Inborn errors of metabolism, or inherited disorders caused by a single gene, can affect your quality of life. Most of these disorders are extremely complex, but they are medically and nutritionally manageable with early diagnosis and highly tailored treatment. Because they are complex and require specialized approaches, inborn errors of metabolism comprise a broad class of diseases with hundreds of variants; treatment protocols are myriad. Regenerative medicine possess its potential to repair or replace damaged or diseased human cells or tissues to restore normal function. Against this backdrop, stem cells could potentially be applied as the standard of care treatments for chronic diseases including heart failure, diabetes, liver diseases, and autoimmune diseases. BRC specializes in both stem cell therapies and metabolic disorder (MD) space. At BRC, we are gearing up to develop novel treatments that target diabetes and more.
Hypertension or high blood pressure occur when the heart needs to pump with more effort to push the blood through the arteries (blood vessels) in order to send enough oxygen and nutrients to each cells of the whole body. The most common reason the heart needs to pump harder is due to higher resistance due to less flexibility and narrowing of the blood vessels.
Hypertension can occur many years without any symptoms, and it might not be recognized unless checking it regularly. However, even without symptoms, many organs in the body can be already damaged. There are many people who get acute heart attack or stroke without warning or physical problem before.
The bad effects of high blood pressure include:
More tearing and damaging on the blood vessel walls, more plaque deposit, and more hardening and narrowing of the arteries.
If the plaque break off causing blood clots flow through the bloodstream and get stuck in the small space, it can block the blood supply to part of the heart or brain causing heart attack or stroke. For example; hypertension leads to a 7-fold increase in the risk of myocardial infarction, and a 6-fold increase in the risk of cardiac failure.
Every cell in the body needs oxygen and food nutrients to survive. Damaged arteries can limit the amount of blood to every cell, causing them to not work as well and have less function than it should be for any organs. One of example is Kidney failure due to lower amount of oxygen and nutrients to kidney for long time.
When the heart has to pump harder for long time, the heart muscle can get weaker, thicker, bigger, and use more effort. This can cause fatigue and even heart failure.
Impaired visual function or even vision loss can occur due to impaired blood flow to eyes, swell optic nerve, or brain damage involved eye related area of the brain.
Hypertensive crisis is likely to occur when blood pressure is higher than 180/110. Severe high blood pressure can create the symptoms of shortness of breath, severe headache, nosebleed, and/or severe anxiety. This situation can be fatal and needs emergency care.Autoimmune dysfunction Some kind of hypertensive medications reduce blood pressure just by excreting more water through urination, then lower the amount of fluid inside the blood vessel. Some types lower the muscle strength of the arterial walls leading to less pressure inside.Any medications can have side effects, so does hypertensive drugs. Possible side effects include increased urination, gout, fatigue, depression, dizziness, dry mouth, drowsiness, swelling of feet/lips/tongue, dry cough, and imbalance electrolytes.In Functional medicine point of view, it’s important to look for what cause high blood pressure than just giving the medication to lower it down. While one cause of hypertension is genetic predisposition, 80% of vascular disease is environmental. It’s also important to look at every aspect involved and affected with these issues, not just the heart and arteries. Examples of possible causes of high blood pressure include:
Lack of nutrients as biotin, vitamin D, vitamin C, cloline, CoQ10, magnesium, vitamin B, taurine, or potassium.
Fatty acid imbalance.
Kidney dysfunction.
Oxidative stress.
Chronic systemic inflammation.
Chronic low stress level.
Chronic toxic exposure, for example; lead, mercury, and cadmium.
Elevated blood sugar and metabolic syndrome.
Hormonal imbalances, such as sex hormone, DHEA hormone, stress hormone, and Suboptimal thyroid activity.
Daily diet and lifestyle education.
By taking care of every aspect along with diet and lifestyle changes, research has shown that around 60 percent of people who had high blood pressure could reduce hypertensive medications and maintain normal blood pressure.
These factors can be explored by thorough blood tests that are not included in regular check-up program in the hospital.
In addition to finding the causes, screening for damaging effects and risk factors from high blood pressure should also be done. There are some blood tests that are used to add in the total risk factors of future developing heart attack or stroke. These factors should be taken care of to prevent the risks. We should also strengthen the power of the heart muscle.
Even though the drugs can reduce blood pressure, however, it doesn’t really improve the quality of the blood vessels. Either it doesn’t increase the amount of blood flow and oxygen to the far organs. However, by Functional medicine therapy, the blood pressure, the quality of the vessel walls, the power of heart muscle, the cells function, and biochemical balance could be restored.
Treatments are adjusted depending on the examination results. The dosage, duration, quantity and combination of ingredients are determined on an individual basis for each person.
Most people misunderstand that Diabetes is the disease of simple high blood sugar. In fact, it’s a complicated disease of Insulin hormone either by lack of insulin (type 1), or insulin resistance (type 2). Insulin hormone control the blood sugar level by controlling the specific door that let the sugar into the cell for use as an energy or for storage. In case of insulin deficiency or resistance, blood sugar can’t get into the cell causing high blood sugar. Cell function is also impaired due to lack of fuel.
We can have insulin resistance that has already been affecting the body many years long before the blood sugar level is high enough to get diagnosed as Diabetes. In other words, once the person is diagnosed as Diabetes, the body has already damaged.
Diabetes disrupts all aspects of physiology affecting all parts of human body. This is the examples of damaged tissues caused by Diabetes.
The conventional therapy uses the medications to lower the amount of blood sugar by any mean. Some drugs lower the blood sugar level by reducing the sugar absorbed by the gut letting it pass through the stool. Although it can reduce the number of blood sugar, it doesn’t help getting more sugar into the other cells of the body for better function. Sometimes they have been treated with synthetic insulin injection. People with insulin resistance (means the cells don’t respond to the insulin, and the sugar can’t get into the cells even with high level of insulin) already have higher level of insulin than normal people. Giving more insulin to reduce blood sugar doesn’t change the insulin resistance condition, even though the sugar level is lower. In either way, the underlying disease process still continue despite using the medications and lower level of blood sugar.
The functional medicine therapy uses the holistic approach to help in every damaging aspect from this condition, and try to restore the cells to be less insulin resistance, so the sugar can normally get into the cells for proper function. The approach includes taking care of these aspects :
Diet : Not only people with Diabetes should avoid all simple carbohydrate and high glycemic index food, they should also avoid inflammation-inducing foods like processed and fast foods, obvious of hidden food sensitivities, and fasting diet.
Stress (physically, mentally, and emotionally) : Stress has big impact on insulin resistant, hormones, and blood sugar level.
Exercise : Exercise reduce insulin resistance and blood sugar by increasing caloric burning, less fat cells, more muscle cells, and increasing the sensitivities of the insulin receptors.
Toxins : Toxins can cause inflammation and insulin resistance. Inflammation shuts down insulin receptor sites.
Nutrients : There are many nutrients that are essential to the insulin receptors, cellular metabolism, inflammation, and other processes important in this matter. For example; Magnesium, Zinc, Vitamin B, Chromium, Vitamin D, Omega 3, Alpha lipoic acid, and herbal extracts.
Sleep : Lack of sleep and bad sleep quality can induce insulin resistance.
Microbiome : There are trillions of microbes living in the intestinal tract. The balance between good and bad microbes is very important for the overall health. The imbalance can cause elevation of Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) level from bad bacteria. LPS is known for causing insulin resistance.
Many people experience some of these feeling like lower energy than before, muscle ache and pain, lack of motivation and enthusiasm, less quality of sleep, lower metabolism and more difficulty to lose weight. Most of them usually think that it’s normal because you are getting older, or someone may have these for a long time until they get used to it as if it’s their normal. It’s actually not. And these can be all because of hormones.
Many people who have some of these symptoms may go to the hospital and do all the check up and examination, yet they might not find anything wrong or any disease for them. Many of them get sleeping pills, or muscle relaxants and pain killer. The symptoms might be lessen, but the real problem is still there, and can turn into something more and more over a period of time.
Hormones are natural chemical messengers in the body. There are some 50 kinds of hormones produced from different glands throughout the body. After being produced, they are sent out to the blood flow and go to every organs and cells in the body. When they get inside the cells, they create the signal telling the cell to work in the way depend on types of hormones. Therefore, they function like head workers who control almost all bodily functions, in all aspects of the body, from simple basic cell metabolism, hunger, sleep, reproduction, every organ function, and even mood or enthusiasm.
Hormones can start to decline since thirties and keep declining as we get older. There have been numerous studies of benefits of using some major hormones like Estrogen, Progesterone, Testosterone, DHEA, Thyroid hormone, and Growth hormones as viable therapies to slow down the aging process, to prevent or slow the onset of age-related diseases, and to stay fit in our best possible conditions. Here are some brief benefits of certain hormones.
Sex hormones (Estrogen and Progesterone are female sex hormones. Testosterone is male sex hormone.) are not only responsible for sex organs or sexual function, but they actually are responsible for almost every aging-related aspects. When we get older, we get thinner bone, hair, and skin, weaker muscle and heart, decreased short-term memory, less happiness, lower metabolism, etc.
Thyroid hormone mainly controls about cell metabolism and energy. However, it also takes care of numerous things throughout the body like hair and skin quality, bowel movement, happy feeling, and enthusiasm.
DHEA hormone is produced in adrenal gland. It’s one of important anti-aging. It controls many functions, for example, central nervous system, metabolism, endothelial function, immune function, and the very important function is reducing damage of stress.
Growth hormone is secreted naturally from the gland in the brain. Its level is peak in teenager then drop down progressively. It controls growth and repair. Older people gain fat and lose muscle leading to lower overall strength, unstable walking, and increase risk of falling and bone fracture. Growth hormone help regain all of these. It helps in wound healing, bone strength, confidence, brain function, happy feeling, metabolism, and overall health.
Although everyone will certainly have lower level of hormones as we get older, hormone therapy is not suitable for everyone with the same dose or same situation. This has to be checked and prescribed and taken care of by the specialist. This is very individualized and need professional attention. You can’t buy it over the counter or use it by yourself.
Liver is a largest internal organ locating on the right side of the belly. It is one of the most crucial and busy organ in the body. We can’t live without liver. It has many functions, including :
It makes protein, which is the building block of many substances in the body like neurotransmitter, hormones, etc.
It also manufactures blood clotting factors, Triglycerides, Cholesterol, and bile.
Another very important function of liver is glycogen and blood sugar cycle. It stores glucose in the form of big complex molecule called glycogen in liver and muscle, and will make the glucose out of glycogen when the body needs glucose for energy.
It stores essential vitamins, minerals, and iron.
It breaks down hormones.
It produces the bile needed to digest fat.
It detoxify our blood. Almost everything we get into the body, either from oral ingestion, skin absorption, or even inhalation has to pass through the liver to be processed into usage, or breakdown substances like alcohol and medication. Then it removes toxins from the blood.
Nowadays, we have to expose to so many toxins and chemical all around us that are very close to us. They could be in almost every daily products that we use like skin lotion, shampoo, soap, powder, drugs, food additive, make-up and other cosmetics.
When the detoxification mechanism are not working efficiently, or it gets enough damage or function overload, then the symptoms can develop. However, it can take years to accumulate the damage until the signs and symptoms can be recognized. Therefore, not having symptoms or normal blood tests doesn’t mean your liver is healthy. The symptoms that can occur in liver disease include:
Feeling tired, weakness, or fatigue
Loss of appetite
Headaches
Arthralgias
Muscle ache
Kidney problem
Nausea
Trouble concentrating
Bloating and gas
Bruising easily
Excessive sweat
Constipation
Pain in the center or right upper part of belly
Dark urine
Recognizing that the liver is a very important organ, it’s crucial to take care and maintain its function not to just preventing the disease, but should be in the optimal level for better health. Combining treatments is definitely more effective than just any one treatment. The treatment program will aim to help reduce its burden on digestive system, support the detoxification pathways with the proper and necessary vitamins, minerals, and herbs, help remove out the fat accumulated in the liver, and help remove the storage toxins out of the body. The program includes supplements orally and intravenous with specific ingredients, and possible cell therapy which needs to be considered individually.
Sexuality is absolutely paramount for survival of humanity. The nature only allows the healthy persons to be able to pass on their genes. Therefore, the women who can’t get pregnant, or the men who can’t perform meaning that they are unhealthy or imbalance in some ways or some level. Sexuality nowadays is also an essential part of our lives, and to the couples.
Sexual dysfunction can refer to any problem that occur in any phase of sexual activity that prevents that person or couple from experiencing satisfaction. Some people have lower desire (libido) which can be one of the problem also.
Erectile Dysfunction is one of sexual dysfunction which men’s sexual organ can’t get as harden as before or not enough to perform, or even can’t get hard at all. This condition can affect any age, even though it is more common among men over 40 years old. The older the age, the more common and the more severe of symptoms.
This can be caused by many factors and conditions in the body; for example:
Physical causes : gastrointestinal problem, hormonal imbalance or deficiency, excess body toxicity, diabetes, heart and vascular conditions (blood vessel), obesity, high cholesterol, smoking, alcoholism, neurological disorders, chronic diseases such as kidney failure, alcoholism, and drug abuse. Moreover, the side effects of some medications, such as antidepressant drugs, can affect sexual function.
Psychological causes : any kind of stress or anxiety, any concern feeling, depression, concern about body shape or image or sexual performance, and past sexual trauma.
Holistic medicine approach for sexuality dysfunction is to optimize the healthy state of body and mind in order to achieve an overall wellness and reduce the condition of the body that could be the possible causes of the sexuality dysfunction. In other words, we treat as a whole person, not giving the drug that just hide the symptoms temporary, but the real problem never goes away. This way might take longer time, but it gives the real result.
One example of how other parts of the body can affect the sexual function is about hormones. There are many kinds of hormones, and almost every hormone plays an important part in libido and sexual function, not just a sex hormone, for example, stress hormone, thyroid hormone, DHEA hormone, and Growth hormone. Therefore, it’s necessary to help bring all the hormones up to work well in balance and harmony.
Another example which is a common one is about blood vessels. In order for the sex organ to get hard (erection), higher amount of blood has to flow in the organ. If any factor lowering the blood flow like hardening of the blood vessels by cholesterol, plaque, calcium, blood sugar, inflammation, heart problem, diabetes, or hypertension, then there can be an erection problem. Therefore, men with erection problem are more likely to have heart disease and diabetes than men with normal erectile function.
Another possible cause is oral health like gum disease or infection/inflammation inside mouth can trigger inflammation that can stifle the penis through the blood vessels. Therefore, men with sexual problem should routinely have their teeth professionally cleaned, and taking care of the oral health daily by flossing in addition to regular brushing the teeth.
There are a handful of supplements and herbs that could help enhance sexual function for men, for example; Panax ginseng, Rhodiola rosea, DHEA, L-arginine, Maca, etc. We can combine all the therapies together for better results. In addition to these therapies, it is also important to do regular exercise, lose weight if overweight, eat healthy choices of foods like vegetables, fruits, whole grain, fish, and low carbohydrate and sugar, reduce stress, and good quality enough sleep. With all these methods, there is a higher chance of achieving the good sex life and better health.
A stroke occurs when the blood supply to part of your brain is interrupted or reduced, depriving brain tissue of oxygen and nutrients. Within minutes, brain cells begin to die. Stem Cell Journal published an interesting study by Jin Soo Lee and the team on the use of MSC on Ischemic Stroke patients. The subjects being studied are 52 patients divided into 36 patients in the control group and 16 patients who receive MSC treatment. The MSC is extracted from the patient’s tissues and cultured in the laboratory environment. It is injected into the patient’s body via an intravenous vessel. The injections are 2 times with 50 million cells each (2-week interval time). The follow-up time is 260 weeks (5 years). It is found that those with MSC treatment have no complications. The signs of the disease are the same among the 2 groups. And the MSC group has a survival rate from 34% to 72% with significant improvement. This research shows that Ischemic Stroke can also be treated with MSC from the patient’s tissue. It is safe and yields improvement significantly. So, stem cells are another option that the patient can choose.
Umbilical cord MSC transplantation in Severe and Refractory Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE), a research by Lingyun Sun and the team, published on ARTHRITIS & RHEUMATISM Magazine, discusses the result of 16 SLE patients (aged 17-56 years) who have been never successful with other treatments. The disease also affects their internal organs. The medical team transplants MSC extracted from Umbilical Cord/Wharton’s Jelly) into the patients via intravenous injection. The amount is 1 million cells per 1 kg of body weight. The follow-up period is 8 months (3-28 months) after injection. No complications have been reported. Significant improvements are observed in all patients. The result of SLE Disease Activity Index (SLEDAI), GFR in the liver and protein level in urination are compared. All metrics significantly reduce. This means that MSC helps improve SLE patients to stay healthier in the long run.
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