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Are you or a loved one interested in receiving stem cell treatment? For free information, please fill out our treatment form or email me don@repairstemcells.org and just put TREATMENT in the subject box and the MEDICAL CONDITION in the message.

SANDI's TRIUMPH OVER Multiple Sclerosis + Hearing Disorders (Tinnitus)

Weekly update - March 26, 2010

The ongoing saga of Sandi's story of perseverance and triumph over Multiple Sclerosis in her own words: 
 
"little improvements - i was able to buy new tenny-shoes. most all shoes made have a rubber tread running up the toe of the shoe. this is REALLY bad for my walking 'cuz that's what makes me fall alot of the time - well, no longer = silly i know, but finally i can have new tenny-runners:)   my new shoes with a super tread on the sole has shown me how i am incorrectly walking. when walkng on the treadmill - i guess i kinda shuffle my feet 'cuz with the new shoes i make a lot of squishch squishch sound - so now i hafta practice walking by really picking my feet up. (u know it woulda been so much easier if i could have found a pt to tell me what i was doing wrong rather than discovering it myself)
 
the other morning after i had finished my oversized huge mug of tea and was getting ready to go to lunch - i realized i hadn't made a bathroom break since before i left to go to work. it was a really pleasant suprise.......fairly normal during my afternoon shifts - but never my morning ones.
 
i was able to stand on one leg for about 20 seconds. that was monumental in my world. hopefully i will be able to do it on the other leg, too.......and whenever i want to w/o thinking about it."
CONGRATULATIONS SANDI!!
 
For a refresher on Sandi's condition and where it all started:
In January 09’ Sandi had lived half of her life with Multiple Sclerosis, had inconclusive data on another significant medical issue and had conducted her own research to find stem cell treatment for herself.  Sandi did a very admirable research job and in the end, she chose a fine treatment center (prior to her ever contacting me).  While I mentioned that she might end up at a different treatment center that specializes in both her MS and the other condition she “might” have…I was happy to simply provide her with information on studies and trials she might need and be a friend during her journey towards treatment. 
 
Unfortunately, over the next 6 months Sandi’s treatment was canceled and rescheduled a number of times due to her additional (inconclusive) medical issue.  The emotional roller-coaster ride took a huge toll on Sandy and while she advocated for herself and battled valiantly…she was ultimately rejected from her chosen treatment center and her hopes of ever finding a treatment center to treat her were severely diminished. 
 
By the time Sandi turned to me and RSCI to help find her a new treatment center; rejection, despair and uncertainty had already crushed her normally optimistic attitude.  Working together with me and RSCI, Sandi finally found the assistance she was looking for and was subsequently treated at one of RSCI’s recommended treatment centers.  Sandi’s journey is an amazing story of determination, victory over seemingly insurmountable obstacles and one from which I know I learned as much from her as she did from me and RSCI.  Here is a quick recent message from Sandi (in her own words) that details merely ONE of the many symptoms of MS that has been positively affected by her treatment:
 
“I've never really discussed or admitted to the tinnitus I have had in both ears forever....just a nuisance nothing too troubling.  It usually just showed up when going to sleep when everything was super quiet.  Last night while falling asleep I noticed that there was NO ringing in my right ear at all!!!! Way cool :)  I also find that there is an energy that hasn't been there for 26yrs - everyone really noticed at work this afternoon :)  I took pics - I will send them when I have time. As always = THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!” Sandi - Jan, 2010

Posted: 3/26/2010 6:53:37 AM by Don Margolis | with 0 comments


Are you or a loved one interested in receiving stem cell treatment? For free information, please fill out our treatment form or email me don@repairstemcells.org and just put TREATMENT in the subject box and the MEDICAL CONDITION in the message.
 Friday, 19 March 2010

Windpipe transplant success in UK child

Trachea
This is the third such transplant to be done, and the first in a child
A 10-year-old British boy has become the first child to undergo a windpipe transplant with an organ crafted from his own stem cells.

It is hoped that using the boy's own tissue in the nine-hour operation at Great Ormond Street Hospital will cut the risk of rejection. The world's first tissue-engineered windpipe transplant was done in Spain in 2008 but with a shorter graft. Doctors say the boy is doing well and breathing normally.
 
He has a rare condition called Long Segment Congenital Tracheal Stenosis, in which patients are born with an extremely narrow airway.
At birth his airway was just one millimetre across.
Doctors had previously operated to expand his airway but in November last year he suffered complications from erosion of a metal stent in his windpipe or trachea.
In order to build him a new airway, doctors took a donor trachea, stripped it down to the collagen scaffolding, and then injected stem cells taken from his bone marrow.The organ was then implanted in the boy and over the next month, doctors expect the stem cells to transform into specialised cells which form the inside and outside of the trachea.
 
Pioneering
Two years ago, Claudia Castillo, a 30-year-old mother of two, became the first person to receive a transplant organ created from stem cells.  She received a new section of trachea after her own had been damaged by tuberculosis. The latest operation is a significant advance on that pioneering work, as it is the first time a whole tissue engineered windpipe has been transplanted.
PERSONAL VIEWPOINT
Carley Bowman, mother of a son with the same condition

"I cannot tell you what hope this gives us as a family.  My three-year-old son has Long Segment Congenital Tracheal Stenosis. He had surgery to widen his windpipe a year ago.
 
Our son has had a relatively straight-forward recovery, but we live with the constant fear that his condition may deteriorate.

Should he suffer complications in the future, there are a range of procedures already at his surgeon's disposal.
These are designed to improve quality of life. But should the worst happen and our son's condition become life-threatening once again, knowing there is now the possibility of a tracheal transplant is a very liberating feeling."
 
Also in Ms Castillo's case, doctors grew the new tissue from her stem cells in the laboratory.  But in the UK operation, the donor windpipe was treated with a cocktail of chemicals designed to prompt the stem cells to grow into new tissue once inside the body.
 
Professor Martin Birchall, head of translational regenerative medicine at University College London, who was part of the team behind the operation, said it was a "real milestone".  "It is the first time a child has received stem cell organ treatment, and it's the longest airway that has ever been replaced.  "I think the technique will allow not just highly specialised hospitals to carry out stem cell organ transplants."
 
He said more clinical trials were needed to prove the technique worked but that the team was also thinking about transplanting other organs, such as the oesophagus.  Professor Anthony Hollander, ARC professor of rheumatology and tissue engineering at the University of Bristol, said: "The advantage of the new approach is that it can be performed quickly and cheaply and so if successful it could be made available to large numbers of patients at relatively low cost."
 
But he said the technique was more unpredictable than that done in the laboratory because there is less control of the type of stem cells being used and a very short time between seeding the cells onto the scaffold and implantation.  Stem cell pioneer Professor Paolo Macchiarini, from Careggi University Hospital in Florence was involved in both the Spanish and UK transplants.
 
He had also carried out the stem cell procedure on a 53-year-old Italian woman.

Posted: 3/21/2010 6:34:32 PM by Don Margolis | with 0 comments


Are you or a loved one interested in receiving stem cell treatment? For free information, please fill out our treatment form or email me don@repairstemcells.org and just put TREATMENT in the subject box and the MEDICAL CONDITION in the message.
Cardiomyopathy Patient Declares He Could Do A Triathlon After Adult Stem Cell Treatment
March 6, 2010 by biotechconnection.com
 
Until November 2005,  Jason Ludwick’s life was dominated by what he could not do. He was in and out of hospital and living on a cocktail of expensive drugs to try and keep his failing heart functioning. Then, like hundreds of others he went to Thailand for adult stem cell therapy to get real help for heart disease.

Jason Ludwick then 33,now 37, from West Bloomfield, Michigan, counts himself a lucky man. Born with an atrial septal defect, by the time he was 15 he had a pacemaker; by 21 he was diagnosed as having cardiomyopathy and by 25 he had a defibrillator in place and an ejection fraction of just 8-10 percent. Heart failure dominated and restricted his life until he received adult stem cell therapy. Now he says that with training he could do a triathlon.

While his schoolmates ran and played sports, Jason’s life was dominated by his illness and his failing heart ensured he did not run or play any contact sports. He was in and out of hospital and living on a cocktail of expensive drugs. His kidneys bled, his liver swelled, he suffered from asthma and he found it difficult to throw off a common cold. Despite all this, Jason tried to live as normally as possible although his heart was steadily failing.

His mother searched for help after he was removed from a heart transplant list. He was then left only with medications, some of which had unpleasant side-effects and he felt constantly tired and depressed as he went back and forth to specialists having his medications reviewed. And then his mother read about adult stem cell therapy.

Just one month after his adult stem cell therapy, Jason knew his life was going to change, “My heart was beating better, more rhythmically, and I had more energy,” he said. “After six months I was up and flying, feeling 100 percent different. I could mow the lawns, take walks, ride a bike with my kids, lift weights – do whatever I liked,” he said. “I’m always on the go with our fifth child on the way and always busy as a full-time parent.”

Jason has always enjoyed a huge level of support from his family and friends, but is very happy to spend time advising other cardiomyopathy sufferers of the power of positive thinking. “Always try to be positive,” he counsels. “There is hope. Take care of your diet and help get the word out that adult stem cell therapy is worth getting done. It’s nothing like what you would have thought.”
 
Hundreds of people suffering from end-stage heart failure, cardiomyopathy or coronary heart disease, who have been amazed at the results of adult stem cells and the clinical outcomes. Those being told they are without any treatment options now have the choice of staying at home to await death or to join the 75-plus percent who will enjoy a longer life characterized by greater energy and far fewer symptoms.

Adult stem cell therapy is proving a lifeline to all those heart patients who are sick of being sick, or who do not wish their lives to be characterized by restricted activity, low energy, pain, cost and brevity. The trend will continue to grow as more and more people become aware that they cannot be harmed by a therapy that uses their own adult stem cells and that the procedures are straightforward, effective and performed in world-class hospitals by skilled, often eminent, heart specialists. Most encouraging clinical outcomes are being supported by research findings as well as by patient report. If Jason gets the time to train and does a triathlon, the world will sit up and take notice.
 
NOTE FROM RSCI:  IF YOU WANT FULL INFORMATION ABOUT THE VERY VERY SPECIAL STEM CELLS FOR NO-OPTION HEART PATIENTS WHICH GAVE JASON HIS NEW LIFE, FILL OUT THIS FORM, THEN SIT BACK AND TAKE IN ALL THE INTERESTING INFORMATION YOU WILL GET BY EMAIL.   http://vescell.com/heart-disease-treating-application.php

Posted: 3/12/2010 4:48:15 PM by Don Margolis | with 0 comments


Are you or a loved one interested in receiving stem cell treatment? For free information, please fill out our treatment form or email me don@repairstemcells.org and just put TREATMENT in the subject box and the MEDICAL CONDITION in the message.
New Heart, New Love, New Son Courtesy of Adult Stem Cells In VICTORIES & SUCCESS STORIES on March 8, 2010 at 3:50 pm

 

New Heart, New Love, New Son Courtesy of Adult Stem Cells
Jon Bradshaw - March 8, 2010 

Ten years ago a Surfers Paradise manss life was dominated by heart disease and time was running out. Now he has been granted a new wife and baby son better health total happiness.
 
Peter Irwin from Surfers Paradise in Queensland, Australia, has much to be thankful for. Ten years ago he was depressed, ill and deeply unhappy. He suffered from both Dilated Cardiomyopathy and some Ischemic Heart Disease that was slowly but surely killing him. Told there was nothing more that could be done for him and with no hope of living beyond another two years he started to seek for someone or something that could give him better odds.
 
An internet search unearthed that adult stem cells can offer hope and help. Peter failed to get on to a clinical trial in his own country because he was too ill to meet their entry criteria and so he went to Bangkok in October 2005 thinking he had nothing to lose.

Within four months of a simple procedure at a Bangkok Heart Hospital Peter was feeling much better and far more optimistic. His cardiologist had to agree that on clinical tests his heart was performing far more efficiently. His life since then has continued to improve. He still has some health issues but they no longer dominate his life. The greatest improvement has been that he can enjoy a far better quality of life and has high expectations of a very positive future.
 
Adult stem cell therapy helped his heart strengthen, revascularize and repair and he made other dietary and lifestyle changes that he thinks have also benefited him. If you are beyond hope of treatment because of heart disease, all is not lost, he said. Almost every day research is being published that shows just how many seriously ill heart patients can be returned to a life they thought they had lost.

To cap off all his gains Peter and his new wife have just recently brought into the world a new son. “Stem cells made me reconsider my life. I now have the love and care of a new partner and a son whom I love more than I thought it possible to love. It is indeed a miracle and I am so grateful”, Peter said.
 
Looking at the family photographs he sent at the time of his son’s birth Peter looks the picture of health and happiness. One would never know that such a short time ago he faced a brief, painful, anxious, hopeless and debilitating future.
 
Jon Bradshaw writes constantly about the next to miraculous effects of adult stem cells. Theravitae’s Vescell adult stem cells the new frontier of regenerative medicine. They offer a return to a more active, longer and healthier life to patients who have heart disease or PAD. They are derived from the patient’s own blood so cannot be rejected by the body.

by biotechconnection.com
Posted: 3/10/2010 4:35:51 PM by Don Margolis | with 0 comments


Are you or a loved one interested in receiving stem cell treatment? For free information, please fill out our treatment form or email me don@repairstemcells.org and just put TREATMENT in the subject box and the MEDICAL CONDITION in the message.
“A 42-year-old HIV patient with leukemia appears to have no detectable HIV in his blood and no symptoms after a stem cell transplant from a donor carrying a gene mutation that confers natural resistance to the virus that causes AIDS, according to a report published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine.”
 
WHAT REALLY HAPPENED?
The startling case of an AIDS patient who underwent a bone marrow transplant to treat leukemia is stirring new hope that gene-therapy strategies on the far edges of AIDS research might someday cure the disease.

The patient, a 42-year-old American living in Berlin, is still recovering from his leukemia therapy, but he appears to have won his battle with AIDS. Doctors have not been able to detect the virus in his blood for more than 600 days, despite his having ceased all conventional AIDS medication. Normally when a patient stops taking AIDS drugs, the virus stampedes through the body within weeks, or days.
 
Dr. Gero Hütter isn’t an AIDS specialist, but he ‘functionally cured’ a patient, who shows no sign of the disease.
“I was very surprised,” said the doctor, Gero Hütter.

The breakthrough appears to be that Dr. Hütter, a soft-spoken hematologist who isn’t an AIDS specialist, deliberately replaced the patient’s bone marrow cells with those from a donor who has a naturally occurring genetic mutation that renders his cells immune to almost all strains of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

FANTASTIC! BUT WHILE THIS IS GREAT NEWS, IT IS NOT “NEW” NEWS…
Why does this sound familiar?
  1. The original article that got almost no coverage is from Wall Street Journal – Nov 2008http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122602394113507555.html?mod=googlenews_wsj#articleTabs%3Darticle
  2. This article was then posted here in Feb 2009http://repairstemcell.wordpress.com/2009/02/20/stem-cells-hiv-part-2-a-doctor-a-mutation-and-a-potential-cure-for-aids-wsjcom/
  3. The abstract of the case was posted in the New England Journal of Medicine in Feb 2009 – See abstract below
SO WHY IS IT ONLY NOW GETTING PICKED UP BY THE MEDIA??
Good question….Perhaps because they have been ordered to not publish anything other than embryonic stem cell stories over the past 3 years or so? SCREW THE EMBRYOS, THEY’RE IRRELEVANT!

Some clarifications on the story:
  • There were no embryos involved in this.  Any time you see the words “treated” or “improved” or “recovered” associated with the words “stem cells”, assume it was from adult or repair stem cells until proven otherwise. http://repairstemcell.wordpress.com/stem-cells-for-newbies/
  • In this case, there were 80 compatible blood donors living in Germany and on the 61st sample tested, they found one with the “retrovirus resistant” mutation from both parents.
  • I’ve been told the procedure cost about $150k.
Long-Term Control of HIV by CCR5 Delta32/Delta32 Stem-Cell TransplantationSUMMARY
 
Infection with the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1)requires the presence of a CD4 receptor and a chemokine receptor,principally chemokine receptor 5 (CCR5). Homozygosity for a32-bp deletion in the CCR5 allele provides resistance againstHIV-1 acquisition. We transplanted stem cells from a donor whowas homozygous for CCR5 delta32 in a patient with acute myeloidleukemia and HIV-1 infection. The patient remained without viralrebound 20 months after transplantation and discontinuationof antiretroviral therapy. This outcome demonstrates the criticalrole CCR5 plays in maintaining HIV-1 infection.
 


Posted: 3/8/2010 4:29:14 PM by Don Margolis | with 0 comments


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