How Can Stem Cells Benefit Athletes?

 

We’ve all heard of stem cell treatments and their ability to treat terminal illnesses such as cancer, incurable diseases such as Parkinson’s disease, and even to treat debilitating diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis. But using stem cells to treat sports injuries is a treatment still in experimental stages that’s new to many people.

 

Stem cell research products were first used to treat athletic injuries in racehorses. Treating racehorses suffering from tendon and ligament damage and stress injuries with stem cell injections has been considered successful and practiced by the racehorse industry for several years now. Healthy cells are taken from the horse’s own body and injected back into his body in places where injuries have occurred. The cells help repair the damages and rehabilitate the horses.

 

Success with using stem cell products to treat racehorse injuries has naturally lead to the same being done to treat human injuries in athletes. The most notable and publicized case has been that of major league baseball player Bartolo Colon, who recently made a comeback as a pitcher after undergoing stem cell treatments on his pitching arm in the Dominican Republic in Spring of 2010.

 

Stem cells were extracted from Colon’s own fat and bone marrow cells and then injected back into his elbow and shoulder after he suffered recurring bone spurs in his elbow and a torn rotator cuff in his shoulder. Although Colon had been released from pitching for the Chicago White Sox in 2009 because of his recurring injuries, he is already back pitching successfully for the New York Yankees after his 2010 stem cell treatment.

 

While the treatment is still considered experimental, 38 year old Colon is showing significantly improved pitching stats and a return to his former pitching speed from several years ago. Since he has been tested extensively for the use of performance enhancing drugs and all tests have come back negative, credit for his recovery is being attributed to the stem cell treatments he received.

 

Stem cell research companies are now offering products to aid doctors, scientists, and research facilities that specialize in stem cell research with using stem cells to treat sports injuries. Stem cell research continues to prove the ability of stem cells to heal the human body. With more stem cell research products available and more extensive studies of the amazing ability of stem cells to treat diseases that were formerly thought to be deadly, incurable, or untreatable, millions of people may soon be able to benefit from the healing power of their own body’s healthy stem cells.