Thursday, September 23, 2010

AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING!!!

I had an interesting conversation over twitter with a mom of a diabetic last week. In a diabetes chat forum, the question was posed: Do you think there will be a cure of diabetes in our lifetime?

I was actually shocked to see that the resounding answer was no.

Have people waited so long, heard so many "We've almost got it," been so beaten down by the day to day dealing with poking fingers and shooting insulin that they've lost hope?

If you ask a group of people with cancer if they think there will be a cure, they will resoundingly say yes.

Why the difference?

Of course, after doing so much research on diabetes cures for Some Kind of Normal, I couldn't help but chime in. There are SO many avenue's being looked at right now, and we really are, truly, so close.

And one of the moms countered back: "Like what? Name one."

Me: "Adult stem cell research is already curing people in other countries."

Her: "I'd never let my son be immunosuppressed."

(Can I break here to say this is the main treatment for leukemia, and has been done successfully for many years with bone marrow transplants?)

Me: "Well, Dr. Faustman has found a vaccine that's worked on reversing type 1."

Her: "Have you seen the chemical in that? They're very dangerous."

Me: "It's a commonly used vaccine."

Her: "Well, they haven't gotten past the mice stage, and everything works on mice."

Me: "Actually, this is the only thing that's successfully reversed diabetes in mice."

Her: "My son is not a mouse."

Me: "Did I say he was? You brought up mice. She's past that and has had great success in the 1st human trials."

Her: "It's a long way from working."

I sighed, because what can you do with someone who doesn't WANT to believe? What I really wanted to tell her was that the question was whether or not we could find a cure, not whether or not she would like any of the cures they found.

Heidi the Hick passed on to me this morning this AMAZING video of a Canadian morning talk show segment in which the host and an actor previously battling cancer explore a lab where adult stem cells are being used to create new hearts (!!!) and produce insulin. The actor herself underwent adult stem cell therapy in which they extracted some of her own stem cells and tweaked them and now she is in a very solid remission. There was a shot of BEATING HEART CELLS!!  Did I say AMAZING!!!?

The host of the show literally had his jaw dropped the entire time. It is that incredible. It is that possible. We are that close to cures.

And they echoed the same thing I say all the time: Why isn't EVERYONE talking about this???

If you want to see the video here is the link. I don't know how long it will be up, but if it's not the top video when you click on it, find the link on the side for "Lisa Ray and Seamus explore stem cells." It was the best five minutes of the morning.

Here is another link I found from the same news program about the success of adult stem cell treatment in reversing MS in a patient. This is especially encouraging to me because I have a very dear friend in the early stages of MS.  Another great five minutes of time.

Because no matter how bad things get, or how long you've waited, there should always be HOPE.

10 comments:

  1. Someone once said that hope is the only reason we, as humans, get up every morning. Never give up hope!!

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  2. Wow...I think I would be terribly happy with all of the advances in medicine if my child had diabetes or any other disease. True, with everything there are risks, including the vaccines we use currently!!

    Great job, Heidi, for educating us and showing others HOPE!

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  3. I've seen the research on MS and I'm so disappointed that Canada won't fund the procedure until they've done their own trials. As you know a few members of my family have diabetes, so this is important stuff and I love Seamus, he's great.

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  4. Hope is not the closing of our eyes to risk, difficulty or failure. It is the trust that ... if I am hurt, I shall be healed..
    It's hard to hope when our heart's are broken from a failed attempt, but trusting that failure is not forever leads to attempts at success. I hope that lady on twitter gets a lighter heart in hope. And happy for those like you who already have one.

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  5. I am still buzzing!

    Let's get the word out there!

    (I love Seamus too, he's so real!)

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  6. Wow. Wow. Wow. You're right, Heidi - totally amazing! And I cannot believe the negativity of that mother - that is almost as shocking to me as the good stuff.

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  7. I agree...you should NEVER lose hope!

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  8. That's awesome. My daughter has Moebius - it's damage to the 6th and 6th cranial nerves. Stem cell research is the only thing that is even coming close to finding some sort of cure for her.
    Thanks for sharing. WHY aren't we hearing about this?

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  9. I wonder why the mother was so negative...Do you think it was fear of the unknown? Right now she know what to do for her child, but if things change she won't know??? I don't know...I'm just guessing...

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  10. This was SUCH an incredible post, Heidi. I actually sat here and read it out loud to my hubby. We have a friend with cancer right now who recently underwent an adult stem cell process--and so far so good! I'm going to go check out the videos right now.

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