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Stem Cells Restore Feeling In Paraplegic
Vicissidude writes "According to WorldNetDaily scientists in Korea report using umbilical cord blood stem cells to restore feeling and mobility to a spinal-cord injury patient. The research, published in the peer-reviewed journal Cytotherapy, centered on a woman who had been a paraplegic 19 years due to an accident. After an infusion of umbilical cord blood stem cells, stunning results were recorded: 'The patient could move her hips and feel her hip skin on day 15 after transplantation. On day 25 after transplantation her feet responded to stimulation.'"
I don't know much about this kind of stuff, but that seems pretty amazing. Does anyone with more knowledge know how amazing it is?
Come on, helping people regain sensation in their long-dormant limbs? Where can it lead?
Oh the humanity!
Won't someone think of the children!?
etc.
ahem. Sorry. pre-emptive sarcasm mode, OFF!
I am a leaf on the wind
So then, if the stem cells are placed next to a Shakey's Pizza, they would become another Shakey's Pizza! And you'd have your own Shakey's Pizza where you didn't have to charge yourself to eat!
Insert clever one liner here.
Vicissidude writes "According to WorldNetDaily scientists in Korea report using umbilical cord blood stem cells to restore feeling and mobility to a spinal-cord injury patient. The research, published in the peer-reviewed journal Cytotherapy, centered on a woman who had been a paraplegic 19 years due to an accident. After an infusion of umbilical cord blood stem cells, stunning results were recorded: 'The patient could move her hips and feel her hip skin on day 15 after transplantation. On day 25 after transplantation her feet responded to stimulation.'"
Yeah, if only somebody could make it clear what type of stem cells they were! I mean, that's something you think could even get into the story summary!
"Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge"
- Charles Darwin
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In the same way, a kid can grow fast, and the nerves will seem to grow faster suddenly, but actually they are merely stretching out. This is what causes hypertension by the time they reach their early teens.
As the kid gets older, and eventually middle-aged, the nerves grow and catch up with development. In later years, the nerves will have grown so long that singnals will take longer time to reach their destination, causing longer reaction times. On the other hand, there is the benefit from increased wisdom, coming from the ability to hold longer thoughts in the nerves.
As the peron is reaching the endpoint of his life, at around 80 years of age on average, the nerves will have grown immensely, making him a treasure trove of deep thought and information. This can be hard to ascertain though, as the sheer nerve-length means they now have to grow in circles in the limited space of the human body. This means that you will often hear the wisdom of the past, as thoughts that started in one end, reach the other. The cramped conditions also predispose for spontaneous reconnections between nerves, causing apparently random changes of subject. Moreover, the spiralling structure of the nerve system entail a circular nature of the information coming out, meaning you'll have to listen to the same story multiple times.
True confidence comes not from realising you are as good as your peers, but that your peers are as bad as you are.