Stem cells for Nadal: a panacea or a risk?
Why Rafael Nadal needs Stem Cell treatment
Georgy Shakov, "Championship"
Nadal's Incomplete YearUnfortunately, every year one of the best tennis players of our time, Rafael Nadal, suffers more and more from endless injuries.
It is becoming increasingly difficult for the Spaniard to recover after huge loads. At the same time, it is far from a secret that the very style of Raphael's game requires huge physical expenses. Of course, every tennis player has his own strengths and weaknesses, but the Spaniard has always surpassed almost every player on the tour in endurance. Nevertheless, excellent physical fitness did not save Raphael from numerous injuries. By and large, in 2014 Nadal did not really play his tennis after Roland Garros. The fact is that the grueling tennis calendar simply leaves the Spaniard no choice. At the age of 28, Raphael can only bet on his favorite soil, otherwise the body cannot stand it. In principle, having won 14 Grand Slam tournaments, Olympic gold, the Davis Cup, and other significant tennis competitions, you could finish your career at the peak and not torment your body. However, retreating is clearly not Nadal's way. He is preparing for new achievements, and an innovative method of stem cell treatment is designed to contribute to this.
Formally, the reason for Nadal's refusal from the US Open this year was a wrist injury, then he reported appendicitis. Soon it became clear about the Spaniard's problems with the spine. And you can also remember that Rafael always admitted that he had not completely cured his knees and the notorious tendinitis made itself felt in long matches and under serious loads… In general, from a medical point of view, Nadal seems to be a person who has pain in almost every part of his body. In this situation, it is not surprising that Raphael decided to look for new methods of treatment. And in mid-November, it became known that the Spaniard was waiting for a course of stem cell treatment. Nadal is far from the first athlete to resort to this procedure. Many NBA players have sought the help of cell therapy, among them Jason Kidd, Tracy McGrady, Allan Houston and others. The players of the English Premier League deposited their stem cells in a London "bank".
Rafael Nadal
"Athletes often lack their own resources"But in Russia there is a rather negative attitude towards the method of treatment with stem cells.
Therefore, many Russian fans of the talent of the "dirt king" were wary of the unusual news about their pet. Moreover, information about the dangers of such a method of treatment is often found on the Internet and in other media. For example, one of the most common rumors is that stem cells can cause the rapid development of cancer.
However, Doctor of Medical Sciences, professor, president of Beauty Plaza Alexander Teplyashin, in an interview with the Championship, noted that these negative rumors are not confirmed by any real facts from his medical practice.
– Alexander Sergeevich, how dangerous is stem cell treatment? Are complications possible?
– We have been dealing with this issue for 18 years. This is the use of a person's own resources to create stronger regenerative processes in the body to eliminate certain problems. For example, arthrosis, any joint damage, tendon detachment, all such injuries.
In athletes, due to insane loads, the regenerative ability weakens. In such a situation, the use of adult stem cells obtained from adipose tissue or bone marrow is the most promising and most effective method of increasing the regenerative characteristics of a person.
The world is full of work. There are quite a lot of serious centers in the USA, in Europe. Many are engaged in stem cells. For example, we have a bank. An institution where adult stem cells are stored.
Let's say an injury occurs. During trauma, so-called interleukins are released (signaling molecules that characterize a certain type of tissue and they arise during destruction). Stem cells that are inside a person, reacting to interleukin, concentrate in this area and turn into this tissue. This is the regeneration mechanism in nature. However, athletes often do not have enough of their own resources under loads. Accordingly, they need to be added. From where? It is necessary to take your own – this is the simplest. The sources are known. Let's say we have an American patent on the method of isolating stem cells from adipose tissue. We noticed that this type of fabric is the simplest and most interesting. But it is for the spine that bone marrow is needed, but it is not necessary to take cells from the back.
In general, I want to say that this is the strongest medicine that exists for sports injuries. The security is absolute. Long-term clinical trials have already passed.
– So Nadal is in no danger and the scary stories about cancer are nothing more than the conjectures of uninformed people?
– What to say if cord blood stem cells treat blood cancer.
"We wanted to help Alexey Yagudin"– There is also an opinion that stem cells may not take root.
Is it possible?
– There is a biological meaning – do what nature does if we could get close to deciphering the mechanism of self-regeneration. A person has a mechanism that helps to recover, and this mechanism is associated with stem cells, but with age the number of stem cells decreases. This is a proven fact.
– Nevertheless, wouldn't it make sense, maybe, to end my career and not try the stem cell method?
– We proceed from the postulates – a person dies from diseases, not from old age. That is, a person dies prematurely. You can be afraid as much as you want, but the fact remains. If you remember, organ transplants used to be anathema. New technologies will eventually be able to replace organ transplants.
– If we talk about the same players. For example, Russia's best goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev has already suffered from serious injuries twice in his career. Cruciate ligaments left him out of the game for a long time. Could stem cells have put him on his feet earlier?
– Absolutely! I'm even willing to bet. Explain your position to the coaches of the Russian national teams, to someone else from the sports sphere. Unfortunately, I don't really know the sports world, but the technology is one hundred percent. Regeneration in case of sports injury. In Russia, society is uninformed, and this is a big problem. We wanted to help Alexey Yagudin. His artificial joint hurts all the time. With our technology, we could start to relieve his pain, and he says he's afraid to use it. We need to explain to people, athletes, that there is nothing dangerous in this.
– To summarize briefly, did Nadal make the right decision by using stem cells to treat his spine?
– You need to know the exact diagnosis, but if he has pain when moving, it is quite possible that he has lumbosacral sciatica. This is due to injuries, the spine "sits down", there are metabolic processes. For sports injuries, this is an ideal solution for money, as it is not very expensive. We have made a technology that competes with the Americans and Germans in terms of cost. Someday people will use such technologies very widely.
Unfortunately, the topic of stem cells is constantly used from the negative side. Someone died, something else… In fact, there is no confirmation of negative facts. We have done about five thousand such procedures in recent years. That's a lot. We were one of the pioneers in popularizing this method. I hope people will someday realize that this is done for them.
Eliminate all risksTime will tell whether stem cell treatment will help Nadal.
First of all, let's hope that the doctors conducted a full examination of the athlete before the procedure and eliminated all the risks of complications, which, in particular, Alexey Bersenev, a researcher at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (USA), writes in the journal "Cell Transplantology and Tissue Engineering", No. 3 for 2010: "Unfortunately, today, as a result of regulatory holes, we have no idea about the scale of complications, we do not know what we need to be prepared for and what to avoid when developing new cell therapy protocols. For my part, I started collecting information about all published or reported negative cases and complications of cell therapy. A thorough examination of the patient before the introduction of cells is important. The presence of immunodeficiency can compromise the development of neoplasms from transplanted cells. In addition, if the patient had an undiagnosed tumor, the introduction of stem or progenitor cells can stimulate significant growth of this tumor."
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru28.11.2014