While it makes for great and legitimate drama to speculate about stem cells someday curing currently catastrophic diseases, for quicker returns I suggest looking to age-related degenerative diseases (vision loss, hearing loss, arthritis, and more catastrophically, Alzheimers) for the benefits that stem cells (and storage companies like CBAI) could bring to these "wear-and-tear" chronic ailments related to aging.
Governments, health care providers, and insurance companies around the world are terrified of the anticipated costs of caring for the baby-boom generation as they age. Many seniors are admitted to expensive long-term care facilities because they have lost their ability to live independently in the community simply due to some of these "wear-and-tear" ailments. The cost to the economy is staggering.
Many of these older citizens could remain independent in their homes and communities, happier and more cheaply, if effective intervention and rehab could be put in place.
OK.......as a young senior whose close-up vision is gone, and who suffers arthitis very impatiently, but still has her hearing, I am going to do Saturday errands while I can still walk and drive, and function mentally (some family would disagree on that point).
As a health care provider myself working in the field of hearing loss, there are many articles on the overwhelming frequency of major hearing loss for those over the age of 65, and I know there have been academic/scientific articles claiming that stem cells will perhaps eradicate deafness within the next 10 years. I will look for links when I get back from errands. An article on stem cells curing deafness was posted on this board a long time ago (maybe last year).
