Stimulating stem-cell growth naturally

The excitement over the tremendous healing and anti-aging power of stem cells continues to build up toward a frenzied acceptance of this new wonder treatment. But stem cells are not new; they are as old as time itself. They have been and always will be inside us.

The approach, however, in harvesting, cultivating and reinfusing stem cells into one’s own system is expensive and not within the reach of the average person. The public is also confused with an avalanche of information on which stem-cell clinic to consult, what stem-cell approach is best, what kind of stem cells to use—whether from a sheep or one’s own adult stem cell.

Despite the Department of Health’s guidelines regarding the superior safety of using adult stem cells over animal sources, the debates continue.

If one were to choose adult stem cells, should it be autologous (coming from your own), or are Russian bone marrow stem cells better than the Japanese women’s placenta stem cells? Better yet, why not have your very own bone marrow stem cells taken from the back of your hip?

Nobody questions the benefits of stem-cell therapy for the brain, heart, lungs, kidney, pancreas, liver, spinal cord, wound-healing—the list is almost endless.

The role of bone marrow stem cells in the healing of the body due to degenerative diseases from accidents and surgeries has been recognized. And its dramatic effect in changing the course of one’s life has been hailed by medical experts as something close to a miracle...

There is another way to derive benefits from your own stem cells. Its source and supply is inside you. Stem cells are found in your brain, blood, bone marrow, fat and skin tissues.

For example, any trauma to the skin and bones naturally triggers the release of bone marrow stem cells. The immediate response is the quick migration of bone marrow stem cells to the injured site.

In the case of burn victims, it was noted that a rapid increase (up to nine times) of bone marrow stem cells was observed in the blood.

What, then, can one do in order to encourage the body to increase stem-cell proliferation?

What can you do in order to affect your own stem cells in a positive way?

It is imperative to understand that there are negative lifestyle habits that greatly suppress the body’s ability to produce and release stem cells. These include cigarette smoking, stress, lack of sleep, emotional extremes, lazy lifestyle and poor nutrition.

So: Don’t smoke; manage your stress positively; get seven to nine hours of good sleep nightly; be in a happy state; exercise daily for 30-45 minutes; do vigorous exercise once a week; eat/drink healthy; and supplement with vitamins plus extra doses of zinc and selenium.

via http://lifestyle.inquirer.net/95093/stimulating-stem-cell-growth-naturally

Stem Cell Therapy Proven to Increase Memory

We’ve all come to accept the notion that our brain will continue to shrink as we age. Nowhere is this decline more impactful than in the hippocampus, the brain’s memory center, one of the primary brain areas that’s first to decline in Alzheimer’s disease.

Researchers measuring the size of the hippocampus using MRI scans demonstrate a clear correlation between shrinkage of the hippocampus and declining cognitive function. So, at least as it relates to the hippocampus, size does matter.

Challenging the status quo notion that loss of hippocampal function is inevitable is new and exciting research showing that we have the potential to actually grow new cells in this vitally important are of the brain, expanding the hippocampus in size and enhancing memory function.

The growth of new cells in the brain, neurogenesis, is enhanced under the influence of a specific protein called BDNF. And while there is no pharmaceutical approach to increasing BDNF, animal research has long recognized that aerobic exercise causes a robust increase in BDNF levels and as a consequence increases both the growth of new cells in the hippocampus as well as increase in memory.

But while the animal research has long confirmed the relationship between aerobic exercise and the growth of new brain cells, this relationship has been only recently demonstrated to occur in humans.

Neuroscientist Kirk Erikson and his research team at the University of Pittsburgh publishing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science studied a group of 120 adults over a one year span. Half the group was given a stretching program to perform 3 times each week while the other half did engaged in 3 days of aerobics.

After one year, the 2 groups were evaluated looking at 3 parameters. First, using MRI scans, the change in size of the hippocampus was calculated. Second, serum measurements before and after the trial were measured. And finally, the study actually measured memory function at the beginning and end of the trial.

The results were breathtaking. While the group doing the stretching program manifested a decline in memory, hippocampal size and BDNF levels, the aerobics group showed not only improvement in memory, but an actually increase in the size of the hippocampus accompanied by an increase in their blood levels of BDNF. The authors concluded: “These results clearly indicate that aerobic exercise is neuroprotective and that starting an exercise regimen later in life is not futile for either enhancing cognition or augmenting brain volume.” Simply stated, this landmark research demonstrated that aerobic exercises increases the growth of new stem cells in the human brain, and these stem cells mature to become fully functioning neurons.

What’s more, research just published several weeks ago in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed that blood levels of BDNF almost perfectly predict future risk for developing dementia as long as 10 years in the future.

The results of these studies have huge implications. There is no effective treatment for Alzheimer’s disease and yet, simple aerobic exercise can turn on the genetic machinery to manufacture BDNF, the brain’s “growth hormone,” creating new stem cells that become fully functioning neurons in the brain’s memory center and actually improving memory. Despite the lack of any pharmaceutical development to enhance this process, you have direct control of your BDNF levels and thus the fate of your brain.

You can increase your BDNF levels and enhance the growth of new brain cells and memory. Here’s how:

Engage in regular aerobic exercise. I recommend 20 minutes per day, 6 days each week. A good target heart rate is around 180 minus your age. Your specific target rate will depend on your level of fitness as well as medications you may be taking.
The omega-3 DHA, like aerobic exercise, has been shown to activate the genes that turn on BDNF production. So take a supplement that contains DHA. DHA is available in fish oils as well as algae-derived (suitable for vegetarians). While krill oil is popular, the DHA content is typically only 10% of fish or algae-based products.

Europe recommends approval for first stem-cell therapy

LONDON Fri Dec 19, 2014 8:08am EST

(Reuters) - European regulators have recommended approval of the first medicine containing stem cells to treat a rare condition caused by burns to the eye.

The European Medicines Agency said on Friday that Holoclar, from privately held Italian company Chiesi, had been given a green light for moderate to severe limbal stem cell deficiency due to physical or chemical burns. Left untreated, the condition can result in blindness.

Holoclar is a living tissue product made from a biopsy taken from a small undamaged area of the patient’s cornea and grown in the laboratory using cell culture.

The recommendation by the European agency will now be sent to the European Commission for the adoption of a decision on an EU-wide marketing authorization.

(Reporting by Ben Hirschler; editing by Jason Neely)

EU's top court opens door to some stem cell patents

By Robert-Jan Bartunek and Ben Hirschler - BRUSSELS/LONDON Thu Dec 18, 2014 8:23am EST

A piece of a three-dimensional bone structure obtained from the own adipose stem cells of a patient is seen at Brussels' Saint Luc Hospital January 14, 2014.

Credit: Reuters/Yves Herman

(Reuters) - Europe's top court has opened the door to certain stem cell patents in the European Union by ruling that an organism incapable of developing into a human being is not a human embryo and may be patented.

Thursday's judgment by the European Court of Justice was made following a case brought in Britain by U.S. company International Stem Cell Corporation (ISCO.PK) over whether it could patent processes covering the use of human egg cells.

The case is significant because three years ago the EU court ruled that stem cell research involving human embryos could not be patented, a decision condemned at the time by some scientists as a "devastating" blow for medical research in Europe.

As a result of that 2011 ruling, Britain's patent office objected to a patent application from the California-based company.

Although work on stem cell therapies is still experimental, researchers believe they have potential to treat a range of diseases from Parkinson's to blindness. But rigid curbs on obtaining patents could hobble their commercialization.

International Stem Cell, however, uses processes based on unfertilized human eggs and the EU court ruled that such eggs should be excluded from the ban on embryo-derived stem cell patents, if it was proven they could not develop into human beings.

"The mere fact that a parthenogenetically-activated human ovum commences a process of development is not sufficient for it to be regarded as a 'human embryo'," the court ruled. Parthenogenesis is the development of unfertilized eggs.

The court said it left it to British judges to determine whether the specific cells used by the U.S. company lacked the inherent capacity of developing into human beings and therefore met these criteria.

Adam Cooke, a partner at law firm DLA Piper, representing International Stem Cell, said the court's decision was "a big step in the right direction". In addition to the patent application in Britain, the company is also seeking patents at the European Patent Office.

Its parthenogenetic stem cells are in pre-clinical development for treating severe diseases of the eye, the nervous system and the liver.

Stem cell research has long been controversial. Critics argue that using embryonic stem cells is wrong because obtaining these cells involves the destruction of embryos which are left over from fertility treatment.

Scientists contend the research is justified, since the embryonic stem cells they use are cell lines derived from original surplus eggs that can be maintained indefinitely. While adult stem cells are also being investigated as potential medicines, they are less flexible than embryonic ones.

"BUBBLE BABY" CURE!
Groundbreaking! First ever! Pioneers! New breakthrough!
There's only one problem...

THE OFFENSE:
It gets harder and harder to celebrate the medical advances when the media and medical industry promote those advances as "the world's first" and...they are completely lying with abundant documented proof to the contrary.

THIS WEEKS (BS) HEADLINES:

Doctor discovers cure for 'Bubble Baby' disease
Stem Cell Researcher Pioneers Gene Therapy Cure for ...
and from our friends a CIRM:

"Today, a UCLA research team...announced a stunning breakthrough cure..."

THE PROBLEM:
So what's the problem? Nothing much, just that they are 12 years late!

In 2002, Israeli and Italian Scientists treated and cured two babies with "Bubble Baby" disease, the rare and fatal hereditary condition known as Severe Combined Immunodeficiency, or SCID. The two babies, a two-year-old baby girl named Salsabil from East Jerusalem and an Italian girl, received a correctly functioning gene in place of the faulty gene that causes the disease...both babies have returned to their homes and are leading normal lives. via

THE PROOF:
Notice these headlines and their associated dates.

New gene therapy protocol: First successful treatment for 'bubble babies' - Jerusalem - June 21, 2002 (This actually is the first in the world! - RSCI)
Israeli team saves the life of Arab ‘bubble baby’ - July 1, 2002
First ever bubble girl cured in 2002! - July 3, 2002
International Bubble Boy cure, based on Israeli research - Release date: 3/6/2009

MORE PROOF - THE PATENT: (Yes, they even patented the procedure!)

Israeli Researcher Patents Cure for 'Bubble Boy' Disease - 3/8/2009, 9:37 PM

We at RSCI are particularly bothered by this story because the accomplishments of a great man and brilliant doctor and scientist are going unsung so the "California Institute of Revisionist Medicine" can spout their misinformation and claim an huge and unearned victory.

THE PUNCH LINE:
The doctor who cured the first 'bubble baby' in the world has been not only a friend, but also a member of our scientific board and a premier treatment destination of RSCI since the inception of our organization.

-Repair Stem Cell Institute

---------------------------------

UCLA Stem-Cell Researcher Cures Children With ‘Bubble Baby’ Disease
Posted 2:59 PM, November 18, 2014 - "A UCLA medical researcher was lauded Tuesday for developing a groundbreaking new stem-cell gene-therapy treatment..." via
(Sorry California, not even close! - RSCI)