Friday, August 30, 2013

Scientific progress.

Now I get that there are ethical issues with this research but I, for one, find it really interesting and exciting.  This study was originally set up to simply study the safety embryonic stem cell transplants to treat macular degeneration as a primary focus.  A secondary objective was to test its efficacy.  Now one of the study participants was considered legally blind and now he can see well enough to drive a car!

Hopefully it won't be long until they can do the same with induced pluripotent stem cells so we can put the ethical debate to bed.  But for now, this will have to do.

Here is the article.

http://www.newscientist.com

Stay well:)

Thursday, August 29, 2013

I found this very interesting.

I have always found the science of stem cells interesting.  Especially since I had a stem cell transplant.  So this article is really interesting and shows that adult stem cells can be coerced into forming different kinds of cells.  In this study they managed to get skin stem cells to form a brain type structure.  The clinical potential for this kind of research is massive.  From Parkinson's disease to brain injury the practical application could be endless.

However, this research is still completely resigned to the laboratory so it will still be many years until we see any real world benefit.  It is really important to note that if anyone is offering stem cell transplants to directly repair cells that are of a different origin to the stem cells used they are lying.  We simply do not have the technology for that kind of procedure yet.  But, I'm sure that it will happen one day.

Oh yeah, here is the article.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/mini-brain-grown-from-human-stem-cells/story-fnb64oi6-1226706332448

Stay well:)

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Vaccinations

My goodness me, it has been a while since my last post.  Apologies.  I don't have a really good excuse, I have just been lazy.  But hey, I'm writing now so good for me!

A great deal has been happening recently and for once it is not he who has been the focus of the medical interventions.  That honour goes to my son who broke his arm (which I blogged about last time) went to hospital for a minor dental procedure and managed to scrape all the skin off his index finger which then became infected and needed to be treated with antibiotics.  Aside from the dental procedure, which was purely cosmetic, the other two were just a nine year old boy being a nine year old boy.

After saying all that the doctors have not completely eluded me either as the juggernaut, which is my medical story rolls on.  I had blood work done recently which finally showed my blood levels had returned to normal.  This meant that it was time to revisit my immunisation regime and my oh my there are a lot of them.

Now for most HSCT patients this is nothing more than procedure but with a patient that had HSCT for an auto immune disease this process is much more complicated.  I will elaborate.

Auto immune diseases do not just happen.  Some people may have a genetic predisposition to contracting one of them but there is always an environmental trigger that starts the process.  There are many things that can be the trigger.  A virus or infection, a toxin, a medication or allergic reaction... The list is almost endless but one of the biggest suspects is a vaccine.

It is really quite logical.  A vaccine is designed to trigger an immune response that means if a person is exposed to the disease that has been vaccinated against, the persons immune system will attack the disease.  If the immune system misinterprets the vaccine it could end up causing an autoimmune (AID) disease.  The problem is most medical professionals will refute this link but there are sufferers of autoimmune diseases that swear black and blue that the vaccine was their "trigger".

Personally, I believe that a vaccination could be responsible for causing an AID.  But the question is whether the benefit of me having a vaccine is worth the risk of having a relapse.  Since I am fairly sure that a vaccine didn't trigger my AID in the first place I think that a vaccine won't do it to me this time.  However, I'm going to go pretty slowly with it just to be safe.  My program will be on and off for over a year.

Just so you know, this is a decision I have taken very seriously.  I let you all know how I go as I progress.  Until next time, stay well:)