I am taking a few days off from blogging (I will be back Monday), but since I won't be updating this site, I wanted to leave you something special to read while I am away.

The Family Research Council has compiled a list of adult stem cell treatment success stories from January 2008 until June 2008.  You may recognize some of the names on the list because I have featured many of them on this blog.  However, the Family Research Council deserves a round of applause for putting all of the stem cell treatment victories all together in an easy to read form:

We are pleased to present FRC's June update on advances in human treatments and research with adult stem cells.  This is the third report.  The prior ones were "Adult Stem Cell Success Stories - 2006"[2] and "Adult Stem Cell Success Stories-2007 Update".[3]   Every six months, we will present new cases of people being helped by adult stem cells, which are abundant throughout the human body and whose use does not pose the ethical dilemmas encountered with embryonic stem cell research.  Adult stem cells are already being used to treat over 73 different conditions and are the subject of over 1400 FDA approved trials.  We invite you to read about real people being helped by adult stem cell research.

Click here to read about these real people who have been helped by repair stem cells- I guarantee you will be happy you did 

This is another good story that shows if you have had a heart attack or have some form of heart disease- congestive heart failure, coronary artery disease, etc. - you aren't necessarily condemned to a life of shortness of breath, low energy, and watching your fluid intake.  Stem cell treatment (your own stem cells)  CAN help your heart:

"I woke up at 11:30 to a heart attack and I just tried to dismiss it."

But David Varino couldn't.  He later had triple bypass surgery, a number of stints, a pacemaker and defibulator put into the heart that doctors described as trash.

Then in May, David was told about experimental research being done in Covington, where his own stem cells would be used to hopefully repair his heart.

"I was very skeptial," Varino explains. "You say stem cells and people immediately put up a red flag. I did too. I told my family no. Then i was told it was going to be my own."

David soon became known as "Number Six". Doctors used his bone marrow and withdrew 15 hundred stem cells. Those were cultivated those into 15 million and then deposited them into David's arteries.

"I was thinking, 'If it can only buy me a month'".

And now two months later, "Number Six's" children confirm, their father is breathing better, can now walk across the room and is everyday getting closer to his normal life.

"It's done something wonderous, I'll tell you that cause before I could not do anything. I don't know how long it will last. Hopefully a long time. Right now, I feel good; I feel really good. There's no doubt in my mind that this is how they will treat major illnesses in the future."  

Yes, David, there is no doubt in my mind either.  However, my goal is to make the "future" sooner rather than later so thousands of others just like you can have the same second chance that you did!  These are your own stem cells we are talking about- no side effects and no moral issues.

Click here for the full article

Yet another success story that says cancer (multiple myeloma) isn't necessarily a death sentence due to repair stem cell treatment.  In this case, the stem cells came to the rescue in the form of a bone marrow (stem cell) transplant from the cancer patient's sister:

The ties holding the Geprey family together remain strong -- now two of the nine siblings are truly blood relatives.

Luann Magolan, of Oregon Township, gave her sister Chris Gepfrey Dahlke, 14 million cells to save her life from a rare form of cancer. Multiple myeloma affects the plasma cells in the bone marrow and is destroying her bones.

"It was determined that she needed a stem cell transplant," Magolan said. "Blood stem cells are produced in your bone marrow. The cancer took over those stem cells and they broke apart. The marrow can't produce and you get weak bones."

As she heals, Chris and her husband Craig live in Ann Arbor to be near the hospital. With the cells of her sister inside her, Chris grows stronger each day. (YES!!!- DM)

This is the reason why I keep urging my readers (yes you!) to register as a bone marrow transplant donor.  You could save a life of someone you love or more likely someone you don't know.  Imagine the feeling of saving someone's life.  Go to www.bonemarrow.org and find out how you can register.

Click here for the full news story

As many of you who follow this blog know, we have shared multiple success stories (here, here, and here) of stem cell treatments in China that successfully treat Optic Nerve Hypoplasia.

Optic Nerve Hypoplasia occurs in children when the optic nerve fails to develop leaving the children blind for their entire lives.  There is no conventional cure for this disease.  Nothing could be done for it, until now- repair stem cell therapy.

A young couple from Canada with a 6 month old baby boy suffering from this disease is planning to go to China for a stem cell treatment that can (and based on other successful cases, probably will)  help the boy see for the first time:

Jakob Bielskis came into the world six months ago. But he's never actually seen it. And, without a special and costly eye treatment, he never will.

"He can't see a thing, but he's a very happy baby and it doesn't even seem to phase him that he's blind," said Richard Bielskis, Jakob's father and a former Barrie resident. "We're the ones suffering with his condition, because he doesn't even know what he's missing."

The six-month-old Calgary baby was born with a rare disorder that has left him blind.

His only hope of seeing the world is a very new treatment that uses umbilical stem cells to regenerate the optic nerve. The treatment has been developed in China, but is only offered there by a company called Beike Biotech.

"He's helping to pave the road for others needing this treatment in Canada," she added. "He'll be the first Canadian baby to receive this eye treatment." 

Click here to read this story of hope

Many of you may have seen this on TV already, but no reason not to see it again- it is a fantastic story!

Granton Bayless is a 9 month old boy who suffers from severe combined immunodeficiency, which means his immune system is unable to fight off any disease, even a simple cold. Therefore, he must live in a protective bubble that protects him from any viruses and bacteria, thus the name "bubble boy."

Recently, Granton received a repair stem cell transplant from donated umbilical cord blood and look at what happened:

Instead, a recent umbilical-cord-blood transplant at Children's Mercy Hospital has transformed Granton Bayless from a frail, nearly immobile patient into a bubbly baby who wiggles when he sees his masked and gloved parents enter his sterile hospital room.

Granton received his transplant on June 10. Daniel Bayless said that because of the donor program's confidentiality guidelines, all he and his wife, Jenni, would ever know of the donation was that it came from a boy born in 2000 and was stored in St. Louis.

So far, Granton is improving, his parents said. A recent blood test on him showed that 86 percent of his white cells were donor cells. A recent test showed Granton had produced "natural killer cells," which play a major role in fighting infections.

These are key milestones in a transplant because they indicate that the donor cells are starting to produce other cells, said John Miller, medical director of donor medical services for the National Marrow Donor Program.

His improvement thrills the family, friends and strangers who have rallied around Granton and who follow his medical saga through daily blog updates posted by his parents.

Click here to see how repair stem cells saved Granton's life and gave him and his family hope for the future