We have some good news today.  Dr. Richard Burt, the Adult Stem Cell doctor at Northwestern University is publishing results of a study on treating Multiple Sclerosis patients with their own Adult Stem Cells.  Dr. Burt is known for his  Stem Cell research-- because he helps actual human patients- not mice.

And the results are good- VERY GOOD!  The study took 21 patients in the “relapsing-remitting” form of Multiple Sclerosis and implanted them with their own stem cells:

Three years after being treated, on average, 17 of the patients had improved on tests of their symptoms, 16 had experienced no relapse and none had deteriorated, the study found.

So this means that 16 out of 21 were essentially cured- 76% and the remaining 5 didn't deteriorate!

One of the patients treated was Edwin McClure:

McClure was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis as a high school senior in 2002, after his vision dramatically worsened.

“It was like someone had turned down the dimmer switch,” he said in a telephone interview yesterday. He also suffered from dizziness, poor balance and fatigue so bad that he’d collapse and sleep for three hours every day after school.

Over the next few years, McClure was treated with steroids and interferons. While they controlled the disease for a time, his symptoms eventually broke through, triggering fresh attacks.

McClure went to Chicago to take part in Burt’s study at the end of 2005, spent a month being treated, and hasn’t needed any drugs since.

‘A Blessing’

“It’s a blessing,” he said. “My disease has been halted.”

Even the stress of being in the competitive graduate program -- a factor known to exacerbate symptoms of multiple sclerosis -- hasn’t caused a single attack, he said. His balance is better and his vision hasn’t deteriorated further.

Click here to read the whole thing


Update: Here is a video on Barry Goudy, another Multiple Sclerosis patient who was in this trial-

Daniel Bakhchevnikov, a young 7 year old boy in Sauk City, Wisconsin, attended school for the first time in over 1 year recently.  The miracle that Daniel is even alive is due to the wonders of Adult Stem Cell research in the form of a bone marrow transplant to treat his Aplastic Anemia.

Diagnosed with Aplastic Anemia at the age of 5, Daniel had spent the last two years mostly in a hospital.  In aplastic anemia, the body does not  produce enough new blood cells- red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets.  The patient is always tired and at high risk of infections and uncontrollable bleeding.

Or another definition for Aplastic Anemia  as Daniel's mother, Tatiana described it -

"It was no life," she said. "It was hell."

The doctors tried antibody treatments first.  They didn't help.  After going in and out of hospitals for more than one year, the doctors decided the only way to help Daniel was through a bone marrow transplant.

After chemotherapy treatments to kill as much of his old bone marrow as possible, Daniel received a bone marrow transplant from an anonymous European donor on Aug. 8, 2008.

The day his blood cell counts got high enough he could go home, Tatiana did a handstand in the hospital hallway.

I wish Daniel and his family the best in the future.  Daniel is yet another in the long list of bone marrow (stem cell) transplant recipients to become healthy again.  It makes one want to register to become a bone marrow donor and try to help out.

You can read the whole article here

That's right.  We have yet another new way to get stem cells now.  I have touched on stem cells from the bone marrow, umbilical cord blood, peripheral blood, fat, noses....and now we have Adult Stem Cells extracted from pulled teeth.  Wisdom teeth, baby teeth, and healthy permanent teeth-- if a dentist pulls it, stem cells can be extracted from it.

I had the pleasure of speaking with Dr. Gregory Chotkowski, DMD , the president of Stem Save, a stem cell storage company that stores stem cells taken from pulled teeth.  Dr. Chotkowski, first got involved in stem cells because his son suffers from Muscular Dystrophy.  After researching stem cells for his son and realizing that each time he pulled a tooth as a practicing oral surgeon, he was missing a possible chance to preserve stem cells in each of his patients- Dr. Chotkowski decided to help form Stem Save.

Dr. Chotkowski sees his company as a possible "2nd chance" for parents who may not have stored their children's umbilical cord blood stem cells, but later on wished they had.  Therefore, when let's say a 5 year old has his baby teeth pulled out, a dentist who is affiliated with Stem Save, puts the teeth in a special kit and then it is sent to Stem Save where they extract the pulp which contains the stem cells and it is then preserved in FDA compliant conditions similar to the way cord blood is saved.

Dr. Chotkowski says the next challenge his company faces is putting the stored stem cells into use.  He says there is a big disconnect between the dental world (dentists) and the medical field (doctors).   He wants to bridge that gap.  Therefore, Dr. Chotkowski has put together an impressive Science Advisory Council to work on putting these stem cells into play in the near future (I hope!).


Dr. Chotkowski sent me this article  on his company  that goes into more details:


Dental stem cells offer hope -- for the future
By Kathy Kincade
Editor in Chief
June 4, 2008

For Gregory Chotkowski, D.M.D., O.M.S., a retired oral surgeon whose son suffers from muscular dystrophy, the ability to harvest and preserve stem cells from the dental pulp of newly extracted teeth is a dream come true. So is being able to offer this same service to dentists and their patients.

Good news for women with stress incontinence living in the Michigan area-  they are beginning a clinical trial to treat stress incontinence with the patient's own Adult Stem Cells.

Stress incontinence is the involuntary loss of urine associated with the activity such as coughing and sneezing, lifting, laughing, running.

This disease affects approximately 13 million Americans, most of them women.

From the article:

Current treatments, including medicine, exercises and surgery, are not always effective and may have undesirable side effects.

The stem cells from 48 female research participants age 18 or older will be collected at Beaumont Hospital, Royal Oak, and duplicated. The cells will then be injected into the muscles that control urination to strengthen them and prevent leakage.

"If successful, muscle-derived stem cell therapy could offer new hope to people looking to live a life free of urinary leakage," says Urology department Chairman Kenneth Peters, M.D., who is leading the research at Beaumont.



Beaumont Hospital in Michigan will be conducting this trial that is accepting women only at this time  Call Debbie Hasenau, R.N., at (248) 551-3355 for more information.

This stem cell treatment has been going on for at least 4-5 years in Europe, thus proving once again that the USA is far behind in accepting stem cell therapy which could benefit millions.

Click here for the full article on the trial

Every 6 months, Dr. David Prentice and the good people at the Family Research Council  update an "Adult Stem Cell Success Stories" report.  This is a compilation of patients who have been helped by Adult Stem Cells in the last 6 months- from July 2008 to December 2008.  The report also features Adult Stem Cell research breakthroughs as well.

This is a great read and the uplifting stories will make your day-

ADULT STEM CELL SUCCESS STORIES - 2008 UPDATE: JULY-DECEMBER

by David Prentice, PhD, William L. Saunders, JD, Jan Ledochowski, and Lukas Lucenic

And here is the previous report from the first half of 2008.