Click the link below to hear an insightful interview that was on Science Friday TalkBack a few weeks ago.
2011 - Bartolo Colon back in action
Yankee pitcher Bartolo Colon was no longer pitching for a major league team. Closing in on 40 and plagued with injuries, it seems like the former Cy Young winner’s career was just about over.
But after signing with the Yankees this year, Colon’s career seems to be in full swing again. He’s won five games. He has an ERA, an earned run average of 3.1, and although he’s currently sidelined by an injured hamstring, he’s on pace for a better season than he’s had in years.
What happened?
His amazing comeback is being attributed, at least in part, to a medical treatment involving injecting cells taken from his own body back into spots where he has injuries. The cells then repair the damage. They were his own adult derived stem cells.
Colon reportedly had the procedure in April of last year in the Dominican Republic, and while the procedure is not itself illegal, Major League Baseball is looking into it to make sure no banned substances like human growth hormone were used.
Listen to the audio below where Ira Flatow talks to Rick Lehman, an orthopedic surgeon and medical director at the U.S. Center for Sports Medicine.
Source and Copyright ©2011 National Public Radio®. http://www.npr.org
