Stem Cell fan
New member
OK, I have an interest to declare. I am Barbro's husband. My daughter said she had seen Barbro's name on the web so I had a look and found this site amongst others.
The Daily Mail is a little folksy in its reporting and she never actually said that she thought that heart failures were only suffered by eighty year olds but this is a true story. Disbelievers can contact Professor Zeiher who is a genuine, highly reputable and qualified cardiac surgeon in Frankfurt. Since the newspaper articles in the Mail and the 'Dagens Nyheter' in Sweden on 21st Sept '06, Prof Zeiher has had enquiries and actually treated over thirty people with stem cells as a direct result of Barbro's story.
Barbro had severe congestive heart failure. Coronary artery disease was ruled out following coronary angiography and the cause of the problem was identified as dilated cardiomyopathy with considerable mitral valve regurgitation. She did not have valve calcification which one blog writer said was a common problem. Bone marrow progenitor cells were injected into the muscles of the weakest (left) valve by the catheterization described. Three months later the same therapy was performed on the right hand valve muscles. She has had regular check ups with her specialist heart doctors at the Heart hospital in London ever since, has been feeling well and has considerably reduced the medication originally prescribed. She now only takes 3mg of betablocker, 5mg of ramipril and 75mg of aspirin every day. On 24th Oct '05 she had a defibrillator (ICD) implanted which has in all the time since only once caused a noticeable intervention. The principal reason why she had it fitted was to so that every three months her heart could be monitored as she is technically a research subject.
I am not a medical person at all but I do keep coming across newspaper mention of stem cell treatment for many different medical problems and so do think that stem cell therapy is a genuinely promising way forward for a very wide range of ailments including treatment of livers and MS and I would not be surprised if certain cancers could eventually be included. Research is being carried out in a number of countries and now including the USA.
A part of the problem in my view is that the general public appear to be suffering from the mistaken belief that all stem cells come from embryos and then are perhaps sometimes subjected to objections from various groups implying deliberately having children for the specific purpose of using their embryonic stem cells. We all have stem cells within our own bodies which have regenerative capabilities and, importantly, since they are of our own body, there is no danger of their being rejected. However, since embryonic stem cells are in fact the purist, I think it could actually be a good idea, costs permitting, to bank one's own embryonic stem cells for future use.
Finally, I would just like to say that Barbro's condition has improved so much that she now lives a normal life and, whilst stem cell therapy may not suit all cases, I would urge people, if the heart failure is not too far advanced, to take advice from a range of qualified specialists but at least to consider it as a serious alternative to surgery.
The Daily Mail is a little folksy in its reporting and she never actually said that she thought that heart failures were only suffered by eighty year olds but this is a true story. Disbelievers can contact Professor Zeiher who is a genuine, highly reputable and qualified cardiac surgeon in Frankfurt. Since the newspaper articles in the Mail and the 'Dagens Nyheter' in Sweden on 21st Sept '06, Prof Zeiher has had enquiries and actually treated over thirty people with stem cells as a direct result of Barbro's story.
Barbro had severe congestive heart failure. Coronary artery disease was ruled out following coronary angiography and the cause of the problem was identified as dilated cardiomyopathy with considerable mitral valve regurgitation. She did not have valve calcification which one blog writer said was a common problem. Bone marrow progenitor cells were injected into the muscles of the weakest (left) valve by the catheterization described. Three months later the same therapy was performed on the right hand valve muscles. She has had regular check ups with her specialist heart doctors at the Heart hospital in London ever since, has been feeling well and has considerably reduced the medication originally prescribed. She now only takes 3mg of betablocker, 5mg of ramipril and 75mg of aspirin every day. On 24th Oct '05 she had a defibrillator (ICD) implanted which has in all the time since only once caused a noticeable intervention. The principal reason why she had it fitted was to so that every three months her heart could be monitored as she is technically a research subject.
I am not a medical person at all but I do keep coming across newspaper mention of stem cell treatment for many different medical problems and so do think that stem cell therapy is a genuinely promising way forward for a very wide range of ailments including treatment of livers and MS and I would not be surprised if certain cancers could eventually be included. Research is being carried out in a number of countries and now including the USA.
A part of the problem in my view is that the general public appear to be suffering from the mistaken belief that all stem cells come from embryos and then are perhaps sometimes subjected to objections from various groups implying deliberately having children for the specific purpose of using their embryonic stem cells. We all have stem cells within our own bodies which have regenerative capabilities and, importantly, since they are of our own body, there is no danger of their being rejected. However, since embryonic stem cells are in fact the purist, I think it could actually be a good idea, costs permitting, to bank one's own embryonic stem cells for future use.
Finally, I would just like to say that Barbro's condition has improved so much that she now lives a normal life and, whilst stem cell therapy may not suit all cases, I would urge people, if the heart failure is not too far advanced, to take advice from a range of qualified specialists but at least to consider it as a serious alternative to surgery.
