With advances in science and technology, today we find ourselves at new crossroads where at times we are faced with crucial decisions, that may some day give a us a new lease of life, stem cell banking is just another one of those crucial decisions that every person should be aware of.

So what exactly are these STEM CELLS
Stem cells are the master cells responsible for producing all the mature cells in our blood and immune system. Right from the white cells that fight infection, the red cells that carry oxygen, to the platelets that promote clotting.

‘Cord blood banking’ as the name suggests is the harvesting of these stem cells from the residual blood obtained from the umbilical cord following child birth. Research proves that this cord blood is a rich source of stem cells and by far the safest and the best. Once the child is delivered the cord is clamped and then by inserting a needle in the umbilical vein the blood from the cord is collected and preserved, this absolutely safe non invasive procedure takes just five minutes and does not in any way harm either the mother or the child.

More over with advances in stem cell research, there are promising results in terms of therapy with regard to diseases like Parkinson’s, Diabetes, Heart Attacks, Spinal Cord Injuries, Muscular Dystrophy, other then the 70 plus diseases including the Acute and Chronic Cancers, Anemia’s, Thalassemia’s and Immune system disorders that are a proven and well established cure today.

Further more these stem cells could also be seen as a security cover for the entire family as these cells have a 25% chance of matching a sibling and a good chance of matching both the parents since these cells share the same genetic tree.

Another interesting fact is that stem cell research is in no way a new field with stem cell treatment dating back to 1988 where the first treatment with stem cells was carried out, however with the kind of effort and research put into the field today it is evident that the world at large is moving from the primitive drug based therapy to the more natural cell based therapy model as this is absolutely safe and has far less adverse effects.

So from cardiac myopathy and ischemic heart disease to the diseases affecting the nervous system like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s they all fall under the scope of treatment with the help of STEM CELLS.

The next question being why store these stem cells when we have bone marrow?

To answer this question lets look at a few advantages of using or storing stem cells form the umbilical cord Research has shown that survival rates double when a person’s own cord blood or a family member’s cord blood is used, as compared to using an unrelated donor sample from a public stem cell bank. Also since cord blood is a non invasive procedure as compared to bone marrow that has to be aspirated from the person’s body it is much easier to obtain.

These cells also have a greater chance of being a match as compared to cells form the bone marrow as these are naïve and immunologically immature. More over the rate of rejection in transplants with stem cells obtained from the bone marrow are much higher.

These are just a few of the reasons why cord blood stem cell banking has taken such a forefront the world over.