According to the Parkinson’s Disease Foundation, nearly one million Americans are living with Parkinson’s disease.

Legendary boxing champion Muhammad Ali is one of those million.  Rasheda Ali, one of his daughters, spoke with Dr. Manny Alvarez, senior managing health editor for FoxNews.com, about her father’s struggles and her work to find a cure through stem cells.

Muhammad Ali was diagnosed in 1984, but Rasheda said she noticed early signs of the disease in a tape of one of his last fights in 1981.  She said the early years of his diagnosis were particularly trying for her and her family.

“It’s really nice that now we have so many resources and materials and information,” Rasheda said.  “But back in the ‘80s, we had nothing.  We were literally embarking on this tragedy, because we didn’t know what we were going into.  It was hard for us.”

Because Parkinson’s is a progressive disease, Rasheda witnessed her dad slowly deteriorate over the years, all the while not really understanding what was happening to him.  But after years of struggle, Rasheda said her father is currently doing great and is now focusing intently on his lifestyle.

“He takes care of himself, even now,” Rasheda said.  “Physical therapy is very important for people who have neurocognitive disorders.  He’s in the gym regularly.”

In an attempt to help find a cure for her father, Rasheda has collaborated with a biotech company called “BrainStorm Cell Therapeutics,” which has been experimenting with stem cell treatment on patients with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) – also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.  Through their efforts, many of these patients’ symptoms have greatly improved, and the degenerative properties of the disease have started to slow.

“If you can have these incredible results for what I think is the most severe…neurocognitive disease there is, what kind of promise will they do down the pipeline for other neurocognitive diseases such as multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s?” Rasheda said.

After seeing the amazing results this company has achieved, Rasheda is convinced that stem cells hold the key to treating these diseases in the future.  

To find out more about stem cell clinical trials, visit brainstorm-cell.com.

Sen. mark Kirk, Republican of Illinois, suffered a debilitating stroke on Monday, a tragedy for him and his family. Ironically, it occurred on the eve of one of the more important Medicare meetings of the year, which convened Wednesday at the Baltimore headquarters of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services to discuss the best ways to prevent strokes in at-risk older adults.

Kirk, only 52, is reportedly asking for his Blackberry from his hospital bed, a good sign. he was stricken at an age when strokes are relatively rare and survival likely. But two-thirds of the 829,000 people who suffer strokes each year are over 65, and 85 percent of the 136,000 deaths each year from stroke are among that Medicare-eligible population.

No wonder that CMS, which pays the health care bills for the nation’s 45 million seniors, is concerned. The cost of treating the nearly half million Medicare beneficiaries who survive a stroke each year is staggering. It’s not just the hospitalizations, which can last a week or more, but the long-term rehabilitation and care. many stroke victims are permanently disabled. Preventing strokes can be very cost-effective.

Physicians have long wondered how to prevent strokes. sometimes there are warning signs: slurred speech, or the sudden loss of eyesight in one eye. People with chronic hypertension and under high stress or who are obese are clearly at risk. Nearly a century ago, medical scientists noticed that strokes were often preceded by a narrowing of the carotid artery that feeds the brain. As imaging technologies evolved, it became possible to identify people with severe plaque build-up.

Technologies to reduce blockages soon followed. Drug treatment became possible with the development in the 1950s through 1980s of blood thinners and new drugs to lower blood pressure and cholesterol. Surgeons developed an operation to clean out that major artery called carotid endarterectomy.

And then, in the late 1990s and early in the last decade, the medical device industry developed carotid stents to prop open the crucial blood vessel leading to the brain. Though more expensive, physicians and hospitals increasingly used the procedure, and performed it on asymptomatic patients deemed at risk because of the plaque seen in imaging studies.

Now imagine you’re a person identified by your physicians as being seriously at risk of a stroke because of blockage in your carotid artery, even though you have no overt symptoms of disease. Which of these technologies, if any, should you use? while there isn’t clear cut medical evidence for you or your doctor, there are clear cut risks from the operations.

A technology assessment conducted by Blue Cross and Blue Shield for yesterday’s meeting showed the 30-day rate of deaths or strokes after the procedures (and thus considered procedure-related) were 6 percent for stenting and 3.2 percent for carotid endarterectomy in symptomatic patients, and 2.5 percent and 1.4. percent, respectively, in asymptomatic patients.  The assessment concluded that the risks outweighed the benefits for stenting in asymptomatic patients, and hadn’t proved it was as good as endarterectomy for either group.

That’s not what people thought a half decade ago. Pushed by manufacturers like Abbott, Boston Scientific and Medtronic and intervention cardiologists, Medicare approved payment for the stenting procedure in 2004 despite the absence of solid clinical trial evidence. Use quadrupled in the next two years to more than a thousand operations a month as its use expanded to asymptomatic patients.

Meanwhile, the use of the older and less expensive carotid endarterectomy procedure declined, at great cost to Medicare. a study that will be presented at Wednesday’s meeting by the Society for Vascular Surgery – they back endarterectomy, of course – claims the stent procedure costs $12,000 to $13,000 more “due to equipment and instrumentation.”

Stent manufacturers continued to push their favored approach at the meeting. The two procedures “have similar net outcomes, and they are comparable alternatives,” Charles Simonton, chief medical officer for Abbott Vascular, said in his written presentation, which was released earlier this week. he called for a “personalized approach” and expressed confidence that either procedure was “superior to best medical therapy (drugs) alone,” even though no clinical trial comparing the various approaches head-to-head has ever be done.

Despite the Blue Cross technology assessment, the advisory committee voted that there wasn’t enough evidence to provide a clear answer on what is the best treatment — surgery, stents, or medication — for Medicare patients with carotid plaque-buildup. That’s not what a recent editorial in the Archives of Internal Medicine said. Written by Seth Berkowitz and Rita Redberg of the University of California, San Francisco, the cardiologists raised serious concerns about the rapid increase in use of the pricey carotid artery stents.

Men over 70 fared worse with stenting, as did women in all age groups, they wrote.  Asymptomatic patients, who are at much less risk of having a stroke in the first place, shouldn’t get the operation at all given the heightened risk of stroke and death from the procedure. “Future trials may show that carotid stenting reduces the morbidity and mortality caused by cerebrovascular disease in asymptomatic patients,” Berkowitz and Redberg concluded. “Until then, however, carotid stenting . . . gets a ‘Less Is More’ designation because it has definite harms but unclear benefits.”

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Basildon family: Our mission to raise awareness of cervical cancer

2:00pm Monday 15th August 2011

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WATCHING someone you love waste away from a killer disease is awful to endure.

But it’s something Alex Waters had to do.

Alex is still grieving for her step-daughter, who died of cervical cancer, aged just 24.

Adela Waters was a single mum, so her death, in June, also left two young children without a mother.

one of the hardest things for Alex, 42, to come to terms with is that Adela’s death could have been prevented if she had been diagnosed early enough.

now, Alex, from Basildon, is trying to achieve something positive from the tragedy.

she is working to raise awarness of cervical cancer and is encouraging all young women to get checked out if they feel things aren’t quite right.

she explained: “Adela knew something was wrong. she was bleeding really badly and kept going to the GP. But she just kept being told it was nothing to worry about.

“Eventually, in October last year, she was screened for cancer and told the news it was most likely terminal.

“It was too late by that time. Adela was only 24 with two children and her whole life ahead of her.”

Adela, from Surrey, began a course of chemo-therapy, determined to fight the cancer, but her frail body couldn’t take it and she died six months later.

Alex said: “I’m desperate to raise awareness to cervical cancer and how women need to be aware of the symptoms.

“Cases like Jade Goody have helped put cervival cancer in the spotlight, but more needs to be done.

“At the moment, women are screened from 25 onwards for cervical cancer. I would like to see this age bracket reduced or at least see more doctors sending younger patients for screening if they feel something is wrong – not just dismissing them.”

When big Brother celebrity Jade Goody died in March 2009 of cervical cancer she was 27, and like Adela, a mum of two.

Jade’s death helped make the world sit up and take notice that young women die of cancer too.

after her death, a record number of women asked for smear tests and a campaign began to persuade NHS health chiefs to introduce screening for women bet-ween the ages of 20 and 24.

however, experts say the cervix of women of that age is changing and there is a risk their cells may look abnormal when they are not, exposing them to the trauma of further tests and biopsies.

But Alex says women need to be listened to. she added: “After watching someone I loved so much die, I want to get across to women that if you think something is wrong, go to the GP and get it checked out.

“The earlier screening takes place, the more chance there is of saving a person. If we can save even one life through sharing Adela’s story, then her death has not been in vain.”

To show her commitment, Alex, a staff nurse at Brockfield House mental health hospital, in Runwell, will be having her hair shaved off for the charity Cancer Research, on August 26.

the fundraising evening, which will also be a celebration of Adela’s life, will take place at the former Runwell Hospital Social Club. Alex’s husband Carl, 46 – Adela’s father – will also be taking part, with a sponsored leg wax.

As well as getting sponsored to have her locks cut off, Alex’s long hair will be put to good use.

she said: “I heard about a charity called the little Princess Trust, which makes wigs for youngsters who lose their hair to chemotherapy, so they will be getting mine.”

Alex, who has seven children between her and Carl, added: “My dad has also recently been diagnosed with leukemia, but it looks as though he is beating it.

“I feel cancer has affected so many people I love and I need to do something to fight it.

“I would just urge women out there who may be having abnormal symptoms, to trust their instincts. It might save their life.”

To donate, visit donate inmemory.cancerresearch.org/ 0001633

Basildon family: our mission to raise awareness of cervical cancer

2:00pm Monday 15th August 2011

• Print
• Email
• Comments(2)

WATCHING someone you love waste away from a killer disease is awful to endure.

but it’s something Alex Waters had to do.

Alex is still grieving for her step-daughter, who died of cervical cancer, aged just 24.

Adela Waters was a single mum, so her death, in June, also left two young children without a mother.

one of the hardest things for Alex, 42, to come to terms with is that Adela’s death could have been prevented if she had been diagnosed early enough.

now, Alex, from Basildon, is trying to achieve something positive from the tragedy.

she is working to raise awarness of cervical cancer and is encouraging all young women to get checked out if they feel things aren’t quite right.

she explained: “Adela knew something was wrong. she was bleeding really badly and kept going to the GP. but she just kept being told it was nothing to worry about.

“Eventually, in October last year, she was screened for cancer and told the news it was most likely terminal.

“It was too late by that time. Adela was only 24 with two children and her whole life ahead of her.”

Adela, from Surrey, began a course of chemo-therapy, determined to fight the cancer, but her frail body couldn’t take it and she died six months later.

Alex said: “I’m desperate to raise awareness to cervical cancer and how women need to be aware of the symptoms.

“Cases like Jade Goody have helped put cervival cancer in the spotlight, but more needs to be done.

“At the moment, women are screened from 25 onwards for cervical cancer. I would like to see this age bracket reduced or at least see more doctors sending younger patients for screening if they feel something is wrong – not just dismissing them.”

When Big Brother celebrity Jade Goody died in March 2009 of cervical cancer she was 27, and like Adela, a mum of two.

Jade’s death helped make the world sit up and take notice that young women die of cancer too.

After her death, a record number of women asked for smear tests and a campaign began to persuade NHS health chiefs to introduce screening for women bet-ween the ages of 20 and 24.

However, experts say the cervix of women of that age is changing and there is a risk their cells may look abnormal when they are not, exposing them to the trauma of further tests and biopsies.

but Alex says women need to be listened to. she added: “After watching someone I loved so much die, I want to get across to women that if you think something is wrong, go to the GP and get it checked out.

“The earlier screening takes place, the more chance there is of saving a person. If we can save even one life through sharing Adela’s story, then her death has not been in vain.”

to show her commitment, Alex, a staff nurse at Brockfield House mental health hospital, in Runwell, will be having her hair shaved off for the charity Cancer Research, on August 26.

the fundraising evening, which will also be a celebration of Adela’s life, will take place at the former Runwell Hospital Social Club. Alex’s husband Carl, 46 – Adela’s father – will also be taking part, with a sponsored leg wax.

as well as getting sponsored to have her locks cut off, Alex’s long hair will be put to good use.

she said: “I heard about a charity called the little Princess Trust, which makes wigs for youngsters who lose their hair to chemotherapy, so they will be getting mine.”

Alex, who has seven children between her and Carl, added: “My dad has also recently been diagnosed with leukemia, but it looks as though he is beating it.

“I feel cancer has affected so many people I love and I need to do something to fight it.

“I would just urge women out there who may be having abnormal symptoms, to trust their instincts. It might save their life.”

to donate, visit donate inmemory.cancerresearch.org/ 0001633