On the radio yesterday a person was promoting the idea that exercise can create new stem cells which can then go to weakened or damaged parts of the body and provide healing.
Is this at all possible? Can stem cells actually be created by exercise? And then can they rove around the body and do repair work?
There is no shortage of good things that can come from exercise, but I’ve never heard of exercise creating stem cells, much less having them serve such a general repair purpose.
Googling around found only one fragmentary reference, to a Dr. Bernd Friedlander, who may have been the person I heard interviewed.
Adult stem cells are generally limited in their functions- they can produce various types of blood cells, say, but not muscle tissue cells; or they can produce bone, but not kidney processes.
AFAIK, only embryonic stem cells can produce any type of tissue.
Bands of roving stem cells terrorized the New York Stock Exchange today, claiming that they could repair the country’s broken economy. Analysts beat them back with shares of WebMD stock until newly appointed Archbishop Dolan of the New York archdiocese arrived with high pressure holy water cannons and forced them out of the building.
“We will be back,” said a dripping stem cell spokescell. “We’re adults and we know how to exercise our rights.”