Stem Cells May Help Treat Heart Failure

Stem Cells May Help Treat Heart Failure

Study Shows Injection of Bone-Marrow Stem Cells May Extend Lives of Heart Failure Patients

By Charlene Laino

WebMD Health News

Reviewed by Laura J. Martin, MD

Aug. 30, 2010 (Stockholm, Sweden) — Giving people with chronic heart failure injections of their own bone-marrow stem cells appears to improve their heart function and extend their lives, new research suggests.

The benefits of the stem cell treatment were apparent within three months and persisted for the five years the patients were followed, says researcher Bodo-Eckehard Strauer, MD, of Heinrich Heine University in Dusseldorf, Germany.

This isn’t the first time doctors have reported that stem cells may help improve the health of people with heart failure or other heart conditions.

But the 391-patient study is one of the biggest tests to date of stem cell therapy for heart disease — and the first to show that the treatment cuts the risk of death in chronic heart failure, Strauer tells WebMD.

The treatment “has almost no risks and is effective when used on top of other treatments for chronic heart failure,” he says.

The findings were reported here at the European Society of Cardiology Congress.

Stem Cells and Scarred Heart Tissue

One major cause of heart failure occurs when the heart muscle becomes scarred and loses its ability to pump enough blood throughout the body, often after a massive heart attack.

“The hope is that by injecting stem cells into the scarred area, you will bring life back to that area and induce healthy muscle,” says American Heart Association spokeswoman Mariell Jessup, MD, medical director of the Penn Heart and Vascular Center at the University of Pennsylvania.

Stem cells are at an early stage of maturation and therefore have the potential to become many different types of cells, including those in the heart muscle.

Treatment With Stem Cells

In the study, bone marrow stem cells were taken from the area at the top of the patient’s pelvic bone. Then they were processed in the lab in such a way as to allow them to be injected into the scarred heart muscle.

Nearly five years after the study started, seven of the 191 patients who had the stem cell treatment had died vs. 32 of 200 patients who did not have the treatment — a substantial difference.

The stem cell treatment improved the heart’s ability to pump blood and restored blood flow to oxygen-starved heart muscle. Patients were able to exercise more. They also reported improved quality of life, Strauer says.

No patient experienced side effects, he says. All patients continued to receive optimal medical treatment throughout the study.

“There’s been ongoing excitement about using stem cells to treat heart disease for some time and this study certainly adds to it,” Jessup tells WebMD.

But the therapy is not ready for prime time, she says. One of the reasons: In the study, people knew whether they were getting the stem cell treatment, she says.

“It’s not like the traditional randomized, controlled trial where people don’t know whether they are getting the experimental treatment. That’s what we really need,” Jessup says.

Also, there may be “some increase in potentially life-threatening [irregular heartbeats]. You can’t discount that and say there are no risks,” she says.

This study was presented at a medical conference. The findings should be considered preliminary as they have not yet undergone the “peer review” process, in which outside experts scrutinize the data prior to publication in a medical journal.

via Stem Cells May Help Treat Heart Failure.

Marijuana Relieves Chronic Neuropathic Pain

Submitted by Deborah Mitchell on 2010-08-30

Chronic neuropathic pain is difficult to treat, but a new study suggests that smoked marijuana (cannabis) is an effective therapy for this challenge. Scientists found that smoking marijuana reduces pain, improves mood, and helps sleep.

Marijuana as Medicine

Medical marijuana is often in the news, and while controversial for various reasons, study after study show that cannabis in various forms can be helpful in treating a variety of conditions. Recently (February 2010), researchers at California’s Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research reported study findings regarding the therapeutic benefits of smoking marijuana for treating pain-related conditions. The studies were the first ever conducted on the therapeutic value of smoked marijuana in the United States in more than two decades.

Spray marijuana also recently demonstrated effectiveness in reducing cancer pain, especially in patients who had not gotten relief from morphine or other medications. Six studies also showed that extracts of marijuana significantly reduced spasms in patients who have multiple sclerosis. Yet other research indicates that marijuana is beneficial in patients who have post-traumatic stress disorder, including returning war veterans.

via Marijuana Relieves Chronic Neuropathic Pain.

CTV Winnipeg- Smoking marijuana helps reduce pain, trial shows – CTV News

Smoking marijuana helps reduce pain, trial shows

Smoking marijuana helps reduce pain, trial shows. (AP / Robert F. Bukaty)

Dr. Mark Ware, director of research at the Alan Edwards Pain Management Unit of the McGill University Health Centre speaks with CTV News from Montreal on Monday, Aug. 30, 2010.

Dr. Mark Ware, director of research at the Alan Edwards Pain Management Unit of the McGill University Health Centre speaks with CTV News from Montreal on Monday, Aug. 30, 2010.

Updated: Mon Aug. 30 2010 20:17:21

CTV.ca News Staff

Though many who suffer chronic pain will tell you that smoking pot can help dull the pain, there has been little hard medical research into whether it really is effective.

Now, a new randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial, appearing in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, shows that marijuana really can bring pain relief and improved sleep to those in chronic pain.

Dr. Mark Ware, director of research at the Alan Edwards Pain Management Unit of the McGill University Health Centre, led a team who studied the pain-relieving effects of smoking cannabis in 21 people with “chronic neuropathic pain”: those who had constant nerve pain, caused by trauma or surgery.

All had suffered the pain for at least three months, had failed to get effective relief from other medications, and reported an average weekly pain intensity score greater than 4 on a 10-point scale.

To ensure that the participants couldn’t tell who was smoking real marijuana and who was smoking a placebo, the patients were given a special pipe and 25-milligram capsules of a substance to be lit and inhaled once. The capsules contained either 2.5 per cent, 6 per cent or 9.4 per cent tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), which is the active ingredient in marijuana. The placebo pill contained no THC.

They smoked the pipe three times daily for five days in each cycle, followed by a nine-day period without marijuana. They continued this over two months, rotating through all four strengths of THC.

The researchers found that those smoking the tabs with the highest potency, 9.4 per cent, saw their average pain “significantly reduced” compared with those smoking the placebo. The patients also reported improvements in sleep quality and anxiety.

Because the dosages were fairly small compared to what “recreational” pot smokers would receive, most participants said they didn’t get “high” from the drug; “euphoria” was reported on only three occasions.

The researchers note that off the one puff, the blood levels of THC in the study participants reached only about 45 nanograms per milliliter, whereas most pot smokers would see levels reach 100 ng/mL and higher.

“We used a small dose for two reasons,” Ware explained to CTV News Channel. “One was to reduce the likely effect on the lung; it was a smoked product after all, so we wanted minimize the possible effects on the lung and respiratory track.

“The second reason was to minimize the possible psychoactive effects. We were not using this as a way to get people high but to try to ameliorate a very devastating symptom of chronic neuropathic pain.”

Some of the patients did report side effects, including dizziness, numbness and a burning sensation in areas of neuropathic pain.

The researchers note that while cannabis has been used to treat pain since the third millennium B.C., the pain-relieving effects of the drug remain controversial in the medical community. Further study on whether the drug really works is needed, the researchers said, given that at least 10 per cent of patients with chronic non-cancer pain and other conditions have tried using marijuana to relieve pain.

The researchers say they would like to see larger and longer studies on marijuana, using higher potencies and flexible dosing to see if pain levels can be reduced even further.

“What I hope this study will do is highlight for patients and physicians that cannibinoids — the active ingredients in marijuana — are a legitimate contribution to pain management and should be considered as one option when you are trying to treat chronic pain,” Ware said.

Dr. Mark Ware, director of research at the Alan Edwards Pain Management Unit of the McGill University Health Centre speaks with CTV News from Montreal on Monday, Aug. 30, 2010.

In an accompanying editorial, Dr. Henry J. McQuay of Oxford University, notes that the results are important in light of the fact that patients interested in the pain relief offered by medical marijuana have seen only a “trickle” of evidence to prove the claims that the drug works.

via CTV Winnipeg- Smoking marijuana helps reduce pain, trial shows – CTV News.