If you or a loved one suffers from COPD, you know how difficult it can be to live with a chronic breathing impairment. Fortunately, traditional treatments can provide relief for people with COPD and stem cell therapy for COPD can even stop the disease from progressing.
In this article, we’ll compare stem cell therapy with traditional treatments and talk about the benefits of each treatment option, stem cell surgery cost and safety considerations.
Traditional COPD Treatments
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is an inflammatory lung disease that causes restricted airflow and difficulty breathing. Some traditional treatments for COPD include:
Oxygen therapy
A supplemental oxygen tank can provide oxygen throughout the day or during sleep to make sure people with COPD have sufficient oxygen. Oxygen therapy can improve the quality of life and extend the lifespan of a person with COPD.
Medication
There are a variety of medications doctors can prescribe to reduce COPD symptoms. Inhaled steroids reduce inflammation and prevent COPD from worsening. Phosphodiesterase-4 inhibitors reduce inflammation in the lungs and relax airways.
Pulmonary rehabilitation
Pulmonary rehabilitation can help people with COPD cope with their condition. Rehabilitation includes training on how to breathe properly, education on the disease and lifestyle and nutritional advice. While pulmonary rehabilitation can improve quality of life, it’s not a cure.
Stem Cell Therapy for COPD
Stem cells are cells that have self-renewal properties and can differentiate into a variety of cells. For COPD, stem cells can differentiate into lung tissue cells and repair and replace damaged lung tissue cells.
Stem cells also release growth factors and cytokines that promote the growth of new cells, modulate the immune system and repress inflammation. Once damaged lung tissue is restored and inflammation is reduced, normal functioning of the lungs can resume.
Stem cell surgery cost can be expensive, but there are affordable, high-quality treatment centers in countries with a lower cost of living.
Benefits of Stem Cell Therapy
Safety of MSCs
Mesenchymal stem cells are stem cells that are extracted from fat tissue, gum tissue, bone marrow, an umbilical cord or placenta. Many stem cell clinics, including Swiss Medica, use MSCs because they are a safe treatment option.
The most common side effect of MSCs is a mild fever following the injection. With MSCs, there is no risk of tumor formation like there is with embryonic stem cells.
Clinical Benefits
Currently, no other treatment can restore lung tissue damage like stem cell therapy can. Patients with COPD can receive stem cell therapy through an injection or inhalation and can see improvements such as:
- Return to normal breathing
- Reversal of Lung tissue scarring
- Less severe coughing episodes
- Improved sleep
- Increased energy levels
Comparison of Efficacy
Effectiveness in Symptom Management
Patients can take COPD medications to manage symptoms, reduce inflammation and improve airflow, but they don’t treat the root cause of COPD or restore lung tissue.
Pulmonary rehabilitation can help COPD patients manage their symptoms through natural methods such as breathing techniques and lifestyle changes. This method also has no side effects.
Stem cell therapy reduces COPD symptoms by treating the underlying lung tissue damage in people with COPD. Stem cell therapy can slow or even stop disease progression and can permanently improve COPD symptoms.
Quality of Life Improvements
Medication can improve quality of life by improving breathing and reducing pain. Rehabilitation therapy improves quality of life by teaching patients how to adjust their daily activities when living with COPD.
Stem cell therapy can help patients return to normal breathing, have less severe coughing episodes and improve sleep and energy levels. Since the therapy aims to regenerate damaged cells, these positive changes to quality of life are permanent.
Risks and Side Effects
Rehabilitation is focused on exercise and education and comes with no side effects. Therefore, rehabilitation is an essential therapy to use in conjunction with medication or stem cell therapy.
Medications can achieve good results but they also come with their own side effects. For example, Phosphodiesterase-4 inhibitors can cause diarrhea and weight loss.
MSC therapy has minimal side effects, the most common being a post-injection fever. Patients with contraindications such as an active infection or recent stroke may be unsuitable for this therapy.
In conclusion
Traditional treatments like COPD medications and pulmonary rehabilitation help patients manage COPD symptoms. Medication can relax airways and reduce inflammation, but it also comes with side effects. Rehabilitation doesn’t have side effects and is focused on teaching patients how to live with the disease.
Stem cell therapy reduces symptoms by treating the underlying lung tissue damage and inflammation that causes COPD. Stem cells release cytokines and growth factors that stimulate the growth of new lung tissue cells and reduce inflammation, which can result in a return to normal breathing and a reversal of lung scarring.