I have been reading about Stem Cells and what they can do for us for some time now and I would like to put in my two cents worth. Since the advent of the genome projects I have been fascinated by Bioscience, especially stem cell research. I’m writing this having reached my seventy third birthday; which would explain my interest in Bio Gerontology.

Most Bio Scientists are looking to solving cancers, stroke and cardiovascular disease and to find new medicines, looking at stem cells as just another tool with which to eventually "repair" body parts, like damaged heart tissue, but they don’t think we will be able to integrate new neurons into the brain and cure other difficult conditions. They say the brain simply cannot be removed and replaced; not even bit by bit. 

But that is not the concept to which I am alluding! I think that Occam’s Rasor would say- 

Stem cell therapy is NOT "invasive surgery". It is “simply about boosting our own bodies healing processes many times over”, allowing our body to heal itself, a re-genesis as it were.

As Advanced Cell Technology Inc. said in a statement, “stem cells carry the blueprint for health. By nature, they are attracted to the site of disease or defect and upon arrival produce or heal the cells which are required by the body for health”. 

I am convinced that we are very close to a major “break-through” in this area. 

We know that that human bone marrow includes in it, stem cells! With the use of adult cells we would be using the patient’s own marrow! There won't be any rejection. (and we can now make old stem cells like new again).

As we get older too many things start to go wrong, and the body needs some help or we die. That’s where stem cells come in. The stem cells will travel through the body dropping off to fix damaged heart tissue, build more neurons for the brain, rebuild an organ or two, and maybe build a new gall bladder to replace the one taken out years ago. Back problems could be fixed. All this and more.  In other words the whole body would be brought back to “DNA factory” specifications.

The scenario might go something like this –

You make an appointment with a Re-genesis Clinic. On your first visit a whole body scan is done and marrow is taken from your “body” and sent to the lab to harvest the stem cells, and then grown in a culture environment to several millions of cells.
You're booked to see a surgeon to have your body scoured of all contaminants, foreign bodies, cancerous and precancerous lesions and polyps etc., spotted during the scan.
On the next visit you would be connected to a dialysis machine in order to have your blood thoroughly cleansed, after which the stem cells would be introduced into the dialysis unit, along with your cleansed blood, for slow and steady injection of stem cells into the body.

What would that mean for you? I would say that in a few months you would look, feel, and be, young again. And who’s to say we couldn’t go back 30 or 50 years later and have it done all over again!

How long could we live? Well maybe Aubrey de Grey is right; barring a tragic accident, we could live for hundreds of years by visiting a Re-genesis Clinic over and over again.

What do you think? Is pseudo immortality a possibility in the very near future??

I'm going to live forever,
or die trying !
Wayne A. Gill

waynegill@shaw.ca

ps   I am being tested for Alzheimer’s and several other things as I write this -

       I need some help before it’s too late!

The Creation of the Universe as per the Bible -

Genesis: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. ------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
And by the seventh day God completed His work; and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We all know this story, whether we are believers , agnostics or atheists, we all know the story.

But what really happened?

It's a given that all of this actually did happen! But those seven days have been scientifically found to be approximately 2,000,000,000 (2 billion) years each; for a sum total of 14,000,000,000 (14 billion) years to finish the job.

It started with a bang , a "Big Bang", and evolution ran it's course. No GOD had anything to do with it!

So why do so many believe otherwise?

They are afraid of death!

We die and we are no longer alive, we live the life we choose, stay as long as we can, and then it's over. Like all living things, we die and become part of the earth, rubble.

We are very lucky that 'mankind' has evolved and made it to this particular time in history! We are on the verge of living forever (well at least for a few hundred years)! The advent of the Stem Cell is about to change everything. No other animal on this planet is able to use science.

We have a brain that has evolved over time. We learned about health, medicine, engineering, about science, we have now begun to understand that the human body can, soon, be near immortal. There is no limit to what we can do – if we ever figure out how to live together in pease! Our future is up to us, No God watches over us, we are on our own.

I write this because I want my fellow humans to think about what we are doing to this planet. We need to think long and hard; before we manage to kill ourselves and earth too!
And make it impossible to live on this planet at all!

gilli3

I 'll live forever
or die trying.

The new Theocracy

The “Terry Schiavo” episode, now ended, was just the first salvo in the political battle to transform America from a democracy into a religious theocracy. This attempt by the religious right is unrelenting, and liberal Democrats (and the few liberal Republicans) seem unable to stem the tide.
The only hope is that the federal judiciary will stand united in disallowing all attempts to bring about this transposition of America, from democracy to a theocratic form of government.
It is ironic that the America that is “at war” with Muslim fundamentalists who would turn all mid-eastern, and other, governments into religious theocracies, is itself turning toward a religious theocracy. The mind boggles at the audacity of “the right wing” representatives who are attempting this with far less than 50% of American voters support.
The world watches in wonder as this attempt to change America rumbles ahead.
All I can say is, God Save America …from itself!

gilli3