At Johns Hopkins they’ve found a way to get embryonic stem cells to form new nerve connections that connect to muscle in paralyzed mice.

Christopher Reeves is smiling down on the world today, knowing that his contributions to our knowledge have helped make a difference for those who, like him, are paralyzed in profoundly life-changing ways. Today, though, scientists report they’ve succeeded in making paralyzed mice move again with stem-cell therapy. It’s a small study, reported in the Annals of Neurology, but its promise is practically limitless.

The key to this experiment was that researchers were able to find substances that would stop a natural body process that was preventing certain functions (axons growing) needed to repair connections. “Out of 15 paralyzed mice, 11 regained muscle function and strength.”

We are on the brink of an extraordinary change in how medicine is thought about, developed, and delivered. What a time, they will say this was.

Could this be a case where we’re not listening to nature? If we artificially extend the life of someone who’s had a heart attack by implanting a defibrillator, says this study, chances go up that the person will then develop heart failure.

This may be another clue in our quest to discover nature’s way rather than applying our own intellectualized solutions to things. I know if the day comes when I need to have a valve or something else in my heart replaced, I’m going to hold out for a stem cell solution as long as possible. And I’m sure not going to let them put a piece of metal in there…

Then again, we might interpret the study results to mean that our hearts know when it’s time for us to go. Only time will tell how much further we will be able to extend the average lifespan.

In this very small study, asthmatics who were taught breathing exercises were able to cut their dependence on inhaled corticosteroids by using the exercises at the first sign of an attack. The number for whom it worked at the beginning of the study was 80%. By the time 28 weeks had gone by, that was up to 86%.

While there were no measurable improvements in physiological signs, that’s an astonishingly successful result that so dramatically reduces the need for a potentially long-term damaging medication. I’d guess these results have to do with feeling in control. Asthma is about being out of control of life’s perhaps most important processes–breathing. Anything that can give the person a sense of control is bound to be welcome. Read more here.

Been trying to get this post written for 3 days…guess I better do it or dump it, eh?

Guess this approach has been around since ’98 or so but I just heard about it recently. Another one of those non-intrusive alternatives to what we used to think–with our limited knowledge–was the only way to get at cancer cells. Now with proton beams physicians can precisely control where treatment is given, thus sparing the usual damage to healthy surrounding tissue.

And you can watch a video about it here, and visit the site for the M. D. Anderson Center that does all types of cancer therapies and just became the fourth location in the U.S. to use proton beam therapy and has now instituted clinical trials.

This is good. Certainly another brick in the wall medicine is building against cancer. But we’re still talking violence–these beams explode in order to kill the cells. One day we’ll find another way that will use the body’s own capabilities. I’m sure of it.

In the category of, you hear it more than once, you pay attention, there’s this report from the British Medical Journal that the U.S.’s new dramatically lower recommendations for LDL cholesterol levels may do more harm than good.

Later in the report it’s mentioned that many more people would have to be taking statins at far higher doses–resulting in far more and more serious side effects.

Why–when we are leaning so much closer to trusting nature–would we now be artifically lowering a number that would put vast numbers more people on way more drugs? Someone suggested the other day it might have to do with lobbying by the drug makers who stand to make several fortunes if they can get three-quarters of Americans taking lots of their medication for virtually all their adult lives.

Boy, I hope she’s wrong, but I don’t know what else to make of this. Like pumping menopausal women full of drugs/hormones for what’s essentially a natural process, this has the ring of falsehood to it.

No date yet, this report coming out of the recent bio conference in Boston says the FDA committed to holding a public meeting “in the fall” to begin evaluating its options in regard to protecting humans and the earth from the unknown potential dangers of working with nano-sized molecules.

In previous posts about nano, I argue that we can’t let those who stand to benefit immensely at the bottom line be solely in charge of deciding what’s safe or not. And while it’s great to know that some companies are themselves taking responsibility for trying to be safe with nano-developments, it’s gratifying to see the government finally acknowledging it has a major role to play in holding business accountable.

That headline was too good to rewrite, so I took it right off the Forbes article trumpeting the good news that venture capitalists are getting all excited about “green” projects.

Yep, it’s good news. Because I know you want your grandchildren and theirs to enjoy our world with the same freedom of choice you do, right? One of the scarier statistics in this story says that because we humans are flocking back to cities in great numbers, disease can spread more rapidly. And we’re going to be upping our energy consumption significantly. Here’s one scenario:

…the world’s energy usage is estimated to triple to 30 terawatts per year between now and 2050. Energy conversion creates heat. If global warming heats up the globe by just a few more degrees per year (and more than a few scientists sweat this scenario), Iceland will melt just enough to swamp Manhattan and San Francisco in 20 feet of water.

Being buried under 20 feet of water–or dying of Avian flu, are two surefire ways to cut down your choices about how you’re going to live–or not live–your life.

Commercial real estate developers know that more of us are preferring the “togetherness” of cities as opposed to the sprawl of suburbs–witness the multi-use live-work-play environments (like Crocker Park in Westlake, Ohio) they’re building these days instead of mega-shopping-only-malls.

One idea that’s got VCs enthused is a strip that people can put on their tongues that will tell if they’re infected with bird-flu. Read more about other amazing eco-friendly inventions VCs are supporting here.

It’s preliminary, but it’s promising. It’s expensive (right now), but it offers great hope. European scientists injected patients’ own stem cells (taken from muscles) around the urethra and in an overwhelming number of cases, patients stopped experiencing incontinence.

This is another one of those cases where we’ve struggled for decades looking for solutions–drugs, exercises, etc.–and suddenly we’ve discovered how to let nature elegantly and simply solve the problem.

I believe, as I think I wrote a couple of posts ago, that this is where medicine and science are headed: in more and more cases learning to get out of the way and just help nature perform its miracles. Even if it doesn’t work in every instance, the amount of suffering and trouble these natural approaches will save is immeasurable. Read the rest about preventing incontinence here.

I know it’s an astounding substance, this nitric oxide (NO) that can help with heart problems, erectile dysfunction and a host of other problems. I’ve written a lot about it here. And I knew it helped heal wounds, but I didn’t realize it can be an important component of medications used for skin diseases.

It only makes sense, though, since so many skin problems involve inflammation, and that’s where NO is most active (having both pro- and anti-inflammatory capabilities). This article tells of a new collaborative partnership to develop dermatology treatments for such conditions as atopic dermatitis, psoriasis, and seborrheic dermatitis that will avoid some of the side effects of previous high-potency treatments.

I can’t help but get excited when I hear about yet another beneficial use for NO. It’s a constant reminder to me of how truth occurs on multiple levels, if only we open our eyes to it. This naturally occurring substance does so many good things, yet too much nitric oxide in some cases can be damaging. Sounds a lot like what the philosophers have been telling us for eons–everything in moderation.

And just to keep it light, here’s an amusing account of what members of medieval society thought about moderation as applied to beer and wine consumption…

Is it a good thing to smooth blood pressure spikes? Past studies have indicated these spikes may be related to long-term organ damage. So scientists are hoping that a new retin-binding drug that inhibits inflammatory responses and suppresses wide variations in blood pressure over the course of a day may also decrease the risk of end organ damage., though the study doesn’t yield any data on that score. LOTS more trials will have to be conducted.

I’m going to make a bet. I think that one day we are going to discover something–perhaps even find a new way of knowing things, that will mean we’ll be able to intuit the truth about these things much more quickly instead of wandering down one little alley after the other. A discovery not unlike the discoveries made about the substance of the universe by the quantum physicists. A discovery not unlike the “magic” of stem cells. I will be so thrilled if it happens while I’m alive to see it.