Monthly Archives: April 2012

Former quadriplegic aims to walk a mile

Posted: Published on April 29th, 2012

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - An Indianapolis man is defying the odds by recovering from a spinal cord injury. Thirty-year-old Chris Leeuw is getting ready to take part in the Louisville Marathon. Not to run it. His goal is to walk a mile. "Walking, just the simple task of walking is incredibly uncomfortable. But the fact that I'm able to do it is pretty amazing" said Leeuw. Just two years ago, Leeuw was a quadriplegic. A freak accident ended with his neck being broken. Leeuw says the injury happened after he jumped off a bridge into a river. A second person doing the same thing, at the same time landed on top of him. The weight and impact of the man caused the injury. "It was instantly like a light switch. I didn't lose consciousness, but I knew something happened." Paralyzed from the neck down, medics airlifted Leeuw to IU Health Methodist Hospital. Doctors told him he would probably never walk or use his arms again. "Sometimes I just think back of being in that ICU and staring at nothing but the ceiling tiles. That's all you can stare at. You are really in disbelief. There's like no way this just happened, … Continue reading →

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Work gets started on spinal cord injury 'cure'

Posted: Published on April 29th, 2012

Researchers hope a "cure" for serious disabilities could soon be found in a Wollongong laboratory. A $4.7 million research program launched yesterday could produce a major breakthrough in the treatment of muscle, nerve or spinal cord damage, according to Professor Gordon Wallace. The program will be based at the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science at the University of Wollongong's Innovation Campus in Fairy Meadow. An elite team of international researchers and students has been assembled to develop tiny implants with the capacity to trigger the regrowth of damaged nerves and muscles. Remotely activated electrical stimulation would trigger repair and after that, further stimulation would cause the degradation of the implant should it be deemed no longer needed. Trials on rats and mice will begin later this year and if it proves successful, the implications could be enormous. "I think all of us involved in this know the opportunity we've been given comes with the sense of responsibility to deliver to the people who need these advances," Prof Wallace said. "The implications are huge for people suffering nerve damage, which is usually a result of trauma or an accident. "It's an exciting and challenging area but we … Continue reading →

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What is Parkinson's disease?

Posted: Published on April 29th, 2012

Parkinson's is a degenerative, neurological disorder that predominately affects movement. According to the National Parkinson Foundation, between 50,000 and 60,000 people are diagnosed with Parkinson's every year. Parkinson's, also known as PD, is named after English doctor James Parkinson, who published the first description of the brain disease in an essay in 1817. Causes The exact cause of the disease is unknown and PD is a very heterogeneous disease. "Although symptoms may be similar in different individuals, there may be important differences in the underlying cause of the disorder," said neurologist and Ohio State professor Sandra Kostyk. Parkinson's can be caused by genetics, outside factors (such as head injury or pesticide exposure) and, most often, a mixture of both. Men have a greater chance of contracting the disease than women. Parkinson's is the result of cell loss in a few areas of the brain, especially the substantia nigra, which is responsible for the production of dopamine, which transmits signals within the brain that coordinate movement. Dopamine loss causes neurons to fire haphazardly, decreasing the control one has over his or her movements. Symptoms The cardinal symptoms of Parkinson's are the most evident to an observer. They include resting tremor (when … Continue reading →

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Parkinson's Disease Neuropsychiatric Features And Fatigue Respond To Transdermal Rotigotine

Posted: Published on April 29th, 2012

Editor's Choice Main Category: Parkinson's Disease Article Date: 28 Apr 2012 - 6:00 PDT email to a friend printer friendly opinions Current Article Ratings: In the EU, Neupro (rotigotine) is approved for the treatment of the signs and symptoms of early-stage idiopathic Parkinson's disease as a monotherapy, i.e. without levodopa, or in combination with levodopa over the course of the disease until the late stages, when the effect of levodopa wears off or becomes inconsistent and fluctuations of the therapeutic effect occur (end of dose or on-off fluctuations). It is also approved in the EU for the symptomatic treatment of moderate to severe idiopathic Restless Legs Syndrome in adults. Parkinson's disease (PD) is a progressive, chronic neurodegenerative disease that affects about 1 in every 500 people. In the UK, 127,000 people suffer from PD, which is mainly characterized by problems with 'motor symptoms', of which the most predominant one is body tremor. Over 90% of people with Parkinson's disease suffer from NMS or non-motor symptoms like sleep disturbance, mood disorders, pain and gastro-intestinal problems, which are a major cause of disability, but because they are either embarrassed or unaware that the symptoms are associated with Parkinsons, they often fail to … Continue reading →

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Matt Dunigan is a Voice of Injury Prevention (VIP) for Concussion with ThinkFirst Canada:

Posted: Published on April 29th, 2012

Brain Injury Prevention in Team Sports in Canada TORONTO, April 28, 2012 /PRNewswire/ - ThinkFirst Pensez d'Abord Canada hosts a free lecture and workshop with keynote speaker Matt Dunigan. "ThinkFirst Canada is honored to have Matt Dunigan speaking up for child and youth health in team sport. Canada can and must do a better job at protecting our greatest resource, our children, by reducing the burden of head and brain injuries like concussion" said Rebecca Nesdale-Tucker, Executive Director and CEO, ThinkFirst-Pensez d'Abord Canada. Matt Dunigan is a sports concussion survivor and is emerging as an active injury prevention advocate, encouraging the need for concussion awareness. "The more we can educate ourselves in all aspects relating to concussions, including recognition, awareness, prevention and the proper protocols for back to play the better all sport will be. Parents, coaches, officials and society in general must take action in becoming more involved in dealing with concussions in sport" said Dunigan "Coaches and parents must be educated so they can appropriately intervene and protect the kids from themselves. The kids' innately are under tremendous pressures to produce and win in today's sporting world and often times can and will be their own worst enemy, … Continue reading →

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Bonnie and Ken Shockey encourage cancer patients to research Low Dose Naltrexone

Posted: Published on April 29th, 2012

Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN) was not originally intended to be a cancer treatment but one local couple encourages everyone with cancer to do their research on this drug. Bonnie and Ken Shockey both use LDN, but for very different reasons. Bonnie takes the drug to treat multiple sclerosis (MS), but Ken began taking it when he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. Both Ken and Bonnie have had positive results with the drug and hope one day it will be added to the list of options for treating different cancers. In laboratory studies, LDN stopped the growth of new cancer cells, but did not kill the cancer. Started with MS Bonnie was diagnosed with MS in 2007 and was on a traditional Federal Food and Drug Adminstration approved treatment, until having a severe allergic reaction to the protein in the drug. Shockey started researching at her neurologists suggestion and came across LDN as a possible treatment for MS. She started taking LDN in April of 2009, seeing results after just five days. It literally reversed some of the MS symptoms I had had for several decades, she said. Kens diagnosis In 2010, Ken was diagnosed with an aggressive, advanced form of … Continue reading →

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U-M stem-cell line gets national registry go-ahead

Posted: Published on April 29th, 2012

A second human embryonic stem-cell line derived at the University of Michigan has been accepted on the U.S. National Institutes of Health registry, making the line available for federally funded research and possibly bringing science a step closer to understanding Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease. The hereditary neurological disorder is characterized by muscle degeneration in the foot, lower leg and hand. The line, known as UM11-1PGD, was derived from a cluster of about 30 cells that had been removed from a donated 5-day-old embryo created for reproductive purposes. The cells were found to carry the gene defect responsible for the disease, also known as CMT. Because the stem-cell line carries the unique characteristics of the disease, researchers can use it to study the disease progression. That, in turn, may lead to screening techniques and even a cure. Like the first line, UM11-1PGD was developed by Gary Smith, codirector of the U-M Consortium for Stem Cell Therapies at the A. Alfred Taubman Medical Research Institute. Several other disease-specific lines have been submitted to NIH and are awaiting approval. The first accepted line, which is believed to be disease-free, was accepted to the registry in February. Contact Robin Erb: 313-222-2708 or rerb@freepress.com Continue reading here: … Continue reading →

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Teen's rare illness provides insight for doctors

Posted: Published on April 29th, 2012

When he was 3 years old and falling behind in his childhood development, doctors diagnosed Jonathan Oliphint with a rare genetic disease. There was a known treatment for the disease, in which the body produces an excess amount of ammonia, and doctors at Texas Children's Hospital soon began giving the boy a critical amino acid, arginine, his body was not making. It was a classic case of the power of the emerging science of genetic medicine in which doctors could pinpoint the genetic causes of disease, and devise successful treatments. That was the late 1990s, when genetics was a simpler science. Problems return The problem is, as scientists were discovering that the Human Genome Project and its elucidation of humanity's basic DNA would not immediately lead to medical breakthroughs, Oliphint started getting sick again. He started having high blood pressure. By the time he was 15, half a dozen blood pressure medicines had failed, and Oliphint was in the ICU with an enlarged heart. "They just couldn't get it under control," said the boy's mother, Jamie Oliphint. "It was scary. We didn't know what was going to happen." As Oliphint's blood pressure problems increased, scientists were rewriting our understanding of … Continue reading →

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Moffitt researcher awarded GE grant to develop tool to detect breast cancer metastasis genetic risks

Posted: Published on April 29th, 2012

Public release date: 27-Apr-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ] Contact: Patty Kim patty.kim@moffitt.org 813-745-7322 H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute M. Catherine Lee, M.D., breast cancer researcher and assistant member at Moffitt Cancer Center, has received a $100,000 grant from General Electric's $100 million healthymagination Challenge to develop genetic tools to investigate an individual's genetic makeup to determine if they are predisposed to develop or resist breast cancer metastasis. GE's healthymagination grant awarding initiative focuses on "finding new ideas that accelerate innovation in early diagnosis, patient stratification, and the personalized treatment of breast cancer." Lee's successful proposal, "Heritable Markers of Metastasis in Patients Diagnosed with Breast Cancer," was based on what Lee describes as "significant evidence for specific genetic variations associated with an increased risk of cancer metastasis." According to Lee, the tumor in breast cancer is not the lethal element. Rather, it is the development and progression of breast cancer to other organs - called metastasis - that determines outcomes and survival. A number of genes and variations of those genes involved in the development of metastatic breast cancer have been identified. Metastatic breast cancer is deadly. In 2011, an estimated 230,430 women in the United … Continue reading →

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In saving teen, docs find "simple" genetic diseases not so simple

Posted: Published on April 29th, 2012

When he was 3 years old and falling behind in his childhood development, doctors diagnosed Jonathan Oliphint with a rare genetic disease. There was a known treatment for the disease, in which the body produces an excess amount of ammonia, and doctors at Texas Children's Hospital soon began giving the boy a critical amino acid, arginine, his body was not making. It was a classic case of the power of the emerging science of genetic medicine in which doctors could pinpoint the genetic causes of disease, and devise successful treatments. That was the late 1990s, when genetics was a simpler science. Problems return The problem is, as scientists were discovering that the Human Genome Project and its elucidation of humanity's basic DNA would not immediately lead to medical breakthroughs, Oliphint started getting sick again. He started having high blood pressure. By the time he was 15, half a dozen blood pressure medicines had failed, and Oliphint was in the ICU with an enlarged heart. "They just couldn't get it under control," said the boy's mother, Jamie Oliphint. "It was scary. We didn't know what was going to happen." As Oliphint's blood pressure problems increased, scientists were rewriting our understanding of … Continue reading →

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