Multiple Sclerosis Damage Washed Away By Stream of Young Blood 216
FatLittleMonkey writes "A new study on mice suggests damage caused by diseases like Multiple sclerosis, as well as natural aging, can be reversed by an infusion of stem cell rich blood from younger mice. Multiple sclerosis is a chronic inflammatory disease that erodes the fatty myelin sheaths around the axons of the brain and spinal cord, and can result in serious disability. Similar effects occur naturally with aging. From New Scientist: 'White blood cells called macrophages from the young mice gathered at the sites of myelin damage. Macrophages engulf and destroy pathogens and debris, including destroyed myelin. "We know this debris inhibits regeneration, so clearing it up is important," says team member Amy Wagers of Harvard University.' Here's the academic paper's abstract."
Re:Links to Aspartame (Score:5, Insightful)
There aren't any credible reasons to believe that aspartame causes MS. If that were the case you wouldn't expect the highest rate of MS in the world to be in Seattle where folks tend to be fairly paranoid about aspartame and artificial sweeteners in general.
Re:Links to Aspartame (Score:5, Insightful)
Ugh, this aspartame nonsense is the worst kind of pseudo science. I suppose you also believe that vaccines cause autism? What about peach-pits curing cancer?
Wait, let me guess: the "medical establishment" doesn't want you to know the "shocking truth".
Looking below, it looks like you also believe Monsanto is in on the conspiracy!
I'd laugh if spreading nonsense like you've been doing wasn't so dangerous. People like you are causing real and measurable harm.
Leave medical science to the experts. Hmmm... I better clarify that: Reading a few conspiracy websites does NOT make you an expert!
Re:Links to Aspartame (Score:3, Insightful)
You sir are arrogant and unpleasant. Maybe in X years we will truly find out how safe these things are. There is no conspiracy, only a link.
People like you do not see things before they are too late. People who stop and think about things (and witness them) are people who discover problems. Nobody thought X was harmful until it was too late. Maybe I am wrong about aspartame, I honestly have no idea, I just thought I would throw it out there. There is plenty of sources that state both angles.
Re:That explains a lot (Score:5, Insightful)
You know, people make jokes, but that dude had his first heart attack (of 5) 34 years ago. Whatever he's done to keep himself alive seems to have worked pretty damn well.
What he's done is to just be rich - it works wonders with regards to access to health care.
Re:Links to Aspartame (Score:2, Insightful)
. They have their own soul as much as my feces (mostly dead blood cells and bacteria) do.
Who has argued that stem cells have souls? What's been argued is that embryo's are human (albeit at the earliest stage), and that getting into the habit of producing human life in a lab to be harvested for its resources (in this case, stem cells) on a mass scale open's a Brave New World kind of Pandora's box. If you're going to argue, at least begin from a real premise.
Second, all the big advances have come not from fetal embryo harvests, but from adult stem cells that have been repurposed in the lab. Feel free to correct me with a link should you have one, but I'm not aware of a single breakthrough in any of the fetal trials. Our own adult cells seem to be the best way to get the results we're looking for. And none of the people objecting to the fetal cell research object to adult stem cell research. So harvest your blood, bone, and skin tissue to your heart's delight. Not a single Catholic or Evangelical will object. And you're much more likely to actually get a working result.
Some issues (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Some issues (Score:5, Insightful)
Also, this sort of immortality would be more of a curse than a blessing even if it were possible to pull it off. Who would want to live in a broken-down, aged body forever, kept alive only by a steady stream of stem cells? Is this world such a nice place that you would want to stay here forever, even if it means existing like that? I wouldn't do it even if I had the option. Death would be preferable. The stem cells wouldn't give someone who is 250 years old the same body they had at 18...they would probably be trapped in a bed in a severely debilitated state. The worst type of immortality is one that brings no pleasure.
Re:Some issues (Score:5, Insightful)
Who would want to live in a broken-down, aged body forever, kept alive only by a steady stream of stem cells?
So long as my mind is intact, fully functional and I have a decent means to communicate with the outside world? I would.
Re:Some issues (Score:4, Insightful)
Are you sure? It's easy to feel that way now, but visualize yourself in that situation. Even if you were able to communicate and had your mental state preserved, there is no guarantee that you would be able to enjoy life or do much of anything. What would someone in that state do to pass the time? After several years of being trapped in a useless husk of a body and spending your days staring at the ceiling, would you still want to live? The real horror would be that you would have centuries of that to look forward to and that all your days will be mostly the same. Would people still come to see you after your friends and family passed on, assuming they didn't get the treatment?
I'd rather live a normal lifespan and then die surrounded by friends and loved ones. Having my consciousness cease to exist would be a better alternative to that sort of immortality. I'm 28, in good health, and I'm already weary of this world. I stay here because I have people who care about me and there are things I want to do in life, but when my time comes I will go without complaint or regret. Seneca taught that being able to face and accept inevitable death without fear is a sign of strength and wisdom. Quality, not quantity of life is what matters.
Re:Some issues (Score:5, Insightful)
So how did Steven Hawking take your recommendation that he should just die.