BarryG
Extremely helpful member
- Joined
- Nov 19, 2008
- Messages
- 3,000
- Diagnosis
- 02/2008
- Country
- CA
- State
- Alberta
- City
- Hinton
So let's say that one day you went to the bank and discovered that someone had been taking money out of your account without your knowledge or permission. What would you do? Would you keep putting money into the account to stay ahead of the thief? No, you would try to find out why and how the money was being stolen and that would be your only concern.
This seems to me to be the situation with ALS and stem cell therapy. We are spending lots of effort in trying to find out ways to replace dead neuron cells (putting money into the account) and not enough in finding out what causes the disease in the first place (finding the thief). What if the amount of cells that we are able to create through stem cell therapy can't keep up with the amount that are lost to the disease? If so, is it a stalling tactic, a postponement of the effects of the disease? OK, then we can't call it a cure but a treatment.
I am not arguing against stem cell therapy, I am just saying that we need to be clear about what we are getting. If it turns out to be like insulin injections for diabetics or antiretroviral drugs for HIV, fine, let's go for it but don't lose sight of the real picture. Finding the cause and a cure for ALS.
I am always reminded about how if you find cancer early the chances of being cured are better. If you find ALS early your chances don't improve, you just have more time to get used to the idea.
This seems to me to be the situation with ALS and stem cell therapy. We are spending lots of effort in trying to find out ways to replace dead neuron cells (putting money into the account) and not enough in finding out what causes the disease in the first place (finding the thief). What if the amount of cells that we are able to create through stem cell therapy can't keep up with the amount that are lost to the disease? If so, is it a stalling tactic, a postponement of the effects of the disease? OK, then we can't call it a cure but a treatment.
I am not arguing against stem cell therapy, I am just saying that we need to be clear about what we are getting. If it turns out to be like insulin injections for diabetics or antiretroviral drugs for HIV, fine, let's go for it but don't lose sight of the real picture. Finding the cause and a cure for ALS.
I am always reminded about how if you find cancer early the chances of being cured are better. If you find ALS early your chances don't improve, you just have more time to get used to the idea.