Would Jane Jetson Bank on the Future?
Do you remember in the 60’s and 70’s when Jane Jetson, the sensible wife of George Jetson, would receive phone calls from her friends via video phone? I do. And let’s face it. That’s no longer an idea created by some Hollywood writer. And it’s not science fiction either. Today, it’s reality. Technology that had been predicted to exist in the 21st century is here. Just ask Niklas Zennstrom, founder of Skype.
So this has me thinking.
Would Jane Jetson bank on the future?
I think so. Here’s why:
Most of you know that Dr. Caruth was one of the first doctors in North Texas to perform natural breast augmentation using the latest in fat transfer technology. You can read more about that here. Dr. Caruth believes that regenerative medicine will become a practical method of treating and healing ourselves. And his belief is proving true as technological advances, such as fat cell and stem cell transfers, move into the future and lends ideas to new innovations.
Over the last ten years, cord blood has led the way in banking stem cells that are found in umbilical cord blood. Doctors have been encouraging expectant mothers to bank the cord blood as a type of insurance to repair their child’s damaged bone marrow caused by childhood cancers like leukemia. But recently, doctors have learned not only how to transfer fat cells during procedures like natural breast augmentation but, like cord blood, how to store and bank fat cells, which contain the highest concentration of stem cells needed for regenerative medicine. The possibilities are remarkable. Banked fat stem cells have the capacity to repair acquired-in-the-future conditions like a damaged heart caused by a heart attack, or damaged ligaments, or organs in need of repair. You can see here how one doctor is using stem cells to treat a young patient born with birth defects.
These new advances will be the future of aging treatments. For example, right now, if you’re forty years old or younger and have a liposuction procedure, the youthful fat cells taken during the procedure can be banked and stored for five, ten or even twenty years. In other words, your cells are banked, like an deposit that’s frozen in time, then when you’re ready to repair aging skin, your doctor can withdraw what you need to transfer those youthful cells into areas of the face and hands when you’re five, ten, or twenty years older. For more information on how Dr. Caruth uses fat transfer in his practice click here.
There must be a lost episode of Jane Jetson calling her doctor’s office via video phone to schedule an appointment to have her stem cells transferred. She probably told the receptionist, “I’m just not looking as young as I used to.”
So, let me ask you. Would you bank your stem cells?
Jackie Mull is a freelance writer living in Dallas, Texas.
