Tough cell
Sight is arguably our most valuable sense, and one most people are absolutely terrified to lose. Which is why scientists were so excited recently when they discovered a potential cure for blindness.
It certainly sounds exciting — a cure for a typically irreversible condition. But this treatment has one giant obstacle standing in its way: It’s based on one of the most controversial areas of medical research to emerge over the past century — stem cells.
This particular application came about after researchers discovered that zebra fish have the ability to regenerate damaged retinas. The scientists took this information and worked to grow a type of stem cell that can develop into neurons in the retina of fish and mammals. When they tested the cells they’d grown in the lab on rats with damaged vision, they found that the injected cells migrated into the retinas and took on the characteristics of neurons there.
The researchers also found that these cells were easy to grow in the lab, so they’re optimistic that they could create banks of them to have on hand for transplant anytime a person needs them.
While this type of enthusiasm can be contagious, I think they’re putting the cart just slightly ahead of the horse here. There’s no way of knowing yet what the long-term effects might be on those rats they tested, and they have yet to do any testing in humans at all. And considering the aforementioned controversy surrounding any therapy involving stem cells, it’s likely to be awhile before this sort of procedure is available to the general public.
Regardless of your stance in the politics involved with this line of research, though, there is some common ground here, and that is preventing blindness. And you can do that starting today, without stem cells.
Dr. Wright and his colleagues at the Tahoma Clinic have developed an extremely effective nutrient therapy for one of the most common causes of blindness, age-related macular degeneration (ARMD). In fact, over the years, he has seen a 70-percent success rate in patients who undergo this treatment, which involves taking various vision- supporting nutrients and herbs including selenium, vitamin E, taurine, ginkgo, and zinc. To learn more about it, refer back to the February 2005 issue of Nutrition & Healing (subscribers can download and view this issue for free online by visiting www.wrightnewsletter.com and logging on with the username and password listed on page 8 of your most recent issue).
Source:
“Zebrafish study may point way to blindness cure,” Reuters Health news, 8/1/07
