Woman appears cured of HIV after umbilical-cord blood transplant

Re:Woman appears cured of HIV after umbilical-cord blood tra... by Alex3917 on Tuesday February 15, 2022 @02:28PM (#30351410)

You can donate cord blood for free to a public bank. Obviously you're not guaranteed that it won't be used by someone else before a sibling potentially needs it, but the chances of it being useful to your own family are almost zero anyway -- not exactly zero, but if you were making a list of the ways to best increase your life expectancy given $5k to spend, I doubt it would even make the top 1,000 options in terms of expected ROI.

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Re:Woman appears cured of HIV after umbilical-cord blood tra... by pkukp9 on Tuesday February 15, 2022 @05:57PM (#30354056)

hello - founder of Anja Health here :)

I would actually argue that the chances of using it are actually much higher & it would make the top 1000 options in terms of expected ROI. Using type 1 diabetes as an example:

By age 18, approximately 1/300 people in the US develop type 1 diabetes

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/240160#1 -> here's an article demonstrating how cord blood has successfully reversed type 1 diabetes

and that's just for diabetes. Consider the chances and corresponding research around cerebral palsy, hair loss, heart failure, liver disease, cancers, and more that stem cells - and specifically cord blood stem cells - have been successfully used for.

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Re:Woman appears cured of HIV after umbilical-cord blood tra... by metb on Wednesday February 16, 2022 @07:52AM (#30359366)

There was some research that indicated stem cells can be made from skin cells. Is there a chance this field will eventually catch up by the time stem cell therapies become more widely accesssible?

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Re:Woman appears cured of HIV after umbilical-cord blood tra... by pkukp9 on Wednesday February 16, 2022 @11:52AM (#30362337)

Those stem cells are more unstable than cord blood stem cells. Right now they can be carcinogenic!

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Re:Woman appears cured of HIV after umbilical-cord blood tra... by metb on Thursday February 17, 2022 @02:40AM (#30370495)

Thanks for replying. Would like to learn more about the carcinogenic aspect of these stem cells. Can you share any pointers.

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Re:Woman appears cured of HIV after umbilical-cord blood tra... by acchow on Tuesday February 15, 2022 @02:37PM (#30351527)

What would be some things you might expect to see in the top 50?

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Re:Woman appears cured of HIV after umbilical-cord blood tra... by op00to on Tuesday February 15, 2022 @02:57PM (#30351795)

- Spend good money on therapy - At home exercise equipment - Dental care

Just a few things off the top of my head.

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Re:Woman appears cured of HIV after umbilical-cord blood tra... by Alex3917 on Tuesday February 15, 2022 @02:52PM (#30351737)

Things generally related to diet, exercise, health, and education.

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Re:Woman appears cured of HIV after umbilical-cord blood tra... by acchow on Tuesday February 15, 2022 @07:06PM (#30354717)

I don't think of "exercise" as a "5k" investment. Sure you could buy 5k worth of equipment, but how much more does that improve your health over calisthenics and a set of dumbbells?

Yes, education I'd say is in the top 10 or 50. But how can you possibly fill out the top 1000 without including umbilical cord stem cells?

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