Doctor gives stroke survivors new shot at mobility, independence

Jewish World Review ^ | March 6, 2013 | Nicole Brochu

[2ndDivisionVet]

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A single injection, then a five-minute wait.

That's all it took for hundreds of stroke and traumatic brain injury patients nationwide to reverse years of debilitation. Now they're walking more steadily, reading more easily, concentrating better, speaking more clearly and regaining use of once-rigid limbs — long after giving up hope that their bodies would ever respond.

The 25-milligram shot at renewed independence is the brainchild of Boca Raton, Fla., physician Dr. Edward Tobinick. His patented method for delivering the anti-inflammatory medicine, etanercept, to the brain is getting praise around the world as a "radical breakthrough" in the treatment of chronic neurological dysfunction.

"It's magic," said Dr. Rene Alfaro, an ophthalmologist from Mexico, of the single-dose injection that almost instantly restored much of his wife's movement and cognition more than a year after an aneurysm and subsequent stroke incapacitated her left side. "It's like a click."

Within minutes of receiving the injection on Monday, Anna Alfaro walked without a cane, got up from a chair more easily and regained sensation in her left arm. Hours later, with some of her left eye vision returned, she could see the phone clearly enough to dial a number for the first time since her illness.

Her response is not unique.

In a peer-reviewed study in the Adis medical journal,

"CNS Drugs," Tobinick's Institute of Neurological Recovery gave etanercept injections from November 2010 to July 2012 to 617 stroke patients and 12 patients who had suffered a traumatic brain injury, or TBI....

[mountaineer1997]

I read the article and will do more research.

but...my BS meter just pegged.

[2ndDivisionVet]

Their phone number and website are at the end of the article. My wife had a stoke about 2 1/2 years ago, so I’m going to look into it.

[babygene]

Thanks for posting.

[COBOL2Java]

but...my BS meter just pegged.

We'll see if this winds up as a full-page ad in "Parade" magazine.

[Gay State Conservative]

This treatment demands peer review.Lots and lots of peer review including attempts to replicate the results in major medical centers throughout the civilized world.Harvard,Yale,Columbia,Johns Hopkins,Mayo Clinic,Stanford,London and others,after many months of trials,must confirm this before I'll even begin to accept its validity.

However,many people who saw "Awakenings" (a surprisingly good film) know that it's based on true events so who knows?

[Gay State Conservative]

Their phone number and website are at the end of the article. My wife had a stoke about 2 1/2 years ago, so I’m going to look into it.

Having been involved (briefly) in medical research at Harvard Medical School as well as having 20 years of employment at a major Boston hospital I'm pretty familiar with the world of medical research.That familiarity compels me to suggest to you to proceed cautiously here in regards to your wife and try to resist the temptation,at this time at least,to think..."at last,a solution for my wife's condition".One researcher...one article in a medical journal...does not a reliable,credible cure make.

[rabidralph]

It’s Dr. Nick-approved but who knows what the truth is.

[2ndDivisionVet]

Thanks. I was going to gather some information for her physician, not go traipsing after a miracle cure.

[bgill]

If only it were true and worked well enough to have given Terri 15 seconds of speech to tell Greer, Felos and HINO where they could get off.

[ArcadeQuarters]

Hopefully this is more real than the cancer and diabetes “cures” the pop up occasionally.

[Dagny Taggart]

I looked into this about a year ago for my husband, Ed, who is paralyzed on the right and can’t speak from a stroke. Our neurologist suggested not to do it at this time. The drug is actually discovered for alzeimers and was not always successful in that. They were advertising on the radio quite a bit here in Southern California and have a video at their website strokebreakthrough.com. That was a year ago and that may have changed but they had a location near UCLA and somewhere in Orange County. I hope and pray it proves true !!!!!!!!!!!!

[RBK]

etanercept, same active ingredeant in Enbril.
I have been taking it since it came out in 1998. 1 30mg injection weekly. It does wonders for arthritis
I wonder what dose they are using?

[The Antiyuppie]

“Hopefully this is more real than the cancer and diabetes “cures” the pop up occasionally.”

All of those cures have been 10 years off for the last 50 years. There is no money in curing anything, anyway.

[Fire_on_High]

Says 25 mg.