| Can stem cell therapy be used to successfully treat | | | | Stem cells are cells found in most, if not all, |
| chronic Lyme disease? | | | | multi-cellular organisms. They are characterized by the |
| The answer is apparently "yes" according to Amy | | | | ability to renew themselves through mitotic cell |
| Scher, who is the self-proclaimed first woman to use | | | | division and differentiating into a diverse range of |
| stem cell technology to treat her debilitating case of | | | | specialized cell types. |
| chronic Lyme disease. | | | | Originally, research in the stem cell field grew out of |
| Amy went to India for the treatment and is now | | | | findings by Canadian scientists Ernest A. McCulloch |
| completely free from the chronic Lyme disease that | | | | and James E. Till in the 1960s. Little did they know |
| she suffered with for years. | | | | what an enormous impact their findings would have |
| Others with financial viability are following her lead | | | | on future research as scientists around the world |
| due to the lack of options currently available to | | | | used the premise to build castles of hope in the sky. |
| suffering victims of chronic Lyme disease in this | | | | Depending on the research team interviewed, you |
| country. | | | | might believe that stem cell therapy will rid the world |
| However, in the US, a controversy continues to | | | | of all major diseases. Unfortunately, the testing can |
| gather ammunition, arguing whether taxpayers should | | | | go on for years before actual cures are approved |
| pay for something that private venture capital is | | | | and put into practice. |
| quite capable of funding, and more intensely the | | | | Meanwhile, people who are unwilling to wait for these |
| argument over using embryos from living (and | | | | issues to resolve themselves are going overseas to |
| frequently viable) embryo's. | | | | countries unhindered by such debate. |
| According to the National Institute of Health, there | | | | Their willingness to avail themselves of partially |
| have been great strides made in the manner in which | | | | untested technology, at great financial cost and at a |
| the cells are harvested and used for treatment, but | | | | great physical risk speaks volumes about the |
| that the day when treatments are available to the | | | | desperate condition of thoses suffering with chronic |
| general populace could be as much as ten years | | | | Lyme disease. |
| away. This time delay is unacceptable to those who | | | | One can only hope that the successful stories that |
| have been suffering with Lyme disease for over ten | | | | float back to America will change the prospects of |
| years already. | | | | human life facing the fastest growing disease that |
| This lengthy delay is causing people who have the | | | | knows no cure from unbearable pain to renewed |
| personal resources to go overseas where stem cell | | | | health. |
| treatment has mounting success. | | | | |