According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (2015), cardiovascula

Question

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (2015), cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of deaths in the United States, equating to about 1 in every 4 deaths, even though CVD is largely preventable. What are some conditions and causes of cardiovascular disease? What is the financial and societal impact of CVD within the United States?

Despite CVD being largely preventable and the amount of effort that has been placed on educational awareness, it still is a leading cause of deaths. Recently, various studies have shown promise with stem cell therapy treating heart disease. Research stem cell therapy in the treatment of heart disease and the possible promises it has as a therapy. Should science and health care pursue this a treatment option for heart disease? Why or why not? What obstacles and issues would it have to overcome to become a common treatment for heart disease?

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Explanation / Answer

CVD or Cardiovascular disease is a term used for conditions affecting the heart or blood vessels. CVD represents a group of disorders associated with the loss of cardiac function. There are several risk factors that can cause heart disease:
1. High blood pressure
2. High cholesterol
3. Diabetes
4. Smoking
5. Sedentary lifestyle
6. Obesity
7. Family history of CVD
8. Excessive consumption of alcohol
9. Age and gender (risk increases after 50 yrs and is seen more in men than women)
10. Sress
The impact of CVD is not only limited to individual's health but also ecomically & socially weakens the person and family members. Short-term expenses are extremely high, when CVD causes hospitalizations (especially in the case of an acute myocardial infarction, commonly known as a heart attack). The costs include ambulance rides, diagnostic tests, hospital stays, and immediate treatment that may include surgery. Even long term expenses associated with CVD are too high due to the price of drugs, tests to monitor the progress of the disease, and frequent doctor appointments. This multiplies by the lack of productivity and therefore less income that diseased individuals may have. Through the direct cost of the disease and the indirect money lost due to lack of productivity, it affects all taxpayers too. So, CVD acts as a large financial burden on the United States economy.  
There have been considerable advances in the understanding of the pathologic mechanisms of the CVD, still the majority of the available therapies remain at best palliative. The reason is that the problem of cardiac tissue loss has not yet been addressed. Of all the existing therapeutic approaches, only heart transplantation has been used to address this problem of cardiac tissue loss. So, alternative options, especially stem cell therapy, has emerged as a novel and promising approach. This approach involves the transplantation of healthy and functional cells to promote the renewal of damaged cells and repair injured tissue. The remarkable proliferative and differentiation capacity of stem cells promises an unlimited supply of specific cell types including viable functioning heart muscle cells.
Though the clinical studies have been published in its favor and found to be safe, but we can say that stem cell therapy for CVD is a relatively young science. There are several reasons to validate its efficacy and if and how to continue the research. A few challenges/obstacles that needs to be considered before deciding its future are:

As most of clinical trials conducted were generally small and inconclusive, and considering all above mentioned points along with several other issues, the regulatory bodies need to decide if to continue the research; and if yes, setting the guidelines is must.

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