Death Panels are HERE

The Grouch at Right Truth is a practicing Emergency Room Doctor.  He is a man who doesn't give into hysterics, conspiracies, and tin foil craziness.  So when he speaks out against Obamacare I listen to him.  And you should too.  Having said that, I received this from his lovely wife Debbie of The Right Truth with a plea to pass it along.  That I am doing.

Death Panels are HERE

Today while working my shift in the emergency room, an old lady was brought in very sick and in fact near death. I did my usual workup and evaluation and attempted to administer life saving treatment. It was my plan to admit this woman to the hospital. I found out a little later that this same woman had been a patient here just slightly more than 2 weeks ago with a DIFFERENT DIAGNOSIS. I was told that if this woman was admitted, the hospital would not be paid.

The new Medicare rule now is that if the same Medicare patient is re-admitted to the hospital within 30 days, the hospital will not be paid. When they first started this nonsense they said this only applied to patients with the same diagnosis. Now they have "expanded" the rule to include re-admissions for any reason. So if you're in the hospital for pneumonia, and 3 weeks later, you break your leg.......too bad. Medicare will not pay the hospital to fix your leg.

A little later a man was brought in by ambulance, very sick, in pain, and near death. I did my usual evaluation and treatment, doing my best to ease pain and stabilize this man's illness. He needed to be admitted. To my chagrin I found out that he had been treated for the SAME problem at a DIFFERENT HOSPITAL about 10 days prior. If I admitted this man, our hospital would be paid nothing. I admitted the man.

My friends I am caught in a terrible position. I could have given treatment to both of these people and sent them out. There is no doubt that both of them would have died. Oh, I could also be sued for malpractice, but nobody cares about that. That's why we have insurance, right?

My other choice is to admit the person, knowing full well that the hospital will have to absorb the cost of care without hope of remuneration.

This is the climate we as healthcare providers find ourselves in today. How many small and struggling hospitals will survive under such ludicrous payment schemes? Indeed many facilities will close their doors. Many doctors will retire early or simply go do something else. As more and more are added to the Obamacare rolls, there will be less and less access. People will get sicker and yes, people will die because of it.

I had a sick and sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach today after both of these incidents. We have a good hospital. Our nurses, technicians, and support staff work very hard and they deserve to be paid for their efforts. I am not so worried about myself as I am near retirement, but I worry for all the younger folks in the healthcare business and I worry about our seniors who are in the long run going to be sacrificed as the government implements cost cutting shenanigans to cover up their broken promise made way back in 1964.

Folks, this is a nightmare!

Remember when Nancy Pelosi said that we had to pass the bill to know what was in the bill?  We now know what is in the bill.  AND WE DON'T LIKE IT!

If you will, please pass this along.  Either through Facebook, Twitter and/or on your own blog.  And remember to vote on Nov. 6th to remove the problem that caused this disaster:  President Barack Hussein Obama.

New Hope For MS Sufferers

Multiple sclerosis is a disease in which the fatty myelin sheaths around the axons of the brain and spinal cord are damaged, leading to demyelination and scarring as well as a broad spectrum of signs and symptoms. Disease onset usually occurs in young adults, and it is more common in females. It has a prevalence that ranges between 2 and 150 per 100,000. MS was first described in 1868 by Jean-Martin Charcot.

MS affects the ability of nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord to communicate with each other. Nerve cells communicate by sending electrical signals called action potentials down long fibers called axons, which are wrapped in an insulating substance called myelin. In MS, the body's own immune system attacks and damages the myelin. When myelin is lost, the axons can no longer effectively conduct signals. The name multiple sclerosis refers to scars (scleroses—better known as plaques or lesions) in the white matter of the brain and spinal cord, which is mainly composed of myelin. Although much is known about the mechanisms involved in the disease process, the cause remains unknown. Theories include genetics or infections. Different environmental risk factors have also been found.

And now new hope for sufferers with an Israeli team headed by Prof. Anat Achiron (photo on the left) of Tel Aviv University and vice-dean of research at Sheba Medical Center, has discovered a new way of detecting MS years earlier than the standard testing methods.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an equal opportunity destroyer. It attacks the central nervous system and eventually renders most patients disabled. Among its high-profile victims are celebrated cellist Jacqueline du Pre, whose career was ended by MS, and Joan Didion, a famous American writer.

The National MS Society estimates that there are currently about 400,000 cases in the U.S. and more than 2 million people suffer from the disease over the world. Although there is currently no cure, a breakthrough finding from a Tel Aviv University scientist and physician may lead to earlier diagnosis, more effective intervention, and perhaps even a cure for the autoimmune disease.

Prof. Anat Achiron of Tel Aviv University and vice-dean of research at Sheba Medical Center has uncovered a new way of detecting MS in the blood through her research at Sheba. The findings, just published in the journal Neurobiology of Disease, are expected to pave the way for a diagnosis of MS before symptoms can appear, allowing for earlier treatment.

“We are not yet able to treat people with MS to prevent the onset of the disease but knowledge is power,” Prof. Achiron says. “Every time we meet a new patient exhibiting symptoms of MS, we must ask ourselves how long this has been going on. We can diagnose MS by brain MRI, but we’ve never been able to know how ‘fresh’ the disease is,” she says.

If doctors can predict the onset of MS early enough, intervention therapies using immunomodulatory drugs such as Copaxone or beta-interferon drugs that stave off MS symptoms might be used.

“We theorized that if we looked at the gene expression signature of blood cells in healthy people, we could look for possible biological markers that characterize those who subsequently developed MS,” says Prof. Achiron.

Examining blood samples of twenty 19-year-old Israelis who were inducted into the army as healthy soldiers, and the nine of them who later developed MS, Prof. Achiron and her team at Sheba were able to use a “high throughput analysis” using more than 12,000 gene transcripts expressions. The screening compared similarities and differences in the blood of those who developed MS and those who did not, eventually establishing biological markers.

“Those who will develop MS will show a different blood signature from those who will not,” says Prof. Achiron. “When we compared the gene expression signatures, we saw a similar pattern of the same working biological processes.”

These early genetic markers may now be used to test for multiple sclerosis up to nine years before healthy young adults start developing symptoms. And because MS is thought to have a genetic component and a tendency to be found in siblings, Prof. Achiron says the biomarkers can be used as a tool for brothers and sisters of patients.

Finish reading here.

While not a cure, or even the prospect for a cure in the near future, it is the start towards one.  And with early diagnosis there is hope that early treatment regimens will help alleviate some of the suffering associated with MS.  And just perhaps the long awaited breakthrough in solving the puzzle of MS will arise from this study.  May it happen soon!

The Blind See Again!

With help from Nano Retina. an Israeli company based in Herzliya.

An Israeli company is featured in the Wall Street Journal for restoring the sight of patients who have lost vision due to disease.

Herzliya-based Nano Retina has developed a two-part system to replace the function of a retina which has been damaged by macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, and other diseases. Called Bio-Retina, the device consists of an implant and set of glasses which coordinate to restore lost sight. The operation to install the electrode-laden implant takes a mere half hour under local anesthetic.

The bionic implant does the work of the eye's photoreceptors, which normally turn light into electrical signals sent to the brain. The Bio-Retina transforms the light into the electrical signals, which then travel to the brain.

The Bio-Retina is activated by a tiny infrared laser inserted in the glasses, which can also serve as corrective lenses. For now, Bio-Retina works in gray-scale, but is expected to be developed for color vision. It is currently estimated at $60,000.

Nano Retina may begin tests on U.S. patients in 2013, thanks to a grant by U.S.-Israel industrial cooperation group Bi-National R&D Foundation, according to the Journal.

We are living in exciting times.  The lame walk with the help of Rewalk, the blind see with the help of Bio-Retina, the promise of cloning body parts to replace worn or damaged parts, Gene Therapy in the healing of broken bones, non-evasive tests for Cancer, new treatments for bedsores, insomnia, and Type 1 Diabetes.  All from the companies, universities, and hospitals of the 100th smallest nation on the planet:  Israel.  The nation in which Europe and the Muslim world scream on a daily basis is stealing Palestinian organs, and is committing genocide.

This from the people who preach using Camel's Urine to cure every disease known to humanity.

Mayo Clinic Arizona Drops Medicare! Happy New Year Seniors!

by Maggie at Maggie’s Notebook

Happy New Year Seniors! A little prezzy from the Prez: Medicare patients have been kicked out of the Mayo Clinic’s Glendale, Arizona facility. It’s a happy, happy day for the Obamas. They are soon to hold your health care in their sweaty, greedy, grabby hands and they can't wait.

“No Medicare patients” beginning today, at the Mayo Glendale facility (a suburb of Phoenix). This is a two-year-trial-run. About 3,200 patients are affected. Needless to say, the Glendale area is rife with retirees:

Obama in June cited the nonprofit Rochester, Minnesota-based Mayo Clinic and the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio for offering “the highest quality care at costs well below the national norm.” Mayo’s move to drop Medicare patients may be copied by family doctors, some of whom have stopped accepting new patients from the program, said Lori Heim, president of the American Academy of Family Physicians, in a telephone interview yesterday….

Mayo’s hospital and four clinics in Arizona, including the Glendale facility, lost $120 million on Medicare patients last year, Yardley said. The program’s payments cover about 50 percent of the cost of treating elderly primary-care patients at the Glendale clinic, he said.

If you are now on Medicare, but want to continue to be treated at Mayo-Glendale, here is what they have planned for you:

A Medicare patient who chooses to stay at Mayo’s Glendale clinic will pay about $1,500 a year for an annual physical and three other doctor visits, according to an October letter from the facility. Each patient also will be assessed a $250 annual administrative fee, according to the letter. Medicare patients at the Glendale clinic won’t be allowed to switch to a primary care doctor at another Mayo facility.

A few hundred of the clinic’s Medicare patients have decided to pay cash to continue seeing their primary care doctors, Yardley said. Mayo is helping other patients find new physicians who will accept Medicare.

Mayo’s decision may herald similar moves by other Phoenix- area doctors …“We’ve got doctors who are saying we are not going to deal with Medicare patients in the hospital” because they consider the fees too low, Rivers said. “Or they are saying we are not going to take new ones in our practice.”

DoctorRX at Naked Capitalism says the following about Medicare patients paying cash and receiving treatment (referring to the same article I have quoted above):

Despite what the article says, It’s not easy under the regs to just charge cash. So I’m not sure what Mayo is referring to. Basically a physician has to drop out of being a Medicare provider in toto in order to then charge freely. Once out, I think you’re out for a whole year (at least). And that includes seeing a patient in hospital who’s a Medicare patient (Medicare “A” covers essentially all Medicare patients). So for a whole year the doctor has to only treat outpatients and have nothing to do with Medicare. Not easy. Especially if Glendale has an elderly population.

Obama’s health care plan is not yet law, but he has his ball rollin’ anyway.

Heart Cells From Skin Cells!

Imagine some time in the future, a doctor needs a transplant for a patient. Instead of waiting for some one to donate an organ, etc... All the team has to do is gather up some skin cells, change them into the cells of the organ needed, then grow the part.

This is the promise of the new advance in Genetics from Israel:

Israeli scientists have discovered a way to create beating heart cells using human skin cells reprogrammed to become stem cells. The findings could lead to advances in disease research, and could in theory be used to repair damaged or diseased tissues.

Published in the latest issue of Circulation, the findings by Professor Lior Gepstein of the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology could make it possible to clinically repair damaged human hearts.

Such an application is at least 10 to 20 years away, says Gepstein, but the process can already be utilized for in-depth study of genetic diseases and the development of personalized drugs for irregular heartbeats and other inherited disorders.

Transforming our cells through reprogramming
The team's work is based on the research of Japanese scientists followed by other groups, who generated "induced pluripotent stem cells" (iPSCs) from adult mouse and human skin cells. The iPSCs can be turned into almost any type of body cell - something that experts previously thought possible only with embryonic stem cells - and could, in theory, be used to repair damaged or diseased tissues.

Taking a patient's own cells and turning them into iPSCs for use in tissue repair and regeneration would also eliminate the risk of rejection by the body.

Gepstein and his team from Technion's Rappaport Faculty of Medicine and Rambam Medical Center used reprogrammed iPSCs derived from healthy human subjects' skin cells with the characteristics of pluripotent embryonic stem cells. They were then able to convert them into heart cells with all the necessary properties such as expression of heart-related genes, spontaneous electrical activity, mechanical contraction, and response to various hormones such as adrenaline.

According to Gepstein, the rejuvenation of human cells and their transformation into iPSCs can be accomplished with almost any human cell.

Read the full story here.

Remember the yelling by those on the left that people are dying because scientists cannot use embryonic stem cells? And now the Obama Administration allows the federal funding of stem cell research using embryonic stem cells.

Strange isn't it that Israeli doctors and scientists are using and researching with adult cells and adult stem cells, with very promising results. Could it be that those on the left were wrong? That any stem cell, and in the future any cell, could be used?

Now there is hope. But not in the short term. For research that involves human genetics MUST be done slowly and carefully, least a mistake or accident be unleashed upon the species. But hopefully, with G-d's help, one day many people will be cured using their own cells and genes.

Gene Therapy For Broken Bones

Imagine an Emergency Room in the future. Imagine you with a badly broken bone. A break so bad that the doctors are contemplating surgery. Now imagine these same doctors taking blood an bone marrow samples from you to separate the platelets and stem cells to inject into the break for it will heal it faster.

That is the new therapy developed at Hadassah University Medical Center by Prof. Meir Liebergall and Prof. Eithan Galun.

A team at Jerusalem's Hadassah University Medical Center has managed for the first time in the world to separate platelets and adult stem cells from the blood and bone marrow of patients with fractures and inject them - causing the bones to meld in a quarter to third of the time it usually takes to repair bones, and repairing some breaks that without the therapy would fail to heal at all.

Prof. Meir Liebergall, chairman of the orthopedics department on the Ein Kerem campus, gene therapy expert Prof. Eithan Galun and colleagues worked for years on the technique, which he said involves a "breakthrough in concept and overcomes major scientific and logistical problems."

All seven of those who received the experimental cell-based therapy have seen the broken tibias in their legs heal, even though the fractured bone in at least one control group patient who received only conventional treatment of screws or bone grafts failed to meld. Instead of taking six to nine months to heal, the fractures treated with adult stem cells and platelets healed in two months.

Liebergall told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday that the experiment was conducted in patients aged 18 to 60, with most of them toward the younger side of the range; all of them broke their leg bones in sports activities or accidents. He said the technique is most suited for high-impact fractures rather than broken hips in osteoporosis patients, whose fractures usually meld after surgery. Fractured bones do not heal easily in some patients when the anatomical structure of the fracture area is problematic or when there is a relative lack of muscle and ligament.

Under regional or general anesthesia, the patient undergoes a short procedure to remove 50 milliliters of mesenchymal bone marrow cells and 100 milliliters of blood from the hip area, which is often done for bone-marrow transplants on certain cancer patients. Adult mesenchymal stem cells can differentiate into a variety of cell types.

Read the full story here.

All that yelling and screaming about embryonic stem cells and it seems that adult stem cells work just as well, perhaps even better.

This breakthrough has been 10 years in the planning, with a generous grant from Teva Pharmaceutical Industries. A grant that has run out, but hopefully will be renewed.

Millions of people each year break a bone or two. This gives them hope of a faster recovery.

A Breathalyzer For Cancer.

The Breathalyzer has been used by Law Enforcement for decades to determine the Blood Alcohol Level of a driver suspected of driving while intoxicated. It is very effective and quite accurate.

Now the same technology is being applied to the detection of Lung Cancer.

INN - Scientists at the Technion in Haifa have created a device that they hope will be able to detect cancer with a simple breath test. In an initial trial, the “breathalyzer” test was able to detect lung cancer with 86 percent accuracy.

The new device was revealed this week in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.

Researchers hope the test will provide a simple, cost-effective and non-invasive method of detecting cancer. In addition, the test is capable of detecting cancers that are not yet large enough to show up on X-rays or CT scans, allowing for earlier diagnosis that could save lives.

The system works by testing for chemicals that tend to be present in lungs affected by cancer but not in healthy lungs. The Technion team decided to test for four such chemicals: ethylbenzene, decane, heptanol and trimethylbenzene.

Patients' breath is sent over a circuit made of silicon embedded with gold nanoparticles. If the breath contains the organic compounds common to cancer sufferers, the circuit's electrical resistance will change.

The research team was led by Hossam Haick. The team had developed a similar test in the past, using carbon nanotubes. The silicon-gold combination was found to be superior, they said. Unlike the device that used carbon nanotubes, the latest development is not sensitive to the water vapor found in lungs.

In addition, the latest version of the test works even on patients who have recently ingested alcohol, food, coffee or tobacco. Previous versions required patients to abstain before the test in order to avoid false results.

Haick and his team have patented their device, but will continue to work to perfect it. The device must pass further clinical trials before being put to use, at which point scientists will face the challenge of creating versions of the test that are simple and inexpensive enough to be used in day-to-day practice in hospitals and clinics.

Once again the 100th smallest nation in the world, Israel has given a life saving measure to the world.

In Israel there is no distinction between people, every citizen regardless of race, religion or sex has the ability to advance and grow. Not a definition of Apartheid, but the definition of Democracy in Action.

Just one thing a free society can accomplish when the people are given the chance to explore and grow.

10 Truly Shocking Facts About Organ Trafficking

This was sent to me. 10 truly shocking fact about Organ Trafficking.

Its rare to find a person who hasn’t heard of the urban legend recounting some poor guy duped into a situation that leaves him awakening in a tub of ice with a message indicating he must call 911 as one of his kidneys has been taken. While that particular story is not true, sadly it is based on some very real and shocking truths about organ trafficking. The unbalanced system of too many people in need of organ transplants and high levels of poverty worldwide have contributed to create a situation that leaves many desperate people willing to do anything to sell or receive illegal organs.

Read below to learn ten shocking facts about organ trafficking.

1. People seized against their will. According to a book by UN war crimes prosecutor Carla del Ponte, members of the Kosovo Liberation Army seized hundreds of people for involuntary organ harvesting. The organs were then flown to foreign clinics for transplantation. Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian leaders have denied these allegations.
2. Organs harvested from children. An investigation was started in Mosambique after several local human rights groups and the Brazilian Mission in Nampula notified authorities that many children were missing vital organs, with several of the children believed to have died as a result of the harvesting. Most of the harvested organs are believed to be sent to nearby South Africa for both transplant and religious rites. There have also been reports of children being kidnapped and killed for their organs in South America.
3. Outrageous price of kidneys. 2003 estimates from the World Health Organization believe that the price of a trafficked kidney ranges from $700 in South Africa to over $30,000 in the US, with many other countries paying between $1,000 and $10,000 for a kidney. Recent news reports surrounding the corruption scandal in New Jersey indicate that a broker was asking $160,000 for a kidney, unknowingly to an undercover FBI agent.
4. Sellers denied money and care. Many of the black market kidneys sold worldwide are done so by poor and vulnerable people in desperate need of money. They are typically paid only a fraction of the amount for which they are sold, and sometimes are denied payment by unscrupulous brokers and receive poor or no medical care for their recovery. These donors are often left debilitated by the lack of care, often not fully recovering from the donation. Sometimes entire villages have given their kidneys, like Villivakkum in India that is sometimes referred to as "Kidneyvakkum."
5. Go in for an exam, leave without a kidney. In Egypt, one method of organ trafficking revolved around a hiring scheme. Young men were hired for a job and sent to a physician for an exam to ensure their good health. The young men would awaken in a hospital in pain and missing a kidney. Victims of this scheme have faced threats of violence when they have filed charges against those who perpetrated the crime.

Read the rest here.

I had heard about India and the practice there of the poor selling their kidneys since the early 1990's, but did not know about some of these others. The Rabbis who were arrested charged for matching donors with recipients, a practice illegal in the US and Canada, not for stealing someone's kidney. A minor difference. It is still despicable. And killing children for their organs is something too gruesome to contemplate.

While there is no truth to the rumor that Israel was kidnapping Palestinians for their organs, there is the story of Yoni Jesner.

Yoni Jesner, a 19-year-old student youth leader from Glasgow, Scotland, was killed in a suicide bomb attack on a No. 4 bus in Tel Aviv in September 2002. He was studying at a yeshiva at the time and planned to return to the UK to study medicine.

Yoni died in Ichilov Hospital the day after the bombing from shrapnel wounds to the head. His family agreed to donate one of Yoni's kidneys, which went to seven-year old Palestinian Yasmin Abu Ramila from east Jerusalem, who had waited two years for a suitable organ.

Speaking at the time, Yoni's brother Ari said: "The family is very proud that out of this tragic situation and Yoni's death that we were able and Yoni was able to give life to others. I think the most important principle here is that life was given to another human being."

"What religion, nationality, race, culture or creed is not what is important here," he added.

At the time, the girl's mother, Dina Abu Ramila, said: "I don't know how to thank the family of the victim of the attack. I feel for their pain and thank them for the organ donation that saved my daughter's life."

For religious Jews and some Christians, donating an organ is against the tenets of their faith. But I personally cannot see how this can be. For by being an Organ and Tissue donor you save lives. And isn't life the great gift that G-d has given us?

If you aren't a donor, look deep within you, and ask yourself':
"What if I needed an Organ? Who would be my donor?"

Then sign up for the registry. Give the gift of life. A gift that G-d has given us all.

New Treatment For Bedsores

Hat tip to Israel Matzav

Bedsores, also known as Pressure sores, are areas of damaged skin and tissue that develop when sustained pressure cuts off circulation to vulnerable parts of your body, especially the skin on your buttocks, hips and heels. Without adequate blood flow, the affected tissue dies.

Although people living with paralysis are especially at risk, anyone who is bedridden, uses a wheelchair or is unable to change positions without help can develop bedsores.

Bedsores can develop quickly, progress rapidly and are often difficult to heal. Yet health experts say many of these wounds don't have to occur. Key preventive measures can maintain the skin's integrity and encourage healing of bedsores.

Standard treatments aren't usually effective and do little to alleviate the suffering to the patient. Until now.

From Tel Aviv University's Department of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology comes this breakthrough:

Researchers at Tel Aviv University have developed a unique device, called Dermastream, which could heal bedsores and chronic ulcers
in bedridden elderly and infirm.

"The problem is chronic," said Prof. Amihay Freeman of TAU's Department of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology.

And thus, he developed Dermastream, that uses a solution to whisk away dead tissue, bathing the wound while keeping dangerous bacteria away.

The device provides an enzyme-based solution that flows continuously over the wound, offering an alternative treatment to combat a problem for which current treatments are costly and labour-intensive.

Freeman said that Dermastream has already passed clinical trials in Israeli hospitals and may be available in the U.S. within the next year.

Dermastream employs a special solution developed at Freeman's TAU laboratory, thus offering a new approach to chronic wound care- a specialty known as "continuous streaming therapy."

"Our basic idea is simple. We treat the wound by streaming a solution in a continuous manner. Traditional methods require wound scraping to remove necrotic tissue. That is expensive, painful and extremely uncomfortable to the patient. And while active ingredients applied with bandages on a wound may work for a couple of hours, after that the wound fights back. The bacteria build up again, creating a tedious and long battle," said Freeman.

Dermastream "flows" under a plastic cover that seals the wound, providing negative pressure that promotes faster healing.

The active biological ingredient, delivered in a hypertonic medium, works to heal hard-to-shake chronic wounds.

Freeman said that while traditional bandaging methods may take months to become fully effective, Dermastream can heal chronic wounds in weeks.

Dermastream is intended for use in hospitals, nursing homes, outpatient clinics and homecare.

Freeman has founded a company that is currently collaborating with a Veterans Association hospital in Tucson, AZ, to bring the technology to the U.S. market.

Another useful Medical Advance from the 100th smallest nation on the planet.

Natural Cure for Insomnia

There is new hope for those of us who suffer from Insomnia. Neurim Pharmaceuticals has developed a new drug, Circadin, which works with the body's natural processes gradually releasing melatonin to induce sleep and restore the sleep cycle.

Traditional sleeping pills have many side effects. Now an Israeli company is introducing a new drug that works with the body's natural processes to induce restful, restorative sleep.

When that good night's sleep becomes elusive, sometimes the only option is medication. But the sleeping pills now on the market often come with risks that may outweigh the benefits, inducing dependency, withdrawal symptoms, and occasionally even cognitive impairments such as short-term amnesia.

Not so with Circadin, a new drug produced by Neurim Pharmaceuticals and based on the research of company founder and chief scientific officer Professor Nava Zisapel at Tel Aviv University (TAU).

Unlike other sleep medications which suppress brain activity, Neurim says that Circadin works with the body's natural processes to induce a restful, restorative sleep. It does so by gradually releasing melatonin in the body - the hormone that prepares the body for sleep.

Possibly the worst aspect of insomnia is its deleterious effect on daytime functioning. That's where Circadin has an additional edge over its competitors.

"Circadin not only improves the onset of sleep, but also the quality of sleep," Zisapel, a neuroscientist, tells ISRAEL21c. "People who take the drug have reported that they have better daytime functioning and an improved quality of life."

The drug is already being distributed in Israel and some countries in Europe by Neurim, which was set up in 1991 by Zisapel and her husband, entrepreneur Yehuda Zisapel (founder of the RAD Group), to develop treatments for age-related disorders. It is now in the process of obtaining approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Read the full story here.

Once again researchers in the 100th smallest nation in the world have developed another drug to benefit us all.

Israeli Pioneers Method to Detect Alzheimer’s: Track Memory

Earlier this week I posted about a new treatment for Type I Diabetes from a researcher at Tel Aviv University.

Today another bright researcher at Tel Aviv University just might have found an early detection method for still another disease: Alzheimer's.

When we absorb new information, the human brain reshapes itself to store this newfound knowledge. But where exactly is the new knowledge kept, and how does that capacity to adapt reflect our risk for Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of senile dementia later in our lives?

Dr. Yaniv Assaf of Tel Aviv University’s Department of Neurobiology is pioneering a new way to track the effect of memory on brain structure. “With a specific MRI methodology called ‘Diffusion Imaging MRI,’ we can investigate the microstructure of the tissue without actually cutting into it,” he explains. “We can measure how much capacity our brain has to change structurally, what our memory reserve is and where that happens.”

His study, presented at the Annual Meeting of the Human Brain Mapping Organization in San Francisco, has been pivotal to the way scientists view the effect of memory on the brain. Scientists used to believe that the brain took days or weeks to change its microstructure. Dr. Assaf’s new observations demonstrate that the microstructure can change in mere hours.

“It gives us a quantifiable measure of the plasticity of each individual brain,” he says. “It’s possible that before a person experiences any memory loss, the plasticity is affected –– that is, the ability of one’s brain to adapt to change. A lack of ability for change in the brain could mean susceptibility to dementia. Now, we have the means to monitor this ability.”

Read the full story here.

2 scientific breakthroughs in one week while the Saudis are still working on their camel urine formulas or dipping the wings of flies into their tea.

I really should start a count of Israeli Medical Advances. Perhaps after the Jewish New Year.

New Hope For Type I Diabetes!

Diabetes is the term used to describe the condition in which the body is not able to produce enough or absorb the protein insulin.

Type 1 Diabetes, also known as Juvenile Diabetes is first diagnosed in children and young adults. Treatment for Type 1 Diabetes consists of diet, exercise, the monitoring of blood sugar and insulin injections.

Now there is hope that insulin injections just might be a thing of the past.

Adi Mor, a student at Tel Aviv University's Department of Neuro-biochemistry, has developed what could be the first tablet-based treatment for children and adults with Type 1 diabetes. Early results show that the compound is effective in restoring insulin production in animal models — which could spell an end to the daily needle injections endured by diabetics.

Found in 30% of all human cancer tumors, the Ras protein literally "drives cells crazy," says Prof. Yoel Kloog, the dean of the Faculty of Life Sciences at Tel Aviv University. Prof. Kloog was the first in the world to develop an effective anti-Ras drug against pancreatic cancer, currently in clinical trials. Now, new research published in the June issue of the European Journal of Pharmacology shows that the drug might be able to slow the progression of diabetes as well.

Prof. Kloog's student Adi Mor modified Prof. Kloog's anti-Ras FTS compound to develop the new product.

"Our anti-Ras compound has shown very positive results in inhibiting diabetes," says Mor. And given the drug's history — FTS has already passed toxicity studies for other diseases and disorders — it has the potential to fast-track through FDA regulatory hurdles, skipping straight to Phase II clinical trials. A new drug for diabetes could be ready in as little as five years' time.

In her recent study, Mor treated pre-diabetic mice for six months. One group was given FTS, another was given no drug at all. The outcome was dramatic. Only 16% of the treated group developed diabetes, while 82% of the untreated group became diabetic. Also, insulin production from beta cells in the treated group of mice increased in comparison to insulin production in the non-treated group, she reports.

"Diabetes is my main concern," Mor concludes, adding that "so many children and adults continue to suffer from the disorder. Since the FTS molecule is very easily absorbed into the blood, it could be the first diabetes treatment in pill form to moderate insulin production in juvenile diabetes, slowing down the progression of the disease. It could help a lot of people.

Read the full story here.

I really should start a count on how many medical inventions Israelis have made this year alone. Not to mention the other non-medical inventions and advancements they have achieved.

Juvenile Diabetes was once a death sentence for children, then came the discovery of insulin, now this. I wonder how long it will be before an actual cure will be discovered. And I have a sneaky suspicion it just might be discovered by an Israeli. Like her:

Adi Mor

Mt. Sinai, Albert Einstein Hospitals - Organ Trafficking

by Maggie at Maggie's Notebook

According to Nancy Scheper-Hughes a willing participant in an illegal operation to sell his own kidney documented his story on video as it happened at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York City. The kidney seller says "I met a broker in Brooklyn and I sold my kidney." Speculations are that Rabbi Levy-Izhak (Isaac) Rosenbaum, arrested in a human organ trafficking FBI sting this week, may be involved. Albert Einstein Medical College in New York City is also implicated.

Mt. Sinai Hospital

Scheper-Hughes says she has a copy of that video. She tried to interest 60 Minutes in it, but the video quality is poor. Scheper-Hughes says she took the video to the New York Academy of Sciences in September 2008. She showed a portion of it, and said the viewers could not believe it, but they recognized the doctors and the hospital.

Professor Levy-Izhak (Isaac) Rosenbaum of Brooklyn is believed to be associated with some of these claims from Scheper-Hughes. Read more about Rosenbaum's arrest for human organ trafficking and Scheper-Hughes charges against him.

Another hospital mentioned in the audio below is Albert Einstein Medical College. Scheper-Hughes says she met with an agent in Philadelphia who was also a Rabbi. He didn't seem to think Rabbi Isaac Rosenbaum's actions were illegal - "Isaac is a good man," and is probably making some money on the side.

Albert Einstein Medical College

Scheper-Hughes confronted Albert Einstein management. In a meeting, she said:

I have the charts of a dozen Israelis who were illegally operated on in this wonderful academic hospital, in your unit, using a broker in New York City and using donors they had never met, and they lied and said they were relatives, sometimes they didn't speak the same language. What were you doing there?

She says she was escorted out of the meeting, she had the name of the doctors and one of them was sitting at the table.

Professor Scheper-Hughes says the broker paid more for the kidney of a healthy college student than for that of a not-so healthy person.

More to come on Mt. Sinai and Albert Einstein hospitals. Below is the audio between Brian Lehrer and Scheper-Hughes from WNYC. Click the arrow on the left to begin play.

Organ Trafficking Audio

Related:
Isaac Rosenbaum is Rabbi Arrested for Organ Trafficking

Solomon Dwek is FBI Witness in Money Laundering Sting

Nancy Scheper-Hughes is Levy-Izhak (Isaac) Rosenbaum Accuser

Stem cell injections may causer tumors

There are some reasons why man shouldn't play G-d. This maybe one of them.

Israeli researchers are the first in the world to have documented that the injection of stem cells from aborted human fetuses can trigger tumors.

Stem cells, especially those from few-day-old embryos, are considered by many to be a potential cure for a wide variety of chronic disorders - from Parkinson's and Alzheimer's to diabetes and heart disease - because they have the ability to produce new cells of all types for the repair of diseased organs.

But the new research, based on the case of a now-16-year-old Israeli youth suffering from a rare genetic degenerative disease who underwent the highly experimental injections in Russia, is the first documented case of a human brain tumor - albeit a benign, slow-growing one - after fetal stem cell therapy, and sounds an alarm that future stem cell use must be preceded by extensive research.

The patient, born here to parents of Moroccan origin, developed ataxia telangiectasia (AT) as a young child. Degeneration of a certain brain region gradually robs these children of movement, and a faulty immune system leads to frequent infections and cancers. Most victims die in their teens or early 20s.

Although the boy's doctors at Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, urged the desperate parents against it, they took him to an unnamed clinic in Moscow for injections of fetal stem cells into his brain and spinal cord.

He returned to Russia twice - at age 10 and 12 - for more injections.

Then, at the age of 13, he developed painful headaches, and an MRI scan showed he had tumors in several parts of the brain and the spinal cord.

Two-and-a-half years ago, hematology Prof. Gideon Rechavi, head of Sheba's Cancer Center and Tel Aviv University's Cancer Biology Center, headed a team that investigated the case and found after extensive pathological and genetic research that the tumors were not germane to the patient, but were sourced from at least two fetuses whose foreign tissue had been injected into him.

For example, the tumors contained both XX (female) and XY (male) cells, while if they had come from the boy's body they could not have female chromosomes. They also had two normal copies of the ATM gene, which causes AT when mutated. Since the boy has AT, those genes cannot be his.

The team noted, however, that the fact that the boy has AT may have facilitated the growth of the tumors because of the weak immune system in such patients.

In 2006, the boy underwent brain and spinal cord surgery performed by Prof. Shlomo Constantini, head of the pediatric neurosurgery department at Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center's Dana Children's Hospital. Only those tumors that were believed to grow relatively rapidly were removed.

Today, the youth's condition is stable, with the tumors growing slowly enough to be considered benign, but he is wheelchair-bound.

While the parents reportedly regret taking him to Russia, AT is such a dangerous genetic disorder - killing most victims by the age of 20 - that it threatens his life more than the tumors.

The Jerusalem Post learned that the researchers' work, just published in the US Public Library of Science (PLoS) on-line, open-access journal, was initially turned down for publication by the highly prestigious journals Nature and Science.

Read the full story here.

Although this is just one case, it may become the first of many that will show up as more and more desperate people turn towards stem cells for a miracle cure.

I wonder how many more patients have had this problem in Russia, how many are undiscovered with this problem not only in Russia but elsewhere and what is the rate that this happens.

The animal studies on stem cells are very exciting and the results there are promising, but there is no long term study on the effects of stem cells on the human body. Just the hype from the media and those who suffer from debilitating diseases or injuries. They are proclaiming stem cells as the next new miracle cure. Instead it might just be the opposite, a horrible and deadly side effect. One that has the ability to kill instead of cure.

MEMRI: 'Scientific' Proof that Women Cannot Talk and Remember Simultaneously

Following are excerpts from an interview with Yemenite cleric Abd Al-Majid Al-Zindani. The interview aired on Iqra TV on October 23, 2008.



To view this clip, visit http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/1930.htm .

For the MEMRI TV page on Al-Zindani, visit http://www.memritv.org/subject/en/571.htm



To view at YouTube

"Women Are Subject to Menstruation, When Their Endurance and Mental Capacity for Concentration Are Diminished"

Abd Al-Majid Al-Zindani: "Allah said, with regard to women bearing witness: 'If two men are not available, then a man and two women, such as you choose as witnesses, so that if one of them errs, the other can remind her.' Some heretics – communists and other atheists – ridiculed [this verse], saying: How come a man's testimony equals that of two women? They used this to mock [the Muslims].

"The Muslims used to respond that women are subject to menstruation, when their endurance and mental capacity for concentration are diminished. When a woman witnesses a killing or an accident, she becomes frightened, moves away, and sometimes even faints, and she cannot even watch the incident. [...]

"The American Time magazine, in its July 31, 1995 issue, published this picture from research about the brain functioning of men and women. This is the ma... This is the female brain, and this is an image of the male brain. What do we see? We find that in the case of women, this area... And there is another here...

"Two areas in a woman's brain are activated when she talks. As we can see, there are many centers of speech in a woman's brain. There is a center in each lobe, while in the case of a man, there is only one center, here. The opposite center does not operate during speech, because it is busy remembering."

"When a Woman Talks, She Might Use the Part of the Brain Containing the Memory for Talking – And That's It, The Data is Lost"

"Both men and women have centers for speech and for memory. In the case of men, the center for speech is here, while the center for memory is here. When a man talks, his center for speech is active, and when he remembers something, his center for memory is active. On the other hand, when a woman wants to talk, she puts both centers into action. This may give us an explanation why women are more talkative.

"What is the outcome of this? When a woman talks, she uses the part of the brain that contains the memory, because in the case of women, both centers function for speech and memory. So when a woman talks, she might use the part of the brain containing the memory for talking – and that's it, the data is lost.

"Therefore, if we need the testimony of women in cases pertaining to human lives, property, honor, or the stability of justice, we must take into consideration this fact of life in the nature of women.".

Who is Abdul Majeed al-Zindani? Is he a leading neurologist or pathologist in Yemen? What medical school did he graduate from? Has he ever won the Nobel Award in Medicine? No. He is not a doctor, scientist, experimenter. He is a Muslim cleric with a big mouth and small brain. He is basically uneducated and illiterate in all but the Koran. But he speaks to a large group of idiots Muslims who are so scared and unsure of their manhood, that they have to degrade others to boost their ego. How pathetic is that!

There is a term for this thinking: JUNK SCIENCE! Science that is based on no logical or experimental assumptions. Normally this would fall into the same scientific category as Bigfoot, and Space Aliens, but not when it comes from the Muslim world. More and more doctors in the United States have been trained in Muslim countries. Nations in which the standard of medical care and compassion is inadequate to say the least. And each one was raised with a faith that considers women, non-Muslims and gays as less than a dog or pig. They are to be treated as if they were the scum of the Earth.

And these poorly trained doctors are going to be the backbone of Barack Obama's new health care system. I wonder if you're scared yet? I am!