Like I notice there is a huge push for prevention, which is fantastic, but that kind of feels like taking all the people who are already suffering from intractable conditions and throwing them under the bus.

Like when are we gonna actually get lab grown kidneys, livers, tendons, and all that shit that would immediately help so many people? I remember at the beginning of this century stem cells were all the rage, but I haven't seen anything groundbreaking. Every "promising" study said that treatments (perhaps cures) were "5 to 10 years" away.

We can send a probe to the south pole of the moon but if you have back pain then it's basically "fuck you here's some pain meds but we're not gonna actually fix your issue... maybe try to do some physical therapy and get out of my office" kind of shit. Or "You got diabetes? too bad no cure here's some $8k insulin." And "Oh you tore your miniscus? Well just 'take it easy' and do some leg exercises and I'll do some surgery on it, but it'll never be back to 100% so get the fuck out of my office and here's a bill for $3k." Or "oh it seems you have carpal tunnel and some tendon/ligament damage... i guess you could do some surgey and some 'hand exercises' but it'll never be the same as it was before, oh btw here's a bill for $5k."

Even something not as critical like hair loss (which is psychologically damaging for men and especially so for women) still relies on the good old "go to Turkey to get a hair transplant. oh you want to actually grow your original hair back? too bad, even though we should have figured out that shit using stem cells by now."

That's not even mentioning the people suffering from things like chronic fatigue or long covid. They are basically tossed aside like a bad batch of vegetables. "oh yeah this batch is fucked, oh well maybe better luck with the next batch!"

I know I'm just venting here, but what's the fucking deal? Are we actually going to have legit regenerative medicine? Or will it always be "5 to 10 years away" for the rest of eternity?

  • SwagaliciousSR@lemm.ee
    ·
    10 months ago

    This is purely a personal and recent observation, however I just spent the whole weekend at my Mother in laws house, she just had spine surgery that supposedly five years ago had a 75% success rate and included atleast 400-800g of titanium plates and screws. Recovery time at 6-12 weeks until she's at 50% moment. Not good.

    Instead she had 3 cutting edge plastic/ceramic/bone hybrid stints things with some kind of "tissue webbing" put in around the affected lower back area. As far as I understood the technique they used only became possible right before covid.

    She was walking 24h after. No longer needs a walker after just a week of recovery. Medical progress is going absurdly quickly. 20-30 years ago her issue would have left her paralyzed for life past her abdomen.