The Don Margolis Blog

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

Today, I am presenting two separate Friedreich's Ataxia patients.  Both are on their way to China to receive stem cell treatment, the only place in the world that offers stem cell research and treatment for this disease.

First, we have Josh Wallace, a Friedreich's Ataxia patient who has already received stem cell therapy in China for his condition and now is aiming to go back for a second helping:

"I was diagnosed when I was 17, but I began showing signs in my early teen years," Wallace said about his condition. "The doctor said it was a muscular disease that wasn't going to get any better without a medical breakthrough."

Wallace found that possible medical breakthrough in stem cell research in China. In 2006, Wallace traveled to China where he stayed for six weeks and received six stem cell injections, two IV stem cell infusions and two spinal punches. He was the first person with his condition to receive the treatments.

"It improved it," Wallace said about the injections. "Not by a great amount, but it definitely improved it more than anything else I ever had. So I'm going back over there.

I also present to you Zach Ghazali, an aspiring boxer, who is on his way to China for the first time, also to treat his Friedreich's Ataxia with repair stem cell treatment:

Aspiring boxer Zack Ghazali will travel halfway around the world beginning Thursday as he seeks medical treatment to save his life.

"They say don't put all your eggs in one basket," said Bernadine Ghazali, Zack's mom. "We only have one egg. We have to do something."

They are going to Hangzhou Hospital in China to receive stem cell therapy offered by Beike Biotech, which is one of 32 laboratories worldwide offering stem cell transplants. The procedure is not done in Canada or the U.S (Hey, let's change this people, why does this man have to go to China for stem cell treatment?-DM).

Good luck to both of you brave gentlemen!  You have chosen the right path with repair stem cells.

For more on Mr. Wallace

and for more on Mr. Ghazali

 

I found this quote recently and while I agree with Dr. Vasella on his opinion of the FDA, look at my quote at the end-

“There are no drugs that are 100% safe. Look at Tylenol. It's over-the-counter, but if you take doses of it that are too high, you're dead.

Dr. Dan Vasella, Novartis Ag's CEO, commenting on the inconsistent approval process for new-drugs by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (The Wall Street Journal, June 30, 2008).

"Nobody, I repeat nobody has ever died from too many Repair Stem Cells!"- Don Margolis

Look Everyone! I'M in the news again!  Advance USA was kind enough to interview ME about MY new Repair Stem Cell Institute.  The interview asked about my opinions on Embryonic stem cell research as well as Adult Stem Cell research.

Have you ever been frustrated by the way the news media often fails to make the distinction between adult and embryonic stem cells when talking about research funding or medical results?  The Repair Stem Cell Institute is trying to do something about it, and I had the opportunity to interview the Chairman and Founder of this organization, Don Margolis.<!--[endif]-->

DH: Don, what are the differences between adult and embryonic stem cells? 

DM: The difference is easily described when you don't use the common names but instead use their reason for existing, which is easier to understand.  Adult stem cells are more aptly REPAIR stem cells (RSC); they know how to do just one function: REPAIR a sick part of the body.  Embryonic stems cells are PROLIFERATING stem cells (PSC).  They know how to proliferate through some stages and become a zygote, then proliferate through more stages and become a fetus, then proliferate again until it is a baby. REPAIR stem cells repair. They repair so much and so well that 100-plus diseases are being effectively treated with RSC around the world.  Meantime, PSC constantly frustrate embryonic researchers by refusing to behave as repair cells because, well, they are NOT. Even when well-trained to repair a disease, PSC may do it but then off they go, wherever they wish, fighting the attempt to stop them from proliferating and sometimes they can completely rebel and become tumors. Now you can see why the treated disease score, after 10 years, is RSC, over 100; PSC, zero.

Click here to read my whole interview

Last week we featured two men who had just received repair stem cell treatment for their multiple sclerosis. They had made remarkable progress just 1 month after their stem cell therapy. Today, I have a multiple sclerosis patient, or actually I should use the past tense, not because he has passed away, but because he is seemingly totally cured through the miracle of stem cell research.

This video below tells the story of Barry Goudy, who received a stem cell transplant of his own stem cells and now reports he has no symptoms and takes no medications for his multiple sclerosis that he had 5 years ago. Barry Goudy was treated by Dr. Richard Burt at Northwestern University:

One month ago, I wrote about 2 gentlemen who traveled from Texas to Costa Rica to receive repair stem cell therapy for their multiple sclerosis.  These two brave men returned to Texas after receiving their stem cell treatment in late May.  The two men, Preston and Richard are continually updating us with their progress via their own blog so I thought I would check back in with them to see how they are doing one month later and I am very happy I did.  Look at this! -

June 18, 2008

Still feeling like a million bucks!

I am still feeling like a million bucks!! 

 

However, I have re-considered my stance on taking medication for my MS.  Hopefully, you will remember my original stance on the medication.  I stopped taking it, all of it!!

I recently resumed the Avonex injections.  As I understand it, the stem-cells were halting the progress of the MS.  Avonex is just another weapon I decided to begin using again to keep the MS at bay.

--Preston 

That is from Preston.  Now here is the latest entry from Richard:

 

Still feeling better

Preston and I started feeling so much better starting May 16th after our second stem cell injection, and we are still feeling well.

The fatigue is significantly lessened. It has been such a long time since I slept normal hours. Last week
I spent 58 hours sleeping, whereas before stem-cell treatments, I slept around 80 hours a week. It is taking me awhile to get used to this energy.

I used to stumble around 20 times a day and now for the last 25 days it has dropped to
5 times. Not 5 times a day but a total of 5 for the 25-day period. I probably stumbled like that before MS.

Before the stem-cell treatment period, I would fall at least once every other day.  I bet more than a few people thought I had a few to many beers.

Cognition is more clear. I'm not sure how to describe it, but the fog is lifting.

Now here is the kicker. The three weeks prior to May 16th, I took 147 pain pills and 147,000 mg. of tylenol and aspirin and ibuprofen.

Yes, all three at 147,000 mg. each. When you are hurting that bad, after awhile, you don't care. You just want a break and this was only giving me a little pain relief. Since May 16th...ZERO. YIPPEEEE!!

In the back of our minds we wonder when will this quality of life fall off, but it has not and we are enjoying this so much. Thank you Lord.

Richard

Wow-  keep it up guys!  I'm cheering for you. They are encouraging others who are also considering stem cell research as a solution to their condition or disease. I also encourage all of you to email Richard and Preston and send them your best wishes.   See their emails below-

rdhump1@hotmail.com   pwalker2644@sbcglobal.net.

Regular visitors to this blog know that I have been touting the Vet-Stem company(here, here, here, and here) for months for its innovative repair stem cell therapy for pets- cats, dogs, and horses.  Thousands of pets and their owners are living happier lives thanks to this wonderful company which uses the pet's own repair (adult) stem cells to heal them.

Now, thanks to my constant promotion of Vet-Stem (or in spite of it :), they have hit the big time- Time Magazine.  In the article, Time covers a dog and its owner that we already have covered here:

Blue leads an active lifestyle: she runs four times a week around an enormous park in her hometown of Memphis, Tenn.; she likes playing Frisbee and loves swimming. But one day last November, Blue started limping which was odd because the German shepherd seemed fit and was only 3 1/2 years old. "She wasn't recovering as quickly as normal from a trek in the park. I thought that was just a sign of aging," says her owner Twila Waters, 43, with a wry chuckle.

In fact, Blue had hip dysplasia, a fairly common and sometimes crippling degenerative condition in dogs and cats. The cure a complete hip replacement would keep Blue in recovery for up to six months. So while Waters mulled the surgery, Blue's regular veterinarian sent Waters to see another local vet, Kathy Mitchener, who was trained in acupuncture, to treat Blue's pain. But Mitchener had a better idea. She offered a cutting-edge stem-cell transplant, a therapy not yet available to humans, that would potentially help Blue's hip repair itself.

The treatment took just two days last January. Mitchener had recently become certified to perform the stem-cell treatment, pioneered by the company Vet-Stem based in San Diego. She removed some fatty tissue from the dog's abdomen and shipped the sample to Vet-Stem's labs, where technicians used centrifuges to extract stem cells from the tissue. The cells were shipped back the next day, and Mitchener injected them into Blue's failing hip, where they adapted and developed into the healthy cartilage and tendon cells the animal needed. Within 36 hours, Waters says, "Blue was moving well, and you could see an ease in her gait." Vet-Stem kept a frozen store of Blue's stem cells, in case she suffers a relapse or has another orthopedic injury, but for now, Blue is fully cured and back to running and swimming and playing with her friends.

"It's comforting for me to know I've done what I can to alleviate Blue's pain," Waters says. "She loves to play so much that fixing her hip really improved both our qualities of life."

That last sentence says it all, Repair Stem Cells- improving the quality of lives everyday.  Click here to read this big Time article

The World Ophthamology Congress 2008 is just finishing up its annual meeting in Hong Kong this week.  And unsurprisingly, repair stem cells have stolen the show.  In another breakthrough in stem cell research, a surgeon did a trial in which he implanted the patient's own stem cells back into their retinas' and the repair stem cells did their job and repaired the macular holes it seems:

"We have entered into a new era," Raj Vardhan Azad, MD, FRCS, FAMS, said at the World Ophthalmology Congress. "The technique of transplantation of bone marrow [stem] cells in the subretinal space is safe with no side effects and is a new concept." In this study, 10 patients who had previously failed macular hole surgery underwent bone marrow aspiration from the iliac crest and intravitreal implantation of those stem cells into their retina.

"We thought that this was something that could give us a benefit in the sense that it may close the hole and also increase the visual acuity," Dr. Azad said.

Preoperatively, the mean best corrected visual acuity of the patients was 6/60 and the mean optical coherence tomography measurement was 792 µm. At 1 week postop, BCVA was 4/60. At 3 months postop, BCVA was 6/60 and the OCT measurement was 629 µm. Dr. Azad presented the OCT images that showed the macular hole had closed or become smaller in the 10 patients, who had stable vision

Experimental evidence following intravitreal implantation of bone marrow stem cells indicates integration and proliferation of stem cells into different retinal layers," Dr. Azad said. "Clinical evidence, as shown in our study, indicates that it is safe. (of course it is safe- it is the patient's own repair stem cells-DM)

"We have the evidence that stem cell productivity could eventually be used to treat deteriorating vision in humans," Dr. Azad said.  (Eventually? Why not start now?- DM)

---

Today, I am happy to present another warm and happy stem cell story.  4 years ago, Wu Fanli was dying from leukemia.  She needed a stem cell transplant to live.  Luckily, she found a matching donor in Dr. Yang Gang.  Recently, they met for the first time in a "reunion" of sorts:

"When I was told by the stem-cell bank that my sample matched a leukemia patient, I thought it is lucky for both the patient and me. It's one way I can really give direct help to sick people apart from my job," he said. "Today I'm extremely glad to meet the girl, who is recovering so well."

And Wu says: "The donor has given me a second life, and no words can fully express my gratitude."

Again, I urge you to become registered as a bone marrow donor-- http://www.marrow.org   .  It may give you the opportunity to save someone's life and make a lifelong friend by giving your Adult Stem Cells (don't worry, your body makes more!) .

Click here to read the full article