Regenerative Medicine: the path to the future

Unknow to the population at large, regenerative medicine has nonetheless captured the attention of the scientific community for the past 50 years. The reason why: it has become the holy grail of health. And we are not talking science fiction here. In fact, treating, alleviating and healing many diseases, as well as improving preventive care and promoting healthy ageing, will all be posible thanks to this discipline. It will be posible to regenerate tissues damaged by ageing or as a result of injury, créate new organs for transplant, and cure genetic illnesses. This is what so-called “Regenerative Medicine” is all about.

This extraordinarily promising 21st-century medical discipline that aims to repair damaged tissues using mechanisms similar to those naturally performed by our bodies during the natural process of cell renovation, has seen substantial progress in recent years. Research in this field encompasses a wide array of technologies, the research for new bio-materials, and the development of tissue engineering..

It is believed that Regenerative Medicine will prove to be the specialist field that could achieve the successful cultivation of new tissues and organs in the laboratory, for implant into patients. At some point in the future, this could provide the solution to the shortage of organs for transplantation, currently a serious problema worlwide. What is more, all this will be achieved using cells from the patients themselves, which will prevent the worst side effect of implants: organ rejection.

Several scientific áreas are linked to Regerative Medicine. The most important área is cell therapy, based on the use of non-specialized stem cells, that has the astonishing capacity of growing into many different types of body cells. Secondly, this revolutionary discipline focuses on gene therapy (inserting a gene in a cell in order to replace or block a missing or faulty gene-the cause of hereditary illness)

Lastly, we should mention tissue engineering. This is the technique whereby bio-artificial organs are grown in the laboratory, to replace organs that are either malfunctionning or missing.

A comprehensive care programme can be offered to patients. First, a preliminary examination of patients´medical records is conducted, in order to ascertain their physical health and identify any posible disease. Medical check-ups are the conducted, including analysis and tests using cutting-edge technology in various different áreas: immuno-genetics and immunopathology (immune-deficiency, auto-immunity, allergies, etc). Also of importance is the early detection of posible future chronic diseases, such as arthritis, osteoarthritis, diabetes, and neurodegenerative illnesses. Once an accurate diagnosis is gathered, we can provide our patients with novel treatments based on pioneering biotechnological research:

Oral Immunotherapy: successfully mitigates immunological diseases such as AIDS, and disorders associated with cancer treatment (chemotherapy and radiotherapy). It is also beneficial for patients with disorders related to the use of immunosuppresive drugs and autoimmune disease (lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sceloris, etc.), and for those with hypersensitivity responses (such as allergies and asthma).

Cell and tissue regeneration: the treatment of chronic and degenerative disease. It consits of using growth factors derived from platelet-rich plasma (PRP) obtained from the patients themselves (many top sportspeople como to our center for this therapy) and from adult stem cells. Stem cells are found in a number of body tissues, and can be divided or multiplied into cells of the same tissue. Non-embryonic adult stem cells are most concentrated in fat or bone-marrow, and have the potential to regenerate damaged tissue organs.

The Regenerative and Anti-Aeging Medicine Unit at SHA Wellness Clinic is fully qualified to obtain and prepare cells from patients to implant them. Thanks to our considerable experience, we are also able to perform cell activation using low-frequency and low-intensity electromagnetic fields: a technology base don our own research, which turns cell therapy into a highly effective therapeutic cool.

SHA aims to be in the Forefront of Regenerative Medicine and Anti-ageing treatments, and in the coming months we will implement complementary treatments while continuing to use existing treatments that have been shown to enhance the benefits of our therapies.

Come to SHA Wellness Clinic and discover our Regenerative Medicine and Anti-ageing unit!