The Don Margolis Blog

It is just a throw away line in an otherwise dry article in USA Today about John Daly, former PGA Championship and British Open winner,  going to Australia for the Australia Masters, but it really caught my eye.  Check this out:

Daly attributes most of his failings on the course the past two years he made only five of 17 cuts on the PGA Tour and earned $56,000 this year to a rib injury. He said stem-cell therapy in August has led to a significant improvement.

I'm not surprised that stem-cell therapy has helped him and of course we are talking about Adult Stem Cells (or Repair Stem Cells as we like to call them) here- not Embryonic Stem Cells that were implanted because Embryonic Stem Cells will still cause tumors and will not help, but hurt.

However, I was just wondering where (and how) John Daly received this stem cell therapy. This is great news and I wish someone would be able to ask John where he got his Repair Stem Cells. Thousands of patients(and probably some other professional athletes) with rib injuries or shoulder injuries want to know more information about this.

If anybody knows John- ask him this question, enquiring minds want to know. And to any reporters reading this blog- this may make for a good story to follow up on.

This is the magic of Adult Stem Cells or as we call them "Repair Stem Cells."  Another previously untreatable condition like Pulmonary Hypertension is NOW untreatable TREATABLE because of Repair Stem Cells.  Of course, one of the Repair Stem Cell Institute's Science Advisory board members- Dr. Zannos Grekos is behind this.

In a collaborative effort with TheraVitae, Dr. Grekos treated his first Pulmonary Hypertension patient in February, 2008.  Karl Wagner, of Macon, Georgia underwent the stem cell therapy using Repair Stem Cells.

Before the Repair Stem Cell therapy, Karl was in bad shape. He said, " was being managed by medication, but still had violent chest pains, heart palpitations, extreme fatigue, and severe shortness of breath...I could barely do anything with my daughters and was on oxygen almost all the time. Doctors at Mayo Clinic gave me a three year prognosis."

And how about after the stem cell treatment Karl??? - Wagner's saturations are now consistently high, and he no longer needs to be supplemented with oxygen or considered for a lung transplant. "I feel great," he says, "and have a normal life again. I take my girls to school every morning and work all day...my quality of life is ten-fold what it used to be. I also am off almost all of my medications and the doctors at Mayo Clinic have given me a new prognosis."

I wrote an open letter to Barack Obama regarding spending on Repair Stem Cell Research.  I put it out as a press release so I hope Barack and thousands of others will read it and realize the power of Repair Stem Cells-  here is a taste of the stem cell research letter:

As spokesman for the Repair Stem Cell Institute (RSCI), which is the voice of the Repair Stem Cell research and treatment industry worldwide, I want to urge you to provide equal federal funding support for our industry and the medical and scientific professionals, hospitals, treatment centers and academic leaders that are, today, actively applying their stem cell expertise in improving the lives of people suffering with various diseases.

What does the phrase "Repair Stem Cell" mean? And how is this stem cell life science helping to improve the lives of people around the world?

All of our bodies already contain a cell that "repairs" our bodies and performs this function every day of our lives. It's called the Repair Stem Cell. These cells constantly jump to our aid when we need help. Cut your finger, no problem a Repair Stem Cell will do its work and heal your skin. Injure another part of your body and Repair Stem Cells are always ready to jump in and help. Sometimes, though, our bodies need help to muster more of these Repair Stem Cells to our aid than our bodies normally provide. That's when we need the help of medical science to supplement our bodies' own tool- kit.

Read the rest of the Repair Stem Cell Institute's press release:

Go visit our site- it is full of interesting stem cell stuff

Adult Stem Cell research and therapy has saved the leg of a woman facing amputation due to critical limb ischemia. In India, a 68 year old woman came to the hospital suffering from a large ulcer in her foot due to insufficient blood flow. Doctors thought that amputation was necessary.

Not so fast said Dr. Subrammaniyan (try to say that name 3 times fast) of the Vijaya Health Centre in Chennai. There was one last option.

a team led by chief vascular surgeon S R Subrammaniyan tried stem cell therapy on Vidyalakshmi, extracting 100 ml of bone marrow from her, isolating the stem cells, and injecting them into the her calf. The therapy worked, healing her ulcer and forming new blood vessels that increased circulation in the affected area.

Today, Vidyalakshmi can walk and use her lower left limb just like her right one. Her case is just one among several in India where clinical trials on stem cell therapy have helped saved people's limbs from amputation.

Ramchandra Medical Centre, along with stem cell banking company LifeCell International, has provided this treatment to 32 patients under clinical trials. The results have been “quite encouraging, says Vijayaraghavan.

The standard treatment for limb ischemia is bypass surgery on arteries or balloon angioplasty. But bypass is ruled out if the blood vessel in the limb is narrow. “Here, stem cell treatment proves beneficial, as bone marrow stem cells can form new blood vessels and offer a cure, says Abraham.

This isn't the first we have heard of stem cell treatment helping Peripheral Vascular Disease or Peripheral Artery Disease patients. More examples can be found by clicking on this Peripheral Vascular Disease link

Bristol University again.  They were part of the team that made the new windpipe from stem cells.  They were also in the news this week for making a "living" band-aid using the patient's own Repair Stem Cells. The "living" band-aid can be used to heal tears to the meniscal cartilage- a common sporting injury.

Many are men and women in their twenties and thirties and the tears are frequently the result of twisting the leg during jogging, football, rugby, horse riding or skiing.

The footballers Martin Petrov, a winger for Manchester City, and John Kennedy, the Celtic and Scotland player, have reportedly got the injury.

At the moment attempts to sew together ripped meniscal cartilage are often unsuccessful and can result in players spending a long time off the pitch undergoing rehabilitation.

Many sportsmen opt to have the tissue removed. Removal of the loose cartilage allows the athletes to recover but it leaves bones in the knees exposed and osteoarthritis may develop.

Scientists at Bristol University have now managed to heal cartilage tissue in a laboratory with stem cells taken from a patient's own bone marrow. They used the cells to coat a sponge-like scaffold, made from collagen (a fibrous protein) and placed it inside the tear in the cartilage. The stem cells pulled the two pieces of torn cartilage together.

“The stem cells knit across the two sides of the lesion and cause a reuniting of the two sides. We hope that in the patient we can reunite the cartilage in a strong enough way to heal the wound completely.

Bristol University- you did it again.  I have to take off my hat to this University in the United Kingdom that has been responsible for two big Adult Stem Cell discoveries just this week!

Here is the new cartilage story

Well, this is truly amazing. Thanks to Adult Stem Cell research or as I like to say REPAIR Stem Cell research, doctors have been able to create a new windpipe (trachea) for a woman using her own REPAIR Stem Cells.

Claudia Castillo caught tuberculosis which in turn caused her trachea to collapse. It was sinking into her lung and the doctors were thinking they would have to remove the lung in a dangerous procedure that even if successful wouldn't have left Claudia Castillo with a good quality of life.

They decided instead to make her a new trachea. They extracted Adult Stem Cells from her bone marrow, grew and multiplied them and coaxed them into becoming cartilage cells. Next, they took a trachea from a deceased donor and sterilized it, erasing the cells from it so when implanted would cause no rejection issues.

Then, using a special machine, they grew the new Adult (REPAIR) Stem Cells around the donated trachea with the trachea acting as a scaffold. The Repair Stem Cells did the rest as they are made to do. They formed a new trachea and then it was implanted back into Claudia Castillo.

Walla!!! A brand new windpipe, one composed entirely of her own cells. A new windpipe for which she does not have to take immuno-suppressing drugs for the rest of her life because her body will not reject what is made of her own Repair Stem Cells.

This truly wonderful story has made all the major news outlets. And what is also wonderful is that these media outlets that once ignored Adult Stem Cell success stories and only trumpeted Embryonic Stem Cell research are now forced to take notice and acknowledge that it was indeed Adult Stem Cells that are responsible for this miracle:

From the New York Times: Anthony Hollander, a professor at Bristol University, said ethical concerns relating to embryonic stem cell research had not surfaced in the latest procedure because it had used only the patient's own stem cells. “This was not embryonic stem cell research, he said in a telephone interview.

From CNN: So, her doctors decided to build her a new airway, using adult stem cells taken from her bone marrow, not from the embryonic stem cells that cause so much controversy. It has never been done before in a human.

From Bloomberg: The donor windpipe, or trachea, was washed 25 times to strip away all vestiges of live tissue, which could trigger rejection, then coated with cartilage cells grown from Castillo's own adult stem cells to trick her body into accepting the transplant, the doctors said in The Lancet.

As a sidenote- this whole process which took years of planning and hundreds of hours of work on research and production almost was ruined when EasyJet refused to allow the new windpipe on board their airplane. Remember, the cells can only survive for a limited time outside the lab or human body. So they took the new windpipe out of the lab and tried to board the plane to take it to Barcelona where Ms. Castillo and a team of surgeons were eagerly waiting. When EasyJet refused to allow it on board, the quick thinking doctors had to find another way to get the windpipe to Barcelona with the clock ticking. The BBC has more on this.

Dear Friends:

The Repair Stem Cell Institute's own Shimon Slavin is in the news today. His Repair Stem Cell treatment for Multiple Sclerosis has enabled Canadian Golf Pro Louise Zylstra to get back onto the golf course after suffering from that condition.

In 2007, Louise was diagnosed with primary progressive Multiple Sclerosis. By 2008, the MS had progressed so that she was no longer able to golf and had difficulty even walking short distances. Doctors told her that she would be in a wheelchair within 2 years.

With not much to lose, Louise traveled to Israel to receive her Repair stem cells taken from her own bone marrow. How did it turn out?

Eight months after travelling to Israel for the treatment, Louise is back on the golf course.

"It's night and day," Zylstra said. "It's a complete 180 from where I was."

Given the progressive nature of Zylstra's MS, such a recovery would have been highly unlikely without the treatment, Freedman said.

"She's recovered substantial function very quickly," Freedman said. "She's out golfing, and out-golfing most people, which is quite incredible."

Early data from about 25 patients suggests that the mesenchymal stem cell treatment can repair existing damage to the nerve cells, Dr. Shimon Slavin of the Tel Aviv Medical Centre told CTV News.

"The secret is to do the treatment of choice in the early stages of the disease before irreversible changes occur," Slavin said.

Now that we know the secret- let's make it move available, let's get the word out and let's get some more Multiple Sclerosis patients treated with their own Repair Stem Cells. No side effects so the only way to go is improvement.

If you or someone you know has Multiple Sclerosis and are interested in stem cell treatment, please email Dr. Slavin- slavinmd@gmail.com

Click here for the whole MS Stem Cell story

Just last week, I brought you the story of a young boy, Karol LaBarrie, who was cured of his Sickle Cell Anemia by using Adult Stem Cells taken from the cord blood of his younger brother. And this week, I am happy to bring you a similar story.

Michael Emms, a young man from Wales, had been living a perfectly normal life. Suddenly, without warning at the age of 21, Michael was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease. Michael was believed to be one of the youngest ever to be stricken with this disease.

Some of you may also know that it is the same disease that the famous physics genius, Stephen Hawking is afflicted with.

Luckily, Michael's parents were going to have another child, and decided to save the umbilical cord blood stem cells and use them on Michael.

Fortunately, all went according to plan.  Rhys Emms was born, the cord blood stem cells were saved and frozen.  Then, Michael and the stem cells were flown to China where there were experienced stem cell doctors who were willing to implant the matching stem cells into Michael.

The doctors said without the stem cell treatment, Michael would have likely died in March of 2008.  But look now, it is November 2008 and things have changed thanks to the adult stem cells:

And even though it took half a year to notice any change in his condition, amazingly Michael's muscles started to grow back.

“It paid off because the treatment in China went very well, Julian said. “He is nothing like what he was before. There has been no deterioration over the last year.

“Over there we didn't see a marked change. But during the following three to six months there was muscle growth. His shoulder had more definition and the muscle was coming back. He still has to be aided to walk, but he's not wheelchair-bound anymore.

Click here to see this wonderful stem cell story still in progress.

Last week, I reported that Dr. Zannos Grekos was about to speak, so it stands to reason that this time I will report that he spoke.  As the featured speaker at the 2008 Dubai Congress on Anti-Aging and Aesthetic Medicine in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Dr. Grekos presented clinical data of patients he has treated with adult stem cell therapy for the heart:

Dr. Grekos offered cardiac nuclear scans, PET scans, and echocardiographs performed at six months and one year post-treatment, which confirm the regeneration of damaged heart tissue, the existence of new blood vessels and a dramatic improvement in heart function in patients treated with adult stem cells extracted from their own blood.

"This is real science, real medicine and real results," Grekos stated. "We have moved beyond bench research and clinical trials to show that the power of the body's adult stem cells can be harnessed. Our success rate in reversing ischemic cardiomyopathy and congestive heart failure is extremely high and with our latest technology we're capturing the same astounding cell regeneration results in other disease classifications."