Edmond Woman With MS Undergoes Stem Cell Treatment

EDMOND, Oklahoma -

A former Edmond school teacher battling Multiple Sclerosis went to Chicago for a life-saving stem cell transplant. She's back in town now with her results.

Pamela Gooch says she's the first person with Progressive Relapsing MS to have this particular procedure done. And since the transplant, she's never felt better.

"That just terrible tiredness is gone," said Pamela.

Back to her old, playful self, Pamela says her recent stem cell transplant has given her a new life.

"I can take a nap when I tire and I feel rested, however before, I couldn't get out of bed," Pamela said.

For two years since her MS diagnosis, Pamela always felt drained as her immune system was attacking itself. She even chopped off all her hair before chemotherapy beat her to it.

5/3/2014 Related Story: OK Woman Shaves Head To Prepare For MS Treatment

And in a 20 minute operation only offered in Chicago, she got new stem cells placed in her body. It was a success, until she got a letter from her insurance company backing out of covering the $150,000 procedure and instead opting to pay only a 1/10 of it.

"Pay for the rest of our lives for it, this is what we're going to do."

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Edmond Woman With MS Undergoes Stem Cell Treatment

Stem cell treatment used on horses could help human athletes

The UK Stem Cell Foundation is funding the first ever human study which will involve 10 patients.

It is hoped that this could lead to access to a new treatment within three to five years.

Stem cells will be removed from each patient, expanded in the laboratory, then implanted onto the damaged tendon.

Andy Goldberg, Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital, who will lead the study, said: "There is a real need for effective, non-surgical treatments for Achilles Tendinopathy.

"We have seen stem cell treatments produce impressive outcomes in race horses and this trial will be the first step towards seeing if this is also a viable treatment in humans.

"If things go well, we are hopeful this treatment could have a life-changing impact on patients."

Sir Richard Sykes, Chairman of the UK Stem Cell Foundation, added: "The UK Stem Cell Foundation is delighted to support this first-in-man study.

"Our mission is to help address the critical gap in funding that is hindering the progress of promising stem cell research into new treatments.

"The Autologous Stem Cells in Achilles Tendinopathy study (ASCAT) is an exciting example of taking preclinical work in a natural animal disease model and translating it for human benefit".

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Stem cell treatment used on horses could help human athletes

Stem cell-stimulating therapy saves heart attack patients

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

9-Jun-2014

Contact: Kimberly Brown kbrown@snmmi.org 703-652-6773 Society of Nuclear Medicine

St. Louis, Mo. (June 9, 2014) Researchers at the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging's 2014 Annual Meeting revealed how a protein encourages the production of stem cells that regenerate damaged tissues of the heart following an acute attack (myocardial infarction). They further assert that it has a better chance of working if provided early in treatment. This was confirmed by molecular imaging, which captured patients' improved heart health after therapy.

If given after a heart attack, granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) mobilizes bone marrow stem cells that turn down the collateral damage of cell death that occurs after acute myocardial infarction. Other research has shown G-CSF having a beneficial impact on left ventricle ejection fraction, a measurement of how powerfully the heart is pumping oxygenated blood back into the aorta and the rest of the body with each beat. The objective of this study was to find out how beneficial the stem cellstimulating therapy would be if administered early during standard treatment. Early prescription of G-CSF happens to strengthen its effect immediately and after follow up.

"Previous studies have shown that giving G-CSF to unselected heart attack patients failed to satisfactorily improve their condition, but G-CSF may potentially be beneficial if given earlier than 37 hours following myocardial infarction and coronary intervention," remarked Takuji Toyama, MD, the study's principal researcher from the division of cardiology at Gunma Prefectural Cardiovascular Center in Maebashi, Japan. "This study shows that the first intravenous drip infusion of G-CSF during treatment just after hospitalization was able to rescue our patients. I am confident that with additional data from a forthcoming clinical trial, this protocol can be adopted as a standard of practice."

For this study, 40 consecutive patients with acute myocardial infarction were given either G-CSF therapy or saline intravenously for a total of five days beginning during a selected minimally invasive treatment, otherwise known as percutaneous cardiac intervention. Results of one year's worth of SPECT stress tests nailed how earlier start of G-CSF therapy in heart attack patients improves blood flow, access to essential energy and overall cardiac function.

Coronary heart disease caused one out of every six fatalities in the U.S. in 2010, according to 2014 statistics from the American Heart Association. An estimated 620,000 Americans suffered a first heart attack, and 295,000 had a recurrent episode. Collectively, heart attacks occur about once every 34 seconds. Coronary events cause about 379,559 deaths each year.

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Scientific Paper 239: Takuji Toyama, Hiroshi Hoshizaki, Hakuken Kan, Ren Kawaguchi, Hitoshi Adachi, Shigeru Ohsima, Division of Cardiology, Gunma Prefectural Cardiovascular Center, Maebashi, Japan; Masahiko Kurabayashi, Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Gunma University School of Medicine, Maebashi, Japan, "Is the granulocyte colony-stimulating factor therapy in the earliest phase effective to rescue patients with acute myocardial infarction?" SNMMI's 61th Annual Meeting, June 7, 2014, St. Louis, Missouri.

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Stem cell-stimulating therapy saves heart attack patients

Lasers and Stem Cells Regrowing Teeth

Stem cells are the future of healthcare for the human race, as we've studied them more we've found out all the different ways that they could be used to take care of many of the problems facing people today, from baldness to Alzheimer's research, they've become the miracle cure that society has wanted to badly for so many years. (christianitytoday) The biggest problem people have had with stem cell treatment is that when it began the primary source of stem cells was via embryonic stem cells, this put the majority of people off the process as they weren't willing to support aborted embryos in order to progress medically. (frc) With the advancement in the process and the ability to generate stem cells from adult tissue the battle over the ethics of using said cells to treat the many illnesses and injuries that have embattled the human race for ages, making it more palatable for those who were once torn over the research. (childrenshospital) As the debate rages on over the benefits and risks of stem cell treatment the benefits keep growing and the negatives seem to be slowly passing by the wayside, as a result using stem cells to take care of our ailments is gaining steam and with any luck it'll change everything for the better. (nih)

One of the most common medical problems that has faced people since the begging of time is dental work, while we've made progress in this field we're still somewhat archaic in it as well, relying on drills and pliers to repair damage that has accrued over time. (acedentalresource) There have been tests in order to regrow teeth and surrounding tissue using stem cells for some time now, with positive results it's seemed that stem cell treatment would be the next step in taking care of our teeth and we would finally get past the need for dentures or implants, although the question is how long that may take. (reuters) Last year the move to regrow teeth saw an advancement through the use of stem cells that were derived from urine, not quite the process people want to envision the process happening but it seemed like the most likely way to avoid painful implants or terrible fitting dentures. (nydailynews) A new evolution seems to be on the horizon now using low level lasers and stem cells to regenerate teeth instead of having to replace them, this is a huge development and as someone with dental concerns myself and a severe phobia of dentists, I'm looking forward to the future on this one. (iflscience)

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Lasers and Stem Cells Regrowing Teeth

How the rich try to buy eternal youth

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) The best kind of anti-aging treatment is inside ones own body, and the rich are taking advantage of it, exploring the latest research in new technologies, genome mapping and stem cell treatments.

Among them is Oracle billionaire Larry Ellison, a large investor of the Ellison Medical Foundation, which supports research exploring the biology that underlies aging and age-related diseases. And theres billionaire Peter Nygrd, who says he wants to live forever (or die trying), and has suggested hes found the keys to immortality in stem cell research.

Some doctors agree that stem cells are a key part of chasing youth.

If youre a wealthy guy and havent stored your stem cells, I think youre a total idiot, said Dr. Lionel Bissoon, a New York City physician who sees a number of stressed out, wealthy patients.

They usually come to him with similar problems: Fatigue, belly fat, erectile dysfunction, tiring very quickly all very common with my patients from Wall Street, Bissoon said. The short-term solution to those ailments, he says, is testosterone replacement which is relatively affordable at a few hundred dollars a pop and IV nutrition.

For the long term he recommends stem cell storage, which works as a sort of rainy day insurance. The cells are extracted, preferably when the patient is on the younger side around 30 is said to be a good age and can then be used to boost an immune system or help to rebuild damaged organs later.

Dr. Dipnarine Maharaj stores cells at his South Florida Bone Marrow Stem Cell Transplant Institute in Boynton Beach, Fla.

People are looking and finding ways to be able to help them to live longer to spend the money theyve earned, he said. They spend their retirement going doctor to doctor, and if we can find ways to prevent that it would be good. His clinic sees executives under a lot of stress, a fast way to damage any immune system.

He agrees that its important to store cells before they become irreparably damaged. To collect and store stem cells at his clinic costs $15,000 for the initial extraction, which includes a year of storage. After that, storage costs $50 per month.

Stem cells arent the only high-end solution.

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How the rich try to buy eternal youth