Free Republic

The billionaire brothers are pulling out all the stops in support of President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee. Pity the interns who answer the phones in Colorado senator Michael Bennet’s office. Concerned Veterans for America estimates that as of March 2, it had connected with 80,000 Colorado supporters, urging them to phone Bennet’s office in an effort to convince him that he should support Judge Neil Gorsuch’s nomination to the Supreme Court. CVA is leading the Koch brothers’ network of libertarian-leaning advocacy groups in its effort to maximize pressure on senators to confirm Gorsuch.

Two-thirds of veterans (66%) disapprove of the job Pres. Obama is doing, according to a new survey by Concerned Veterans for America (CVA). Likewise, 68% say the country is “on the wrong track.” […] About three-fourths (73%) of those polled agree with former Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen that the national debt is “the greatest threat to our national security.” …

Neither aspirin nor warfarin is superior for preventing a combined risk of death, stroke, and cerebral hemorrhage in heart failure patients with normal heart rhythm, according to a landmark clinical trial published in the May 3, 2012, New England Journal of Medicine. The 10-year Warfarin and Aspirin for Reduced Cardiac Ejection Fraction (WARCEF) trial is the largest double-blind comparison of these medications for heart failure, following 2,305 patients at 168 study sites in 11 countries on three continents. The research was led by clinical principal investigator Shunichi Homma, MD, of Columbia University Medical Center/NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, and statistical principal investigator John...

Researchers in Korea and the US have shown that modified carbon nanotubes can protect brain tissue from the damage caused by ischaemic stroke, where the blood supply to the brain is interrupted. The work could lead to new treatments to help the brain repair itself after this type of stroke.Sung Su Kim, of Chung Ang University in Seoul, and colleagues treated commercially available carboxylated nanotubes with a nitrogen and hydrogen plasma, resulting in positively-charged amine groups on the surface of the nanotubes. These amine-modified nanotubes were then injected in the brains of rats. A week later ischaemic stroke was artificially induced in the rats by surgery....

Talk about surviving by a whisker. The most common type of stroke can be completely prevented in rats by stimulating a single whisker, according to a new study by UC Irvine researchers. Strokes are the No. 3 cause of death in the U.S., after heart disease and cancer. About 795,000 Americans suffer them annually, according to the American Heart Association, and more than 137,000 die as a result. So should we be tickling our own whiskers? And what about women, who are less likely to have facial hair? While it’s too soon to tell if the findings will translate to...

SEATTLE — Optimally controlling lipid and blood pressure levels can reduce the risk of stroke by up to 65% in patients at high risk, Dr. Pierre Amarenco reported at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology. The findings are based on a new analysis of data from the Stroke Prevention by Aggressive Reduction in Cholesterol Levels (SPARCL) trial. The results of this trial, as well as the findings of a recent meta-analysis of stroke-prevention trials (Lancet Neurol. 2009;8:453-63), suggest that the risk of stroke falls steadily in direct proportion to declines in the level of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol...

After her stroke, Francine V. Corso, a software engineer who worked on NASA’s lunar lander, was housebound from 1992 to 2001. Her left arm was twisted up near her neck, making it difficult to pull on a blouse, and her fingers curled so rigidly that her nails buried themselves in her palm. When she finally learned to rise from her wheelchair, her contorted left leg had the so-called horse gait of many brain-injury victims — she stepped toe-downward, and then fought to keep her foot from rolling over. Now, with injections of botulinum toxin every three months, she says, “I’m...

The man, a doctor left blind by two successive strokes, refused to take part in the experiment. He could not see anything, he said, and had no interest in navigating an obstacle course — a cluttered hallway — for the benefit of science. Why bother? When he finally tried it, though, something remarkable happened. He zigzagged down the hall, sidestepping a garbage can, a tripod, a stack of paper and several boxes as if he could see everything clearly. A researcher shadowed him in case he stumbled. “You just had to see it to believe it,” said Beatrice de Gelder,...

ADELAIDE, Australia, September 19, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Researchers within the University of Adelaide's new Centre for Stem Cell Research are aiming by the end of this year to show repair in stroke-damaged brains using stem cells taken from adult teeth. The world-leading research using dental pulp stem cells from extracted human teeth and stroke-affected rat brain tissue will be outlined as part of the launch of the Centre for Stem Cell Research. The focus of the new Centre will be on turning novel basic research into potential life-saving treatments and cures for serious conditions and diseases. The Centre will draw...

MONROE – At first glance, it’s an unlikely combination. A black family seated under a tent facing a line of Civil War re-enactors, proudly holding Confederate flags and gripping their weapons. But what lies between these two groups is what brought them together: An unmarked grave about to get its due, belonging to a slave who fought for the Confederacy. Weary Clyburn was best friends with his master’s son, Frank. When Frank left the plantation to fight in the Civil War, Clyburn followed him. He fought alongside Frank and even saved his life on two occasions. On July 18, the...

Can drinking green tea really protect against two big killers, strokes and cancer? A huge study in Japan suggests yes and no: It might lower your stroke risk but won't save you from cancer. The study's authors say their findings might explain why the Japanese are less likely than Americans to die of heart disease and stroke. Even so, the answers aren't clear. Green tea has been researched a lot, and many of the studies have come up with conflicting results. Earlier this year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said an analysis found no credible scientific evidence to support...

Two new studies suggest that use of cells derived from bone marrow, as well as a seaweed-derived product called hydrogel, may prompt stem cells to repair nerve damage caused by stroke or spinal cord injury. Both studies were expected to be presented Friday at the American Academy of Neurology annual meeting, in San Diego. In one study, researchers at the Medical College of Georgia, Augusta, examined bone marrow-derived multi-potent progenitor cells, which have the ability to develop into different kinds of cells, including nervous system cells. Both human and rat bone marrow cells were transplanted into rats with induced strokes....

Brain can be made to self-repairTriggering stem-cell growth could help brain recover after a stroke.Stimulating a protein on the surface of the brain's stem cells helps rats recover after a stroke, US researchers have found. The discovery suggests that in humans it could be possible to provoke the body's own stem cells into repairing an injury, rather than laboriously growing and transplanting new cells.  Researchers believe that many of the body's tissues harbour stem cells capable of dividing to make new tissue. But some of these are recalcitrant and do not naturally divide to repair damage wreaked by severe injuries...

Non Embryonic Stem Cell Treatment Allows Paralysed Brazilian To Walk, Talk Again RIO DE JANEIRO, November 23, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Brazilian scientists have successfully transplanted adult stem cells into a woman's brain, facilitating her recovery from a brain hemorrhage that left her paralysed and unable to talk. Maria da Graca Pomeceno, 54, had bone marrow stem cells taken from her pelvis and injected into her damaged brain. Local television broadcasts showed her walking up stairs and talking. Hans Fernando Dohmann, director of Rio's Pro-Cardiaco Hospital, said that hers was the first reported successful treatment of this condition, but that trials...

Researchers say they've lessened the effects of stroke in rats by transplanting stem cells into the rodents' brains. The treatment also seemed to help rats fight a condition similar to human cerebral palsy.  There's no indication yet that the treatment will work in humans, and the lead researcher cautioned that the strategy is no "magic bullet." However, tests in people could begin as early as next year, said Cesario V. Borlongan, an associate professor of neurology at the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta. Will not be a total cure The treatment is "not something that will totally cure stroke...

SHENZHEN, China, March 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Shenzhen Beike Biotechnology Co., Ltd. has announced the successful treatment with umbilical cord stem cells of the youngest stroke patient ever to undergo such a procedure. The announcement was made following a two-month evaluation period by physicians in her native country, Hungary, to verify the positive results. Starting from October 28th, Beike provided umbilical cord stem cells to the Nanshan People's Hospital for the treatment of a four-month-old Hungarian baby girl named Timea Gresco, who had suffered a stroke when she was delivered three months prematurely. Umbilical cord stem cells were delivered intravenously over...

Brain-damaged IVF stroke victim wins negligence case SHAN ROSS A WOMAN who was left brain damaged after a series of strokes following her third cycle of IVF was awarded "very substantial" agreed damages yesterday. An emotive message from the 34-year-old accountant was read out in court by her QC. In it, the woman, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, said: "IVF. I was so happy. Looked forward to my newborn baby. Unfortunately miscarried. Baby die. Disaster happen. "Then stroke. Disaster. Now my face fine but my body will never be the same. My son is torn apart. One year...

New Zealand-born Kate Adamson-Klugman experienced a double brainstem stroke in 1995 at the age of 33. She was helpless and completely paralyzed, suffering from "locked-in syn­drome." Kate thought she was clear in her own mind about what she would want if she ever experienced a catastrophic injury or illness. She knew she would face death bravely; she wanted no heroics. But as she lay in an intensive care unit, listening to the doctors talk about her own impending death and their plans not to treat her, her ideas of medical aid toward incapacitated persons drastically changed. Her own will to...

More than 20 million Americans take aspirin regularly to help prevent heart attacks and strokes. But new evidence suggests that for many of them, the pills do little if any good. Recent studies have found that anywhere from 5 percent to more than 40 percent of aspirin users are "nonresponsive" or "resistant" to the medicine. That means that aspirin does not inhibit their blood from clotting, as it is supposed to. "They are taking it for stroke and heart attack prevention, and it's not going to work," said Dr. Daniel I. Simon, the associate director of interventional cardiology at Brigham...