Restore Health: Your Local Fort Collins Functional Medicine Clinic

Fort Collins functional medicine clinic

Taking control of your health is one of the most important things you can do for yourself. Restore Health is the premier Functional Medicine Clinic in Northern Colorado. We exist to help you take back your health. We offer Functional Medicine services to people living in Fort Collins, Loveland, and the greater Northern Colorado area as a better and more preventative alternative to traditional medical practices.

We are dedicated to a more effective model of health care that is focused on achieving optimal health rather than simply treating disease. We approach health challenges in a systematic manner, addressing underlying issues rather than chasing symptoms with medications. We are proactive, focusing on disease prevention, rather than reactive, focusing only on symptoms. At Restore Health Center, your local Fort Collins Functional Medicine clinic, we utilize a Functional Medicine approach to help you achieve optimal health and resolve issues poorly addressed under a traditional medicine approach.

Continue reading to learn more about Functional Medicine and what you can expect with your Fort Collins Functional Medicine doctor:

What is Functional Medicine?

Functional Medicine is a relatively new area of medicine that relies on the traditional tenets of science-based medicine, including lab-based analysis, tests, and studies, but instead of just treating the presenting issue, functional medical practitioners work to address the root causes of problems with a wide range of treatments at their disposal. These treatments include everything that traditional medicine offers as well as non-traditional remedies such as diet, meditation, stress reduction, exercise, and oftentimes nutritional supplements and herbal treatments, all based on the labs and studies doctors have come to rely on. We work intimately with you to find what works best for your body and needs. Health and wellness is your top priority, and as your Fort Collins Functional Medicine Clinic, we’re here to help provide you with natural solutions for your complete wellness.

Restore Health – Fort Collins Functional Medicine Clinic

Restore Health Center is an innovative medical practice focused on identifying and removing the things that push you toward disease while filling your life with the things that create wellness, so you can stay healthy or get healthy. Rather than simply relying on medications to treat symptoms, we work with you to help get your systems back to optimal function. We think in terms of how your body works within its genetic predispositions and how it interacts with food, environmental toxins, and stress. We use conventional medications and testing when they are needed, but we also use food as medical therapy along with targeted clinical approaches. With our complete wellness approach, we strive to identify the root causes of your symptoms and get you on a path to optimal wellness.

Fort Collins Functional Medicine Clinic Services

At Restore Health Center, we’re committed to your total health. We’re your partner in solving and effectively treating functional gastrointestinal disorders, cardiovascular disease, thyroid dysfunction, autoimmune diseases and more. We also offer specialized services and treatment options specific to both men and women.

To address all of your needs, we also offer services to address mental health issues, including adrenal issues, brain disorders, and chronic stress. We also provide services for your total body, including stem cell treatments, IV nutrient therapies, and hormone therapy.

As the new year rolls around, there is no better resolution than to commit to getting healthy, and staying healthy! Restore Health is here to help you achieve this goal. Ready to get started and take your health into your hands? Restore Health is your Fort Collins Functional Medicine clinic, and we’re here to help you. Please click here to learn more about our services and contact us to set up a consultation.  

Functional Medicine – It might be just what you need

By Rachel Fischer, MD, MPH, Restore Health Center Physician


If you asked your primary care provider why you’re so tired, how would she or he answer? 

What if you asked about your constant abdominal bloating, weight gain, whether you need replacement hormones or if your thyroid was optimally functioning?  I was trained in internal medicine, so I know how I would have answered these questions.  Your treatment would likely consisted of a prescription for your fatigue and bloating. For weight gain, eat less and exercise more, but hormones?  I would refer you to a gynecologist. Optimal thyroid function?  I would check your TSH and T4, both of which would likely be in reference range, and tell you you’re fine. You would probably be frustrated.

 

How is functional medicine different?

First, we gather a lot more information.  Essentially, I want to know about your health from birth until the moment you step in my office.  I want to know what you eat, how you sleep (or not), your daily routines, exercise, and your level of stress and coping strategies.  These are all modifiable lifestyle factors and if I don’t know them, how can I help you change them?  I will obtain labs that tell me about vitamin levels, presence of inflammation, cardiovascular and metabolic risks, hormone function (including thyroid) and other parameters as needed for your specific health concerns.

Second, you will spend an hour with me at your first and second visit, and at least one-half hour each visit thereafter.  Our current medical model is focused on a “one ill one pill” philosophy, however we have extraordinarily complex physiology and getting to the root cause of most medical conditions takes time.  In functional medicine, we take the time and use a comprehensive approach. For example, if you have excessive fatigue there could be one primary cause (iron deficiency anemia) or 13 different factors contributing.  But the investigation does not stop there, if your blood results indicate anemia, we’ll want to figure out why you are anemic and correct the underlying cause rather than just give you iron pills. Follow me?

Third, lifestyle is the cornerstone of wellness.  Yes, there are some genetic variants that profoundly affect some individuals – but they are the exception. For the rest of us?  Genes are the gun, but environment pulls the trigger. We have more control than we think.  Through proper nutrition, sleep, exercise and successful stress management habits we profoundly affect our gene expression and not only improve quantity of life, but quality of life.

 

Is functional medicine right for you?

As a functional medicine doctor, I don’t systematically reject the conventional medicine I was taught in my 8 years of training. There is tremendous value in modern medicine – particularly when it comes to acute injury and illness.  But the leading causes of death in the developed world are not injuries or acute illness—they are heart disease and cancer.  The most common reasons for patients to see their primary care doctor include skin problems, back pain, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, anxiety, depression, headaches and diabetes.  We have medications available for all these conditions, but they do not fix the root cause of the problem.  I encourage all of my patients to have a primary care doctor for when acute illness or injury occurs, but for everything else – there is a lifestyle solution that addresses nutritional status, inflammation, appropriate detoxification processes and hormonal balance.  If you are even a little sick and tired of being sick and tired, then functional medicine is for you.

It’s a privilege for me to get to know and accompany individuals who want to begin the lifelong journey of health and vitality.  If you’re ready for that journey, I’m here for you.

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Click here to see more about Dr. Fisher
Or call 888-557-6711 and schedule a consultations today!

 

The Hidden HCG breakthrough

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The Hidden HCG breakthrough —  totally eliminate or control excruciating  endometriosis!

The following was adapted from an article by: Jonathan V. Wright, M.D. published in April of 2015 in the journal: The Townsend Letter.

A new “hidden” use for human chorionic gonadotrophin (HCG) has been uncovered. It turns out that HCG—the hormone secreted in the largest quantities by human placentas—may be an effective remedy for painful endometriosis. Fortunately, this research was reported “only” ten years ago, and hasn’t lain buried for thirty-one years (for that, see the December 2012 and February 2013 of Nutrition & Healing which covered previously buried research about HCG, and the stunning story of the reversal of severe spinal cord damage).

This research was first published in 2004 and since that time no contradictory reports have been published. In other words, there’s absolutely no reason why this safe, natural therapy shouldn’t already have been tried for the thousands (or more likely tens or even hundreds of thousands) of women who’ve in effect been told “there’s no treatment for your problem except for birth control pills, pain pills or surgery, but it’ll improve after menopause, so hang in there.”

Endometriosis is reported to occur in 6% to 10% of all women. In this condition cells, which line the uterus migrate outside the womb to other areas in the pelvis. There they remain and grow, often causing painful menstrual periods and/or mild to severe chronic pain between menses. Endometriosis is associated with infertility, too.
In this research, thirty-one women with histologically verified (tissue samples were observed under a microscope to confirm the diagnosis) endometriosis were given 1500 to 5000 IU of HCG once or twice a week for three to twelve months. The results?
HCG significantly reduced pain, irritability and more!

Let’s quote the researchers themselves: “Three months of HCG therapy led to a highly significant reduction of endometriosis-related pain (p < 0.001) and to improvement of disease related parameters such as sleeplessness (p < 0.001), irritability (p < 0.001), overall discomfort (p < 0.001), depressive moods (p < 0.001) and painful defecation (p = 0.01). Dyspareunia [painful sex] and dysmenorrhea [painful menses] also clearly improved (both p < 0.001), though HCG did not lead to significant reduction of dysuria [painful urination] (p = 0.66). Prolonged therapy with HCG for up to 12 months (mean: 4.42 months) did not lead to reduction of the beneficial effect.”

That’s impressive: Endometriosis pain, sleeplessness, irritability, overall discomfort, depressive mood, and painful bowel movements, all significantly improved. The only parameter that didn’t greatly improve was painful urination. And the treatment continued to be effective for up to one year, when (apparently) the research project ended.
The report summary concluded: “HCG injections lead to significant and
clinically relevant reduction in pain intensity and to greatly improved quality of life in women with therapy-refractory endometriosis.”

So if you or a loved are suffering from endometriosis and you would rather not take birth control pills, be on a continuous dose of pain pills, have your uterus removed surgically or wait for menopause—why not consider taking this article to a physician skilled and knowledgeable in natural medicine and natural hormone use, and discuss giving regular HCG injections a try?

Of course, even though the results of this research were very positive, results are never guaranteed. But clearly there’s reason to hope!

Unfortunately, we’ve not been able to find any follow-up research published since this 2004 report. And the group was small, only thirty-one women. But HCG is safe; we all had exposure to it for approximately nine months when we were vulnerable fetuses, during which time it did us no harm at all. There’s also experimental evidence showing

the non-toxic nature of even enormous quantities given to adults.

Some physicians and pharmacists worry about the safety of large quantities of HCG, most likely because the amounts used in “HCG diet plans” have been quite small, 125 to 200 IU daily at most. Of course the safety of any therapy is an important consideration.

To put HCG in perspective however, we need to remember that we all essentially “took a bath” in HCG for the first nine months (some of us perhaps less) of our lives while we were inside of Mom. As tiny as we were we, of course, emerged unharmed by the large quantities of HCG we were exposed to.

Another clue to HCG’s safety can be taken from a research study, which used relatively enormous quantities of HCG, given intravenously. Researchers gave 100,000 to 150,000 IU of HCG to eight men as part of a research study on HCG and thyroid function. Among other things, the researchers wrote: “No clinical side effects were noted… after iv administration of these large doses of HCG.”
Although it’s possible for anyone to react adversely to anything, at present it appears that relatively large quantities of HCG are safe.

Buried endometriosis treatment number two is revealed—
Going gluten-free significantly slashed endometriosis pain!

Just above, you read about the remarkable, but “buried,” 2004 research report about a very successful treatment for endometriosis. It’s definitely worth repeating! The researchers reported that 1500 to 5000 IU of human chorionic gonadotrophin (“HCG”) treatment once or twice a week for three months “led to a highly significant reduction of endometriosis-related pain (p < 0.001) and to improvement of disease related parameters such as sleeplessness (p < 0.001), irritability (p < 0.001), overall discomfort (p < 0.001), depressive moods (p < 0.001) and painful defecation (p = 0.01). Dyspareunia [painful sex] and dysmenorrhea [painful menses] also clearly improved (both p < 0.001), though HCG did not lead to significant reduction of dysuria [painful urination] (p = 0.66).”

This is a terrific breakthrough for an excruciatingly painful condition for which there has been no effective treatment! And now there’s even more good news about endometriosis relief: it appears to be yet another condition that responds significantly to gluten elimination.

In 2011, Swedish researchers reported that women diagnosed with celiac disease (a major type of gluten intolerance) had an increased risk of endometriosis. Although they didn’t report about endometriosis risk in women with “non-celiac gluten intolerance” as well, there’s good reason to suspect the same increased risk.

In 2012, Italian researchers published results of a study in which 207 women with chronic pelvic pain caused by endometriosis were placed on a gluten elimination diet for twelve months. One hundred fifty six (75%) of the women had significant pain relief; 51 (25%) did not. None had worsening of pain. But even though pelvic pain was relieved in “only” 75%, all—100%!—of the women reported what the researchers termed a “considerable increase” (p

Since women have been reported to bring dramatic relief from endometriosis using HCG it might seem like eliminating gluten is unnecessary, but for the best total body health results anyone with endometriosis should always use HCG and go gluten-free. Even if HCG eliminates the pain of endometriosis, the underlying gluten sensitivity, especially if “hidden”, will cause many other health problems usually undiagnosable by conventional medicine. In fact, non-celiac (“hidden”) gluten sensitivity almost always inhibits the assimilation of multiple nutrients, resulting in a variety of health problems.

Buried endometriosis treatment number three:
Melatonin significantly relieves endometriosis pain!
Now it’s December 2014, and we’ve just (at the time of this writing) found a research report about relief of endometriosis pain with melatonin, the hormone best known for it’s sleep-inducing activity. This time, it’s Brazilian researchers, reporting about forty women with endometriosis, ages 18 to 45, twenty of whom took placebo, twenty of whom took melatonin (10 mg) for eight weeks. Analysis showed that (compared with placebo) melatonin treatment reduced daily pain scores by 39.80% (p<0.01, for the technically inclined) and pain with menstrual periods (“dysmenorrhea”) by 38.01% (p Just a thought: all of this breakthrough research for women with endometriosis was done in Austria, Sweden, Italy, and now Brazil, not in these United States. None of it was publicized by the American media in 2004, 2011, 2012, 2013, or since. Makes one wonder what other non-patent-medicine remedies for other chronic problems are also being ignored.

References:

Ambros V. Huber, Johannes C. Huber, Andrea Kolbus, Martin Imhof, Fritz Nagele,
Demosthenes Loizou, Ulrike Kaufmann, and Christian F. Singer Systemic HCG treatment in patients with endometriosis: A new perspective for a painful disease. Wien Klin Wochenschr 2004;116/24:839-843 (Weiner Klinische Wochenschrift, the Middle European Journal of Medicine, printed in Austria)

Sowers JR, Hershman JM, Carlson HE, Pekary AE. Effect of human chorionic gonadotropin on thyroid function in euthyroid men. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 1978 Oct;47(4):898-901

Ambros V. Huber, Johannes C. Huber, Andrea Kolbus, Martin Imhof, Fritz Nagele,
Demosthenes Loizou, Ulrike Kaufmann, and Christian F. Singer Systemic HCG treatment in patients with endometriosis: A new perspective for a painful disease. Wien Klin Wochenschr 2004;116/24:839-843 (Weiner Klinische Wochenschrift, the Middle European Journal of Medicine, printed in Austria)

Stephansson O, Falconer H, Ludvigsson JF. Risk of endometriosis in 11,000 women with celiac disease. Human Reproduction 2011;26(10):2896-2901

Marziali M, Vemza M, Lazzaro S et al. Gluten-free diet: a new strategy for management of painful endometriosis related symptoms? Minerva Chirurgica 2012;67(6):499-504

Schwertner A(1), Conceição Dos Santos CC, Costa GD, Deitos A, de Souza A, deSouza IC, Torres IL, da Cunha Filho JS, Caumo W. Efficacy of melatonin in the treatment of endometriosis: a phase II, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. Pain 2013 Jun;154(6):874-81.

Dr. Howton’s comments:
When treating endometriosis at Restore Health we integrate a number of synergistic modalities including those covered in this article. First and foremost we ensure that Estrogen & Progesterone levels are balanced. Estrogens stimulate endometrial cells while Progesterone keeps the effects of Estrogens in check. Many times endometriosis symptoms will resolve when adding bio-identical progesterone in a cyclical fashion, which involves varying the amount with the natural hormonal rhythm. The highest amount being during the week preceding menstruation, as this is the time when Estrogen levels are the highest.

If we add Progesterone to the items covered in this article a natural approach to treating endometriosis would include the following:

1. Cyclical Bio-identical Progesterone.
2. A gluten free diet.
3. Melatonin 9-12 mg at bedtime.
And if above does not correct symptoms one would consider adding:
4. HCG 1,250 mg twice per week for three months.

All of these treatments are natural and lack the side effects often found in more “traditional” approaches.

 

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Lithium: The Untold Story of the Magic Mineral That Charges Cell Phones and Preserves Memory

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Lithium: The Untold Story of the Magic Mineral That Charges Cell Phones and Preserves Memory. 
Written by James Greenblatt, M.D. and Kayla Grossman, RN.

This article was published in the Townsend Letter on October 2015

Lithium

As far as cosmologists can tell, there were only three elements present when the universe was first formed some 13.8 billion years ago: hydrogen, helium, and lithium. As one of the three original elements, lithium is found throughout our atmosphere. The sun, stars, and meteorites burn brightly with the flame of this highly reactive element. On earth, lithium remains a major mineral component of granite rock, and also lingers in significant amounts in sea water, mineral springs, and soils. Lithium has also found its way into our cell phones, electric cars, and holiday fireworks. Every organ and tissue in the human body contains the mineral lithium, with particular importance in brain health.

Today, we do not tend to think of lithium as an essential mineral in human physiology and its critical use for expanding technology. Lithium does not evoke visions of stars, peaceful rivers, or strong, healthy bodies. Instead images of lithium are associated with pharmacies, doctor’s offices, and back wards of psychiatric hospitals. Lithium is perceived, almost exclusively, as a dangerous drug used to treat severe mental illness with incapacitating side effects.

In a recent review in the New York Times titled “I Don’t Believe in God, but I Believe in Lithium,” author Jamie Lowe delivered a powerful testimony of her dramatic response to lithium – the drug that alleviated her mania and allowed her to live a normal, happy life. Her article also describes the kidney damage that has forced her to stop lithium and placed her on a waiting list for potential kidney transplant. She provides a unique insight into the life-changing prescriptive benefits of lithium, and the overwhelming fear she has of life without her lithium; a life without her sanity.

I have treated thousands of patients with similar backgrounds as Jamie’s. This raised the question, how can a medicine provide such life-changing effects on mental health yet cause permanent damage to kidney and often thyroid function?

Twenty-five years ago, I attempted to answer this question by looking for the lowest dose of lithium that would alleviate symptoms. Rather than basing my prescription dosage on a number from a lab test that dictated a “therapeutic blood level,” I listened to my patients. I began to see that patients on a lower dose of lithium – doses closer to the trace amounts found naturally in the environment – still experienced significant clinical results.

Psychiatry has much to learn from the untold story of one of its oldest drugs.

Lithium as Mineral

Lithium was given its official name by a Swedish chemist named Johan August Arfvedson in 1817. He isolated the element while studying petalite – a rich mineral deposit found in soils – on the remote island of Uto. The unique substance was named lithium after the Greek word lithos, meaning literally “from stone.”

Just one year after its initial discovery, researchers noticed that there was something special about this new element. Lithium ore, when ground into a fine powder, turned flames a bright crimson color that intensified to a dazzling white when burning strongly. In addition to being highly reactive, the metal was also lightweight, malleable, and a good conductor of heat and electricity. These characteristics made lithium an immediately desirable commodity for industrial and manufacturing purposes. Since this time it has been used for manifold applications: in aircraft parts, fireworks, heat-resistant cookware, focal lenses, and even the fusion material in power plants. Today, the mineral is most commonly used for building the lithium-ion batteries that power our cell phones, tablets, laptops, and eco-friendly vehicles.

Over the past two centuries, scientists have gained a deeper appreciation of this alkali earth metal, which is now known to be relatively common in the earth’s upper crust. As the 27th most abundant element, it can be found in rock sediments, salt flats, and mineral springs at varying concentrations throughout the globe. The largest deposits of lithium are salars, or vast saline basins in the deserts of South America. Lithium is also highly concentrated in clay beds and hard rock underground mines dotting Australia, China, and some parts of North America.

Lithium is in fact so ubiquitous in these environments that it can readily be found in food and water supplies. The US Environmental Protection Agency has estimated that the daily lithium intake of an average adult ranges from about 0.65 mg to 3 mg. Grains and vegetables serve as the primary sources of lithium in a standard diet, with animal byproducts such as eggs and milk providing the rest. Lithium has even been officially added to the World Health Organization’slist of nutritionally essential trace elements alongside zinc, iodine, and others.

The most frequent source of lithium in the modern diet, however, is tap water. Depending on geographical location, drinking water contains substantial amounts of naturally occurring lithium. According to environmental surveys, water with high mineral content can translate to 2 mg or so of lithium per day.

There has been little research on the specific consequences of lithium deficiency in humans. However, trials in which animals have been put on low-lithium diets have revealed a gross decrease in reproductive function, lifespan, and lipid metabolism. It is quite possible that lithium deficiency has many other effects on human physiology, but the study of nutritional lithium has been overshadowed by the volatile reputation of high-dose pharmaceutical lithium.

Lithium as Medicine

Official documentation of the medical applications of lithium was first publicized by London doctor Alfred Baring Garrod, who used it to treat patients with gout. After discovering uric acid in the blood of his patients with gout, he wrote about pioneering the use of lithium in his 1859 treatise, The Nature and Treatment of Gout and Rheumatic Gout. Between the 1850s and 1890s, several other physicians experimented with lithium treatment because at the time uric acid was viewed as a critical factor in many diseases.

Both the medical literature and popular advertisements of the time abounded with praise for lithium. The Sears, Roebuck & Company Catalogue of 1908 advertised Schieffelin’s Effervescent Lithia Tablets for a variety of uric acid afflictions. By 1907, The Merck Index listed 43 different medicinal preparations containing lithium. Even soft drink entrepreneur Charles Leiper Grigg understood that there was something special about lithium. In 1929, he unveiled a drink called Bib-Label Lithiated Lemon-Lime Soda with the slogan “It takes the ouch out of the grouch.” Hailed for improving mood and curing hangovers, this product was eventually rechristened 7 Up. The “7” supposedly represents the rounded-up atomic weight of the element lithium (6.9), and the “Up” suggests its power to lift spirits. Lithium remained an ingredient of 7 Up until 1950.

An Australian psychiatrist, Dr. John Cade, is credited with first experimenting with high doses of lithium citrate and lithium carbonate as a treatment for manic depressive illness in 1949. He observed first in animals and then in human trials that lithium stabilized mood, restored memory, and improved cognitive function, even in his most challenging subjects. Because of his well-structured study and the dramatic results, some historians of medicine consider that Cade ushered in modern psychopharmacology.

Unfortunately, the timing of Cade’s treatment successes was ill fated. The very same year, 1949, adverse reaction reports surfaced in the media about patients who were taking lithium chloride in the US. As physicians encouraged patients with heart disease and hypertension to avoid sodium chloride, lithium chloride was marketed as an alternative to sodium chloride in four different preparations: Salti-salt, Milosal, Foodsal, and Westsal. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, physicians around the country released reports of patients who developed lithium poisoning after they had used large, uncontrolled amounts of Westsal. Several deaths were also reported, leading the FDA to ban the use of lithium salt substitutes. “Stop using this dangerous poisoning at once!” exhorted the FDA. Lithium fell out of favor in the American medical community.

Despite this lithium chloride debacle, trials testing the efficacy of lithium carbonate for mania continued in Australia and France. Eventually the research from other countries became so compelling that by the end of the decade, a “lithium underground” had formed of US physicians prescribing lithium in the absence of official FDA approval. Finally, the FDA sanctioned lithium in 1970 as a new investigational drug for use in treatment of acute mania. By this time many other countries had already approved lithium, including France, the UK, Germany, and Italy. In 1974, lithium was finally approved to prevent recurrent mania.

Since the official FDA approval of pharmaceutical-dose lithium, the mineral has proved to be one of the most versatile and successful drugs in psychiatry. According to treatment guidelines, lithium carbonate is recognized as the first-line therapy in patients with bipolar disorder. Recent meta-analyses underscore the superiority of lithium as a prophylactic for both mania and depression. Lithium’s effectiveness in suicide prevention has also been demonstrated. While antidepressants may treat depression, they often exacerbate symptoms of agitation, restlessness, irritability, and anger that can lead to impulsivity and aggression. Lithium, by contrast, has specific effects against suicide that are independent of mood stabilization. Substantial literature also exists to support the use of lithium in a broad spectrum of other neurological conditions including substance abuse, violent and aggressive behavior, ADHD, and cognitive decline.

The pharmacological mechanisms under which lithium operates have yet to be understood in totality, although many well-supported hypotheses exist. It appears that lithium functions in two central ways in the body’s neurochemistry: repairing damaged neurons and stimulating neuronal growth. Proposed mechanisms for lithium’s effect on balancing mood include the altering of dopamine, glutamate, and GABA levels in the synapses as well as modulation of secondary messenger pathways that effect neurotransmission, including the adenylyl cyclase system, cAMP signaling pathway, and phosphoinositide system. Accumulating evidence has shown that lithium’s diverse neuroprotective actions involve direct changes in the expression of multiple genes.

It was once believed that genes were destiny. Scientists and clinicians held fast to the idea that a fixed genetic code was hardwired in humans at conception, and that mutations were a sure predictor of disease. However, it is now known that environmental factors have a profound influence on the ways in which genes are expressed. The study of epigenetics has revealed that lifestyle factors, including physical activity, learning, stress exposure, and pharmacological compounds, can essentially switch genes on or off. The mineral lithium is a powerful epigenetic factor. Key epigenetic mechanisms include histone modifications and changes in DNA methylation. Lithium works in both of these channels and has been shown to influence the expression of over 50 different genes. Working in these epigenetic pathways, lithium supports a wide range of neuroprotective and neurotrophic actions that literally change brain physiology.

Low-Dose Lithium

I believe that lithium is the most effective medication in psychiatry. Psychiatrists over the years have been hesitant to prescribe lithium because it is toxic at pharmaceutical doses. Concerns about side effects and toxicity are nonexistent when lithium is used as a nutritional, low-dose supplement. The untapped potential of low-dose lithium in psychiatry has implications for dramatically changing clinical practice with a safe, integrative strategy for the treatment of mental illness.
    
I have treated children as young as 4 years old and adults in their 70s with low-dose lithium. Here are a few examples of the hundreds of patients in whom this treatment has been successful.

A 4-year-old boy, Peter, had severe ADHD. Even at this young age, he was shunned by other children, and his parents were asked to remove him from preschool. It was easy to observe his aggressive behaviors in my office. A trace mineral analysis from a hair sample revealed no detectable lithium. I prescribed 250 mcg of lithium in liquid form. Peter’s annoying aggressiveness diminished. He became able to make friends, and eventually he began to participate cooperatively with other children in a new preschool.

Shawn at age 8 was often in trouble for bullying. Although he had been diagnosed with ADHD, stimulants had not been helpful. His trace mineral analysis showed no detectable lithium. On 2 mg of lithium orotate, he showed significant improvement, and he lost interest in bullying other children.

A 20-year-old patient, Amy, was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. She had been doing better on Depakote, although she continued to have anger outbursts and uncontrolled rages. Although she had once been on prescription lithium, she had experienced side effects that prevented ongoing use. I prescribed 10 mg of lithium for her in conjunction with the Depakote. Her condition improved so much that she was able to leave a therapeutic boarding school to return home.

A middle-aged man named Brian made an appointment with me to talk about his problems with anger and irritability. I had no trouble imagining these problems, as I was unavoidably 15 minutes late in calling him to my office. He berated me for most of the session, and I later heard that he had been verbally abusive with my staff. Brian, I learned, had suffered from depression and was currently taking an antidepressant, but his irritability remained. His wife reported that his road rage escalated to such intensity that he would get out of the car and yell at other drivers. I added 10 mg of lithium to Brian’s antidepressant treatment. Both he and his wife later reported that his simmering road rage subsided to nothing more than mild frustration.

The case of my patient Patricia was revealing by all of my assessment strategies: clinical history, family history, and trace mineral analysis. A 43-year-old therapist, she had been diagnosed at age 18 with depression and alcohol abuse. I learned from her story that her family of origin was deeply impaired by alcoholism. Patricia had been taking an antidepressant and had worked hard at maintaining her sobriety for 10 years. She came to me for enhanced support, as she complained that she was a “dry drunk,” clinging to “white-knuckle sobriety.” She felt chronically irritable. Trace mineral analysis revealed some level of lithium in her hair, but it was low.

Six weeks after I prescribed 5 mg of lithium, Patricia came to my office in tears. She was partly joyful that she no longer felt a constant level of irritability, but she also realized with regret what it must have been like for her family to have tolerated her irritability and anger for such a long time.

In an effort to organize and disseminate the information of low-dose lithium, I have started to compile additional case studies and ongoing research efforts on the website www.lowdoselithium.org.

In 1970, one research study analyzed levels of organically derived lithium in the water of 27 Texan counties and compared them to the incidence of admissions and readmissions for psychoses, neuroses, and personality disorders at local state mental hospitals. Data from a 2-year period were collected and analyzed. The authors noticed a marked trend: the higher the lithium content in the water supply, the lower the rate of psychiatric illness in that county. This association remained significant even after correcting for possible confounding variables such as population density and distance to the nearest state hospitals.

A follow-up study in the same Texan counties looked at similar variables over a longer 9-year span. Researchers came up with almost identical results: the incidences of suicide, homicide, and rape were significantly higher in counties where drinking water contained little or no lithium, versus those with levels ranging from 70 to 170 mcg/L. Unsure if these striking findings were somehow unique to that geographical region, other researchers have sought to replicate the study template in other areas throughout the globe. Lithium water studies have now been repeated internationally at sites in Austria, England, Greece, and Japan. Overall the collection has revealed a strong inverse correlation between aggressive crime and suicide and supplemental levels of lithium in the water supply.
Another interesting finding came from a study that looked at lithium levels in the hair of criminals.
Trace mineral hair analysis is one of the most accurate methods for testing long-term mineral status and is therefore highly advantageous for determining where deficiencies are present. This study found that violent criminals had little to no stores of lithium when tested via hair mineral analysis, bringing forth the idea that perhaps lithium deficiency was contributing to oppositional and aggressive behaviors.

The most fascinating research recently, however, has been on the use of lithium for Alzheimer’s disease. Given its being the only cause of death in the top 10 in America that cannot be prevented, cured, or slowed, researchers are spending billions of dollars on Alzheimer’s disease. There is a fast-growing community of researchers suggesting that lithium may provide significant benefits in the treatment and prevention of Alzheimer’s.
    
Lithium has been shown to disrupt the key enzyme responsible for the development of amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles associated with Alzheimer’s disease. This enzyme is glycogen synthase kinase-3 (GSK-3), a serine/threonine protein kinase that is important in neural growth and development. Notably, specific levels of GSK-3 are required to carry out the synaptic remodeling that drives memory formation.

In Alzheimer’s disease, GSK-3 becomes hyperactive in the areas of the brain controlling memory and behavior, including the hippocampus and frontal cortex. This upregulation spurs GSK-3 to phosphorylate, or activate, amyloid-B and tau proteins in the neurons of these regions at an aberrantly high rate. Over time these proteins accumulate to create the signature plaques and neurofibrillary tangles that disrupt the brain tissue and result in symptoms of cognitive decline. Lithium works as a direct GSK-3 inhibitor to prevent this overexpression, halting inappropriate amyloid production and the hyperphosphorylation of tau proteins before they impair brain function.
    
In addition to protecting the brain from the development of plaques and tangles, lithium has been shown to repair existing damages brought about by Alzheimer’s disease pathogenesis. Lithium ions, for example, encourage the synthesis and release of key neurotrophic factors such as brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and neurotrophin-3 (NT-3), which in turn stimulate the growth and repair of neurons. Patients on lithium have been found to have significantly higher gray matter volumes in the brain. One study has even directly demonstrated that damaged nerve cells exposed to lithium respond with increases in dendritic number and length.

In a recent trial published in Current Alzheimer’s Research, a nutritional dose of just 300 mcg of lithium was administered to Alzheimer’s patients for 15 months. When compared with the control, those on low-dose lithium showed significant improvements in cognitive markers after just 3 months of treatment. Furthermore, these protective effects appeared to strengthen as the study proceeded, with many of the lithium-treated individuals showing marked cognitive improvements by the end of the trial. These results suggest that lithium could be a viable treatment for Alzheimer’s disease when used at low doses over the long term.

Dr. Nassir Ghaemi, one of the more notable and respected advocates of lithium use in the medical community, recently published a review in 2014 in Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry summarizing the benefits of low-dose lithium therapy. Ghaemi and his colleagues performed a systematic review of 24 clinical, epidemiological, and biological reports that assessed standard or low-dose lithium for dementia along with other behavioral or medical benefits. Five of the seven epidemiological studies established a correlation with standard-dose lithium therapy and low dementia rates, while four other randomized clinical trials demonstrated that low-dose lithium yielded more benefit for patients with Alzheimer’s dementia versus placebo. Based on these findings, Ghaemi stressed that “lithium is, by far, the most proven drug to keep neurons alive, in animals and in humans, consistently and with many replicated studies.”

The Future of Lithium

Recognizing that nutrition is key to brain health is a fundamental premise of integrative medicine. Instead of focusing on just one type of intervention, integrative medicine tries to address all factors that may contribute to a mental disorder – bringing together nutritional supplements, medicines, psychotherapy, and lifestyle changes.

Lithium must be recognized as a critical component of nutritional assessments. Lithium is an underused nutritional supplement. The diverse neuroprotective mechanisms are truly remarkable. The scientific literature has shown that lithium modulates GSK-3, enhances the release of neurotrophic factors such as BDNF, and promotes epigenetic changes that resets the trajectory of mental illness. Lithium is powerful, reliable, cost effective, and, at low doses, completely safe.

With low-dose lithium, we have a safe nutritional supplement that is effective in treating a wide range of disabling symptoms of mental illness. Perhaps in the future, patients like Jamie Lowe, the author of the New York Times article, will not be forced to make a decision between mental and physical health. The compelling and growing scientific literature on the benefits of low-dose lithium therapy combined with over 25 years of clinical practice have convinced me that with low-dose lithium, it is entirely possible to have both.

References

Bech P. The full story of lithium. Nord J Psychiatry. 2007;61(46):35–39. 
Cade JFJ. Lithium salts in the treatment of psychotic excitement. Med J Aust. 1949;2.
Diniz BS, Machado-Vieira RM, Forlenza OV. Lithium and neuroprotectin: translational evidence and implications for the treatment of neuropsychiatric disorders. Neuropsychiatr Dis Treat. 2013;9:493–500.
Farah R et al. Lithium’s gene expression profile, a cDNA microarray study. Cell Mol Neurobiol. 2013;33:411–420. 
Mauer S, Vergne D, Ghaemi NS. Standard and trace-dose lithium: a systematic review of dementia prevention and other behavioral benefits. Aust N Z J Psychiatry. 2014;48(9):809–818. 
Nunes MA, Viel TA, Buck HS. Microdose lithium treatment stabilized cognitive impairment in patients with Alzheimer’s disease. Curr Alzheimer Res. 2013;10(1):104–107.
Shorter E. The history of lithium therapy. Bipolar Disord. 2009;11(2):4–9.
Schrauzer GN. Lithium: occurrence dietary intakes, nutritional essentiality. J Am Coll Nutr. 2002;21(2):14–21.
Schrauzer GN, de Vroey E. Effects of nutritional lithium supplementation on mood. Biol Trace Elem Res.1994;40:89–101.
Schrauzer GN, Shrestha KP. Lithium in drinking water and the incidences of crimes, suicides and arrests related to drug addictions. Biol Trace Elem Res. 1990;25:105–113.
Strobasch AD, Jefferson JW. The checkered history of lithium in medicine. Pharm Hist. 1980;22(2):72–76.
Young AH, Hammond JM. Lithium in mood disorders: increasing evidence base, declining use? Br J Psychiatry 2007;191:474–476.
Young W. Review of lithium effects on brain and blood. Cell Transplant. 2009;18:951–975.
James M. Greenblatt, MD, currently serves as the chief medical officer and vice president of Medical Services at Walden Behavioral Care in Waltham, Massachusetts. He is assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at Tufts University School of Medicine. An acknowledged integrative medicine expert, Dr. Greenblatt has lectured throughout the US on the scientific evidence for nutritional interventions in psychiatry and mental illness. Dr. Greenblatt is on the scientific advisory board and consultant for Pure Encapsulations. He maintains an integrative psychiatric practice in the Boston area.
Kayla Grossmann, RN, works as a nurse advocate and freelance writer specializing in integrative health research and practice. She supports several large organizations in the field by contributing to their ongoing educational initiatives and clinical programming.

Find out more about their upcoming book and work on www.lowdoselithium.org

Dr. Howton’s comments:
At Restore Health Center we use Lithium Ororate in 5 mg capsules with a typical dose being 5mg once or twice a day and we routinely see the benefits described in this excellent article. Because low dose lithium is so cost effective (a bottle of 90 capsules sells at our office for $10.34), it is one of our first line choices to protect memory and optimize mood.

 

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ENTER The O Zone

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A game-changing new treatment is giving women back control of their bodies
as well as their sexual desire.

 

What would say if we told you there was a shot which you could get directly into your clitoris, which would increase your sexual desire, give you mind-blowing orgasms and even treat urinal incontinence… and all of this could be achieved on your lunch break with zero downtime? You’d probably believe us more readily if we told you we’d commuted to work this morning on a purple unicorn. But the truth is that this procedure, known as the O-shot, does exist and is about to become mainstream. In fact, you may have already heard of it in another guise – the vampire facial (made famous by Kim and

Kourtney Take Miami). The vampire facial is the brainchild of Dr Charles Runels, who saw that PRP (Plasma Rich Platelets) medical technology was revolutionising medicine by helping to heal musculoskeletal injuries, and that it could also be applied to the face to encourage skin rejuvenation.

As part of the treatment, a blood sample is taken from the patient and using a centrifuge, platelet rich plasma (PRP) is isolated. This PRP’s is full of growth factors, which are injected into the affected area to activate stem cells the stem cells there. In 2010, it struck Dr. Runels that this technology could be used not only in facials, but in another unlikely way. “One day a patient of mine was undergoing a facial, and asked if this procedure could, in theory, be used on her vagina. And of course I said that it could, so the idea for the O-Shot was born from this”

 

“SEXUAL ENERGY IS A VERY BIG PART OF THE CREATIVE PROCESS – IT ENERGISES US WHETHER THAT’S IN THE BEDROOM OR THE BOARDROOM”

 

LITTLE UNDERSTANDING

Patients come to Dr Runels seeking the O shot for a myriad of reasons, from female sexual disorder (difficulty getting aroused) and female orgasmic disorder (difficulty climaxing) both of which statistics say that one in 20 women suffer from, to hypoactive sexual desire disorder (low desire), which around 10 per cent of women suffer from. There are also physical reasons such as urinal incontinence and dysperunia (pain during sex), both of which can be caused by child birth, menopause, or just as part of the natural aging process. Sadly research shows that only 14 percent of women ever talk to their doctor about sex, even though approximately 48 percent of women are concerned about their sexual function. “Part of the reason that doctors and patients don’t really get into discussions about these kinds of disorders is that there isn’t really a proven solution, other than hormone therapies, or psychotherapy, which may not be what the women even needs,” says Dr. Rundels. “Whereas on the other hand men have drugs available to them such as Viagra.” Another problem which women have revealed to him is that they don’t get much sympathy from their partner or friends in a similar way to if she were suffering from a psychological disorder. “If a woman has pneumonia or breaks her arm,m sympathy is given un abundance, but a woman with depression or severe anxiety, can be slower to share her problems and friends can be even slower to understand, “says Dr Runels. “It’s the same with a sexual disorder.”

FEELING GOOD

Loss of sexual function can cause a downward spiral for women. “When a women has a positive sexual experience, she is more likely to initiate sex,” says Dr. Runels. “If a woman gas a negative experience – difficulty with arousal or pain – it’s more difficult for her to et aroused the next time. Her responses become less powerful, so it’s a vicious downward spiral. However after the shot, she has a positive experience, so there’s a positive spiral upwards. The effect is twofold – physical and psychological – because in addition to the tissue becoming healthier, she is also more open to future encounters.” The first O-Shot goes into the patient’s clitoris, and for those of you who didn’t get the anatomy class in school it’s worth noting that most of the clitoris is inside a woman’s body, the part that is visible is actually only the tip. When the O-Shot is injected the whole clitoris can be stimulated rather than just the tip because the nerves become more responsive. This is also how it helps with urinal incontinence because the same nerves help to control the musculature there. The second shot goes into the skene’s glands in the vagina, which is similar to the prostate gland in a man. After the O-Shot some women even become ejaculatory for the first time in their lives when they orgasm.

RELEASE THE ENERGY

According to Dr. Runels, the majority of his patients have tried all the conventional methods of improving the quality of their sex lives, from sex therapy and sex aids to self-help books, and he acknowledges that while getting to know your body better is always a good thing, there is little point if your body is not working effectively because of hormonal changes or after a procedure like an episiotomy. “I compare this to being told no read a book on how to drive a car when your engine has broken down,” says Dr. Runels. “I had a patient in her twenties who delivered a large baby, and had to have an episiotomy. She hadn’t been able to have sex with her husband since because she was in so much pain, and it was really affecting their once very loving, attentive relationship.” The fact that Dr. Runels can offer women an option means women begin to feel they are taking back control of their bodies and their sex live, and this is hugely transformative. “I can see that they feel like they are getting their spark back. The ancient Chinese believed that we could transmute sexual energy into genius and creativity, and without it people become like a castrated animal. I am a big believer that sexual energy us a very big part of the creative process, and it energises us whether that’s in the bedroom or the boardroom. Even women who do not have a partner and do not want a partner, but may just want to have sexual experiences alone benefit from this resurgence in sexual energy.

COMING SOON

On this side of the Atlantic, currently Dr. Sherif Elwakil, is the only doctor offering the treatment in Europe at his cosmetic clinic in Harley Street and Edgware Street, London (Royalskinclinic.com). “I have patients who come specifically for this treatment from all over Europe and I expected it to be successful, but I had no idea it would be this successful. So far I’ve had four patients come to me from Ireland, who have even come to me from Ireland, who have even come to me in the morning and flown home that evening.” But why is this treatment not available more widely if it’s going to revolutionize how we treat sexual disorder for women? “I think old-school medical practitioners in Europe are slow to get on board with new treatments like this from the States. But the feedback is so good that more and more people will begin asking for it. I think women’s sexuality has been underestimated for too long. I have actually trained with Charles Runels in the Us in how to teach other doctors how to administer this treatment and I’m going to start holding training sessions around Europe from January, so I expect next year that this treatment will really take off.”

WHAT TO EXPECT

There will be a nurse present with the doctor throughout the procedure, which takes about 35 to 40 minutes in all and will set you back £1,000. First the doctor or nurse applies a numbing cream to the vagina and the arm. Blood is drawn from the arm in the same was as with any blood test. While the PRP is being prepared, which take about ten minutes, the doctor can talk to you and answer any last minute questions you might have. Then, using a very thin needle, the PRP is injected the clitoris and into the upper vagina into an area most important for the sexual response. Because these areas have been numbered with the anesthetic cream, you feel little or no pain and the actual injections themselves takes no more than five minutes.

“The best this about this treatment is that you’re using the growth factors you have in your own body to stimulate vaginal and clitoral rejuvenation, so it’s a completely natural treatment, with no downtime afterwards,” says Dr. Elwakil. “Some of my patients have even had sexual intercourse the same day after treatment.”

IT DOESN’T END THERE

When it comes to PRP medical technology both Dr. Runels and Dr. Elwakil emphasize that we are only seeing the tip of the iceberg as regards its potential. “Stem cell research is in its infancy, which is why a lot of the money I make from the O-Shot I put back into research for its other potential uses,” says Dr Runels. “Imagine a keychain which holds the key to every room in the body – bone, hair, collagen – this keychain is the PRP and science hasn’t unlocked this stem cell technology fully yet. There are many doors still to be opened.” Another condition which has responded well to treatment with PRP has been lichen Selerosus and Vulval Health, Association here in the UK,” says Dr. Elwakil. “I have personally injected five patients with lichen selerosus who have reported that it has improved the condition. I have also had patients come to me, who haven’t lost sexual function and don’t suffer from any problems, but they are hitting their fifties and they want to maintain their sexual health. I like to promote the idea of prevention in my clinic rather than waiting for a problem to arise. This means that women can continue to have a healthy, active sex life for as long as she wants to. This, more than any treatment on offer, is going to keep a woman feeling youthful and attractive.”

*Statistics from Obstetrics and Gynecology, 2011

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Stem Cell Transplant

Stem cells and derived products offer great promise for new medical treatments. Learn about stem cell types, current and possible uses, ethical issues, and the state of research and practice.

By Mayo Clinic Staff

You’ve heard about stem cells in the news, and perhaps you’ve wondered if they might help you or a loved one with a serious disease. You may wonder what stem cells are, how they’re being used to treat disease and injury, and why they’re the subject of such vigorous debate.

Here are some answers to frequently asked questions about stem cells.

Why is there such an interest in stem cells?

Researchers and doctors hope stem cell studies can help to:

  • Increase understanding of how diseases occur. By watching stem cells mature into cells in bones, heart muscle, nerves, and other organs and tissue, researchers and doctors may better understand how diseases and conditions develop.
  • Generate healthy cells to replace diseased cells (regenerative medicine). Stem cells can be guided into becoming specific cells that can be used to regenerate and repair diseased or damaged tissues in people.People who might benefit from stem cell therapies include those with spinal cord injuries, type 1 diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, heart disease, stroke, burns, cancer and osteoarthritis.Stem cells may have the potential to be grown to become new tissue for use in transplant and regenerative medicine. Researchers continue to advance the knowledge on stem cells and their applications in transplant and regenerative medicine.
  • Test new drugs for safety and effectiveness. Before using new drugs in people, some types of stem cells are useful to test the safety and quality of investigational drugs. This type of testing will most likely first have a direct impact on drug development for cardiac toxicity testing.New areas of study include the effectiveness of using human stem cells that have been programmed into tissue-specific cells to test new drugs. For testing of new drugs to be accurate, the cells must be programmed to acquire properties of the type of cells to be tested. Techniques to program cells into specific cells continue to be studied.For instance, nerve cells could be generated to test a new drug for a nerve disease. Tests could show whether the new drug had any effect on the cells and whether the cells were harmed.

What are stem cells?

Stem cells are the body’s raw materials — cells from which all other cells with specialized functions are generated. Under the right conditions in the body or a laboratory, stem cells divide to form more cells called daughter cells.

These daughter cells either become new stem cells (self-renewal) or become specialized cells (differentiation) with a more specific function, such as blood cells, brain cells, heart muscle or bone. No other cell in the body has the natural ability to generate new cell types.

Where do stem cells come from?

Researchers have discovered several sources of stem cells:

  • Embryonic stem cells. These stem cells come from embryos that are three to five days old. At this stage, an embryo is called a blastocyst and has about 150 cells.These are pluripotent (ploo-RIP-uh-tunt) stem cells, meaning they can divide into more stem cells or can become any type of cell in the body. This versatility allows embryonic stem cells to be used to regenerate or repair diseased tissue and organs, although their use in people has been to date limited to eye-related disorders such as macular degeneration.
  • Adult stem cells. These stem cells are found in small numbers in most adult tissues, such as bone marrow or fat. Compared with embryonic stem cells, adult stem cells have a more limited ability to give rise to various cells of the body.Until recently, researchers thought adult stem cells could create only similar types of cells. For instance, researchers thought that stem cells residing in the bone marrow could give rise only to blood cells.However, emerging evidence suggests that adult stem cells may be able to create unrelated types of cells. For instance, bone marrow stem cells may be able to create bone or heart muscle cells. This research has led to early-stage clinical trials to test usefulness and safety in people. For example, adult stem cells are currently being tested in people with neurological or heart disease.
  • Adult cells altered to have properties of embryonic stem cells (induced pluripotent stem cells). Scientists have successfully transformed regular adult cells into stem cells using genetic reprogramming. By altering the genes in the adult cells, researchers can reprogram the cells to act similarly to embryonic stem cells.This new technique may allow researchers to use these reprogrammed cells instead of embryonic stem cells and prevent immune system rejection of the new stem cells. However, scientists don’t yet know if altering adult cells will cause adverse effects in humans.Researchers have been able to take regular connective tissue cells and reprogram them to become functional heart cells. In studies, animals with heart failure that were injected with new heart cells experienced improved heart function and survival time.
  • Perinatal stem cells. Researchers have discovered stem cells in amniotic fluid in addition to umbilical cord blood stem cells. These stem cells also have the ability to change into specialized cells.Amniotic fluid fills the sac that surrounds and protects a developing fetus in the uterus. Researchers have identified stem cells in samples of amniotic fluid drawn from pregnant women during a procedure called amniocentesis, a test conducted to test for abnormalities.More study of amniotic fluid stem cells is needed to understand their potential.

Why is there a controversy about using embryonic stem cells?

Embryonic stem cells are obtained from early-stage embryos — a group of cells that forms when a woman’s egg is fertilized with a man’s sperm in an in vitro fertilization clinic. Because human embryonic stem cells are extracted from human embryos, several questions and issues have been raised about the ethics of embryonic stem cell research.

The National Institutes of Health created guidelines for human stem cell research in 2009. Guidelines included defining embryonic stem cells and how they may be used in research and donation guidelines for embryonic stem cells. Also, guidelines stated embryonic stem cells may only be used from embryos created by in vitro fertilization when the embryo is no longer needed.

Where do these embryos come from?

The embryos being used in embryonic stem cell research come from eggs that were fertilized at in vitro fertilization clinics but never implanted in a woman’s uterus. The stem cells are donated with informed consent from donors. The stem cells can live and grow in special solutions in test tubes or petri dishes in laboratories.

Why can’t researchers use adult stem cells instead?

Although research into adult stem cells is promising, adult stem cells may not be as versatile and durable as are embryonic stem cells. Adult stem cells may not be able to be manipulated to produce all cell types, which limits how adult stem cells can be used to treat diseases.

Adult stem cells also are more likely to contain abnormalities due to environmental hazards, such as toxins, or from errors acquired by the cells during replication. However, researchers have found that adult stem cells are more adaptable than was initially suspected.

What are stem cell lines and why do researchers want to use them?

A stem cell line is a group of cells that all descend from a single original stem cell and is grown in a lab. Cells in a stem cell line keep growing but don’t differentiate into specialized cells. Ideally, they remain free of genetic defects and continue to create more stem cells. Clusters of cells can be taken from a stem cell line and frozen for storage or shared with other researchers.

What is stem cell therapy (regenerative medicine), and how does it work?

Stem cell therapy, also known as regenerative medicine, promotes the reparative response of diseased, dysfunctional or injured tissue using stem cells or their derivatives. It is the next chapter of organ transplantation and uses cells instead of donor organs, which are limited in supply.

Researchers grow stem cells in a lab. These stem cells are manipulated to specialize into specific types of cells, such as heart muscle cells, blood cells or nerve cells.

The specialized cells can then be implanted into a person. For example, if the person has heart disease, the cells could be injected into the heart muscle. The healthy transplanted heart cells could then contribute to repairing defective heart muscle.

Researchers have already shown that adult bone marrow cells guided to become heart-like cells can repair heart tissue in people, and more research is ongoing.

Have stem cells already been used to treat diseases?

Yes, doctors have performed stem cell transplants, also known as bone marrow transplants. In stem cell transplants, stem cells replace cells damaged by chemotherapy or disease or as a way for the donor’s immune system to fight some types of cancer and blood-related diseases, such as leukemia. These transplants use adult stem cells or umbilical cord blood.

Researchers are testing adult stem cells to treat other conditions, including a number of degenerative diseases such as heart failure.

What are the potential problems with using embryonic stem cells in humans?

To be useful in people, researchers must be certain that stem cells will differentiate into the specific cell types desired.

Researchers have discovered ways to direct stem cells to become specific types of cells, such as directing embryonic stem cells to become heart cells. Research is ongoing in this area.

Embryonic stem cells also could grow irregularly or specialize in different cell types spontaneously. Researchers study how to control the growth and differentiation of embryonic stem cells.

Embryonic stem cells also might trigger an immune response in which the recipient’s body attacks the stem cells as foreign invaders, or simply fail to function normally, with unknown consequences. Researchers continue to study how to avoid these possible complications.

What is therapeutic cloning, and what benefits might it offer?

Therapeutic cloning, also called somatic cell nuclear transfer, is a technique to create versatile stem cells independent of fertilized eggs. In this technique, the nucleus, which contains the genetic material, is removed from an unfertilized egg. The nucleus is also removed from a somatic cell of a donor.

This donor nucleus is then injected into the egg, replacing the nucleus that was removed, a process called nuclear transfer. The egg is allowed to divide and soon forms a blastocyst. This process creates a line of stem cells that is genetically identical to the donor’s — in essence, a clone.

Some researchers believe that stem cells derived from therapeutic cloning may offer benefits over those from fertilized eggs because cloned cells are less likely to be rejected once transplanted back into the donor and may allow researchers to see exactly how a disease develops.

Has therapeutic cloning in people been successful?

No. Researchers haven’t been able to successfully perform therapeutic cloning with humans despite success in a number of other species.

However, in recent studies, researchers have created human pluripotent stem cells by modifying the therapeutic cloning process. Researchers continue to study the potential of therapeutic cloning in people.

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