Good News For Horseplay

We've all seen it

We've all seen it.

Conceivably, most recently in the Cohen Brothers' charming remake of True Grit, after Mattie Ross and Rooster Cogburn have ridden the black mare to exhaustion, they end the life of the loyal animal with a cold, dark bullet rather than leave it to the coyotes and creatures of the Western night . . . CUT!

ACTION: With a new study released this week, yet even further proof was established backing the use of stem cells to reinvigorate injured animals. The study focused on 113 competitive Thoroughbred horses in England who were plagued by a recurrent, stubborn type of naturally occurring tendon injury that is translatable to a known chronic pain persistent in human beings as well. The racehorses, known for their speed and agility as with the famed UK National Hunt races that demand hurdling over obstacles such as fences, revealed remarkable recovery after the stem cell treatment.

A staggering 98 percent of the Thoroughbreds returned to the starting line. The study's authors noted that about a quarter of that number were again benched due to subsequent injury. However, this is a significantly lower number than to be expected in horses treated with traditional medical approaches toward tendinopathy. Familiar noninvasive procedures such as icepacks, rest, and OTC pain relievers run a higher risk of re-injury. A much higher complication rate is found invasive practices, such as knee replacement surgery, which carry risks that range from blood clots to pulmonary embolism.

The science behind the magic is beholden to stem cells. No, not the stem cells your pastor or your state representative warned you about. These are adult stem cells, which, unlike embryonic stem cells whose more controversial origins remain a constant source of debate, are taken from no more trustworthy a source than the injured adult's own body.

The process employed in the study involved extracting stem cells from the bone marrow of each individual horse. The sample was allowed to culture and enlarge before being re-injected into the injured tendon of the same horse. Adult stem cell therapy has been a valuable tool in alleviating the arthritic joints of animals such as dogs, cats, and horses for years.

What about the injured jockey, you may wonder? Unfortunately, the legal and political quagmire which engulfs the controversy of embryonic stem cells has overshadowed the advancement of adult stem cell therapy in humans until of late. In recent years, the medical practice has been performed with extremely encouraging results reported at reputable institutes such as the Centeno-Schultz Clinic in Colorado.

Clinic co-founder and namesake, Dr. Christopher Centeno equates adult stem cells as the basic builders of the body. Only these builders are jacks-of-all-trades containing the capacity to morph into various other sorts of cells. Centeno states, "We have billions to trillions of tiny little repairmen in all tissues of our body . . . whose job is to find foundation cracks and fix them before they get bigger."

Let the games begin.

by: Will M Rogers

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