Regenerative medicine is a significant advancement in medical treatment, which is based on the principles of stem cell technology and tissue engineering to replace or regenerate human tissues and organs to help restore their functions.

Although seeds for this field has been laid for over six decades, it was in 1999 that the term “regenerative medicine” was coined to describe an emerging field that encompasses knowledge from other medical fields like cell transportation, tissue engineering, stem cell biology, biomechanics, prosthetics, nanotechnology, and biochemistry.

Today, we’ve come a long way, and there are several FDA-approved regenerative medicines in the market. From Carticel (which is used to repair cartilage defects from acute or repetitive trauma) to cell-based medical devices like Celution (which is used to transfer autologous adipose stem cell).

But this is only the beginning of a great adventure! In the article, we look at some of the future promises of regenerative medicine.

Understanding the Relationship Between Aging and Diseases

Just around 200 years ago, the average human life expectancy was between 30 and 40 years of age. This low life expectancy was primarily caused by diseases. Some so catastrophic, like the bubonic plague that wiped out one-third of the European population in the 14th century.

But when access to better hygiene and life-saving drugs of the 19th century like penicillin came into the picture, life expectancy has dramatically gone up to about 78 years.

However, aging is inextricably associated with failing bodily functions – from Alzheimer’s to heart disease. But that’s not all.

Here’s something even more interesting to note.

The United States is in the fourth stage of its demographic transition, meaning there is a gradual decline in total population. You might think of it as a good thing, but it comes with its unique challenges.

Based on a study by the American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC), the population of those aged 65 and over will reach 77 million. And that number will far exceed those aged 18 and below. Hence, we expect an ever-increasing pressure on the healthcare system primarily driven by the aging population.

Future Regenerative Trends to Look Out For

Here are some of the promise regenerative medicine holds for the future:

• Increasing number of late-stage clinical trials and approved therapies.

Phase II trials in medicine development are known for being the riskiest. Now, there are over 600 ongoing Phase II trials – the largest ever. For sure, a considerable amount will end up failing, but those that do make it will take us closer towards victory over what ails us.

Successful projects will inspire additional investment and development, while failures will require an in-depth reassessment of what went wrong, like unanticipated safety issues or low efficacy.

Currently, there are over 100 regenerative medicine projects in Phase III programs. In the end, we anticipate a few dozens to be successful, clinically validated, and made available for public use.

• A shift towards standardized treatment approaches.

A current cornerstone of regenerative treatment is precision medicine. Precision medicine is a form of medicine that uses information about a person’s genes to prevent, diagnose, or treat disease.

For instance, the introduction of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell technology to treat refractory hematological malignancies in patients is achieved using gene-modified autologous cells. While this approach is effective, it is prohibitively un-scalable and expensive.

Several regenerative medicine companies are working on next-gen processes that apply the same concepts using allogenic platforms so these solutions could be administered off the shelf. This will help make these solutions more scalable and cost-effective.

• Increased collaborations through mergers and acquisitions

Big biopharmaceutical companies are beginning to realize the substantial impact regenerative medicine will have in disease indications and clinical situations where traditional medicine is ineffective.

The exciting medical problems solved by regenerative medicine will help save lots of lives. But for large companies, it presents a special opportunity to generate new revenue streams and boost profitability.

Hence, established companies will be on the lookout for promising approaches that can be acquired to further strengthen their base.

• Radically changing the treatment of injury and disease.

Imagine a world where patients suffering from paralysis can regain full movement. A world where regenerative medicine is used to reverse the course for a scarred heart. A world where the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s no longer means a certain fate of neurodegeneration. Several regenerative medicine research is working hard to make this a reality.

And as noted earlier, regenerative medicine research is used to tackle some of the diseases associated with aging. For instance, worn knee cartilage can be repaired by injecting a regenerative trigger rather than a surgical replacement.

Wrap Up

Regenerative medicine is still in its infant stage. Yet, its current beneficial impacts cannot be overemphasized. With the endless potentials associated with this field, the future holds great promises for the betterment of the overall health of the human species.

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No other time in history have we experienced widespread prosperity like we do today, especially in the Western World. Global famine seems to be a thing of the past. What’s more, our understanding of medicine has developed to a point where several devastating diseases have been defeated. Little wonder the average lifespan has increased over the years.

But with all these updates, we seem to be combating many new challenges that pose unique threats to our well-being. Over-eating has led to the obesity epidemic in the United States. Our fast-paced lives have led to the proliferation of junk food and increased levels of stress.

In this post, we’re going to take a step back to explore five simple rules you need to remember to achieve optimal health and well-being.

Rule 1: Do Not Put Toxins Into Your Body

That’s right! Many of the things we take into our bodies are outright bad! Common examples include alcohol, hard drugs, and cigarettes.

While taking alcohol in moderation may be alright (if your body can tolerate it), it is very easy to become addicted. When that happens, you need ever-increasing bottles to sustain the pleasure you derive.

Excessive alcohol use can lead to the development of chronic diseases and other problems like liver disease, heart disease, high blood pressure, and even cancer.

Smoking damages almost every organ in the body, negatively impacting the health of your brain, heart, and immune system. Do you know that smoking is the leading preventable cause of early disease and death in the United States? That’s how bad smoking is!

Drug abuse is also a rising problem in the US. Marijuana, cocaine, heroin, and meth are some of the most commonly abused drugs. Even normal prescription and over-the-counter drugs like pain relievers, depressants, and stimulants can also be abused.

These substances are highly addictive. So if you get started, it becomes worse and very difficult to break. That’s why it’s best not to even get started on them!

Rule 2: Eat Healthy Foods

We are in the age of fast food, and we take in lots of junk! While they may be tasty, they have long-term negative impacts. For starters, most breakfast cereals, pizzas, mayonnaise, french fries, hot dogs, and sugary drinks are unhealthy. Eating junk food regularly can lead to an increased risk of obesity and chronic diseases. Therefore, minimize their intake if you cannot curb them entirely from your diet.

On the other hand, a healthy diet will help you achieve optimal nutrition and well-being.

Just like your “mama” told you, make sure you eat lots of fruits and vegetables. Vegetables provide essential minerals, and other nutrients, such as fiber and antioxidants.

Foods on lean protein sources like chicken breasts, tofu, eggs, and fish are good for you. Similarly, ensure that more than half of the grains you eat are whole grains. Because whole grains are not severely refined, they still retain many of their nutrients.

When it comes to eating healthy, most people know what’s good and what’s bad. That’s why it’s important to develop the discipline to always choose what’s good for your health!

Rule 3: Exercise Regularly

I know you’ve heard this a million times. But it’s so important that it’s worth mentioning repeatedly. There is strong scientific evidence that being physically active can help you lead a healthier and happier life.

People who exercise regularly are at a lower risk of developing many long-term conditions like stroke, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and some cancers.

Exercise also helps your body, brain and hormones function optimally day in, day out. What’s more, exercise is a great way to increase your body’s metabolism, reduce excess fat, and lose weight.

The great thing about exercise is you do not need to lift heavy weight or “live in the gym” to benefit from it.

Simple aerobic training exercises like walking, hiking, jogging, swimming, rowing, and biking improves cardiovascular conditioning, controls blood sugar levels, improves lung function, lowers blood pressure, and more.

The right kinds of exercise can also help you improve your physique, making you feel better about yourself.

Rule 4: Stay Away From Excess Stress

Although we live in a fast-paced world, it’s important you properly manage your stress to prevent eventual breakdown.

Excessive stress increases your cortisol levels (which is the stress hormone). This, in turn, impairs your metabolism. You begin to crave junk food, which is bad for you.

Over time, continued strain on your body from stress may lead to severe health problems like high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, and even mental disorders like anxiety and depression.

That’s why it’s very important to always take a break! Remember, if you break down because of stress, you won’t be able to do the things you’re currently killing yourself for.

Rule 5: Get Enough Sleep

Health experts recommend that adults get anywhere from 7 to 9 hours of sleep daily. Sleep is the avenue for your body to rejuvenate itself. Consistent bad sleep will lead to an eventual breakdown of your body.

However, getting enough sleep in today’s world requires conscientious efforts. But here are some tips to help with that:

1) Do not drink coffee late in the day.

2) Have a sleeping routine and stick with it!

3) Sleeping in complete darkness is ideal

4) Do not binge-watch movies late into the night.

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If you’re like most people, hair loss (also known as alopecia) is a condition you dread. While this condition isn’t a major health concern in many instances, it can affect your mental health and self-esteem, especially if it occurs on your head. And to be clear, hair loss can occur in any part of the body. But why does hair loss occur? How can it be prevented? What treatment options are available? In this article, we provide answers to these questions.

Causes

Hair loss is a normal process. According to the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD), most people lose between 50-100 hairs daily. However, new hair grows in to replace them at the same hair follicles. Hair loss becomes a concern when you lose hair at a rate greater than they regrow. This can occur when some follicles stop producing hair, and the hair shafts become finer.

Your risk of experiencing hair loss increases as you age. Little wonder over half of all men over 50 have some degree of hair loss, just as women are more likely to experience hair loss after menopause. However, teenagers can experience hair loss too.

Certain types of hair loss are hereditary. So if you have a family history of baldness, certain sex hormones can trigger hair loss as early as puberty.

Hormonal changes may also lead to temporary hair loss. Examples include childbirth, pregnancy, and stopping the use of birth control pills.

Medical conditions like thyroid disease, ringworm, and alopecia areata can also result in hair loss. Furthermore, medications used to treat conditions like high blood pressure, depression, and cancer can cause hair loss as a side effect.

Diagnosis

If you notice significant hair loss, you should visit your dermatologist. Prolonged hair loss is usually indicative of an underlying health condition.

Your doctor or dermatologist will carry out a physical examination and take a look at your health history to identify potential causes. In some instances, only a simple dietary change will be prescribed.

But if your dermatologist suspects that your hair loss steams from skin or autoimmune disease, a biopsy of the scalp will be tested in the laboratory to confirm.

Treatment Options

Choosing the right treatment is highly dependent on the cause of your hair loss. That’s why proper diagnosis is important. Here are some of the common treatment options for hair loss:

Medication

This is usually the first course of action dermatologists take. Currently, there are two officially approved prescription drugs by the FDA that can be used to treat hair thinning. They include: minoxidil and finasteride.

Minoxidil is effective for treating androgenetic alopecia (also known as male-pattern baldness in men). It is directly applied to the area of thinning hair. It takes between 6 to 12 months for hair condition to improve. Minoxidil has to be applied for life. If not, hair loss will reoccur.

Finasteride, on the other hand, is an oral medication that is used when people find little to no success with minoxidil. Potential side effects include decreased libido, erectile dysfunction, and growth of breast tissue.

Medical Procedures

When medications do not work, you might have to turn to medical procedures.

Hair transplant surgery

Hair transplant surgery is a common choice among people with inherited baldness. And it involves shifting small plugs of skin with hair to bald areas of the scalp.

Scalp reduction

Scalp reduction is another medical procedure that can help with hair loss. It involves removing part of your scalp that lacks hair and then closing it off with areas of your scalp that have hair.

Hair rejuvenation

Proactive Wellness offers a robust hair rejuvenation procedure that utilizes the combination of Platelet Rich Plasma, the New Life Regenerative (NLR) Restor and RExO products, Mircroneedling, and Cord Blood IV. Clinical studies so far have shown that applying these biologics is effective for hair restoration.

Home remedies

Several people try a whole range of home remedies to combat hair loss. However, most are not backed by science, neither are they approved by the FDA. But here are some suggestions that might help.

Eating hair-healthy foods

Protein, certain fats, vitamins, and minerals are important for healthy hair growth. For instance, eggs can help boost protein and vitamin B levels with may boost hair growth. Fatty fish and walnuts are rich in omega-3, which may also improve hair growth. Brazil nuts contain selenium, an important mineral for maintaining healthy hair. Since hair loss can also be caused by a vitamin D deficiency, eating foods like beef liver, cheese, and mushrooms that are rich in vitamin D can help restore hair growth.

Essential oils

Applying essential oil may also help with hair loss. Some of the oils aromatherapy practitioners suggest may boost hair growth include rosemary oil, peppermint oil, lavender oil, thyme oil, and tulsi oil.

Prevention

Here are some tips that can help you prevent hair loss:

• Do not wear tight hairstyles like ponytails, buns, or braids as they put too much pressure on your hair, which can permanently damage hair follicles over time.
• Use gentle baby shampoo to wash if you have delicate hair.
• Avoid styling products like hairdryers, coloring products, hair straighteners, bleaching agents, and relaxers.
• Eat hair-healthy foods like those identified in the previous section.

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Never in the history of mankind have we had easy access to a variety of foods like we do today. Yet this luxury that our ancestors could only dream of has become our undoing. In recent times, lots of people have developed poor eating habits.

For instance, CDC reports that over a third of Americans eat fast food daily. Fast food is high in saturated fat, sodium, cholesterol, trans fat, and as such, it shouldn’t be eaten often. Most people know that, yet they pump their systems with these unhealthy foods. In the article, we explore some of the health risks of poor nutrition.

• Obesity

According to the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, over 73% of American adults are either overweight or obese. 42.2% have a body mass index (BMI) of 30 and above (obese), while 9.2% have a BMI greater than 40 (severe obesity).

Obesity occurs when you consume too many calories, particularly fat and sugars, without burning it off. Unfortunately, much of the food we consume is loaded with calories. The surplus energy gets stored in the body as fat.

Asides from the societal stigma and negative psychological impact of obesity, obesity also increases your risk of cardiovascular diseases.

• Hypertension

Hypertension is another name for high blood pressure. Foods high in sugar, salt, and saturated or trans fats can increase blood pressure or damage the heart. Common high blood pressure diet includes snack foods, condiments, deli meats, canned soups, and processed foods.

Hypertension is a silent killer as it typically goes unnoticed till the damage has been done. A diet full of vegetables, fruits, lean protein, and whole grains can help lower your risk of high blood pressure.

Heart disease

Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the US, claiming 660,00 lives yearly. Unfortunately, poor nutrition is the greatest factor causing the prevalence of cardiovascular diseases. Unhealthy lifestyle habits, such as poor diet, being overweight, lack of exercise, and smoking can lead to heart disease.

That’s why doctors recommend that you avoid high-fat diets, particularly foods with large amounts of saturated fat. Common examples include eggs, ice cream, beef, and butter. Instead, choose lean protein like turkey, fish, and seafood.

• Diabetes

Diabetes is a chronic disease that occurs when the pancreas can no longer produce insulin or when the body can no longer process the insulin produced by the body. Insulin is very important because it helps break down carbohydrates into glucose, which is the body’s primary source of energy.

In a diabetic patient, the blood glucose (also called blood sugar) isn’t regulated. Although several factors can cause diabetes including family history and genetics, poor nutrition is also a major factor for some people. Foods like sugar-sweetened beverages, trans fats, fruit-flavored yogurt, dried fruit, among many others increase the risk of diabetes.

Diabetes-related complications include damage to large and small blood vessels, which can lead to stroke and heart attack, as well as problems with the kidneys, eyes, feet, and nerves.

• Gout

Gout is a form of arthritis caused by excess uric acid in the bloodstream. Consequently, this uric acid buildup results in the formation of crystals in your joint, which can result in painful swelling, resulting in permanent joint damage.

Food and drinks that often trigger gout attacks include game meats, organ meats, sugary sodas, fruit juice, and alcohol. That’s why you should stay away from a diet high in fat or cholesterol. On the other hand, vegetables, soy products, low-fat dairy products can reduce the risk of gout attacks by lowering uric acid levels.

• Some Cancers

While the link between diet and cancer is just as mysterious as the disease itself, the relationship cannot be ignored. Research has pointed toward certain foods and nutrients that seem to increases one’s risk of cancer.

Examples of foods that have carcinogenic properties include processed meats like hotdogs, corned beef, sausages, beef jerky, and lunch meat. Unfortunately, cancer is the second leading cause of death in the US.

Health experts advise that you avoid processed and red meats. Antioxidants, as well as foods high in calcium, can lower the risk of cancer.

• Malnutrition

Perhaps the greatest irony about our modern culture is the fact that a person can overeat and still be malnourished. Malnutrition occurs when there are excesses or imbalances in your intake of energy or nutrients.

Depending on the nutrients you’re lacking, several symptoms may arise. For instance, iron deficiency may cause dizziness, fatigue, and shortness of breath. Lack of vitamin can result in vitamin deficiency anemia.

The solution is to conscientiously ensure that the food you consume is rich in all the classes of nutrients required by the body.

Wrap Up

The body requires proper nutrients for it to function effectively. Unfortunately, we’ve incorporated unhealthy eating habits into our modern lifestyle, which we pay for with our health. American poor diet drives $50 billion a year in health care costs. This doesn’t even account for the emotional turmoil faced by the person and their family. Eating the proper diet will result in better health and overall well-being.

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