Everyday is a step closer to a cure

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and we wonder why they call it "practicing medicine"...


food for thought:shock:
 
Ooh I wanna read it! can someone please PM me the link ?
 
Unusually High # Of ALS Cases Near Kennedy Space Center

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Study Finds Unusually High Number Of ALS Cases Near KSC
Posted: 9:15 am EDT April 24, 2009Updated: 1:56 pm EDT April 24, 2009

BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. -- A deadly disease could be threatening residents living around the Kennedy Space Center. Researchers have found an alarming number of ALS cases, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, in neighborhoods near the space center.

Eyewitness News shows us why some former NASA workers fear they were exposed to something that may now be killing them.

Ken Patterson used to work for a NASA contractor as a safety engineer.

"Working at the Space Center was a dream of mine since I was a little boy," said Patterson with the assistance of a computerized voice program.

He had to quit his job because he was losing control of his hands.

"People at work thought I had been drinking," said Patterson. One year later, doctors diagnosed him with ALS, the debilitating and usually fatal disease.

Now Patterson is practically paralyzed, and he is worried that Kennedy Space Center made him sick. "I am tired of hearing about friends and co-workers at KSC being diagnosed with this disease," said Patterson.

Patterson is one of 24 known cases of ALS within a 25 mile radius of the Kennedy Space Center. According to the ALS association, that rate is about 40 percent higher than the national average.

"We know people that have never served or work there that live in this area with ALS," said Kamden Kuhn, ALS Association.

Researchers are alarmed. "They are intrigued. They know there should not be this many people within this area," said Kuhn.

"You just don't go to sleep and die. You just tragically die, piece by piece," said Trudy Buchine, widow.

Eyewitness News spoke with three Brevard county widows who all lost their husbands to ALS over the last 14 months.

"He was sent up to the cape to work a lot," said Debbie Martinez.

"He was exposed to chemicals his whole life," said Ruth Anderson.

"They both got sick. Both worked together. Both worked at the same sights," added Anderson.

All of their husbands worked around the launch pads. "There's got to be something more than a coincidence," said one widow.

A spokesperson for the Kennedy Space Center says NASA takes precautions around all toxic substances, and since there is no known cause of the disease, NASA cannot say something at the Space Center is to blame.

"To me, personally, it seems a little suspicious," said Buchine.

The victims of ALS hope a new national registry approved by congress, but not yet funded, will help them get a more accurate count of how many people around the KSC are fighting the disease and how many have already died from it.

"Unless we start getting this information together, we are never going to find a cure and that's what it's all about," said Patterson's wife.

ALS usually strikes people between the ages of 40 and 70-years-old. Scientists have not yet nailed down the risk factors. However, two months ago, the Veterans Administration acknowledged military personnel also had a higher risk of contracting ALS
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I didn't exactly know where to put this, but seeing as it is classified as a "study", seems the Research section is appropriate.
Interesting...
 
Might as well be here Glenn. Interesting reading. I hope somebody at NASA is paying attention but have my doubts.

AL.
 
Keep Positive and Live while you can!

We try to keep positive and good attitudes. ALS for us has turned in to "Living Hell". You will know when you get there. I just have to be honest. We we try to have humor and treat Tim like Tim, till the end.

Lorie
 
We try to keep positive and good attitudes. ALS for us has turned in to "Living Hell". You will know when you get there. I just have to be honest. We we try to have humor and treat Tim like Tim, till the end.

Lorie

I most definitely understand what you are saying. You should live each day like it is your last (cliche, but so, so true!).
...Science looks promising for ALS discoveries too, though. Research seems to be on the verge of new discoveries. So something to definitely grasp on to, anyway. Just my opinion ;)
 
Glenn

I do agree with you. A year ago I had Faith and Hope that a Cure would be found for my brother and all with ALS. For him, the cure would have been Yesterday or Tomorrow. I am not negative. Just in his reality.

We will all keep Fighting! He still fights everyday. But giving up.

Lorie
 
Yes Living Hell is a good way to describe it, I seem to be going though a different hell with this as every week passes BUT I have to keep some hope that something will happen. I have posted this link about new research at Kings London. I have been in touch with them in the past in the hope that they might be able to do stem cell treatment for me.
todays breaking news from them
http://www.london-student.net/2009/04/27/building-new-brains-at-kings/
 
recently I emailed the neurologists Dr. Jeffrey Rothstein and Dr. Eva Feldman about the future of ALS research and treatments in the next 5-10 years. Both responded. Both basically said the same thing: the next 5-10 years looks very promising for discovery of therepeutics to slow the disease, but both are very hesitant in claiming a cure will be found in this time. but both said how research has accelerated all over the world, and more and more is being discovered every year, so no one knows when the Big Discovery will be found (hopefully Soon).
Rothstein stated that in the mean time stem cell trials will be rare, and very technically challenging. He said that stem cells will hold a more practical purpose as far as studying the disease process to better understand it... and from there a cure will be more realistic.
so there's a lot of hope out there. just imagine what will be found in the next 5 years alone...
 
i hope and pray to God my PALS will still be here in 5 years time...
 
Me too.
I pray something big happens THIS year.
so much research in just the past year dictates that it's possible.
 
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