Archive for September, 2015

Stem Cell Treatment For Jack Who Has Spinal Cord Injury

Sunday, September 20th, 2015

In July 2015 United States-based spinal cord injury (SCI) patient Jack Pearce and his wife Ellie traveled from Florida to Bangkok, Thailand where Jack received adult stem cell treatment combined with an intensive rehabilitation program in the hope to become independent.

The procedure involved adult mesenchymal stem cell therapy combined with utilizing an implanted epidural stimulator that allows spinal cord injury patients to voluntarily move their limbs. The umbilical cord derived mesenchymal stem cells (UCMSCs) were administered via lumbar puncture and intravenous injection.

Jack became paralyzed after doing a back flip on a trampoline. This type of injury requires a large quantity of stem cells and an intensive rehabilitation program that go hand in hand.

Jack’s treatment program is being well documented. The videos are supported by the Better Being Hospital and Beike Biotechnology Company.  His results are being validated by Brooks Rehabilitation in Jacksonville, Florida who did pre-treatment assessments on Jack and they will monitor his ongoing stem cell activity and improvements, and also provide the facility to enable Jack to continue his physical therapy program while he is back home in the United States.

Watch this moving video that was released this week, September 2015, that shows Jack’s arrival at Better Being Hospital where he talks about his treatment goals.

The video documentary was co-produced by Jack himself and aims to give an unbiased, medically documented look at this breakthrough treatment. Jack plans to return to Thailand in six months for a second round of stem cell treatment and to create a follow-up documentary based on his post-treatment assessments.  Further videos will be shown here as soon as they become available.

SOURCE Beike Biotechnology Co. Ltd.

Diabetes Breakthrough – Woman No Longer Diabetic After Cell Transplant

Saturday, September 12th, 2015

Diabetes Breakthrough

Source:  UPI Health News – Miami

A diabetic woman no longer needs to take daily medicine after she received a stem cell transplant.

Wendy Peacock was first diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at age 17, according to the Miami Herald newspaper. Until then, a daily insulin injection had helped control the amount of sugar (or glucose) in her blood.

Ms. Peacock, who is now 43, received the stem cells in mid-August 2015 in a “minimally invasive procedure” at the University of Miami – Miller School of Medicine in Florida. Doctors called the operation simple and said Ms. Peacock recovered quickly.

After the operation, her body started producing insulin naturally.

Ms. Peacock “is now completely off insulin,” one of her doctors said.

“These are the best results we’ve seen,” said Dr. Camillo Ricordi, director of the Cell Transplant Center at the Diabetes Research Center in Florida.

“If these results can be confirmed, this can be the beginning of a new era” said Dr. Ricordi. If other doctors study the results and confirm the outcome, the procedure could become available to other diabetics.

Ms. Peacock says her life has changed dramatically as a result of the procedure. Before the procedure, Ms. Peacock was unable to sense when her blood glucose dropped dangerously. Low glucose can make a person confused or unconscious. It may even lead to death.

“As any type 1 diabetic knows, you live on a very structured schedule,” Ms. Peacock explained.

“I do a mental checklist every day in my head … glucose tabs, food, glucometer, and then I stop and say, ‘WOW! I don’t have to plan that anymore.”

Asians will find the medical news encouraging. Studies show that Asians are at higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes when compared with people of European ancestry. That’s according to the Asian Diabetes Prevention Initiative at Harvard University in Massachusetts.

Asian populations have fewer overweight and obese people than people in the West but they have a higher percentage of people with diabetes. Currently, 60 percent of the world’s diabetic population is Asian, according to the Initiative’s website.