Stem Cells 101

What’s the deal with stem cells anyway? Stem cells are special body cells that have the potential to become one of many different types of organs or tissues, such as bone, heart, or brain and spinal cord. This is a very exciting area of research in the field of medicine. It is possible that stem cells could be used to repair injuries to the body, or to treat diseases such as Parkinson’s disease, heart disease, diabetes, and countless other problems.

Stem cells have been identified in their natural state, and very recently, they have been created by modifying genes in normal adult skin cells. Stem cells from different sources vary in their ability to transform into other tissues. The ones with the most potential are gotten from very young embryos, 3 to 5 days old. At this stage of development, the embryo is composed of about 150 cells, each of which has the ability to become any part of the body. But the fact that this is a developing human life raises moral and ethical questions about the use of embryos for research purposes. People are divided about 50 - 50 in this regard. In general, people who favor abortion also favor the use of embryos in stem cell research, while those opposed to abortion are more respectful of their humanity. Because of the great potential for stem cells to be useful treatments, these moral and ethical questions will have to be addressed by us as a society.

Other sources of stem cells besides human embryos include umbilical cord blood, amniotic fluid, and a few are found in normal adult tissues. And as I mentioned before, researchers late last year were able to create stem cells from adult skin cells by modifying their genes. This is very exciting because it avoids the ethical questions about experimenting on developing human life.

As you can see, all of this holds great promise, and the field is just getting started. In the future we might be able to regenerate tissues that have been injured or diseased. We might be able to clone organs for transplantation. Regenerated or replaced tissues and organs would cure diseases and restore normal function.

In the next installment, I will focus on the current state of the art of stem cell research in the area of Parkinson’s disease. Stay tuned.

Chocoholics Rejoice!

Today is National Wear Red Day, when Americans wear red to show support of women’s heart disease. Hear disease is the #1 killer of women in the US. One and four women die of heart disease. The National Heart Lung and Blood Institute is a great resource for women’s heart health.

You may be wondering, “What in the world does this have to do with chocolate?” Well, the other day in the mail I received the latest copy of Heart Healthy Living. The front cover immediately caught my eye! CHOCOLATE! “Keep the treats and lower your blood pressure”. I am not a huge chocoholic but, I do enjoy chocolate (my youngest is the chocoholic in the family).

In one of the “chocolate” articles titled “Cocoa May Fight Hypertension”. WOW! I thought, I felt like a kid in a candy store! Then…I read on, 30 tiny little calories =( of dark chocolate you can eat daily to help reduce blood pressure without affecting body weight! Yea, all is not lost! The research was done at the University Hospital of Cologne. Germany…not the US figures, figures but that is for another post.

Anyway, here are some “heart healthy” chocolate recipe’s that I found on Heart Healthy Living. Chocolate Ricotta Mousse, Frozen Hot Chocolate, Heart Healthy Chocolate Cake

Photo thanks to Flikr

New Social Bookmark Exchange

Yesterday I found a new place to get traffic and money. It is called ClipBook and it has just launched. After being completely disgusted with BlogRush and BlogExplosion, they are now in the trash.

You can exchange stumbles or digg’s with other sites. Join here.

Autism Speaks And Five for Fighting Raising Awareness

Yesterday while doing my daily blog reads, I came across a great post on “All the world’s a stage” about a Five for Fighting donating to Autism Speaks. As many of you know, I have an autistic child. Fortunately he is a verbal autistic. As with all autistic people he has his favorite hang-ups’: anything with wheels (cars, trains, airplanes, etc.), Lego’s, commercials, infomercials and music. One of his favorite commercials is the Rock Autism commercial on VH1. He is amazed that the musicians that he likes to listen to know about autism and have a commercial to help find a cure. He is also a huge music fan and he has several CD’s from Five for Fighting. I think that he has more CD’s now than I do.

Please take the time to go to What Kind Of World Do You Want and click on the video. EACH TIME the video is viewed; Five for Fighting will donate $0.40 to Autism Speaks. As much as I despise chains (chain letters) I despise AUTISM even more. So, please pass this along. Help find a cure.

Freaky Friday Medical Fact ~ Thyroid Cancer

Freaky Friday Medical Fact ~ Thyroid

January is thyroid awareness month. For my first “Freaky Friday Medical Fact” I chose these interesting facts about thyroid cancer.

• Thyroid cancer is the most common endocrine cancer. Thyroid cancer is a cancerous tumor or growth located within the thyroid gland.
• Thyroid cancer is one of the few cancers that has increased in incidence rates over the past several years. There are expected to be 11% more new cases in 2007 than in 2006 in the United States.
• The American Cancer Society estimates that there will be about 33,550 new cases of thyroid cancer in the U.S. in 2007. Of these new cases, about 25,480 will occur in women and about 8,070 will occur in men. About 1,530 people (880 women and 650 men) will die of thyroid cancer in 2007.
• Many patients, especially in the early stages of thyroid cancer, do not experience symptoms. However, as the cancer develops, symptoms can include a lump or nodule in the front of the neck, hoarseness or difficulty speaking, swollen lymph nodes, difficulty swallowing or breathing, and pain in the throat or neck.
• There are several types of thyroid cancer: papillary, follicular, medullary, anaplastic, and variants.

Several years ago I was diagnosed with Follicular thyroid cancer. As far as cancers go and thyroid cancer and specifically, follicular thyroid cancer is one of the most treatable cancers. I had stage II verging on stage III, the cancer had spread outside the thyroid but it had not spread into the lymph nodes. The treatment was a total thyroidectomy followed with radioactive iodine therapy. For more thyroid cancer information either click on this link Thyroid Cancer Survivors.