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Can drinking green tea really protect against two big killers, strokes and cancer? A huge study in Japan suggests yes and no: It might lower your stroke risk but won't save you from cancer. The study's authors say their findings might explain why the Japanese are less likely than Americans to die of heart disease and stroke. Even so, the answers aren't clear. Green tea has been researched a lot, and many of the studies have come up with conflicting results. Earlier this year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said an analysis found no credible scientific evidence to support...

Discovery suggests potential treatment for regenerating nerve tissue after stroke Researchers at the University of Minnesota Medical School have discovered a new population of cells in human umbilical cord blood that have properties of primitive stem cells. Umbilical cord blood is generally known to contain hematopoietic stem cells that can only produce cells found in blood. The new findings, however, identify a small population of cord blood cells with the characteristics of more primitive stem cells that have the potential to produce a greater variety of cell types. "We are excited by this discovery because it provides additional insight into...

Tampa, FL (Nov. 12, 2005) -- An experimental treatment that spares disability from acute stroke may be delivered much later than the current three-hour treatment standard – a potential advance needed to benefit more stroke victims. Researchers at the University of South Florida found that human umbilical cord blood cells administered to rats two days following a stroke greatly curbed the brain's inflammatory response, reducing the size of the stroke and resulting in greatly improved recovery. The rats' inflammatory response to injury from stroke peaked 48 hours after the brain attack, which was when intravenous delivery of the cells appeared...

Two new studies suggest that use of cells derived from bone marrow, as well as a seaweed-derived product called hydrogel, may prompt stem cells to repair nerve damage caused by stroke or spinal cord injury. Both studies were expected to be presented Friday at the American Academy of Neurology annual meeting, in San Diego. In one study, researchers at the Medical College of Georgia, Augusta, examined bone marrow-derived multi-potent progenitor cells, which have the ability to develop into different kinds of cells, including nervous system cells. Both human and rat bone marrow cells were transplanted into rats with induced strokes....

Brain can be made to self-repairTriggering stem-cell growth could help brain recover after a stroke.Stimulating a protein on the surface of the brain's stem cells helps rats recover after a stroke, US researchers have found. The discovery suggests that in humans it could be possible to provoke the body's own stem cells into repairing an injury, rather than laboriously growing and transplanting new cells.  Researchers believe that many of the body's tissues harbour stem cells capable of dividing to make new tissue. But some of these are recalcitrant and do not naturally divide to repair damage wreaked by severe injuries...

Non Embryonic Stem Cell Treatment Allows Paralysed Brazilian To Walk, Talk Again RIO DE JANEIRO, November 23, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Brazilian scientists have successfully transplanted adult stem cells into a woman's brain, facilitating her recovery from a brain hemorrhage that left her paralysed and unable to talk. Maria da Graca Pomeceno, 54, had bone marrow stem cells taken from her pelvis and injected into her damaged brain. Local television broadcasts showed her walking up stairs and talking. Hans Fernando Dohmann, director of Rio's Pro-Cardiaco Hospital, said that hers was the first reported successful treatment of this condition, but that trials...

Researchers say they've lessened the effects of stroke in rats by transplanting stem cells into the rodents' brains. The treatment also seemed to help rats fight a condition similar to human cerebral palsy.  There's no indication yet that the treatment will work in humans, and the lead researcher cautioned that the strategy is no "magic bullet." However, tests in people could begin as early as next year, said Cesario V. Borlongan, an associate professor of neurology at the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta. Will not be a total cure The treatment is "not something that will totally cure stroke...

SHENZHEN, China, March 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Shenzhen Beike Biotechnology Co., Ltd. has announced the successful treatment with umbilical cord stem cells of the youngest stroke patient ever to undergo such a procedure. The announcement was made following a two-month evaluation period by physicians in her native country, Hungary, to verify the positive results. Starting from October 28th, Beike provided umbilical cord stem cells to the Nanshan People's Hospital for the treatment of a four-month-old Hungarian baby girl named Timea Gresco, who had suffered a stroke when she was delivered three months prematurely. Umbilical cord stem cells were delivered intravenously over...

Brain-damaged IVF stroke victim wins negligence case SHAN ROSS A WOMAN who was left brain damaged after a series of strokes following her third cycle of IVF was awarded "very substantial" agreed damages yesterday. An emotive message from the 34-year-old accountant was read out in court by her QC. In it, the woman, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, said: "IVF. I was so happy. Looked forward to my newborn baby. Unfortunately miscarried. Baby die. Disaster happen. "Then stroke. Disaster. Now my face fine but my body will never be the same. My son is torn apart. One year...

New Zealand-born Kate Adamson-Klugman experienced a double brainstem stroke in 1995 at the age of 33. She was helpless and completely paralyzed, suffering from "locked-in syn­drome." Kate thought she was clear in her own mind about what she would want if she ever experienced a catastrophic injury or illness. She knew she would face death bravely; she wanted no heroics. But as she lay in an intensive care unit, listening to the doctors talk about her own impending death and their plans not to treat her, her ideas of medical aid toward incapacitated persons drastically changed. Her own will to...

More than 20 million Americans take aspirin regularly to help prevent heart attacks and strokes. But new evidence suggests that for many of them, the pills do little if any good. Recent studies have found that anywhere from 5 percent to more than 40 percent of aspirin users are "nonresponsive" or "resistant" to the medicine. That means that aspirin does not inhibit their blood from clotting, as it is supposed to. "They are taking it for stroke and heart attack prevention, and it's not going to work," said Dr. Daniel I. Simon, the associate director of interventional cardiology at Brigham...