Steps To Wellness Articles
Researchers Claim HIV Cure Using Stem Cell Therapy PDF Print E-mail
Steps To Wellness Articles
Written by Jason Roberts   
Tuesday, 21 December 2010 08:47

 

 

Researchers Claim HIV Cure Using Stem Cell Therapy

Researchers in Germany announced that they have used adult stem cell therapy to cure a man afflicted with both leukemia and HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Writing about their research in the December issue of the medical journal Blood, doctors from the Charite-University of Medicine in Berlin explained that in 2007 the 44-year-old American patient, Timothy Brown, volunteered to receive the experimental adult stem cell therapy to treat his leukemia. At the same time, the researchers decided to perform a stem-cell transplant in an effort to fight his HIV. Not only was the stem cell donor a good blood match for the patient, wrote the researchers, but he also had what the doctors determined was a gene mutation that demonstrated a natural resistance to HIV.
Now, three years since the treatment, researchers say that Brown shows no signs of either leukemia or HIV infection, and they are guardedly optimistic that he has been cured. The researchers say that Brown was taken off anti-retroviral drugs in February 2010, and neither disease has shown signs of return in the 20 months since the transplant.
“In conclusion, our results strongly suggest that cure of HIV has been achieved in this patient,” wrote the German researchers.
While showing strong interest in the case, medical experts have nonetheless expressed caution in some cases, pessimism in others. “Cured is a strong word,” said Dr David Scadden, a co-director of the Harvard University Stem Cell Institute. “But this is very encouraging … from all indications, there was no residual virus.… It’s as good an outcome as one could hope for.”
Dr. David Prentice, a former biology professor at Indiana State University, told LifeNews.com that while the evidence provided by the researchers is compelling, “Caution is still the byword…. These types of transplants are not gentle, and the virus could still be hiding and waiting.” He pointed out that all such transplants “would require finding bone marrow adult stem cell donors with the particular mutation … so this will not be a widely-applicable treatment.”
Dr. Michael Saag of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, who is past chairman of the HIV Medicine Association, told the Associated Press (AP) that while the case demonstrates that “with pretty extraordinary measures a patient could be cured of HIV,” the experimental treatment remains too risky at this point to become standard therapy for AIDS treatment, even if good donors could be found.
Saag said that blood stem cell transplants are done routinely to treat patients with cancer, but that broadening the treatment to other, relatively healthy individuals (such as someone with HIV but not AIDS) remains risky because it means destroying an individual’s own immune system using both powerful drugs and radiation, and then developing a new immune system for the patient, using cells from a matched donor. He said that the mortality rate for such a procedure could be five percent or greater.
Noting that drugs can typically keep HIV from developing into full-blown AIDS in most patients, Saag said that the only way the procedure might become an option is if a patient had both HIV and cancer, as did the patient in the research. “We can’t really apply this particular approach to healthy individuals because the risk is just too high,” he said.
Commenting on the case in 2009, Dr. Anthony Fauci of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases emphasized that the experimental procedure would be too expensive and risky to become a common treatment in the near future, but that the research may aid in the development of gene therapies for the treatment of HIV.
Most recently, Fauci told Fox News that while the patient in the German case appeared to be “functionally cured,” results would most likely not carry through for every HIV-positive patient. “This is not prime time to me at all,” he said. “This is a very unusual situation that has little practical application for a simple reason. This donor not only had to be a good compatible match, but the donor had to have a genetic defect of cells that do not express the receptor that the HIV virus needs to enter the cell.”
He added that the risk is great. “This patient is trading one poison for another,” he warned. “He may not have to be on antiretroviral drugs anymore, but he has to take immunosuppressant drugs now to prevent the rejection of his transplant cells.” He concluded that “what this is, is an interesting proof of concept, but it’s absolutely impractical.”
However, not every medical expert expressed such pessimism at the prospect for success with the treatment. Dr. Thomas Quinn, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Global Health, told Fox News that the latest research “looked much deeper into whether HIV could still be present or lurking in the body in some way, not cured, and since the transplant [the test patient] remains viral free and his cells appear to be resistant to infection.”
He added that while there is still much research to do, the latest news “gives hope to the millions of people infected with HIV that cure is a feasible option in the future.”
http://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php/world-mainmenu-26/europe-mainmenu-35/5570-researchers-claim-hiv-cure-using-stem-cell-thera
stemcells-Image-from-http-Researchers in Germany announced that they have used adult stem cell therapy to cure a man afflicted with both leukemia and HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Writing about their research in the December issue of the medical journal Blood, doctors from the Charite-University of Medicine in Berlin explained that in 2007 the 44-year-old American patient, Timothy Brown, volunteered to receive the experimental adult stem cell therapy to treat his leukemia. At the same time, the researchers decided to perform a stem-cell transplant in an effort to fight his HIV. Not only was the stem cell donor a good blood match for the patient, wrote the researchers, but he also had what the doctors determined was a gene mutation that demonstrated a natural resistance to HIV.
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Breast Cancer Patients Live Longer After Breast-Conserving Therapy, Study Shows PDF Print E-mail
Steps To Wellness Articles
Written by Jason Roberts   
Monday, 20 December 2010 08:00
Breast Cancer Patients Live Longer After Breast-Conserving Therapy, Study Shows
In a surprising finding, a large study suggests that women with early breast cancer who undergo breast-conserving therapy live longer than those who have a mastectomy.
Still, both treatments work well, with about 93% of 62,770 women who had lumpectomy followed by radiation -- and 87% of 51,507 women who had a mastectomy -- alive more than four years after diagnosis.
"We found that lumpectomy followed by radiation therapy is very safe for women of all ages with early-stage breast cancer," says E. Shelley Hwang, MD, MPH, a breast cancer surgeon at the University of California, San Francisco.
Standard Therapy for Early Breast Cancer
Studies done over two decades ago established breast-conserving therapy (BCT) as a standard option for women with early breast cancer, showing it worked just as well as mastectomy.
Since then, other studies suggested that certain women -- those who have not yet reached menopause and those whose tumors are not fueled by hormones -- may be slightly more likely to have a recurrence if they have breast-conserving therapy than if they have mastectomy, Hwang tells WebMD.
As a result, more and more women are choosing mastectomy these days, she says.
"Our question was, is there a difference in survival when breast-conserving therapy and mastectomy are performed using modern techniques?" Hwang says. "The results were the opposite of what we expected."
BCT beat out mastectomy regardless of whether a woman was under 50 or over 50 and regardless of whether the tumor was fueled by hormones, the study showed.
The findings were presented at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.
Breast-Conserving Therapy vs. Mastectomy
Using the California Cancer Registry, Hwang and colleagues reviewed the records of women diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer between 1990 and 2004 who were treated with either BCT (lumpectomy plus radiation) or mastectomy.
About one-fourth of the women were younger than 50 when they were diagnosed and 82% had hormone-receptor-positive tumors. The women were followed for about nine years, on average.
http://www.webmd.com/breast-cancer/news/20101217/breast-conserving-therapy-better-than-mastectomy

In a surprising finding, a large study suggests that women with early breast cancer who undergo breast-conserving therapy live longer than those who have a mastectomy.

Still, both treatments work well, with about 93% of 62,770 women who had lumpectomy followed by radiation -- and 87% of 51,507 women who had a mastectomy -- alive more than four years after diagnosis.

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Yearly Mammograms Starting at Age 40 Cut Mastectomy Risk in Half PDF Print E-mail
Steps To Wellness Articles
Written by Jason Roberts   
Tuesday, 07 December 2010 09:46
Yearly Mammograms Starting at Age 40 Cut Mastectomy Risk in Half
Annual mammograms beginning at 40 years of age would greatly reduce the risk for mastectomy in women between 40 and 50 years, according to a study presented by British researchers here at the Radiological Society of North America 96th Scientific Assembly and Annual Meeting.
One of the aims of the researchers was to appeal to healthcare policy setters by drawing attention to the number of breasts saved compared with the number of lives saved when annual mammography begins at age 40.
Current guidelines in the United Kingdom stipulate that screening for breast cancer begin at 50 years of age. This policy means that twice as many women in the 40- to 50-year age group will lose their breast when a cancer is found — which is usually after a woman discovers it herself — than if the screening is done annually, as recommended by the American Cancer Society, said Nicholas (Nick) Perry, MD, director of the London Breast Institute in the United Kingdom, in an interview with Medscape Medical News.
"It is very important to screen women in this age group," Dr. Perry said. "It's true that breast cancer incidence is more common in older women, but when breast cancer occurs in younger women, it is more aggressive. These women have the most to lose from breast cancer at an early age, and the most to gain from annual screening."
About 40% of all life-years lost to breast cancer are in women 35 to 49 years of age who are diagnosed outside of screening. Breast cancer is the single most common cause of death in women between 35 and 54 years of age. Women who are not being screened have the most to gain from early detection because they've got more life-years ahead of them to lose, Dr. Perry explained.
In the study, Dr. Perry and his colleagues looked at data on 184 women 40 to 50 years of age from their center who were diagnosed with breast cancer.
They found that the majority — 74% — had never had a mammogram, and that just 26% had previously had a mammogram — 18 women in the previous year and 30 some time in the past.
The mastectomy rate in the women who were screened in the previous year, as in the general population in the United States, was 22%. The rate in the women who had had a mastectomy at some point in the past was 47%; if they had never had a mammogram, it was 53%.
The average size of the tumor with previous-year mammography was 17.8 mm; with mammography more than a year previous, it was 24 mm; and with no mammography, it was 29 mm.
The percentage of women with multifocal disease, which is usually an indication for mastectomy, was 12% with previous-year mammography, 22% with mammography more than a year previous, and 36% with no mammography.
The rate of high-grade tumors was 31% with previous-year mammography; 32% with mammography more than a year previous, and 46% with no mammography.
"I think the message here is a pretty strong one. It supports the value of mammography and it supports the recommendation of the American Cancer Society," Dr. Perry said.
He is hoping that the National Health Service — the system that governs how healthcare is dispensed in the United Kingdom — will heed the results of his study, but he is not overly optimistic.
"The National Health Service line is very much about what is cost-effective for the government as opposed to what is most desirable for individual women," he said. "This really is the difficulty."
Dr. Perry said he wanted to draw attention, not to the mortality benefit of breast cancer screening, but to the fact that such screening saves women from having mastectomies.
"Of course there is an implication for saving lives as well, because obviously if you've got a smaller tumor, you've got a lower chance of multifocality, and you've got a lower grade of tumor, then your survival is going to be better. I've left that out as an implication and just focused on the mastectomy angle," he said. "I was a little surprised myself when I saw the difference in the percentage. I didn't expect it to be that great."
Commenting on this study for Medscape Medical News, Robert A. Smith, PhD, director of cancer screening at the American Cancer Society, said that the Society does recommend annual mammography at age 40 and that these screenings are covered by the Affordable Care Act, so that all women, regardless of ability to pay, have equal access.
"At this age, breast cancer rates start to rise, and death from breast cancer diagnosed between the ages of 40 to 49 accounts for a significant fraction of deaths that occur from breast cancer each year. Mammography has been shown not only to reduce breast cancer deaths among women diagnosed with breast cancer in this age group, but early detection also is associated with less aggressive cancer, as shown by Dr. Perry."
Dr. Smith added that the recent debates about mammography in this age group have placed a good deal of emphasis on the benefits and harms, especially in regard to the value of mammography in reducing the risk of dying from breast cancer compared with the harm associated with false positives.
"Among the benefits that have received very little attention is the contribution of early detection in reducing the need for mastectomy and chemotherapy," Dr. Smith noted. "Compared with treatment regimens in the past, early detection with mammography has made breast-conserving therapy an option for many women."
Dr. Perry and Dr. Smith have disclosed no relevant financial relationships.
Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) 96th Scientific Assembly and Annual Meeting: Abstract SSQ01-08. Presented December 2, 2010.
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/733635?sssdmh=dm1.652535&src=nldne&uac=157407HY


Annual mammograms beginning at 40 years of age would greatly reduce the risk for mastectomy in women between 40 and 50 years, according to a study presented by British researchers here at the Radiological Society of North America 96th Scientific Assembly and Annual Meeting.

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New Spinal Implant Could Revolutionize Physical Therapy PDF Print E-mail
Steps To Wellness Articles
Written by Jason Roberts   
Thursday, 25 November 2010 11:33
New Spinal Implant Could Revolutionize Physical Therapy
new implantable microchip the size of a child's fingernail has been proven to help the disabled exercise their leg muscles. The Active Book chip, developed in Britain, could just replace the use of electrodes for moving immobile legs in physical therapy.
The chip is implanted in patients' spinal canals and integrates electrodes and a muscle stimulator into a single, tiny unit. Developers named the product the Active Book due to the implant's shape: The Active Book consists of a silicon chip attached to tiny electrodes made out of platinum foil that then wrap around patient's nerve endings. Viewed with a microscope, the effect looks quite like the pages of a book are folded over the nerve endings.
While previous attempts at muscle-stimulating spinal implants have been tried before, the vast majority have been bulky and difficult to implement in real-world situations. The Active Book's small size means that it will be far easier to implant into users' spines.
According to Dr. Andreas Demosthenous of University College London, who is the leader of the research team that developed the Active Book, “The work has the potential to stimulate more muscle groups than is currently possible with existing technology because a number of these devices can be implanted into the spinal canal […] Stimulation of more muscle groups means users can perform enough movement to carry out controlled exercise such as cycling or rowing.”
Other possible uses for the implant include the possibility of using multiple implants in one patient to help the disabled with restoration of bladder or bowel control. The size of previous implants meant that doctors and surgeons were uncomfortable with inserting more than one into a patient. Infection and hygiene concerns also surround current spinal implants.
The bulkiness reduction in the new implant is significant and praiseworthy: Current implants that stimulate spinal nerves have to be connected via cable to an outside power source, which usually consists of a muscle stimulator separately implanted in the user's abdomen. This is the first spinal implant that also includes a muscle stimulator. Apart from the size reduction, this also means better results are likely.
Demosthenous' team at University College London developed the Active Book along with engineers from Germany's Freiburg University and the University of Cork in Ireland. The implant was developed over the past three years with funding by the British Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).
The silicon microchip used in the implant is hermetically sealed to prevent water penetration and any possible corrosion.
Pilot testing of the implant will begin in 2011. Further details on the tests were not available as of press time.


A new implantable microchip the size of a child's fingernail has been proven to help the disabled exercise their leg muscles. The Active Book chip, developed in Britain, could just replace the use of electrodes for moving immobile legs in physical therapy.

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Marijuana therapy interruption is cruel PDF Print E-mail
Steps To Wellness Articles
Written by Jason Roberts   
Wednesday, 24 November 2010 17:25
The proposal by the state Board of Medical Examiners (BME) to make New Jersey doctors try to wean their patients off of medical marijuana every three months is simply another example of how the crafting of medical marijuana regulations is being driven by fear, ignorance and hostility ("Christie: Tighten rules on medical marijuana," Nov. 16).
The New Jersey Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act is already the most restrictive of all such laws in the nation. The qualifying conditions are severely limited and include any patient with a diagnosis of less than 12 months to live. Now the BME is insisting that doctors periodically stop a medication that brings relief to a dying patient "in an effort to reduce the potential for abuse or dependence." It is absurd and cruel. Drug dependence is simply not an issue for a patient with only months to live.
Another qualifying condition is seizures, including epilepsy. After all the routine anticonvulsant medications have been proven ineffective in controlling a patient's seizures, a patient may be greatly relieved to find that his seizures have finally been brought under control by marijuana. This was true for Tim DaGiau, a young man from Clifton who presented written testimony to the New Jersey Assembly Health Committee in 2009. Mr. DaGiau also endured five painful and expensive surgical procedures on his brain in unsuccessful attempts to control his seizures, which were finally brought under control by daily doses of marijuana. Mr. DaGiau had to leave his family and his home and take up residence in Colorado, where he could legally obtain marijuana. His performance in college greatly improved once he stopped having frequent seizures. Far from impeding his productivity, his daily marijuana use enabled him to be successful. Now, patients like Mr. DaGiau, back in New Jersey, will periodically have to stop the medical use of marijuana, decrease the quantity that was authorized, or try other drugs or treatments so the doctors can watch them have seizures again. The rule is an outrage.
Or consider another qualifying condition -- glaucoma. Glaucoma is a leading cause of blindness in the U.S. because, for many patients, traditional medication is ineffective in controlling the pressure inside the eyes that causes it. Marijuana can relieve this intraocular pressure. Marijuana must be considered a life-long maintenance treatment in these cases. The alternative is permanent blindness. These patients should never be subject to periodic treatment interruptions.
Or consider multiple sclerosis (MS), one of a few neurological conditions that qualify for marijuana therapy under the New Jersey law. The expert opinion paper of the National Clinical Advisory Board of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, "Recommendations Regarding the Use of Cannabis in Multiple Sclerosis" (2009), affirmed that marijuana could control the symptoms of MS, especially pain and muscle spasms. The experts acknowledged that traditional therapies were often ineffective in relieving the symptoms. But the MS experts went further and acknowledged that marijuana had neuroprotective qualities and could possibly delay the progression of the dread disease. With the new rule, if an MS patient is experiencing symptom control under marijuana therapy, the physician is then required to reduce or stop the dosage periodically until the patient's symptoms increase. During the therapy interruption, the patient will also lose the unseen neuroprotective benefits of marijuana and the course of the progressive disease will be hastened. It is no wonder that certain medical practices are looked upon, through the hindsight of history, to be horrors. The proposed new rule will be one of them.
Nor is dependence a major concern with marijuana. Less than 10 percent of users experience noticeable withdrawal symptoms, even after heavy, long-term use of marijuana. These withdrawal symptoms, when noticed, are typically mild and include irritability and sleep disturbance. There are no serious withdrawal symptoms like those noted with alcohol (delirium tremens, seizures, death); heroin (flu-like symptoms); or nicotine (intense craving). The addiction potential for marijuana is about equivalent to that of caffeine. You might be irritable and have some sleep disturbance if someone takes your daily cup of coffee away, but it is not something that a physician needs to stop every three months to see if you are addicted to it.
The New Jersey BME clearly lacks education about marijuana and experience with medical marijuana therapy. Physicians, or others who are experts in this specialized area, should be the ones proposing the new rules.
Ken Wolski, RN, MPA, is executive director of the Coalition for Medical Marijuana-New Jersey Inc. (cmmnj.org).

The proposal by the state Board of Medical Examiners (BME) to make New Jersey doctors try to wean their patients off of medical marijuana every three months is simply another example of how the crafting of medical marijuana regulations is being driven by fear, ignorance and hostility ("Christie: Tighten rules on medical marijuana," Nov. 16).

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Exercise to help reduce stress PDF Print E-mail
Steps To Wellness Articles
Written by Jason Roberts   
Thursday, 18 November 2010 09:47

Research shows that exercise has a crucial part to play in reducing stress and improving mental wellbeing. However, if time is limited, personal fitness trainer Lucy Wyndham-Read has put together a 15 minute power workout which you can do at home or at work.

Based on the fact that the average attention span is only 15 minutes, it makes sense to work out for this duration only. Many people get put off exercise as they say they have no time and often get bored. However, most of us can find 15 minutes in our day to invest in our health.

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Our Aims and Goals PDF Print E-mail
Steps To Wellness Articles
Written by Jason Roberts   
Tuesday, 09 November 2010 11:31

At the age of 12 I became very ill, after recovering enough to leave the hospital my parents were very much in the dark as to how to rehabilitate me (read more here), this website was created so that should you want or need advice, help or guidance in finding an answer to a any question involving wellness or fitness it can be found here.

Our goals are;

To be the UKs resource for wellness and fitness

To have more therapies available on the NHS

To encourage all  involved in wellness and fitness to work together providing the best in wellness or fitness (ie a massage before a chiropractic treatment)

To inform and keep informed the general public as to what health assistance is available

 

We have more aims and goals for the more distant future.

 
 
Eat FREE for charity PDF Print E-mail
Steps To Wellness Articles
Written by Jason Roberts   
Tuesday, 02 November 2010 17:35


With Nepal being the 3rd poorest country in the world, getting an education can be hard work and with about 92 students per class, students could do with all the help they can get. On the 27th of May 2010 21 computers were found and made ready to get to Nepal – now they need to sail there.

 

Jason Roberts of Steps to wellness  (www.stepstowellness.co.uk) and Paul Parry got together gathering 21 computers from Falmouth School to provide assistance in educating those at a School in Nepal (called Chitwun), a mission which Ramprasand Sharma at Balti Curries in Falmouth (www.baltifalmouth.co.uk) took upon himself.

 

Ramprasand now has the computers to give to Nepal however getting them there is the next task to be achieved via sea freight. Ramprasand and Jason are holding a Nepalese festival to raise the £1000 needed to deliver the computers.

 

The festival of Dipawali will be held at the Balti Curries House in Falmouth on the 7th November 2010 with a buffet of many Nepalese foods to choose from, to eat is free however £5 p/h is requested towards shipping the computers, a raffle will also be held, you would not only be expanding on your pallet, cultural knowledge and having the chance to scoop a prize, you would be personally contributing to educating children in Nepal.

 

Please call in advance to ensure you get in on 01326 317905.

 
 
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