StemCell Therapy

Dr. Richard Meredick will give a free talk about Living with Arthritis, Thursday, March 30, 6:30 p.m. at Northern Inyo Healthcare Districts Birch Street Annex, 2957 Birch St., Bishop.

Dr. Meredick, a Board Certified Orthopedic Surgeon, will discuss the causes of arthritis as it is seen in active populations such as ours. Learn about the signs, symptoms and popular treatment options to reduce pain and discomfort.

The 2017 Healthy Lifestyle Talks series is presented by Northern Inyo Healthcare District. Dr. Meredick specializes in Sports Medicine/Arthroscopy, and Joint Preservation.

About Northern Inyo Healthcare District: Founded in 1946, Northern Inyo Healthcare District features a 25-bed critical access hospital, a 24-hour emergency department, a primary care rural health clinic, a diagnostic imaging center, and clinics specializing in womens health, orthopedics and neurology, pediatrics and allergies and general surgery. Continually striving to improve the health outcomes of those who rely on its services, Northern Inyo Healthcare District aims to improve our communities one life at a time. One team, one goal, your health.

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NIHD talk Thursday on 'Living with Arthritis' - Sierra Wave

Home Anti-Aging Arthritis Early arthritis symptoms you should know

Having arthritis pain can be quite a nuisance. It hampers our day, making the most mundane takes difficult and subjecting us to unnecessary agony. But the pain associated with arthritis isnt the only symptom people have to endure.

In a lot of cases, people notice other things showing up before they ever have pain, says Kevin Shea, an orthopedic surgeon at St. Lukes Health System in Boise.

While arthritis may be seen as one entity, there are actually hundreds of different types, and each person diagnosed with the condition may present with an entirely different constellation of symptoms from the next, making each case unique.

Being aware of the symptoms arthritis sufferers may present allows you and your doctor to possibly slow down its progression. Early detection can allow for the use of anti-inflammatory medication or certain lifestyle changes to help preserve normal functioning. The following are a list of non-pain-related symptoms that are associated with arthritis to keep a look out for.

Stiffness: Arthritis often manifests as joint stiffness. You try to bend or straighten the joint, and it feels tight or full, Shea says. It may also be hard to move to one side. Stiffness tends to be worse early in the day, getting better as the day goes on.

Swelling: This symptom can be appreciated by comparing two joints side by side: for example, both wrists, or both knees. Assuming no other injuries or trauma has occurred, if one joint appears bigger or puffier than the other, it could indicate arthritis. Swelling often accompanies joint stiffness

Catching or grinding: This is the feeling that your joints or tendons are somehow tied up or catching on one another. Sometimes a patient will notice the catching or grinding, and then the pain will come later, Shea explains.

Fatigue: A prominent symptom of rheumatoid arthritis whereby the bodys immune system attacks the joints. It can lead to inflammation, both locally around the joint and systemically throughout the body. Systemic inflammation can leave individuals feeling symptoms of fatigue.

Fever or loss of appetite: Systemic inflammation not only reduces energy levels as previously mentioned but it can also result in flare-ups, or periodic increases in inflammation that can lead to a fever and loss of appetite.

Poor range of motion: It goes without saying that pain tends to inhibit movement, and that is definitely the case with arthritis pain. Doing simple household chores or your favorite hobbies become exponentially more difficult due to uninvited paina hallmark of arthritis.

These are some early signs associated with arthritis. It is important to speak with you doctor if you feel like you have any of these early symptoms, as they will help guide you to make the best choice for treatment options and best overall recovery.

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Living with arthritis? Simple lifestyle and exercise tips to improve your joint health

http://www.prevention.com/health/7-surprising-arthritis-symptoms

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Early arthritis symptoms you should know - Bel Marra Health

CreakyJoints, an advocacy group for persons with arthritis, has launched ArthritisPower, a patient research registry for those with joint, bone and inflammatory skin conditions.

The registry is available via a free mobile app for iPhone and Android devices. The organization is financially supported by industry, government and private foundations, says Seth Ginsberg, president of CreakyJoints and co-founder of the Global Healthy Living Foundation.

Significant support also came from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, a not-for-profit nongovernmental organization authorized and funded in the Affordable Care Act. CreakyJoints also is part of PCORnet, the National Patient-Centered Clinical Research Network.

The ArthritisPower registry is part of the interconnected PCORnet collaboration of patient groups, registries and health systems, Jeffrey Curtis, MD, a professor of rheumatology and immunology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, said in a statement. That means that as ArthritisPower grows, researchers can access specific data from our network and connect that information with data from other PCORnet networks, so that larger health questions can be asked and information can be utilized across patient populations.

Also See: Coalition forms to fight proposed NIH budget cuts

Were entering an era where patients speak up about what they want researchers to investigate, and researchers can use big data to answer those questions, Curtis continued. The more people who join and share information about their symptoms and treatments, the more quickly we are able to find answers.

ArthritisPower launched as a beta site in 2015 with 2,500 individuals downloading the mobile app and providing feedback on features. These early adopters provided 250 suggestions that were incorporated into the second version, built in an informatics unit at an undisclosed university, and now widely available.

CreakyJoints has been offering content online for two decades, serving more than 100,000 membersits web site has about 1 million visitors a year, Ginsberg notes. Now in the mobile era, it is offering additional services, enabling patients to track symptoms and treatments while also participating in research trials.

Patients can share information with their physicians, track results over time to determine when a new treatment starts to affect their symptoms, record personal insights in a journal to give context to flare-ups or improvements, send secure messages in private circles to communicate with others, and donate their health information to support research if they wish, Ginsberg explains.

Now, CreakyJoints is exploring how to scale the arthritis platform to also support research on how patients with diabetes or other autoimmune diseases are handling their conditions.

Further, Ginsberg says, the effort wants to expand to support other diseases. We want to get it right, he adds. We expect 10,000 users in a year, and then start looking at results and whats new.

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Fight against arthritis enlist patients with mobile tools - Health Data Management

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Potential of stem cell therapy to repair lung damage -- ScienceDaily Science Daily A new study has found that stem cell therapy can reduce lung inflammation in an animal model of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and cystic ... Study shows potential of stem cell therapy to repair lung damageEurekAlert (press release) Stem Cell Therapy May Help Treat Lung Inflammation and Damage: StudyNDTV all 10 news articles »

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Potential of stem cell therapy to repair lung damage -- ScienceDaily - Science Daily

Nohla Therapeutics is tapping the University of California, Davis (UC Davis) for its expertise in cell therapy GMP and manufacturing so that it can scale up clinical trials manufacture of NLA101, Nohla's Phase IIb-stage off-the-shelf universal donor stem and progenitor cell therapy for hematologic cancers. The firm will also work with UC Davis to further optimize the NLA101 manufacturing process, with a view to future commercial production.

Under terms of the collaboration and manufacturing agreement, UC Davis will carry out manufacturing and quality control testing of NLA101 at the UC Davis Institute of Regenerative Cures (IRC) cGMP Cell Therapy Manufacturing Facility in Sacramento, CA. Nohla has sublicensed office and laboratory space at the Oak Park Research Center next to the IRC, which will act as a warehouse and distribution center for supplying the IRC with raw materials and for storing NLA101 for distribution to the clinical trials sites. The collaboration will enable the production of enough NLA101 to supply clinical trials evaluating NLA101 in hematopoietic cell transplant and for treating chemotherapy-induced neutropenia.

This collaboration allows Nohla to capitalize on the expertise at UC Davis to scale manufacturing for NLA101 and increase our ability to supply product for multiple clinical trials, commented Kathleen Fanning, president and CEO at Nohla.

Lars Berglund, M.D., Ph.D., associate vice chancellor for biomedical research and vice dean for research at UC Davis School of Medicine, added, We are particularly excited to partner with Nohla for the development of this groundbreaking technology as it demonstrates our commitment to work with innovative companies developing lifesaving therapies.

Nohla was established in 2015 to exploit technology developed at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, which enables the Notch-mediated ex vivo expansion and directed differentiation of cord blood stem and progenitor cells into off-the-shelf universal donor cell therapies that can be used on demand without human leukocyte antigen (HLA) matching in recipients.

The lead product NLA101 has been evaluated in more than 100 patients at high risk of severe infection and other complications after chemotherapy or cord blood transplantation. A Phase IIb study is ongoing in patients undergoing myeloablative cord blood transplant for leukemia and other blood cancers. Nohla is also planning to start a Phase II study in patients undergoing high-dose chemotherapy for acute myelogenous leukemia (AML).

In November 2016, Nohla raised $43.5 million in a Series A financing round, taking total investment in the company to $64.5 million.

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Nohla and UC Davis Ink Manufacturing Deal for Off-the-Shelf Donor Stem Cell Therapy - Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News

Age-related Macular Degeneration, or AMD, is a degenerative disease of the the Macula Lutea, represented in red, the central area of the retina. BSIP / UIG via Getty Images

Now researchers at the Italian Institute of Technology in Genoa and the University of California, San Diego have crafted artificial retinas that can be implanted entirely inside the eye, which offer hope to those with macular degeneration.

The devices are only experimental prototypes with many years of additional research and development likely before they might be ready for commercial use. But

She's not alone in that assessment.

"This is definitely a game changer," Dr. Kapil Bharti, an investigator at the National Eye Institute in Bethesda, Maryland who is not involved with the research, says. "Previous versions of these work in a very, very low-resolution range. Patients were practically still blind and incapacitated as far as everyday tasks were concerned. These promise that patients could become more independent."

When healthy, retinal cells transmit visual information to the brain. As these cells die off, AMD sufferers lose their central vision. The new prosthesis is designed to be implanted onto the back wall of the eye, where it absorbs light and transforms it into an electrical signal that stimulates the still-active retinal cells to restore vision.

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When the prosthesis was tested in rats, the animals' pupils constricted in response to exposure to light. The researchers were unable to determine how well the rats were able to see, if at all, but they noted that the animals' eyes continued to react to light more than six months after the implant was installed.

"We hope to replicate in humans the excellent results obtained in animal models," Pertile said. The team will conduct human trials later this year.

The findings were published in the journal

The researchers in San Diego have taken a different approach to solving AMD that they think can restore vision to resolutions as sharp as a healthy eye.

There, engineers have partnered with Nanovision Biosciences Inc. to

Images of individual nanowires and groups of nanowires. Each wire can produce an electric current when hit by light. UC San Diego

"We want to create a new class of devices with drastically improved capabilities to help people with impaired vision," Silva said.

The findings were reported in

Neither of the implants is able to restore color to vision yet, and Bharti has questions about the durability of organic eye implants. But, he says, "Those are things that can be easily worked out and can be done in the coming future. Overall, this is very exciting."

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This Tiny Device Is a 'Game Changer' for People Facing Blindness ... - NBCNews.com

March 27, 2017 8:47 PM By Stephanie Stahl

PHILADELPHIA (CBS)Changing the perception of blindness is the mission of a Bucks County mother who has two blind children.

And for her efforts, Kristin Smedley is being honored.

She has been invited to speak at a prestigious event called Risk Takers, Change Makers.

Kristin fits both of those descriptions and the title of her talk is How I Learned To See Through The Eyes Of My Sons.

Her sons Mitchell and Michael are blind but that hasnt held them back very much.

It doesnt stop the Bucks County brothers from playing a round of air hockey.

Theyve learned to play not by watching the puck but by listening for it.

Sight is not what should hold anyone back, its just a minor inconvenience, says Mitchell.

Mitchell is 13 years old and his big brother is 17 years old.

They were both born with a rare inherited eye disease called Leber congenital amaurosis or LCA.

Having 2 blind kids, initially that was the most devastating news, said Kristin.

But that devastation turned into amazement for Kristin as she learned how well her boys could adapt and even excel.

Michael is an accomplished musician and is involved with school productions.

Sometimes at school they look at me and say, Wait, youre the blind kid running the lights yeah and you send the blind kid on the cat walk, says Michael. So theres nothing you cant do.

The stuff they can do is unbelievable, says Kristin.

Shes writing a book called Thriving Blind and has a big following on Facebook helping other families with blind children.

Kristin started a foundation called Curing Retinal Blindness that raises money for research.

Shes organizing a fundraiser and is putting the finishing touches on the presentation shes been invited to give at a TEDx event which highlights innovative ideas.

Its like that dream come true moment, says Kristin.

TED stands for technology, entertainment and design.

Shes excited to share her message of conquering fear and understanding that blindness can be powerful.

She says those are lessons she learned from her sons.

Their brains work at a higher level than ours too. she said. Because my son Michael will say, youre so distracted, you sighted people are all distracted by the stuff you see, focus mom focus, its amazing.

The boys are enrolled in regular classes at school.

They use a Braille notepad and have big plans for a future that include college and big careers.

For Michael and Mitch, being blind isnt much of a consideration.

I really dont think its that big of an issue, says Mitch.

Kristins TEDx speech is March 30 in New York City.

Invitations to speak at TEDx are very selective and prestigious and the event will be giving Kristins message a big international forum.

Stephanie Stahl, CBS 3 and The CW Philly 57s Emmy Award-winning health reporter, is featured daily on Eyewitness News. As one of the television industrys most respected medical reporters, Stephanie has been recognized by community and he...

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Bucks County Mother On A Mission To Change The Perception Of Blindness - CBS Philly

The government is set to change a four-decade-old definition of blindness to bring it in line with the WHO criteria and ensure the Indian data on blindness meets the global estimates.

As defined under the National Programme for Control of Blindness (NPCB), a person unable to count fingers from a distance of six metres is categorised as "blind" in India, against the WHO's stipulation of three metres.Promila Gupta, NPCB Deputy Director General said,

We will bring the definition of blindness at par with the WHO's criteria. Because of the current definition, we project a higher figure of blind people from India at any international forum. Thus India gets presented in a poor light compared to other countries.

Also, she said, the data "we generate under the programme cannot be compared with the global estimates as other countries are following the WHO criteria".

Uniformity in the definition across various regions of the world is a pre-requisite for facilitating collection of population-based data on prevalence of blindness and estimating its global burden, Gupta said. Further, India has to achieve the goal set by WHO, which recommends reducing the blindness prevalence of the country to 0.3 percent of the total population by 2020.

Praveen Vashist, in-charge, Community Ophthalmology at Dr R P Centre for Ophthalmic Sciences at AIIMS said,

The Vision 2020 recommends reducing the prevalence of blindness to 0.3 per cent by the year 2020 to achieve the elimination of avoidable blindness. It will be extremely difficult to achieve the WHO goal using the NPCB definition since we will be addressing an extra four million individuals, blind due to refractive errors. By adopting the blindness criteria of WHO, India can achieve the goal.

The Health Ministry is also planning to change the nomenclature of NPCB to the National Programme for Control of Visual Impairment and Blindness.

The idea is to further strengthen the programme by focussing not only on the blind persons but also those with some kind of visual impairment. It urges the member states to strengthen national efforts to prevent avoidable visual impairment through better integration of eye health into national eye health plans and service delivery," Gupta added.

She said India currently has around 12 million blind people against 39 million globally-- which makes India home to one-third of the world's blind population. The current definition of blindness was adopted at the time of the inception of the NPCB in 1976.

The probable reason for keeping six meters as cut-off for defining blindness in India was to include economic blindness cases which referred to a level of blindness which prevents an individual to earn his or her wages. In contrast, the WHO definition adopts a criteria for blindness that is which hampers the routine social interaction of a person (social blindness), Gupta said.

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India changes four-decade-old definition of blindness to meet WHO criteria - YourStory.com

Researchers in Italy and California have created a device to help treat people with debilitating retinal diseases, NBC News reports.

The devices artificial retinas that can be implanted entirely inside the eye were crafted by researchers at the Italian Institute of Technology in Genoa and the University of California, San Diego. The devices are still in the experimental stage and are only developmental prototypes as researchers have years of work to do before getting them ready for commercial use.

But there's great potential to help people who suffer from age-related macular degeneration, which causes damage to the macula, a small spot near the center of the retina and the part of the eye needed for sharp, central vision.

"This is definitely a game changer," Dr. Kapil Bharti, an investigator at the National Eye Institute in Bethesda, Maryland who was not involved with the research, told NBC News. "Previous versions of these work in a very, very low-resolution range. Patients were practically still blind and incapacitated as far as everyday tasks were concerned. These promise that patients could become more independent."

2017 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

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Report: Device Could Help With People Facing Blindness - Newsmax

What happened

Cellect Biotechnology (NASDAQ:APOP), an Israeli-based stem-cell company, today announced the first successful stem cell transplant procedure using its ApoGraft technology in a combined phase 1/2 clinical trial in a blood cancer patient, causing its shares to rise by as much as 115%. The company's stock has since cooled off, but is still up by 80% as of 3:00 p.m. EDT.

Image source: Getty Images.

Even though stem cell transplants can be a curative treatment for many blood disorders and blood-related cancers, they tend to be a treatment of last resort because of their life-threatening side effects, such as graft-versus-host disease (GvHD). So, if Cellect's ApoGraft technology turns out to be a viable workaround, it would be a major advancement in the field, and potentially an extremely lucrative product for the company.

While Cellect's announcement is indeed exciting, its stock still isn't a great long-term bet. Cellect exited 2016 with a paltry $8 million in cash andApoGraft is probably five to six years away from reaching the market. This current trial, after all, is simply a safety and proof-of-concept study that's not designed to provide a basis for a regulatory approval.

In addition, Bellicum Pharmaceuticals'adjunct T-cell therapy BPX-501 could reach the European market as one possible solution to the GvHD problem in blood cancer patients by early 2019, and in the U.S. by perhaps 2020. In other words, Bellicum has a significant head start on Cellect, which may diminish the commercial prospects ofApoGraft moving forward.

George Budwell has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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Why Cellect Biotechnology Stock Is Skyrocketing Today - Motley Fool

Buy, Sell or Hold? Analysts Approach: Innoviva (INVA), Puma Biotechnology (PBYI)? The USA Commerce Shares of Puma Biotechnology, Inc. (NASDAQ:PBYI) dropped -2.02% to $38.90. During the trading on 03/27/2017, Company's stock ranged from $39.70 to $38.15. The relative strength index or RSI highlights overbought (above 70) and oversold (below 30) ... Watch List: Puma Biotechnology Inc (NASDAQ:PBYI) , Red Rock Resorts, Inc (NASDAQ:RRR)NYSE Journal (press release) all 3 news articles »

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Buy, Sell or Hold? Analysts Approach: Innoviva (INVA), Puma Biotechnology (PBYI)? - The USA Commerce

StockNewsJournal

Why Investors remained confident on Puma Biotechnology, Inc. (PBYI), Tempur Sealy International, Inc. (TPX)? StockNewsJournal Puma Biotechnology, Inc. (PBYI) have shown a high EPS growth of -44.40% in the last 5 years and has earnings decline of -11.30% yoy. Analysts have a mean recommendation of 1.90 on this stock (A rating of less than 2 means buy, hold within the 3 range ... and more »

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Why Investors remained confident on Puma Biotechnology, Inc. (PBYI), Tempur Sealy International, Inc. (TPX)? - StockNewsJournal

Prof. Lucy Ogbadu is the director-general of the National Biotechnology Development Agency (NABDA). In his interview with NKECHI ISAAC, she talks about the current state of agricultural biotechnology development in Nigeria.

How many confined field trials are currently going on in Nigeria?

We have four confined field trials presently going on in Nigeria. They are BT Cowpea in Ahmadu Bello University, Institute of Agricultural Research, Zaria; African Bio-fortified Sorghum going on at the Ahmadu Bello University, Institute of Agricultural Research; BT Cotton equally being handled by IAR, Zaria; Newest Rice being handled by the National Cereals Research Institute, Badeggi.

How are the crops doing, how will you access their performance?

They are doing very well, were impressed with their performance. The BT Cowpea and ABS are ahead of the other two in the sense that they started earlier in 2011 and they have progressed tremendously. They are already into multi-locational trials as well as on-farm trials, especially the BT Cowpea.

When are you looking at harvesting these crops?

We harvest them periodically because there is no staple crop that grows for this length of time from 2011. So, obviously weve been harvesting and collecting the data on them, so it is not the issue of when we harvest because none of them grows more than a period of four to five months. So, weve been harvesting and studying them further.

When are we looking at commercialising these crops, the target was previously 2018 but it has been shifted to 2019. Can the nation make this new timeline?

The BT Cowpea will most likely be the first to go out for commercialisation and it will not go beyond 2019 in the sense that we want to be doubly sure on all were doing with the crop. The scientists are happy with the results they are getting, the farmers working with the scientists are equally happy with the results theyre getting in terms of out-performing the conventional ones theyve been used to. So, hopefully by 2019 latest, it should be out in the market.

Are there any regulatory hurdles that remain before these crops can be successfully commercialised in Nigeria?

Looking from the perspective of the government in terms of policy, there are no hurdles because the establishment of this agency by the government shows the government is in support of biotechnology. Now in terms of regulation all the risk assessment, all stewardship in terms of its performance have all been carried out by our scientists that are handling the crops.

This is about the last stage of what they need to do before it is commercialised in the sense that the seeds need to be multiplied before we can say they are ready for release but of course other regulatory hurdle that may interest you is that of registration of the crop with our varietal release committee, a unit based at Ibadan which will require them to convene a meeting of the varietal release committee to look at all the descriptors that are required to be looked at before they are registered and adjudged ready for release. That is about the only hurdle that is left.

After commercialization, how accessible will this crop be to the local farmers at the grassroots who are supposed to be the main benefactors of this technology?

They wont be different from all other seeds in the sense that once they are considered okay for commercial release then it will be at the national centre for genetic resources and biotechnology in Ibadan and at that stage the only thing that will be left will be for multiplication. You know the PIs will handle the multiplication along with the extension workers after which they will be ready for uptake for farmers that are interested and other interested people.

Seed companies are sceptical about genetically modified seeds, theyre scared that multinational seed companies like Monsanto and the likes will take over their market once GM crops are produced?

The process were currently adopting shows that our scientists and farmers are involved. Now if it gets to the stage of uptake and our indigenous Nigerian seed companies refuse to come forward to take them for multiplication and release them they shouldnt blame other seed companies that come forward to multiply them. In this case our own seed companies will definitely participate in the multiplication and release. I am sure of that. They should be able to come forward and participate because the qualities of the seeds are attractive so they should be able to come forward and take them up.

No foreign seed company will jump over the laid down protocols to come and introduce any foreign seed to Nigeria, it is not possible because the regulatory framework is in place to ensure that does not happen.

Some school of thoughts believe we should channel efforts at reducing food wastage instead of applying biotechnology to boost agriculture and ensure food security. What is your take on this?

Agricultural biotechnology is not limited to GMO alone. In fact the same technology can be applied to crops in order to check the food wastage, prolong the shelf life of agricultural produce, it can be applied to crops to ensure that improved yield of crops. So, there are various ways this technology can be used advantageously on crops. It can also be used to improve the nutritional quality of the crops. So, it is not limited to GM and as a matter of fact GM is only a technique that can give us so many other advantages. This is why we feel the public should trust our scientists enough to leave the matter to them because it is a complex scientific process that people who do not really understand science cant understand. The same technology can be used to improve the shelf life of tomato for instance such that it can stay on the shelf for much longer period without spoiling.

We cannot make any serious progress in agriculture without applying biotechnology; were talking about using agriculture to diversify Nigerias economy, if that is so how else other than mechanisation. In addition to mechanisation you must have quality seeds, deploy technology in order to use agriculture to diversify the economy. It is not with our crude system of agriculture that we can use it to diversify the economy. What this simply means is that were losing a lot if we do not use advanced technology, which is agricultural biotechnology to diversify the economy.

Through advanced agricultural biotechnology we can revolutionise agriculture and ensure food security using agricultural biotechnology. To downplay on it means the nation is losing heavily and invariably unserious about diversifying the economy through agriculture. Theres no other way, it is through agricultural biotechnology that we can inject and revolutionise agriculture to diversify Nigerias economy.

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We Can't Diversify Economy Through Agriculture Without Biotechnology Ogbadu - Leadership Newspapers

BATON ROUGE, La (LOCAL 33) - More than 200 walkers are supporting the Arthritis Foundations mission to cure arthritis and help people with arthritis live a full life by participating in the 2017 Walk to Cure Arthritis on May 20 at 8:00am at Woodlawn High School in Baton Rouge. Walk to Cure Arthritis brings together communities nationwide to fight arthritis the nations leading cause of disability which impacts 1.2 million residents of Louisiana, including 6,000 children.

In Baton Rouge, to help bring this event to its fullest potential, local leaders participating includes:

Arthritis is more than just a few minor aches and pains. Its a debilitating disease that robs people of their dreams, says Dr. Broyles. When you support Walk to Cure Arthritis, you become a Champion of Yes, helping us build a lifetime of better, while accelerating the search for a cure. Whether you are close to the disease or simply looking for an inspiring charity event that truly makes a difference, Walk to Cure Arthritis provides people the opportunity to experience the power of standing together and giving back to the community. Together, Baton Rouge can Walk to Cure Arthritis and help us reach our goal of raising $45,000 to help find a cure for this disease.

In the U.S., more than 50 million adults and 300,000 children live with arthritis. Costing the U.S. economy $156 billion dollars a year, arthritis affects one in five Americans and causes more activity limitation than heart disease, cancer or diabetes.

Nationally sponsored by Amgen, locals can register for the Baton Rouge Walk to Cure Arthritis and learn more about the event by visiting http://www.walktocurearthritis.org/batonrouge or contacting Sara Morthland at 337-540-0615.

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Arthritis Foundation's "Walk to Cure Arthritis" slated for May - http://www.brproud.com

Don't let arthritis pain hinder your ability to "walk with ease."

The McMinn County UT Extension will host "Walk With Ease," a structured walking program that teaches participants ways to safely make physical activity a part of their everyday lives, beginning Wednesday, April 5, at the McMinn Senior Activity Center, First Baptist Church of Athens, and the Etowah Area Senior Citizens Center. The program will be held Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, April 5-28, from 10 to 11 a.m. at First Baptist, 1 to 2 p.m. at the Etowah Area Senior Citizens Center, and 3 to 4 p.m. at the McMinn Senior Activity Center.

The course is free.

Created by the Arthritis Foundation, "Walk With Ease" is designed to help people living with arthritis better manage their pain and is also ideal for people without arthritis who want to make walking a daily habit. The program offers support, information, and tools to help participants develop successful exercise routines.

"Research shows that walking is not only good for joints, but also helps improve the health of the heart, lungs, and bones," said Sarah Kite, UT Extension agent and Arthritis Foundation certified instructor. "Walking can also help manage weight which can reduce one's risk for arthritis in the knee, heart disease, and diabetes. If you can be on your feet for 10 minutes without increased pain, you will most likely have success with 'Walk With Ease.'"

The information and strategies taught in the Arthritis Foundation Walk With Ease Program are based on research and tested programs in exercise science, behavior change, and arthritis management. Updated and evaluated by the Thurston Arthritis Research Center and the Institute on Aging of the University of North Carolina, "Walk With Ease" has been shown to increase balance, strength and walking pace, as well as reduce the pain and discomfort of arthritis. The program also helps to build participants' confidence to be physically active and improve overall health.

The Arthritis Foundation Walk With Ease Program is one of several arthritis health education and exercise programs aimed at helping people take greater control of arthritis.

For a listing of programs, contact Kite at 745-2852 or visit utextension.tennessee.edu/mcminn. You can also learn more at the Arthritis Foundation website: http://www.arthritis.org

Attendees of all ages are welcome.

Consult your physician before beginning an exercise program.

To register, visit or contact the location you plan to attend or contact Kite at 745-2852.

UT Extension offers its programs to all eligible persons regardless of race, color, national origin, age, sex, disability, religion or veteran status.

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Arthritis sufferers can take steps to 'Walk With Ease' - The Daily Post-Athenian

The European Commission approved Pfizers twice-daily, oral Janus kinase (JAK) inhibitor Xeljanz (tofacitinib citrate), in combination with methotrexate therapy, for treating moderate-to-severe rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in adult patients who dont respond well or are intolerant to one or more disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs). Xeljanz can also be used as monotherapy when methotrexate treatment isnt suitable.

Approval of Xeljanz in Europe is based in data from the global Phase III Oral Rheumatoid Arthritis Trials (ORAL) program. With the approval of tofacitinib, rheumatologists and patients in the EU now have an additional treatment option for the management of rheumatoid arthritis that can be taken with or without methotrexate, said Ronald van Vollenhoven, M.D., Ph.D., professor of rheumatology and director of the Amsterdam Rheumatology and Immunology Center ARC. This is an important advancement for the rheumatology community as up to one-third of people with rheumatoid arthritis may not achieve a response with current treatments and a number of patients may not sustain a response.

Xeljanz has been cleared in more than 45 countries for use as second-line therapy for moderate-to-severe RA, after failure of one or more DMARDs. The latest approval, in China, was announced earlier this month. Xeljanz was first approved in the U.S. in 2012, and in February 2016 FDA cleared a, once-daily, extended-release formulation, Xeljanz XR. Global sales of Xeljanz were $927 million in 2016, up from $523 million in 2015, up 77% on 2015.

Xeljanz is in Phase III development for treating ulcerative colitis and psoriatic arthritis. Positive data from the Phase III OPAL Broaden and Beyond studies evaluating Xeljanz as second-line therapy in adults with psoriatic arthritis were reported in November 2016.

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Pfizer's Xeljanz Approved in Europe for Treating Rheumatoid Arthritis - Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News

Scientist Joanna Smeeton explores stem cell-based approaches to studying and eventually treating the common cause of cold aversion, disability and pain.

We only have treatments for the larger joints where you can provide total replacements, but a lot of people with arthritis actually get it in the joints of their hands, said Smeeton, a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Gage Crump and this years Broad Fellow, the third since 2014. Currently, there really isnt that much we can do for the cartilage in these smaller joints, other than treat the symptoms with steroids or painkillers.

As part of the quest for new and better treatments, her Broad Fellowship project leverages a key discovery that she and her colleagues recently published in the journal eLife. They found that certain joints in zebrafish jaws and fins have features similar to the type of mammalian joint susceptible to arthritis.

By damaging a ligament that stabilizes the adult zebrafish jaw, she can reliably induce cartilage damage and arthritis. Just as reliably, the zebrafish can repair the damage. Smeeton aims to understand which progenitor cells are regenerating the ligament and cartilage in the zebrafish jaws, and why similar repair fails to occur in humans.

In the future, these findings may help in devising strategies to stimulate analogous progenitor cells in patients joints toward boosting cartilage and ligament regeneration, she said.

Smeeton first decided to become a scientist thanks to a very different anatomical structure: the human kidney. As a high school student in the city of St. Catharines near Niagara Falls in Ontario, she developed a fascination with this complex organ, which is composed of 1 million subunits called nephrons that filter the blood, regulate blood pressure and produce urine.

Whenever I had a science class about kidneys, I thought, Oh, nephrons are so cool! she said.

At McGill University in Montreal, she majored in anatomy and cell biology, and observed kidneys and other organs in human cadavers in the anatomy lab.

Ive always been fascinated by how intricately patterned organs are and how that actually happens during development.

Joanna Smeeton

Ive always been fascinated by how intricately patterned organs are and how that actually happens during development, she said.

For her PhD, she learned more about kidney development in a lab at Torontos Hospital for Sick Children and the University of Toronto.

During her postdoctoral studies, she expanded her focus beyond development and into the realm of regeneration.

Id been hearing talks about zebrafish for years and their amazing ability to regenerate parts of themselves that are injured or removed, she said. So I wanted to learn how to use them. I switched to studying cartilage because joint disease seemed like an area that was understudied in the context of natural regeneration and would be ripe for new treatments.

With these goals in mind, she joined the Crump Lab with a two-year postdoctoral fellowship from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine in 2014. Since then, she has not only discovered that zebrafish can develop arthritis, but also lent her talents as a soprano to the USC University Chorus and, with her husband Jeremy, parented twins: Edie and Isaac. Theirs is a true Trojan family: Jeremy Morris graduated in 2012 with an MFA from the Peter Stark Producing Program at the USC School of Cinematic Arts.

The twins have made me even more focused in my lab work, said Smeeton, because I know that any second that Im not home with them, I should be giving my 100 percent and really drilling down on the important questions we want to ask.

As she moves ahead with her research, the Broad Fellowship provides an ideal bridge. Established as part of a $2 million gift from The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, the fellowship is designed to support exceptional senior postdoctoral researchers at the transition point to starting their own stem cell laboratories.

Joanna is a motivated, smart and creative researcher who is destined for success in academic research, said Crump, associate professor of stem cell biology and regenerative medicine. This prestigious fellowship gives her the freedom to pursue her novel joint regeneration project, which provides a fundamentally new type of approach toward finding cell-based cures for arthritis.

More stories about: Research, Stem Cells

Gabriel Linares seeks therapies for patients with Lou Gehrigs disease.

The condition is more widespread in the animal kingdom than scientists suspected, USC study finds.

Lori OBrien will use Broad Center support to find her niche in kidney research and regenerative medicine.

The objective of one current research proposal is to push the frontiers of stem cell and tissue engineering technologies.

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USC scientist fishes for stem cell-based arthritis treatments - USC News

First, lets talk about the individuals Brooks cited. President Obamas approach bears the strong influence of Christian theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, and Brooks knows it. In fact, he wrote two different opinion pieces about the influence of Niebuhr on Obama (here, and here). For what its worth, Douthat wrote one too. On the other people cited, Ive written extensively about the influence of Rev. King on Obama.

More broadly, Obama has repeatedly offered precisely the unifying story Douthat and Brooks assert our country needs, one that includes both the traditional heroes from the older narrative Douthat says appeals to many, as well as figures representing a much broader cast of characters, i.e., those excluded from the older narrative, and who are pretty heroic as well. The 44th president wove all their stories into a single history of a diverse, yet unified people working to realize the ideals laid out at the founding. Obamas story of America is, in fact, just what Brooks called for: a progressively realized grand narrative.

To the chagrin of some, Obamas Americarightly, in my viewrejects both the whitewashed narrative that was predominant in the 1950s and the overwhelmingly negative vision Brooks criticized, one steeped in American tales of genocide, slavery, oppression and segregation. To be sure, no one could be elected president running around talking about America in such a negative. Furthermore, anyone demanding that a progressive candidate must do so in order to earn their vote is only helping elect candidates who espouse the opposite understanding of America. Obamas narrative describes our progress as uneven, yes, but nonetheless moving toward the goal we as a people set for ourselves.

Of dozens of examples in which Obama lays out his conception of American history and national identity, here are a few that span his time on the national stage. From his 2006 book The Audacity of Hope, heres one that offers a unifying narrative paralleling what Brooks says we need:

[The] Constitution...despite being marred by the original sin of slaveryhas at its very core the idea of equal citizenship under the law. . . . Of course racism and nativist sentiments have repeatedly undermined these ideals . . . but in the hands of reformers, from Tubman to Douglass to Chavez to King, these ideals of equality have gradually shaped how we understand ourselves and allowed us to form a multicultural nation the likes of which exists nowhere else on earth.

On the night he won the 2008 Iowa caucuses:

Hope is what led a band of colonists to rise up against an empire. What led the greatest of generations to free a continent and heal a nation. What led young women and young men to sit at lunch counters and brave fire hoses and march through Selma and Montgomery for freedom's cause.

From the first day of his second term:

We, the people, declare today that the most evident of truths - that all of us are created equal - is the star that guides us still; just as it guided our forebears through Seneca Falls, and Selma, and Stonewall; just as it guided all those men and women, sung and unsung, who left footprints along this great Mall, to hear a preacher say that we cannot walk alone; to hear a King proclaim that our individual freedom is inextricably bound to the freedom of every soul on Earth.

In his eulogy for Reverend Clementa Pinckney, one of the nine African Americans murdered by a white supremacist in a Charleston, South Carolina, church:

Removing the Confederate flag from this states capitol...would be one step in an honest accounting of Americas history; a modest but meaningful balm for so many unhealed wounds. It would be an expression of the amazing changes that have transformed this state and this country for the better, because of the work of so many people of goodwill, people of all races striving to form a more perfect union.

And from his farewell address:

For 240 years, our nations call to citizenship has given work and purpose to each new generation. Its what led patriots to choose republic over tyranny, pioneers to trek west, slaves to brave that makeshift railroad to freedom. Its what pulled immigrants and refugees across oceans and the Rio Grande, pushed women to reach for the ballot, powered workers to organize. Its why GIs gave their lives at Omaha Beach and Iwo Jima; Iraq and Afghanistan and why men and women from Selma to Stonewall were prepared to give theirs as well.

Maybe the blindnessof writers like Douthat and Brooks isnt blindness at all, but instead strategy. Maybe they feel like theyll lose their ability to reach anti-Trump Republicans if they acknowledge that Obama has already done what they are calling for someone to do. Part of me can understand that thinking. But another part of me says that the strategic value of a Republican saying: if its a choice between Trumpism and Obamaism, Ill take Obamaism would be far better. Plus, just tell the damn truth if you know what Obama has been doing.

Giving Obama credit for putting forth a balanced, inclusive conception of national identity wouldnt mean endorsing the whole of the Democratic policy platform. Even on the national narrative itself, if Douthat and/or Brooks want to say that Obama hasnt been effective enough in selling the vision he (and they) have described, thats a point we can debate as well. But if they honestly believe that he hasnt been putting that vision out there time and again for years, well, then they just havent been listening.

Ian Reifowitz is the author of Obamas America: A Transformative Vision of Our National Identity (Potomac Books).

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The blindness of anti-Trump Republicans - Daily Kos

New Delhi, March 26 (PTI): India's government is poised to change its four-decade-old definition of blindness to bring it in line with the World Health Organisation's less stringent criterion and lower the country's blindness stats.

Health officials said the current Indian criterion, which labels a person unable to count fingers from a distance of six metres as blind, results in higher estimates than the WHO stipulation of a distance of three metres.

"With the current definition, we project higher figures of blindness in India in international fora. India gets presented in a poor light compared to other countries," said Promila Gupta, deputy director-general of the National Programme for Control of Blindness, which set the current Indian criterion.

Gupta said the data India currently generates cannot be compared with global estimates as other countries follow the WHO criterion. Uniformity of blindness criteria is a pre-requisite for a reliable estimate of the global burden of blindness, she said.

The proposal to change India's criterion is partly driven by the country's goal of reducing the prevalence of blindness to 0.3 per cent of the population by 2020, in line with the WHO's Vision 2020 goals.

"It will be extremely difficult to achieve the WHO goal using the current (Indian) definition. By adopting the blindness criterion of the WHO, India can achieve the goal," said Praveen Vashist, a senior ophthalmologist at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi.

The health ministry plans also to rename the National Programme for Control of Blindness as the National Programme for Control of Visual Impairment and Blindness.

"The idea is to strengthen the programme by focusing not only on blind people but also on those with some (less severe) kind of visual impairment," Gupta said.

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Blindness yardstick - Calcutta Telegraph

VIDEOS: OBAMACARE, HEALTHCARE EXCHANGE ISSUESPence: Health Care Setback 'Won't Last Long' | 2:14

A defiant Vice President Mike Pence says President Donald Trump's administration is refusing to accept defeat on health care. (March 25) AP

1 of 21

House Speaker Paul Ryan cancelled the vote on the GOP's health care bill that would've replaced Obamacare, saying he could not get enough votes to support it. USA TODAY

2 of 21

House speaker Paul Ryan explained his decision for cancelling a vote on the GOP bill to replace Obamacare. USA TODAY

3 of 21

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office found that the changes recently introduced to the GOP's health care bill could add billions of dollars to the bill's cost, without increasing the number of those insured. USA TODAY

4 of 21

President Donald Trump gave a speech at the National Republican Congressional Committee in Washington Tuesday night, telling the crowd the American people gave "clear instructions" by electing Trump to "get to work and to get the job done." (March 21) AP

5 of 21

Republicans released a modified health care bill in an attempt to shore up bipartisan support to replace the Affordable Care Act. USA TODAY

6 of 21

Concerned citizens protest the GOP health care plan. Nikki Boertman/The Commercial Appeal

7 of 21

Republicans are starting the process of replacing the Affordable Care Act but there is some dispute within their own party about how to proceed.

8 of 21

While holding a press conference after touring Fort Campbell, US Congresswomen Marsha Blackburn and Diane Black did not answer questions about new healthcare law. Shelley Mays and Jake Lowary

9 of 21

House Republicans have unveiled their replacement plan for the Affordable Care Act. The plan differs from Obamacare in various ways. Time

10 of 21

A new poll from MTSU shows that, in Tennessee, opinions are often tied to your political affiliation. Adam Tamburin/The Tennessean

11 of 21

Protesters rally outside Senators Bob Corker's and Lamar Alexander's offices in support of the Affordable Care Act. George Walker IV / The Tennessean

12 of 21

When will America get a new healthcare plan? President Donald Trump is now saying it could be a year from now. Aaron Dickens reports. Buzz60

13 of 21

The prospect of repeal has made Obamacare more popular than ever! Rob Smith has all the details. Buzz60

14 of 21

GOP Congress Members recently introduced legislation that would give the authority to states to keep ObamaCare. Jose Sepulveda (@josesspulveda87) has more. Buzz60

15 of 21

Gov. Bill Haslam is calling on Congress to cede more control over health policy and regulation to the states, as the debate over repealing or replacing the Affordable Care Act rages on in Washington. Wochit

16 of 21

Chris Kane had insurance through Community Health Alliance before it went defunct then moved to Blue Cross Blue Shield Tennessee, now will have to go to Humana. He has concerns about finding the right doctors for his family, a wife and infant. Amy Smotherman Burgess / News Sentinel

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The health care heavyweight is grappling with hefty losses and ongoing uncertainty on the marketplace. Karen Kraft / The Tennessean

18 of 21

Changes to the Affordable Care Act in Tennessee Kyleah Starling/ The Tennessean

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Insurance broker Jonathan Katz of Virginia Medical Plans speaks with USA TODAY healthcare reporter Jayne O'Donnell about some the problems facing those enrolling for Obamacare. USA TODAY

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Five states are expected to have just one company selling insurance on the 2017 Obamacare exchanges and consumers in most of the counties in nine other states won't find any competition for their exchange business either. Martin E. Klimek, USA TODAY

21 of 21

Pence: Health Care Setback 'Won't Last Long'

GOP health care vote pulled at last minute

Paul Ryan: 'We came up short' on health care vote

CBO says latest GOP health care bill would cost more

Trump: Health care bill ends Obamacare nightmare

GOP's modified health care plan includes key changes

Memphians say no to Trump Care

The debate begins over Obamacare replacement

Tennessee lawmakers decline to talk about new healthcare law

What to know about the GOP healthcare bill

MTSU poll addresses Obamacare

Obamacare rally in Nashville

Obamacare may not be replaced until next year

Why Obamacare is more popular than ever

Potential GOP ObamaCare replacement wouldn't really 'replace' it

Haslam: States need more control over health care

BCBST departure from 3 metro areas

BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee is leaving the Obamacare marketplace

Obamacare Exchange 'Very Near Collapse'

Obamacare exchanges still troubled by enrollment issues

As insurance companies dwindle, patients left frustrated with lack of choice

Price blindness, or a lack of price transparency, affects healthcare consumers across the U.S. Pricing is so opaque that even many doctors and hospitals cant estimate what a service might cost, leaving patients no options to compare or price-shop.(Photo: Getty Images/iStockphoto)

This month, local price transparency company Healthcare Bluebook launched its price comparison tool for residents of Middle Tennessee and Southern Kentucky.

In providing its full database, Healthcare Bluebook has created an opportunity for Nashville consumers to cure what the company has coined as price blindness, or the inability to evaluate what a medical procedure will cost before receiving it.

With the free tool, consumers in Nashville and the surrounding regions can easily search for common medical procedures and find fair prices as well as rankings of area hospitals and other provider sites to see how they compare on price and quality.

This is the first time any community has been able to access the companys comprehensive database of pricing and provider information, which was previously only available through employers as a workplace benefit.

Price blindness, or a lack of price transparency, affects healthcare consumers across the U.S. Pricing is so opaque that even many doctors and hospitals cant estimate what a service might cost, leaving patients no options to compare or price-shop.

This problem is unique to healthcare can you imagine driving a car off the dealers lot and getting a bill in the mail later? Would you buy a television at Best Buy without a quick Amazon search? Most of us would not, but until recently, there just wasnt a way for consumers to easily compare costs in healthcare.

But Nashville companies like Healthcare Bluebook and MD Save are trying to change that, especially as consumers pick up more of the costs of their care. With higher deductibles and more cost-sharing, patients are starting to ask questions about how much services cost, and if they can be provided at a lower price elsewhere.

Heres an example: How much does a total knee replacement cost in Nashville? According to Healthcare Bluebook, the fair price, or what you might reasonably expect to pay, is $34,357, but costs in the area range more than $20,000 from $22,044 to $54,545.

Because there is so much variation in cost depending on your insurance plan and other individual factors, Healthcare Bluebook doesnt publish the specific cost estimates at each Nashville hospital. But the company does rank the facilities, based on how much more or less than the fair price the service is expected to cost there. This can be very enlightening.

For example, for our knee replacement, only Saint Thomas Midtown is expected to cost at or below the fair price. Not even a mile away, Vanderbilt University is in the red, or expected to have the highest price.

Heres another procedure. How much would you expect a rotator cuff repair surgery to cost? Here, Healthcare Bluebook shows that all the local hospitals Saint Thomas, Vanderbiltand TriStar are the highest-priced sites of care. But outpatient facilities, like Nashville Surgery Center, Baptist Plaza Surgicare, Centennial Surgery Center and St. Thomas SurgiCare are all at or below the fair price of $8,296.

Lets look at one more example, an MRI. Its particularly smart to price shop imaging services, because there can be massive cost variations for something that many regard as being relatively straightforward. As with the shoulder surgery, a chest MRI is far more expensive in the hospital than at an outpatient site. Heritage Medical Associates, Premier Radiologyand the Outpatient Diagnostic Center of Nashville are all expected to be at or below the fair price of $900.

Why are hospitals more expensive than outpatient settings? Generally speaking, its because they have more overhead. Outpatient sites are typically smaller facilities with fewer staff and less expensive equipment. Often, the higher cost of a basic MRI at a hospital is actually subsidizing much more expensive technology.

This is also why some hospitals are more expensive than others. Hospitals with more robust or advanced services, like pediatric cancer treatment or state-of-the-art cardiac care, have more leverage with insurers and can negotiate higher payments for all services.

This leverage is largely driven by the employer-based group insurance market. Because employers want to provide employees with access to cutting-edge treatment, they demand insurers include them in their plan networks. Because providers know the insurers wont exclude them, these hospitals are able to negotiate higher payments.

Eventually, this all trickles down to you via your out-of-pocket costs. Many insurers and employers hope that consumers will soon become more comfortable comparing healthcare costs, and begin choosing less expensive options.

Healthcare Bluebook is a great tool for Nashville consumers to do that. By getting a sense of fair prices, consumers can cut through those complicated negotiations and get to the heart of the matter how much will it cost?

Alex Tolbert is the founder of Bernard Health, a company that provides non-commissioned, expert advice on health, Medicare and COBRA insurance and medical bill consulting. To learn more, visit http://www.bernardhealth.com.

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Can Nashville find cure for price blindness in health care? - The Tennessean