CHRISTOPHER REEVE AND DR. CARLOS LIMA

This story is about two men who never met----but should have.

Christopher Reeve was one of my favorite actors.  He created the movie role of Superman and no one will ever surpass his perfect interpretation of the 'mild-mannered Clark Kent.'  Years later, Superman suffered the worst accidental injury in the medical lexicon, Spinal Cord Injury, leading to paralysis; and those of us who admired him suffered along with him.

In 2004, when the embryonic science fiction fraud in America kicked off in earnest, Mr. Reeve, like Michael J. Fox who was suffering from Parkinson's, was already a cheerleader, believing the lie they both believed, that George W. Bush was the reason that they both hadn't been cured yet.  OK, so they were wrong, but so are thousands of others with SCI or with Parkinson's, except for one thing: THE RESULT OF MR REEVE'S AND MR. FOX'S PASSIONATE ERROR IS ADDING TO THE TORTURE ALL SUCH PATIENTS IN AMERICA!

'How is that possible?' you ask.   Are you sitting down?  Good.  One sentence:  In order for the embryonic fraud to survive, THE PROFITEERS MUST CREATE LIES, LIES CLAIMING THAT ADULT STEM CELLS (ASC) CANNOT DO MUCH OF ANYTHING.   Yes, the same ASC that has already improved the lives of thousands of dying heart patients; the same ASC that is working on both diabetes-type-1 and diabetes-type-2; working on emphesema, working on stroke victims, and more diseases THAN ANYONE IN THE WORLD CAN COUNT, according to embryonic profiteers, don't WORK!  Imagine, Lou GEHRIG'S Disease is being treated on four continents, but not in any country who ever heard of Lou Gehrig!

 

The second lie is the myth that embryonic stem cells can treat more diseases than adult stem cells.  The truth is that embryonic stem cells cannot treat ANYTHING and NEVER WILL IN YOUR LIFETIME!  To quote one of Britain'S leading embryonic researchers,  Professor Colin McGuckin, professor of regenerative medicine at Newcastle University, UK. “The best estimates of the embryonic scientists in our own university in Newcastle is that embryonic stem cells may not be able to help people this side of 50 years. That's my lifetime. And that's worrying. We can't wait that long."

In 2004, two paraplegics testified to Congress about the improved quality of life they gained by going to Portugal to visit Dr. Lima's tiny clinic to be treated with adult stem cells.  Of course this information was kept from Mr. Reeve, or perhaps he was lied to by those who expect to profit from the billions they are already stealing from you, the American taxpayer (or European taxpayer), for embryonic cures that will never come.  In any event, had he gone to Dr. Lima, Mr. Reeve might have improved his health enough to survive his condition and get a full series of ASC implants which could, just around this year, have him walking with the aid of walkers as some other are doing.  But he gave, and Mr. Fox is giving, his life for something whose only purpose is MONEY.  Embryonic Science Fiction is not about cures, and, by necessity, needs to hide what Dr. Carlos Lima and hundreds of other doctors are doing with adult stem cells.  After all, if America were told the truth instead of countless lies, who would be left screaming their lungs out for George Bush's head every time the hoaxers roll another wheelchair up to the stage?  Worst of all; for something that will never work and is not needed, even today. 

I COMMENTED YESTERDAY ON THE ABUNDANCE OF STEM CELL TREATMENT SUCCESS STORIES (OR AS I LIKE TO CALL THEM- VICTORIES).  WELL, TODAY I HAVE ANOTHER ONE FOR YOU.

DALLAS HEXTELL HAS MADE A DRAMATIC RECOVERY FROM CEREBRAL PALSY THANKS TO HIS STEM CELL TREATMENT.  DALLAS, A 2-YEAR-OLD FROM SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA WAS TREATED USING HIS OWN CORD BLOOD STEM CELLS THAT HIS PARENTS HAD SAVED SINCE HIS BIRTH.

KEY QUOTES- “I think the thing that medicine has not done very well is we haven't made a big enough deal about anecdotes, she said. “This is not a controlled case study. It's not a randomized clinical trial. But it is a child with a diagnosis who got a transfusion of stem cells and not only stopped the deterioration of his problems, [but] he's doing better.

“So I take it very seriously. And I think it's an extraordinary reminder that cord blood, that stuff that is thrown away with the placenta in the emergency room as sort of medical waste, can have extraordinary applications. We're all offered it in the delivery room.

Snyderman didn't have to convince one person about the promise of those stem cells.

Said Cynthia Hextell: “They're like gold.

 READ THE WHOLE STORY HERE

THERE HAVE BEEN A SLEW OF GOOD STEM CELL THERAPY SUCCESS STORIES IN THE LAST WEEK AND I AM THRILLED TO POST THEM HERE ON MY STEM CELL BLOG.  THIS ONE FOCUSES ON A FEMALE FROM TRINIDAD WHO WAS PARALYZED FROM THE WAIST DOWN IN A BAD ACCIDENT.  I THINK THESE TWO SENTENCES SAY IT ALL-

"Before the stem cell surgery, I could not sit up without some kind of help. Now I can sit up on my own, I can lean forward and balance for almost half and hour at a time.

THE WOMAN, DIANA JAIPAUL, CAME FROM TRINIDAD ALL THE WAY TO CHINA TO RECEIVE CORD BLOOD STEM CELLS.  WHILE THIS IS A GREAT STORY, ONE OF MY ULTIMATE GOALS IS TO MAKE STEM CELL TREATMENT AS EASY TO GET AS A STENT FOR AN ARTERY OR AS EASY TO GET AS ASPIRIN FOR A COLD.  THE FACT THAT THIS WOMAN HAD TO TRAVEL HALF WAY AROUND THE WORLD TO RECEIVE THIS STEM CELL TREATMENT SHOWS WE AREN'T QUITE WHERE WE SHOULD BE.

CLICK THIS SENTENCE TO READ THE FULL STORY

The following story about stem cell therapy for heart disease isn't exactly earth shattering news.  In fact, regular readers of this blog and those knowledgeable about stem cells may be bored by this.  However, that is one of the goals of this blog-  I want stem cell treatment stories like this to be so commonplace that watching paint dry will be more interesting than reading stories like these.

Alas, we are far from that point.  This story focuses on an Alabama heart disease patient getting treated with his own adult stem cells.  The goal of the stem cell therapy for the heart is to induce angiogenesis- induce the body to create new blood vessels thus increasing the blood flow and also helping the heart function.

I wish David Smith the best of health with this stem cell treatment.  David, I think you picked the right path and you are one of the pioneers of adult stem cell treatment.  I wish you all the best and I hope if there is a heart patient out there reading this-  there is hope for you still.  Send me an email or call me and I will try to point you in the right direction. -DM

Princeton Baptist becomes first hospital in Alabama to inject stem cells into a patient's heart

Use of patient's own stem cells to fix tissue tried in Alabama

Friday, March 07, 2008ANNA VELASCO

News staff writer

At age 47, David Smith was out of options.

The north Alabama man has severe coronary artery disease and has exhausted traditional therapies. Despite medicine, two bypass surgeries and a stent, Smith has severe daily chest pain and is just waiting for another heart attack.

That's why Smith, of Eva, underwent experimental treatment Wednesday. An interventional cardiologist at Princeton Baptist Medical Center injected Smith's adult stem cells (or, possibly, a placebo) into the patient's heart with the hope of stimulating the growth of new blood vessels to restore adequate blood supply and improve the heart's pumping.

Dr. Farrell Mendelsohn of Cardiology PC, injected stem cells into the heart of his first patient in the clinical trial at the end of January, a first for a hospital in Alabama. Smith was his third and final patient participating in the study, which has enrolled 165 people nationwide at 24 sites.

"What we're really trying to do is trick the body into building its own bypass in people who can't get a bypass or stent," Mendelsohn said.

The last patient of the study nationwide will undergo treatment next week, and it will be more than a year before results are known.

Princeton Baptist and Mendelsohn have spent 18 months preparing for the trial. The hospital invested $200,000 in technology needed for the treatment. Mendelsohn screened trial participants, who then had to be approved by an outside review board of physicians who agreed the patients had no other options.

Because the treatment is part of a trial, one in three patients gets placebo instead of stem cell injections. Two of three participants get their own stem cells, either in a high or low dose.

Neither Smith nor Mendelsohn will know for a year whether Smith got stem cells or placebo. It was a chance Smith was willing to take. He wants to further the research for his 16-year-old, even if not for himself.

"I've got a son, and most likely he's got the disease," said Smith, whose father died from heart disease at 45. "I'll do anything that can help him."

Mapping the heart:

The blood stem cells needed for this trial stay primarily in bone marrow. To coax them out into the bloodstream in large numbers, Smith got injections of a specific protein five days in a row. On Tuesday he had apheresis, a process that collected the increased number of white cells, including the stem cells.

The cells were then taken to the stem cell processing lab at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Scientists in the lab used a machine Wednesday that separated from all the cells the exact stem cells needed - blood stem cells that mature into the building blocks for new blood vessels.

Baxter Healthcare, maker of the stem cell selection machine, has underwritten the cost of the trial with the hope that the equipment will get federal approval for use in this type of cardiac treatment. The device has been approved for cancer care for a decade.

The stem cells were delivered to Princeton in a cooler, and Smith went into the catheterization lab Wednesday afternoon. In the more than two-hour procedure, Mendelsohn first worked a catheter up from Smith's leg to his heart to map where he wanted to inject the stem cells. By touching many areas of the heart with the catheter, Mendelsohn mapped which tissue was dead, which tissue was healthy and which tissue was salvageable but not pumping because of lack of blood flow.

Once he had pinpointed the 10 best places to inject the stem cells, Mendelsohn worked into the heart a different catheter that had an injection tip. He delivered the doses to the tissue that was still alive but needed blood flow.

Various therapies:

Although study participants won't know for many months if the study was successful, patients could start feeling better sooner. Animal studies have shown new blood vessel growth in 12 weeks after stem cell injections, Mendelsohn said.

The current stem cell trial is finishing its second phase. If results warrant it, a third and final phase could begin a year.

The trial is the 20th that Mendelsohn has participated in investigating different ways to promote angiogenesis, the body's development of new blood vessels. He has done cardiac and vascular studies using growth factors and gene therapy and now stem cells.

Even studies that were not successes have been helpful in understanding how to help the body repair itself, said Mendelsohn, a Birmingham native who got his medical degree at Johns Hopkins University.

"This cascade of events for rebuilding blood vessels is very complicated," he said.

Patient's best shot:

This is Smith's third study as a participant. Some days he's too weak to walk to the mailbox. He has been retired from his job as a forklift operator at a Chrysler plant in Huntsville since 2001 and can't fully enjoy time with his son.

Mendelsohn thinks the stem cell trial is Smith's best shot at a better life.

"This is one of the most promising therapies available anywhere for that desperate patient population," Mendelsohn said.

THIS IS DEFINITELY A STEM CELL THERAPY SUCCESS STORY.  CORD BLOOD STEM CELLS ARE THE HEROES THIS TIME.  THE STEM CELLS USED IN THIS STEM CELL TRANSPLANT WERE HIS SISTER'S CORD BLOOD STEM CELLS.   HOPEFULLY, DIKSHIT GOWDA WILL MAKE A FULL RECOVERY...THUS INCREASING THE LEAD OF VICTORIES FOR ADULT STEM CELLS  (MULTIPLE THOUSANDS) OVER VICTORIES FOR  EMBRYONIC STEM CELLS (ZERO)

Kolkata, Mar 6: A four year-old boy suffering from thalassaemia has recovered after being injected with his sister's cord blood. The new development has raised hopes for the treatment mode using stem-cell transplant.

Thalassaemia is an inherited blood disorder.

Due to the disease, the white blood cell count of Dikshit Gowda, hailing from Bangalore, has dropped to zero. He was admitted to the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose Cancer Research Institute here on February 7.

"Initially, the bone marrow of Gowda was destroyed when he was treated for 15 days using high dose of chemotherapy," its Director Ashis Mukherjee said.

"Thereafter, stem cells taken from his little sister's cord blood, preserved at the Cryo Stem Cell Institute in Bangalore, were injected into him on February 28," he said.

"He is doing well now though he will be kept under observation for at least a month," Mukherjee said.

"This is the first stem-cell transplant in eastern India and it will be first of its kind in the country using mismatch cord blood," he said.

The boy's white blood cell count was now rising and he could be released in six weeks "if everything goes well. It gives us hope that the treatment mode was successful."