In the end, Walter Payton's toughest foe was an organ donor waiting list.
Diagnosed with a rare liver disease, the body of the legendary tailback gave out long before his will ever did. Less than a year after revealing his plight to the public, Payton ended up on the short end of the toughest run of his life.
At age 45, 'Sweetness', as he was known, eventually succumbed to cancer while waiting with 12,000 others on the transplant list before a suitable liver donor could be found.
But as tragic as Payton's death was, the former Bear's star was unfortunately just one of many.
The untold truth is, at this moment, more than 100,000 people in the U.S. share his struggle while four thousand more are added to the national waiting list each and every day day.
Like Payton, each of these people is in desperate need of a kidney, liver, heart, or some other vital organ.
And sadly, also like Payton, more than 6,500 of them a year -- about 18 a day -- die before that organ ever becomes available.
That's because the reality is there are far more people in need of a transplant than there are people willing to donate an organ. In the end that's the cold hard equation that eventually cost Payton his life.
Supply at this point is simply incapable of meeting demand.
Regenerative medicine means organs on demand
But what if I told you the day was coming where replacement body parts could be grown by scientists in a lab?
To call such a thing "revolutionary" just wouldn’t do it justice.
Evolutionary would be more like it — as in completely changing the way we think about disease, aging, and, ultimately, medicine itself.
Fortunately, such a day is much closer than you think...
No longer the stuff of science fiction novels, this new branch of medicine promises to make organ donor lists a thing of the past.
What's more, since these organs are “home grown” there will be no waiting, no risks, no immunosuppressant drugs and no tissue rejection whatsoever.
That’s the ultimate promise behind the fast growing field of regenerative medicine, in which scientists are creating living, functional tissues to repair or replace tissue or organ function lost to age, disease, or congenital defects.
It is a relatively new field that brings together experts in biology, chemistry, computer science, engineering, genetics, medicine, robotics, and other fields to find solutions to some of the most challenging medical problems faced by the medical community.
Coming soon to a hospital near you
And while all of that may sound like magical thinking... for 25-year-old Marine Corporal Isaias Hernandez, that day has already arrived.
Badly wounded in an Iraqi mortar attack, Hernandez was fortunate enough to undergo a new type of treatment developed by the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine.
After receiving a crater-like wound in his thigh that reached all the way to the bone, Hernandez was one of the lucky few to participate in a trial of a miracle powder that helps the body grow new tissue.
And while earlier doctors were contemplating an amputation of the mangled leg, the miracle powder delivered results that have kept Isaias out of a wheel chair.
Not only has Hernandez's muscle grown back, the nerves and the skin have, too — prompting American soldiers to call it "pixie dust".
In reality, Hernandez received a treatment called extracellular matrix, or ECM. It’s a naturally-made cell scaffold that recruits stem cells to injury sites to re-grow normal tissue rather than scars.
The results have been like something straight out of a science-fiction novel. Two years later, Hernandez is not only walking but has also become a mountain biking enthusiast.
Those types of results have left the fast-growing sector perfectly set up for a bull market run for the ages. In fact, according to Life Science Intelligence, the global market for these tissue-regenerative products could be worth more than $118 billion in just three years.
That means this portion of the health care sector is going to grow to the tune of 2,850% by 2013.
Now try — if you can — to imagine how much money is going to be made in this arena over the next three years and beyond as this stunning new science eliminates organ donor lists in their entirety.
Not only will it actually save the lives of patients like Walter Payton, the promise of these new technologies will mean nothing less than a small fortune for early investors.
And if you are interested in seeing for yourself how radical and profitable this new medical field will be, check out my latest report on the subject. What you see will completely amaze you.
Your bargain-hunting analyst,
Steve Christ
Editor, Wealth Daily
