Cardiovascular disease is the primary cause of death in America. Around a million Americans suffer from a heart attack every year, and about 5 million Americans have congestive heart failure, 20% of whom will die this year as a result of the condition. The mortality rates of heart attack are 25% over 3 years, despite extensive research into drugs and therapies that can help to prevent damage to the heart.
February is American Heart Month. So how stem cells can help to treat people with heart disease or who have suffered from a heart attack?
It is only in recent years that doctors realized there was potential for stem cells to repair the damage caused by a heart attack; until then scientists thought that the damage was impossible to fix. In the early 2000s, doctors discovered cardiac stem cells, the cells that are destined to turn into heart cells in order to repair or replace existing heart cells. This discovery meant that, surely, these stem cells could be used to repair some or all of the damage caused by heart attacks and heart disease.
In many countries, the use of stem cells to treat heart damage is still in the trial phase. Trials have shown stem cell therapy for heart damage to be safe. Here at Stem Cell Therapy Mexico, a BioHeart Center of Excellence, we have successfully performed stem cell therapy for patients with existing heart damage who could not wait for stem cell therapy in their home country, so chose to become medical tourists and receive their state of the art treatment in Mexico.
At Stem Cell Therapy Mexico we use the patient’s own stem cells in a process known as autologous stem cell therapy. Usually we use adipose-derived stem cells, those taken from the patient’s fat, a rich source of stem cells. Once extracted, the stem cells are reintroduced to the body near the heart, where they go straight to the affected area and can begin to repair any damage. In using stem cells, we harness the body’s own remarkable ability to heal itself and magnify that ability, enabling the stem cells to heal damage that the body cannot do alone.
In matters of the heart it is important that treatment is done as soon as possible; in the case of heart attacks those treated within hours of the attack gain the best results. If you suffer from congestive heart failure, ST-elevation or non-ischemic congestive heart failure, the breakthrough treatment offered at Stem Cell Therapy Mexico could give you the chance to live a healthy life, for longer. To find out more about how stem cell therapy could help you, contact us today.