Those Favoring Stem Cell Research Increases to a 73 to 11 Percent Majority
A good issue for the Democrats

In 2001, a Harris Poll reported that a 3-to-1 majority believed that stem cell research should be allowed. Three years later, a new Harris Poll finds that this majority supporting stem cell research has increased to more than 6-to-1. Other changes since 2001 are a substantial increase in the number of people who have seen, read or heard about the debate on stem cell research, stronger support for arguments in favor of stem cell research and less support for arguments against it.

The Transverse Myelitis Association Named Recipient of Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation Quality of Life Grant

The Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation (CRPF) announced today that The Transverse Myelitis Association has been awarded a $10,000 Quality of Life Grant. The Transverse Myelitis Association and the Johns Hopkins Transverse Myelitis Center are co-sponsoring the Rare Neuroimmunologic Disorders Symposium. The Health Promotion Quality of Life grant will be used to support this symposium.

On Tuesday, Woodland Rotarians, with many of their children and grandchildren, listened raptly as 24-year-old quadriplegic Anthony 'Tony' Venditti told of how his life drastically changed two days after his 21st birthday.

That was the day that Venditti, a graduate of River City High School in West Sacramento, popular student, school leader and a community volunteer, went with a group of friends on a trip in a sports utility vehicle to San Francisco. He was attending Sacramento City College and participating in theater productions, which were his passions.

One of the primary responsibilities of any editorial is to get the facts right. Unfortunately, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer's editorial extolling Ron Reagan's speech at the Democratic convention ("Health, science trump politics," July 28), failed to make the grade.

First, the P-I claimed that stem-cell research could "yield treatments" for Alzheimer's disease. Actually, as reported by The Washington Post -- and admitted by Reagan on the television show "Hardball" -- Alzheimer's is unlikely to be effectively treated with embryonic stem cells. The Post reported that many biotechnologists are not hastening to correct this widespread misimpression for political reasons because, as one researcher said, "People need to believe in fairy tales."

WASHINGTON, Aug. 3 (UPI) -- Adenosine triphosphate, which provides energy for the body's cells, plays a major role in spinal cord injuries by killing motor neurons surrounding the injury site -- a discovery that could lead to new and much-needed treatments to prevent paralysis, researchers told United Press International.

Doctors at the University of Rochester Medical Center were surprised to find that cells called astrocytes -- which provide nutrients and remove wastes in the brain and spinal cord -- release high amounts of ATP in the tissue surrounding spinal cord injury sites. ATP then binds to motor neurons and kills them, said Dr. Maiken Nedergaard, a professor of neurosurgery and the study's lead researcher.

FOR 12-year-old Laura Brown a false start at a swimming carnival was the beginning of a life confined to a wheelchair and dependent on others.

The teen dived into water just 90 centimetres deep after the starting blocks were placed at the wrong end of the pool at a swimming club carnival on November 11, 2000, the Victorian Supreme Court heard today.

Why researchers want to read the minds of spinal cord injury patients.

Imagine a wheelchair with robotic arms that move on command by reading the paralyzed occupant's mind, some say why the idea is not so far fetched.

There are up to 400,000 people in the United States struggling with paralysis from spinal cord injuries. They can’t move when or how they want because their brain no longer gets the message to their body.

In the few spare moments she's had this summer, Jennifer Howitt has managed to check out some of ESPN's "sports" offerings.

"A few weeks ago, it was the National Spelling Bee," she said, "and then there was this hot-dog eating contest."

She paused to let that sink in before continuing.