Pain is a complex signaling process in the human body that involves the central nervous system, the peripheral nervous system, the brain, and the immune system. It is also referred to as nociception in medical texts. It's the body's way of signaling imbalance and/or damage.
When you get a painful stimulus, the signal travels up the peripheral nerve, and is conducted to the dorsal root ganglion, to the spinal cord, and to the brainstem. From there it goes to the thalamus, which is a part in the brain that senses pain. Your cerebral cortex, analyzes the sensation of pain and you have a final perception of pain.
This is normal pain-signaling and it happens almost instantaneously. It serves in times of acute injury to protect warn and protect, as in the case of your hand on a burning stove, you retract it fast! Or if you fall and you break your arm, the pain is there to tell you something is wrong. It's a warning signal. It's there to protect you.
Chronic diseases, autoimmune diseases, musculoskeletal diseases, degenerative diseases ( ex: osteoarthritis, degenerative disc disease) all comes with pain. Their type of pain is chronic and is considered less purposeful and more dysfunctional.
There are 4 general categories of pain - 1. nociceptive, 2. inflammatory, 3. neuropathic, and 4. dysfunctional.
Nociceptive pain results from physical damage from injuries and/or surgeries. Most people have at some point experienced this basic type of pain and the resulting loss of function. Conventional medicine and medical treatment options here involve emergency procedures and analgesics.
Inflammatory pain results from a perpetual activation of an inflammatory process. Nerve tissue is aggravated by cascade of physiological mechanisms involving cytokines and chemokines. It then activates the perpetual pain signaling. Most chronic conditions exhibit inflammatory pain - autoimmune conditions, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, lupus, scleroderma, Sjogren’s syndrome, ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s disease, celiac disease, Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, fibromyalgia and so on. Routine treatment here always involves systemic anti-inflammatory strategies.
Neuropathic pain comes from some level of nerve damage,caused by an injury to a nerve or chronic aggravation to nerve fibers, or due to metabolic causes (diabetic, nutrient B12 deficiency). The source of pain can be central, coming from the brain, or peripheral coming from aggravation of peripheral nerves. Treatment of pain here (conservative treatments, alternative therapies, innovative treatment styles) always require complex systemic approaches.
All other pain is usually categorized as dysfunctional pain, a complex regional pain syndrome CRPS. This is where pain is chronic, no direct root cause is identifiable and etiology is complex. Pain reduction, pain relief, and appropriate pain treatment here depend on the source of pain, on the physiological profile of the pain over time and the psychogenic aspect. Most chronic pain sufferers are good candidates for stem cell therapeutics.
Depending on the type of pain and the medical paradigm of the regenerative medicine specialists, pain medicine consultants and pain specialists, different solutions for pain reduction and pain relief are available. Analgesics, anti-inflammatories, physiotherapy and surgery are the most common type therapeutic measures.
In recent decades, stem cells therapies have come to the forefront of regenerative therapy options, treatment of chronic pain condition and general pain therapeutics. Clinical application of various adult stem cell types (many type of cells: multipotent stem cells, mesenchymal stem cells, adipose stem cells, adipose-derived MSCs, bone marrow stem cells, bone marrow-derived MSCs, bone marrow derived stem cells, bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells, and further differentiated neural stem cells) and pluripotent stem cells are being used for all pain subtypes - neuropathic pain, musculoskeletal pain, disc pain, discogenic pain, joint pain, neck pain, shoulder pain, arthritic knee pain and so on. Even complex pain syndromes are sometimes resolving, especially with whole-body compatible pluripotent stem cells.
Pluripotent stem cells and their secretory exosomes, Plurisomes, have shown to be an effective treatment for many types for pain conditions.The paracrine effects of pluripotent stem cells address all kinds of pain types. Chronic pain is a symptom of most incoming Stemaid patients. Whether they have Lyme or fibromyalgia or simply back pain (discogenic pain), their pain seems to improve after 2-4 weeks of healing treatment.
The signaling profile of pluripotent stem cells is very unique. Analysis of the content of pluripotent secretome reveals presence of proteins, peptides, growth factors, and transcription factors that can directly or indirectly lead to pain relief. The paracrine effects of the stem cells and exosomes affect the whole body. They release immune and transcription factors that help to quench the inflammatory cycles and cytokine storms. They repair nerve damage, grow more blood vessels, clear senescence, repair DNA and reprogram epigenetic profile of tissues, and support healthy collagen and elastin production. The healing mechanisms are long lasting. Many patients report pain relief improving over months, their quality of life improving gradually over a year.
Joint pain is comprehensively treated under all Stemaid regenerative medicine program types. Conventional treatment options are oftentimes invasive (orthopedic surgery, knee replacement surgery). Patients are looking for more non-invasive and more natural alternative to surgery. The regenerative properties of stem cells are an effective option for many.
In orthopedic conditions and degenerative conditions, pluripotent stem cells and Plurisomes work best when administered intravenously (working from within) and intra-articularly (locally). Pluripotent stem cell treatment for arthritis, for instance (treatment for knee arthritis, severe osteoarthritis, treatment of knee osteoarthritis) would involve 2-4 weeks of daily intravenous infusions of pluripotent stem cells and supportive IVs and treatments (length of program depends on overall health profile and degeneration) as well as weekly intra-articular injections of stem cells for long lasting benefit.
Efficacy of stem cell therapeutics for joints varies patient to patient. It takes time for blood flow to the joint improve, for joint inflammation to resolve and for cartilage (articular cartilage) repair and cartilage regeneration to take place. The ability of stem cells to cause regeneration of tissue, pain resolution and motor function recovery comes in stages and can take time. A healthier life that is pain free is our therapeutic goal.
Pluripotent stem cells are safe when administered by trained medical staff and sourced from a high-caliber reputable laboratory. Our clinic has seen no serious adverse events in over a decade of pluripotent stem cell transplantations.
The only risk of application of stem cells we have found in over 15 years of clinical experience is mild hypoglycemia upon administration. The potent capacities of stem cells require glucose for physiological activity. We mitigate this risk by making sure patients have had a meal before injection and are well hydrated.
We mitigate potential risk and other risk factors by making sure patients have had a meal before injection, are well hydrated, receive supportive treatments and that safety of stem cell production and administration remains top priority in our laboratories and our clinical settings.
Risks of stem cell procedures are much like that of any intravenous procedures. Risk of infection (common infection, bacterial infections) is no different than for all IV therapy types. As long as sterile technique is used in production and administration, it is not a concern.
Future directions include differentiating stem cells (undifferentiated cells) from their pluripotent stage into neural cells,neuronal cells and glial cells (and other types of cells, muscle cells, skin cells, other tissues cells and specialized cell types) , followed by stem cell transplantation. Other advances are to be seen inspinal cord injury and various spinal conditions.
We cannot foresee what future medicine will look like, but we predict that as long as humans live in biological bodies (as opposed to in a virtual metaverse), future directions will involve biological medicine using pluripotent stem cells and their fully comprehensive reparative and regenerative secretome.