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May 10th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda THURSDAY, May 10 (HealthDay News) — A new treatment that
involves spinning bone marrow stem cells to enhance their healing
potential may help people with advanced heart failure feel and function
better, a small study suggests.
Researchers developed the treatment by culturing a patient’s own bone
marrow for 12 days. This process helped increase the amount of immune
cells and stem cells that can differentiate into several different cell
types, including heart cells. Those cells were then injected into heart
muscle. The study was funded by treatment manufacturer Aastrom
Biosciences.
According to the findings, this treatment was safe, helped repair the
damaged heart muscle and reversed some heart failure symptoms, when
compared to a placebo injection. The findings were to be presented
Thursday at the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions
annual meeting, in Las Vegas.
The U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute reports that about
5.8 million people in the United States have heart failure, a condition
that occurs when the heart can no longer pump enough blood to meet the
body’s needs. Symptoms include shortness of breath, fatigue and swelling
in the ankles, feet, legs and abdomen. There is no cure; treatment
typically includes a cocktail of medications aimed at reducing symptoms
and improving quality of life.
“A number of people with heart failure have slowly progressing disease
despite medication and/or device therapy. If we could have a therapy for
this group that would slow the progression of heart failure, it would be
economic and change the disease process tremendously,” said study author
Dr. Timothy Henry, director of research and an interventional cardiologist
at the Minneapolis Heart Institute at Abbott Northwestern Hospital in
Minneapolis. The treatment would not be used for people who need a heart
transplant.
Calling it the next generation of stem cell therapy, Henry said the
treatment process helps enhance the potency of existing stem cells. “It
gives a more functional product,” and when injected these stem cells may
promote the growth of new blood vessels, he added.
Further study is ongoing, and if the results are positive a product
could be available within two years to treat inadequate blood supply to
the legs, and soon thereafter for heart failure, he said. According to
Henry, six or seven new products that enhance bone marrow stem cells are
being developed. “Ask your doctor if you are a candidate for any of the
clinical trials,” Henry advised.
The new study included 22 participants with advanced heart failure and
an enlarged heart whose current medication regimen was no longer
effective. They either received an injection of the stem cell therapy
treatment into their heart muscles or a placebo shot. After 12 months,
there were no complications and no difference in side effects among those
who received the stem cells and the control group. That said, individuals
who received the novel stem cell therapy did have a lower number of major
heart-related events and were more likely to see improvements in their
ability to walk without growing breathless. Those who received the stem
cell treatment also showed marked improvements in their ejection fraction,
which is a measure of how much blood leaves the heart with each pump.
“This study tells us that injecting stem cells into the heart muscle of
a patient with chronic heart failure may be beneficial,” says Dr. Sandeep
Jauhar, director of the congestive heart failure program at Long Island
Jewish Medical Center in New Hyde Park, N.Y. Typically, these individuals
are treated with multiple medications, put on a low-salt diet and
encouraged to get some exercise.
“The available medications are very effective and people live a lot
longer than they used to because of the drugs we have developed,” he said.
But many people reach a ceiling in terms of how effective the medications
are, he added.
“We do need a new way of treating heart failure if we want more
improvement,” said Jauhar, who added that it is too early to say whether
the new stem cell therapy will fill that role. “It shows some improvement
in pumping parameters of the heart, but that doesn’t mean you will live
longer,” he said.
This is a small study that suggests the treatment is safe, said Dr.
Kirk Garrett, clinical director of interventional cardiovascular research
at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. “The approach is different in
that most other groups zero in on one gene or cell type, and try to make
it do the work,” he said, while the new treatment involves both stem cells
and immune cells that are primed to do the job.
Because this study was presented at a medical meeting, the data and
conclusions should be viewed as preliminary until published in a
peer-reviewed journal.
More information
Learn more about heart failure and how it is treated at the U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.
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