It’s been called a miracle “insurance” – but some experts say blood banking isn’t worth the money and time.
Drew Barrymore recently revealed that she took stem cells from both of her daughters’ umbilical cords to save her own children’s stem cells after her doctor told her it could potentially be life-saving. Blood has been saved.
“It can affect your family and in some cases it can even save your child’s life,” he said in a clip. “The Drew Barrymore Show” which was shared last week.
Cord banking involves storing blood from the umbilical cord so that it can be used later to treat a variety of ailments. Storage companies compare it to a “Biological Insurance Policy“- just in case something happens later in life that requires precious cells.
Stem cells collected from an umbilical cord — as opposed to bone marrow — are particularly useful, because they can work even if some proteins don’t match, meaning more people can use them, as well as a smaller Can benefit from processing time.
Dr. According to Christine Sterling, an OB/GYN and spokeswoman for the stem storage company Cord Blood Registry (CBR) — which sponsored the segment on Barrymore’s show — the umbilical cord is a rich source of stem cells that have the potential to do things like ” is The body’s own personal repair kit.
However, both the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Medical Association say that the potential benefits of storing cord blood as “insurance” outweigh the high cost of storage. Blood that can never be used.
Initial collection and processing alone Can cost up to $3,000And, after that, annual storage fees could reach $1,300 — or more — by 2022, according to the Forbes story.
Stem cells can be used to treat certain conditions — such as certain blood and immune disorders — and scientists have long used them to treat spinal cord injuries, some forms of cancer, and even neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Huntington’s disease. have envisioned their use in therapeutics.
However, a report Published in Stem Cell Research and Therapy emphasized on May 4 that those forms of treatment have not yet been approved, warned consumers about spending money on the therapies and urged regulators to stop selling the products when They have not yet been tested in clinical trials.
The Food and Drug Administration has approved stem cell therapies for the treatment of immune system disorders such as leukemia, lymphoma, and sickle cell disease.
Some clinics, however, are advertising stem cell therapies to treat conditions such as Parkinson’s disease and hair loss — with little evidence of safety and efficacy — as antiaging treatments.
If stem cells are used, they are more likely to go to a sibling than the person from whom they were taken, according to a cautionary 2022 article. In the Atlantic.
However, some families still keep cells in case other treatments become available in the future.
