The lifesaving power of umbilical cord blood stem cells and the regenerative healing of cord tissue is no longer a secret. As stem cell treatments and research advance, more and more parents are opting to bank their newborn baby’s cord blood and tissue. Find out how stem cells are being used in medicine today. Umbilical cord blood is the blood remaining in the cord after your baby has been born and the cord has been cut and clamped. It contains valuable stem cells that can be used in a variety of medical treatments such as regenerating the immune system after chemotherapy. Stem cells are known as ‘the building blocks of life’. They have the unique ability to become other types of cells in the body such as the blood, nerve cells, muscle, bone, and cartilage. Why are umbilical stem cells so valuable? Cord blood stem cells can only be collected at birth, so it is important to make the decision to do cord tissue storage several weeks before your due date. Cord Tissue stored at birth have many advantages – they are readily available for your family if needed, they are considered to be the ‘youngest and freshest’ type of stem cell, and importantly there is a greater potential of a stem cell match between siblings. Stem cells from the cord blood have been used for more than 20 years for the treatment of a number of disorders of the blood such as leukemia, lymphoma and thalassemia, which previously had been treated with bone marrow. The umbilical cord blood collection process After the safe delivery of your child, your obstetrician or midwife cleans the umbilical cord (with the materials provided in the Cells4Life kit) and inserts the blood bag needle into the umbilical vein. The blood flows into the bag by gravity. The blood bag tubing is clamped, sealed and labeled to await courier collection. The whole process takes only a few minutes and causes no pain for mother or baby. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a new clinical trial of a groundbreaking strategy using stem cells for the treatment of MS (multiple sclerosis). Multiple Sclerosis is a chronic disease that attacks the central nervous system (the spinal cord, optic nerves and brain). Common symptoms are numbness of the limbs, but more severe cases can lead to paralysis and blindness. According to Multiple Sclerosis Foundation, there are currently between 350,000 to 500,000 people in the US who have been diagnosed with MS, and 200 people are diagnosed with the disease every week. Researchers from the Tisch MS Research of New York say the FDA has granted approval to begin early clinical investigation (phase 1 trial) of autologous neural stem cells in the treatment of MS. Similar trials but with larger number of patients (phase 2) have already been under way in the UK. In 2011, UK scientists received £1 million from the MS Society and the UK Stem Cell Foundation (UKCSF) towards research investigating whether stem cells can slow, stop or reverse brain and spinal cord damage in MS patients. Read more information here – www.medicalnewstoday.com