, while multiple treatments over a short period of time may be needed for others.
For example, those orthopedic conditions like osteoarthritis might need a series of shots given over a period of days, weeks, or even months. In the same way, chronic conditions and very bad injuries may, on occasion, need to be treated several times in order to derive optimum benefits.
Is Stem Cell Therapy Treatment Available in the USA?
Though only a few treatments are covered by insurance, you can opt in to get stem cell treatments on your own throughout the USA. So, if you are interested in how stem cell jabs can help you, have a look at the locations we cover, and book a consultation.
We’ll go through and make sure that you’re a good fit for treatment, and then have a more detailed rundown of how many stem cells you’ll need, and if they need to be distributed through one session or more.
