Group News

Walk MS: Greater Los Angeles 2009

 

Date: Sunday, April 19, 2009
Location: Pasadena Rose Bowl, Pasadena

 

ADDRESS: Pasadena Rose Bowl, 1001 Rose Bowl Drive, Pasadena, CA 91103
 

Goal:$1,515,000.00

Stem-cell transplants may control and even reverse multiple sclerosis symptoms if done early enough, a small study has suggested.

Not one of 21 adults with relapsing-remitting MS who had stem cells transplanted from their own bone marrow deteriorated over three years.

And 81% improved by at least one point on a scale of neurological disability, The Lancet Neurology reported.

Further tests are now planned, and a UK expert called the work "encouraging".

MS is an autoimmune disease which affects about 85,000 people in the UK.

It is caused by a defect in the body's immune system, which turns in on itself, causing damage to the nerves which can lead to symptoms including blurred vision, loss of balance and paralysis.

At first, the condition mostly causes intermittent symptoms that are partly reversible.

Over a 10-15 year period after onset, most patients develop secondary-progressive MS, with gradual but irreversible neurological impairment.

It is not the first time this treatment - known as autologous non-myeloablative haemopoietic stem-cell transplantation - has been tried in people with MS, but there has not been a great deal of success.

The researchers at Northwestern University School of Medicine in Chicago said most other studies had tried the transplants in people with secondary-progressive MS where the damage had already been done.

In the latest trial patients with earlier stage disease who, despite treatment had had two relapses in the past year, were offered the transplant.

Immune system

Stem cells were harvested from the patients and frozen while drugs were given to remove the immune cells or lymphocytes causing the damage.

The stem cells were then transplanted back to replenish the immune system - effectively resetting it.

Five patients in the study relapsed, but went into remission after receiving other therapy.

The researchers are now doing a randomised controlled trial in a larger number of patients to compare the treatment with standard therapy.

Study leader Professor Richard Burt said this was the first MS study of any treatment to show reversal of damage.

"You don't want to wait until the horse has left the barn before you close the barn door - you want to treat early.

"I think the reversal is the brain repairing itself.

"Once you're at the progressive stage you have exceeded the ability of the brain to repair itself," he said.

However, he cautioned that it was important to wait for the results of the larger trial.

And that he would not call it a cure but "changing the natural history of the disease".

Dr Doug Brown, research manager at the MS Society, said the results were very encouraging.

"It's exciting to see that in this trial not only is progression of disability halted, but damage appears to be reversed.

"Stem cells are showing more and more potential in the treatment of MS and the challenge we now face is proving their effectiveness in trials involving large numbers of people."

Pesticides: What you can’t See May Harm You!

 

Everyday you eat the food that you have purchased from the store, use the water out of your well or the city water system to drink, make your coffee and cook your food and breath the air around you. You may not think that anything seems dangerous or out of place about your day-to-day routine, but there may be something on the surface that may be making you sick: pesticides. Pesticides cling to the surface of fruits and vegetables, find their way to water sources, and combine with dust, pollen and other pollutants in the air. How can pesticides harm you and how can you avoid contact with them?

 

The Negative Affects of Pesticides

 

Farmers know that you do not want worms in your apples, fungi on your corn or weevils in your potatoes, so they use pesticides. While the process of eliminating these bothersome creatures from your food is in many ways a good thing, the negative affects of pesticides may outweigh the benefits. Pesticides can cause everything from itchy eyes and skin burns to horrible stomach problems and, in some cases, even death.

 

How to Keep Pesticides from Affecting Your Family

 

There are several ways to keep pesticides from hurting your family. Wash fruits and vegetables thoroughly even if the label says that they have been washed previously. If you handle a home garden or other areas in which you use pesticides, there are specific tips to learn to keep yourself safe. The first is to keep yourself informed. Read the label! Know what is in the pesticides that you are using on your own vegetables and fruits.

 

When you read the label, you will want to know the active ingredients. There should also be an EPA registration number on the label that will ensure that the product you are using is EPA reviewed. Keep track of the EPA’s signal words such as DANGER, CAUTION, or POISON. Be sure that you understand the first aid procedures should an accident such as a spill or ingestion occur, and be sure to understand how you should properly store all of your chemicals.

info@environmentalhealththreatscom