When Little Brother came up lame six years ago at the age of 8, Brenda Simmons took her horse from one veterinarian specialist to another to find a fix.

Injections of the horse's stem cells into a lower leg joint and tendons relieved his pain and returned full function to a horse that had been unridable.

"He was better than ever, and he's still going strong," the 58-year-old Granby resident said. "I asked the vet, 'Can you do that for me?' "

She couldn't, but a physician in Edwards, Dr. Scott Brandt, did treat her with stem cells.

After crippling pain had sidelined her for years, she said, injection of her own stem cells and other living cell products, taken from her bone marrow and fat tissue, has restored the former runner and skier to a more active life over the past year. She had already had one knee-replacement surgery, but she now believes she can avoid a second one.

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"It's not mainstream. It's still in development," Brandt said of treatment that can cost $8,000 to $12,000 and isn't covered by insurance. "But it will happen in our lifetimes. This will delay or prevent many surgeries."

Many orthopedic specialists remain skeptical of these treatments unsure where proven advancements end and experimentation begins in doctors' offices using people's stem cells along with other biological components.

Yet leading researchers say there is real potential, especially if the Food and Drug Administration eases restrictions on culturing adult stem cells in labs for reinjection.

Even as these alternatives to surgical fixes for knees, backs, hips, shoulders and elbows are being developed, joint surgeries are booming as Americans resist being stiff and sore.

The rest is here:
Colorado researchers use horse sense to innovate joint therapies