Rafael Nadal Treats His Back With Stem Cells!

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Bobcat

New member
Tennis World Nov. 9

Rafael Nadal is back at using a stem cell treatment to resolve his injuries and the continuous pain he has been forced to endure by his body in the past two years. Back in 2013, the Spaniard treated his knee issues with stem cells, managing to come back to tennis in great fashion, winning both the French Open and the US Open, arriving in New York undefeated on hard courts.

Now Rafael, as confirmed by Spanish website as.com, has decided to cure his back issues, which have affected him since the beginning of the season, with stem cells. Nadal started to deal with back pain at the Australian Open, when he was forced to play below par in the final he lost in Melbourne against an in-form Stan Wawrinka. No one knows what would have happened if Rafael were to play that match at his best, maybe he would have lost anyways. What counts, is that from that moment on, Rafael was bothered all along with back pain.

Toni Nadal, Rafael's uncle and coach, confirmed the news saying:

"He has been dragging this injury for half a year now, thus he is now undergoing a stem cell treatment that should make him feel better in about five weeks".

Many then wondered why the decision was not taken prior to the end of the season, considering how the World No.3 spent three months off the tour dealing with yet another injury, at his right wrist.

Toni revealed how during that time, they were sure Nadal would have managed to get back on court sooner, and didn't expect the wrist injury to take three months to heal. Then, the World No.3's coached talked about the unfortunate final in Melbourne: "We can't say it was entirely fault of his back, but what we can say is that he wasn't allowed to perform at 100% of his abilities".

Rafael will be back on court to prepare for the 2015 season in December. This news ends the bittersweet 2014 season for Rafael Nadal.
 
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barbara

Pioneer Founding member
Blogger Paul Knoepfler has outdone himself this time - Please take time to read the comments by clicking on the link. In the future, it would be nice if the facts were obtained before blogging speculatively as it makes his intent for writing this particular piece very dubious in my opinion. It's not hard to do a little research concerning the doctor's credentials before posting such an article. "Trying to learn" is a weak excuse for writing such an article without doing one's homework!



Tennis Star Nadal to Get Dubious Stem Cell Treatment
Posted on November 10, 2014

http://www.ipscell.com/2014/11/tennis-star-nadal-to-get-dubious-stem-cell-treatment/

Rafael NadalTennis superstar Rafael Nadal, 28, is following in the dubious footsteps of many sports stars turning to questionable stem cell “treatments” to relieve what ails them and potentially extend their careers.

Nadal (pictured at right in image from Wikipedia) will receive what appears to be a laboratory-grown stem cell product from Dr. Angel Ruiz-Cotorro.

ESPN added some important details to this story:

“(Nadal) has a problem typical in tennis with a back joint, he had it at the Australian Open, and we have decided to treat it with stem cells,” Ruiz-Cotorro said.

He said that stem cells were recently extracted from Nadal for a cultivation process to “produce the necessary quantities.”

“When we have them we will put them in the point of pain,” he said, with the goal of “regenerating cartilage, in the midterm, and producing an anti-inflammatory effect.”

Could this work?

It seems to me to be like an extreme long shot, kind of like a no-look between-the-legs, inside-out forehand that you hope will clear the net and land inbounds, but usually it doesn’t.

Update: Nadal apparently got a similar stem cell treatment for his knee last year. it’s hard to know if he thought that was helpful.

I’m not clear on what experience or training that Dr. Ruiz-Cotorro (pictured at right) has specifically in stem cells or transplants, but I’m trying to learn more about it.Dr. Angel Ruiz-Cotorro

Nadal just got his appendix out a week ago and apparently now in the near future will get potentially risky stem cell injections.

One of the concerns about sports stars getting these kinds of stem cell “treatments” is that it will likely encourage amateur athletes, perhaps even children (via their parents) to also get dubious stem cell interventions.
 
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Claire

New member
I've seen it. Clearly, PK thinks the guy should be doing something REALLY risky, like using iPS cells.
 
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barbara

Pioneer Founding member
Another good article that explains why athletes are not getting treated in the U.S. (Hint: It's not because the treatment is dubious).

Stem Cell Treatment in Sports: Helping Athletes Recover Faster
November 11, 2014 By Jordan Bellar

http://www.sporttechie.com/2014/11/11/stem-cell-treatment-in-sports-helping-athletes-recover-faster/

14-time Grand Slam winner, Rafael Nadal, will undergo stem cell treatment on his injured back in Barcelona this week. Several big name athletes have traveled across the world seeking this treatment, including the NFL’s Peyton Manning, the NBA’s Pau Gasol, and the MLB’s Bartolo Colon, among others.

Nadal’s Doctor, Angel Ruiz-Cotorro, told the Associated Press: “We are going to put cells in a joint in his spine.”

No stranger to stem cell treatment, the number three tennis player in the world underwent a similar procedure on his knee last year. The injuries have been adding up for Nadal recently. Just last week he had an emergency appendectomy that brought his season to an end.

Don’t be confused. These stem cells are not the ones under vigorous ethical debate in the United States, but rather taken directly from the person being treated. Stem cell treatment is considered perfectly legal by many professional sports leagues. The NFL considers it a medical treatment rather than a performance-enhancing substance. Leading sports physician Dr. James Andrews has performed stem cell treatment on several hundred pro athletes in the U.S. over the past three years.

Mesenchymal stem cells are found in bone marrow and fat tissue; and are most commonly used in these athlete treatments. These cells can grow into new bone, cartilage, muscle, or connective tissue. helping to speed along injury recovery. Currently, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) limits this treatment to the injection of the unaltered harvested cells directly to the site of the injury.

Many athletes travel outside the country to receive an enhanced treatment currently illegal in the United States. International labs often culture the cells taken from a player’s body of a 10-14 day period. Rather than harvesting around 10,000 cells, they are able to yield around 2 million.
In an interview with Sports Illustrated, Pittsburgh Steelers’ Orthopedic Surgeon, Jim Bradley, says, “This is why people go to the Cayman Islands, to Russia, to North Korea, to Japan, to Germany, because we can’t multiply stem cells here. When my NFL guys ask me, ‘Where would I go for this?’ I have a very good answer for them. I’m not going to tell you where I tell them to go, but it is not in the U.S.”

As biologic research continues to improve, the U.S. will likely become more accepting of stem cell treatments. Athletes will be able to recovery from injury more quickly than ever before and not have to travel overseas to do it.

“We have had one big revelation in sports medicine over the last 50 years, and that was the arthroscope,” Andrews says.

“I’ve been looking for the next wave, and I think the biologics, particularly stem-cell therapy and enhancement of the healing properties, will be it. We’ve been saying that since the new decade of this new millennium, so we’re already behind.”
 
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