Regenerative Medicine

 

Regenerative medicine is focused on developing and applying new treatments to heal tissues and organs and restore function lost due to aging, disease, damage, or defects. The human body has the natural ability to heal itself, regenerative medicine uses that ability. Regenerative medicine is a relatively new field of medicine. The most commonly known use of regenerative medicine is in skin grafts for burn victims, first used in 1870. Another field is known as “plastic surgery”, the term was first coined in 1818 by a German doctor, Carl Ferdinand von Graefe to describe the process of molding body tissues to heal injuries on the body. Only a small facet of plastic surgery involves cosmetic surgery, such as crepey skin, wrinkles, and nose jobs. Plastic surgeons are first and foremost wound doctors. They’re trained to utilize tissues from one part of the body to help regain function in another, injured, part.

Regenerative medicine brings together experts in various fields, not just medicine, to find solutions to some of the most challenging medical problems faced by humankind:

• Biology
• Chemistry
• Computer Science
• Engineering
• Genetics
• Medicine
• Robotics

Some examples of regenerative medicine include:

• Stem Cell Treatments-Stem-cell therapy uses stem cells to treat or prevent a disease or condition.
• Cartilage regeneration —takes healthy cartilage cells and cultures them in a lab for four to six weeks, and then injects the new cells into the damaged joint for regeneration with the surrounding cartilage.
• Platelet-Rich Plasma (PRP) - uses injections of a concentration of a patient’s own platelets to accelerate the healing of injured tendons, ligaments, muscles, and joints.
• Prolotherapy- The treatment involves repeated injections of an irritant solution into part of a joint

Concentrations in the field of regenerative medicine:

• Tissue engineering and biomaterials
• Cellular therapies
• Medical devices and artificial organs

Regenerative medicine uses in vision care:

• Stem-cell therapy uses implanted stem cells to treat or prevent a disease or condition. The implanted cells have the potential to generate healthy cells to replace those that are lost. There is a lot of excitement about stem cell therapy as a treatment for vision loss because a single stem cell therapy may be able to treat different eye diseases including age-related macular degeneration (AMD), inherited retinal diseases (IRDs), glaucoma, and corneal diseases. . Stem cell therapy could also be useful for individuals whose disease is very advanced. There is a lot of cell damage.
• CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) is genetic engineering that allows scientists to edit DNA. This technique uses targeted molecular tools to "cut and paste" to remove abnormal DNA and replace it with normal genetic material.

 

Sources:

www.mayoclinic.org

www.aabb.org

www.mirm-pitt.net

www.eye.hms.harvard.edu

www.reviewofophthalmology.com

 

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Cone Dystrophy

 

Cone dystrophy is a general term for a group of rare, inherited eye disorders that affect the cone cells in the retina, which usually occur as a part of a larger syndrome. A cone cell is any of the photoreceptor cells in the retina of the eye that functions best in relatively bright light and allows for color vision and finer detail.

The main symptoms of cone dystrophy are:

• Photophobia- is eye discomfort in bright light.
• Loss of detail vision
• Difficulty distinguishing colors
• Loss of central vision
• Development of rapid uncontrolled eye movement (nystagmus)

Cone dystrophy leads to loss of central and color vision. People with stationary dystrophy have the same level of sight loss from birth to early childhood. Progressive dystrophy develops later in life sight is lost gradually over time.

Diseases sometimes associated with cone dystrophy:

1. Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP) is a rare, inherited degenerative eye disease that often causes severe vision impairment with symptoms beginning in childhood.
2. Achromatopsia is a non-progressive, hereditary visual disorder that is characterized by the absence of color vision, decreased vision, light sensitivity, involuntary shaking, and a jerking movement of the eyes.
3. Bardet-Biedl syndrome is a complex disorder that affects many parts of the body, including the retina. Individuals with the syndrome have retinal degeneration.
4. Refsum Disease is a very rare genetic disorder impacting the metabolism of phytanic acid (A fatty acid obtained through dairy products.). Patients with this disease have

• Difficulty seeing in the dark
• Tunnel vision
• Vision loss
• Bone abnormalities
• Neurological symptoms
• Itchy, scaly skin
• Loss of smell
• Hearing loss
• Abnormal heart rhythms

5. Batten Disease is a group of fatal genetic disorders (13 types). This disease affects the body's ability to get rid of cellular waste (lipids and proteins). The build-up in cells throughout the body causes seizures, vision loss, and problems with thinking and movements.

6. NARP syndrome is a maternally inherited nerve disease affecting the nerves outside of the central nervous system (peripheral neuropathy).

Sources:

www.rarediseases.info.nih.gov

www.newworldencyclopedia.org

www.aapos.org

www.clevelandclinic.org

 

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Vitreous Health Supplement

I recently posted a blog about reasons you may be seeing spots in your vision read here: https://bit.ly/3cbtt9b. There is now a new supplement on the market that helps reduce floaters.

What is vitreous?

Between the lens and retina is the vitreous, a clear gel-like substance made up of water, hyaluronic acid, and collagen fibers. This part of the eye needs specific antioxidants to protect it against oxidative stress and disease. Research shows the vitreous loses these nutrients over time, causing the collagen fibers inside it to clump together. These clumps, called floaters, cast shadows on the retina, disrupting your vision.

VitreousHealth is based on the ground-breaking double-blind, placebo-controlled Floater Intervention Study (FLIES).1 In that study, 67% of patients recognized an improvement in their symptoms within six months with a noticeable enhancement in contrast sensitivity and visual comfort.

Product Description

• First scientifically proven non-invasive solution to treat eye floaters

• Pharmaceutical-grade dietary supplement

• Patented blend of antioxidants

• All natural ingredients and lactose-free

• Made in the USA in a GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice) facility and third-party tested for quality and safety

At eyegotcha has received a shipment of VitreousHealth. We are one of the first outlets in the area to stock this product.  You can purchase a 90-day supply for $60 or a 180-day supply for $100.

*Always consult your doctor before taking additional supplements call for an appointment today. 412.331.9696

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# VitreousHealth

Sources:

www.macuhealth.com

 

Iconic Eyewear in Movie History

 

1. Audrey Hepburn‘s sunglasses worn as Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany’s.
2. Men in Black wore specialized shades to protect them from their own neuralyzer flash.
3. Tom Cruise as Maverick wore “Aviators” in Top Gun
4. Harry Potter’s glasses in all the Harry Potter Movies.
5. Luna Lovegood’s Spectrespec They made wrackspurts (invisible creatures that floated through one's ears causing their brain to go fuzzy) visible to the wizarding eye. In the movie Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix