ANOTHER ADULT STEM CELL TREATMENT SUCCESS STORY CAME OUT OF CHINA TODAY. A COUPLE FROM GEORGIA CAME ALL THE WAY TO CHINA TO RECEIVE STEM CELL TREATMENT FOR THEIR 7 MONTH OLD DAUGHTER WHO IS SUFFERING FROM OPTIC NERVE HYPOPLASIA (ONH). FOR ALL OF YOU LAYMEN (INCLUDING MYSELF WHO HAD TO LOOK IT UP ON GOOGLE), IT MEANS THE 7 MONTH YEAR OLD WAS BLIND! IS SHE BLIND NOW AFTER THE STEM CELL THERAPY? READ ON AND FIND OUT!
Treatment Seems to Yield Positive Results

After three sessions, Teague and Williams say the therapy is already working.

The doctors have told Laylah's parents that the baby now sees light through one eye, while the other eye is dilating almost to the point where she can see light.

So far, 10 patients suffering from ONH have received the same stem-cell treatment in China, and doctors there claim that the vision of all 10 improved after the therapy.

At age 5, Rylea Barlett also received the stem-cell treatment. She, too, had been blind before.

Dr. Shalesh Kaushal, an eye specialist at the University of Florida, examined Bartlett, who is now 6, after she returned to the U.S.

"This child had essentially no light perception, and upon returning she's had a gradual improvement so much so that at our exam it appeared that she had formed vision," he says. "That is to say that she could at least recognize large letters."

Kaushal concluded that the stem-cell therapy was the only clinical explanation for her improvement. Some infants with ONH gain more vision spontaneously over the first few years of life, but Barlett was already too old for that.

Kaushal is now evaluating other patients before and after the stem-cell treatment. But he is not recommending that patients go to China; he says much more research needs to be done.

"It's clearly a provocative result. ¦ If this is a real, reproducible observation or effect in other patients, one may consider it as a fundamental breakthrough," says Kaushal.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE

TODAY I PRESENT A NICE COMMENTARY ON STEM CELL RESEARCH WRITTEN BY ANDREW SPARKS, CLASS OF '09, FOR THE COWL, WHICH SEEMS TO BE THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER AT PROVIDENCE UNIVERSITY.  IF ANDREW KEEPS WRITING LIKE THIS, I SEE A BRIGHT FUTURE FOR THIS WRITER.

READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE AND MAKE SURE YOU READ THE COMMENTS AT THE END.  THERE ARE SOME INTERESTING ONES INCLUDING SOME FROM YOURS TRULY.

 CLICK HERE TO READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE

TODAY I BRING TO YOU A FANTASTIC ARTICLE.  FANTASTIC BECAUSE IT IS PUBLISHED IN THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE.  FANTASTIC BECAUSE IT IS ONE OF THE FEW TIMES THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA PRESENTS A POSITIVE ARTICLE ON ADULT STEM CELLS.

READ THIS-

NEW YORK - A gathering known as the Stem Cell Summit might sound so controversial it would need a steely moderator, or even police protection, so politically delicate is the science of using embryos in medical research.

But this affair at the Hilton New York on Sixth Avenue in Manhattan was all business because while the research community remains interested in embryonic stem cells, these days the focus is on the potential uses of adult stem cells, where it turns out that significant progress is being made away from the political spotlight.

BRUCE JAPSEN, THE REPORTER WHO WROTE THIS ARTICLE SHOULD BE COMMENDED FOR SUMMARIZING IN ONE SENTENCE WHAT I HAVE BEEN TRYING TO SAY FOR THE LAST 4 YEARS!   AND WRITING FOR THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, HE PROBABLY HAS A MUCH BIGGER AUDIENCE THAN I DO.  THE BUSINESS PEOPLE GO WHERE THE MONEY IS, WHERE THERE IS SUCCESS, WHERE THERE IS A PRODUCT WITH A DEMAND- ADULT STEM CELLS.  THE "RESEARCH COMMUNITY" GO TO THE TAXPAYER AND BEG BECAUSE THE SMART BUSINESS PEOPLE WON'T GIVE THEM MONEY BECAUSE THE PROMISE IS ALMOST NIL.

AND WHAT WOULD A GOOD POST ON MY BLOG BE LIKE WITHOUT A ADULT STEM CELL SUCCESS STORY INCLUDED IN THE SAME ARTICLE-
Gordon Chang said his daughter Chloe celebrated her 6th birthday in January thanks to the ability to preserve her younger sister's cord blood to combat a rare and deadly form of leukemia.

At age 1 1/2, Chloe embarked on 18 months of failed treatments that started with chemotherapy followed by a dangerous arsenic treatment and a transplant of stem cells from her own blood before she was treated with an infusion of 2 to 4 ounces of her sister's stem cells preserved by StemCyte.

Although each of her earlier treatments involved a month to several months of remission, they were not as effective as cord blood, said Gordon Chang, a Stanford University history professor. Side effects involved severe pain and bleeding, but Chang said his daughter today is healthy and in 1st grade, three years after the infusion with cells from cord blood.

"There are no guarantees about the future," he said. "But this would have been impossible without the umbilical cord [stem cell] transplant."

READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE HERE

I HAVE HEARD THE THEORY OF STEM CELLS IN SPORTS, BUT NEVER REALIZED THAT IT IS ALREADY HERE. I THINK IF ADULT STEM CELLS CAN HELP HEAL AN INJURED SHOULDER OR A BLOWN OUT KNEE- THEN THIS IS WONDERFUL NEWS! ALTHOUGH THIS IS PART OF A SERIES OF SPORTS ILLUSTRATED ARTICLES DETAILING STEROIDS USE IN SPORTS, I DON'T SEE ANY RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ADULT STEM CELLS AND STEROIDS. USING ONE'S OWN STEM CELLS TO HELP HEAL HAS ZERO SIDE EFFECTS. STEROIDS HAVE NUMEROUS NEGATIVE SIDE EFFECTS. I HOPE I WILL SEE THE DAY THAT GETTING AN ADULT STEM CELL TRANSPLANT WILL BE A NORMAL EVERYDAY OCCURENCE FOR NOT ONLY THE DYING HEART FAILURE PATIENT BUT THE HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETE WHO INJURES HIS SHOULDER AS WELL.

LOOK WHAT HAPPENED TO THIS FOOTBALL PLAYER!!

A second type of stem cell therapy that is gaining proponents in sports applications is autologous treatment -- reimplanting the cells extracted from one's own body. Christopher Dalton, 18, a Texas all-state offensive tackle, injured the tendons in his left shoulder last year. He ­couldn't do a single push-up or lift more than a couple of pounds. Three days after an autologous stem cell ­treatment -- the cells were extracted from Dalton's tibia -- he had regained 90 percent of his shoulder function, and within a month, the 6'2", 240-pounder was bench-­pressing 285 pounds. "His stem cell shoulder was actually stronger than his uninjured shoulder," says his father, Stephen, a family practitioner who sent his son to California for the treatment.

CLICK HERE FOR THE WHOLE ARTICLE

THIS IS ANOTHER FANTASTIC STORY ABOUT HOW ADULT STEM CELLS CAN HELP MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS (MS) PATIENTS.  IN THE STEM CELL TREATMENT STUDY DESCRIBED IN THE ARTICLE, THE MS PATIENTS WERE FIRST GIVEN CHEMOTHERAPY WHICH DESTROYED THEIR IMMUNE SYSTEM AND THEN WERE TREATED WITH THEIR OWN ADULT STEM CELLS TO REBUILD A NEW IMMUNE SYSTEM IN THE BONE MARROW-- A NEW IMMUNE SYSTEM THAT IS FREE OF MS! IMAGINE BEING THE PARENTS OF THIS WOMAN, SEEING HER WALK OFF THE PLANE, THIS STORY MADE MY DAY. -DM

Parents rejoice over daughter's stem-cell miracle

A midnight flight from Ottawa to Vancouver delivered something of a miracle to Surrey couple Jacky and Tom Telder.

There she was, the Telders' youngest child, Leah, walking towards them in the airport lobby late Monday amidst the disembarking passengers, grinning and waving a greeting.

"That was amazing. She walked off. ... I mean, there she was, actually walking," said Jacky of the moment.

Like the patients before her, Leah was required to undergo heavy doses of chemotherapy - enough to completely wipe out her immune system and cause her shoulder-length hair to fall out in chunks.

Twice, she endured an uncomfortable six-hour procedure that saw her strapped to a chair, unable to even flinch, as a team of specialists carefully siphoned stem cells from her blood.

"If she moved even a little, alarms would beep," said Jacky of the extremely delicate procedure.

The stem cells were then sent to a laboratory where they were "cleaned" before being pumped back into her body.

The theory behind the $4-million study is that the pure stem cells will find their way into the bone marrow and build up a new immune system in the patient, free of MS.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE

STEM CELL THERAPY FOR DOGS AND HORSES-- AND ADULT STEM CELL THERAPY AT THAT!  THIS IS GREAT NEWS AND IT REALLY SEEMS TO BE WORKING! ALTHOUGH THE ARTICLE BELOW DOES NOT MENTION THE NAME OF THE STEM CELL THERAPY COMPANY RESPONSIBLE FOR THE ANIMAL STEM CELLS, I SUSPECT IT IS VET-STEM SINCE THEY ARE LOCATED NEAR SAN DIEGO WHICH THE ARTICLE MENTIONS.   SO IF YOU HAVE A PET IN PAIN, TRY CONTACTING THEM AS THEY MAY BE ABLE TO HELP.  -DM

Stem cells ease pain of horses and dogs

Local veterinarian Dr. Kathy Mitchener is using a new stem cell replacement procedure to relieve pain in arthritic dogs and horses.

In the stem cell procedure, Mitchener removes fat cells from animals that are fully sedated. The cells are shipped overnight to a clinic in San Diego, which recovers stem and regenerative cells from the fat and ships them back within 48 hours. The cells are implanted into problem areas, such as hips or knees, through an injection and intravenous line. Within days, the animals are moving more freely and with less pain.

Her first four patients showed improvement in movement in just a few days. Mitchener said it helps rejuvenate torn ligaments in horses and joint tissue in dogs suffering from arthritis.

Between 75 to 85 percent of the animals showed improvements after the procedure, lasting for as long as 18 months.It costs between $2,600 to $3,000 for the procedure, which includes all the blood work and two surgical procedures.

To find out more, call Angel Care at 385-9172. The clinic is in Shelby Center Hospital for Animals at 6923 Stage near Summer.

READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE

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.