Click here for link to a video of Mattie's story
on the CBS Evening News http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/06/22/national/main625479.shtml

The Face of Courage: Mattie Stepanek's Story

Mattie Stepanek was like any young vibrant teenager - full of hopes, energy, and creativity. Unfortunately Mattie had one major obstacle - he had muscular dystrophy (MD). Muscular Dystrophy refers to a collection of congenital muscle abnormalities involving progressive weakening and atrophy of muscles of the chest, head, and limbs.

Mattie had an especially rare form of MD called Mitochondrial Myopathy. Muscles require a lot of energy to function correctly and mitochondria within our cells produce this vital energy. Mitochondrial Myopathy affects the ability of mitochondria to produce the energy our muscles need. Despite his disease Mattie traveled the US as an advocate for people with MD. He was astute, articulate, and wise beyond his years. He wrote several books on poetry, met with Oprah Winfrey, Larry King (see picture left), first lady Laura Bush, and former President and Nobel Peace Prize recipient Jimmy Carter (his personal hero). He lived several lifetimes in his short 13 years and in that brief time he was an inspiration to millions and will not soon be forgotten. Click on the link to the left to view a video about Mattie on the CBS Evening News.

One of the most common types of MD in children is Duchenne's MD. Children with Duchenne's typically develop symptoms within 2 - 3 years of age, and by the time they are 12 years old have become bound to wheelchairs, have heart problems, and other muscle-related problems. One of the factors implicated in MD is the lack of dystrophin, a protein that is necessary for normal muscle function. Some of the treatments for MD being explored include gene therapy in which the gene for dystrophin production is injected (via a retro-virus) into MD patients to stimulate their own cells to produce dystrophin. Much more research is necessary.

Click here for link to USA Today Report http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2004-08-27-bone-jaw_x.htm

Forget Transplants! Grow Your Own Tissue!

USA Today reports the story of a ground-breaking advance in reconstructive surgery using adult stem cells. These stem cells DO NOT come from an embryo or fetus but from a patients own source of adult stem cells such as those found in your bone marrow. The details of the story are published in the medical journal The Lancet.

In short, a German patient had part of his tongue and jaw removed due to cancer and had been able to eat only liquid food for more than a decade. To improve the patients quality of life, doctors tried a never-before-attempted procedure. They created a thin micro-mesh cage and filled the cage with bone minerals, growth factors, and with stem cells from the patients own bone marrow. The mesh cage was then implanted into muscles below the patients right shoulder. Only antibiotics were given to the patient for 7 weeks. After 7 weeks, new bone actually grew! This bone was extracted from the muscles and placed in the patients mouth where it continued to grow. Within 4 weeks of the successful surgery the patient ate his first meal of solid food in 10 years - a sausage sandwhich.

"Body Worlds: The anatomical exhibition of real human bodies"

http://www.koerperwelten.de/en/pages/home.asp

Did you ever have that dream? We've all had that dream that makes us cringe. The one where you're out in public and people are staring at you and you don't know why. Suddenly you realize to your shock and embarrassment that you're completely naked. No one likes this dream. We just cannot feel comfortable being viewed while we are at our most exposed and vulnerable.

Now imagine that it's no dream, and that your naked body IS actually under public scrutiny, 24/7. Would you do it? Well, over 200 people have signed up to do it and will put their bodies on display indefinately. Think they're crazy? These people are part of a controversial project called "BODY WORLDS: The Anatomical Exhibition of Real Human Bodies."

After their death, these people have promised to commit their bodies (cadavers), to a process called Plastination. Plastination replaces the body fluids with clear, pliable plastic or rubber. Plastination will prevent decay and preserve bodies (and body tissues) perfectly in living color.

The Body Worlds project and the plastination process was pioneered by German scientist Gunther von Hagens. Body Worlds has toured for 8 years through Asia and Europe. von Hagens says the project was designed to teach people about human anatomy and organ systems. Some of the cadavers are dissected to reveal the anatomy of bones, nerves, and organs. Additionally, some examples of pathology are exhibited such as cancer. Currently 25 cadavers are on display in the Body Worlds project. Some people have described their viewing of the display as a visceral experience.

THE VISIBLE HUMAN PROJECT
(CLICK ON IMAGE TO SEE VIDEO CLIP)
http://collab.nlm.nih.gov/webcastsandvideos/visiblehumanvideos/cbsnews.ram

The National Library of Medicine's Visible Human Project®." has created an astounding collection of over 18,000 anatomical, three-dimensional images of normal male and female human bodies. Using techniques such as CT (Computerized Tomography), MR (Magnetic Resonance Imaging), and cryosection images the project has provided a stunning array of images and video that were never before available for viewing by scientists and the general public. Click on the image to the left to see a CBS Evening News Report about this project. To see another VERY cool video of a "melt through of the human body", click here . You will need Real Player to view these clips (download free version of Real Player by going to http://www.real.com/freeplayer)

Computerized Tomography is the process of using computerized digital processing to generate a three-dimensional image of the internal organs using a series of two-dimensional x-ray images. The individual x-ray image "slices" are taken using a x-ray tube that rotates around the object taking many scans as the body is moved through the gantry. The scans from each 360 degree sweep are processed to produce a single cross-section. The word "tomography" is derived from the Greek tomos (slice) and graphia (describing).

Magnetic Resonance Imaging is a technique for creating images of organs inside living organisms. It is primarily used to visualize pathology or other abnormalities in living tissues and is now a commonly used form of medical imaging.

The male cadaver used in the Visible Human Project was from Joseph Paul Jernigan, a 38-year-old Texas convicted murderer who was executed by lethal injection on August 5, 1993. He donated his body for scientific research at the recommendation of the prison pastor. Some people have expressed ethical concerns over this. The female donor remains anonymous.

The male cadaver was frozen and cut into 1,871 axial slices (1 mm) which were photographed and digitized yielding more than 65 gigabytes of data! The female cadaver was cut into 0.3 mm slices yielding some 40 gigabytes of data.

The goal of the Visible Human Project was to produce images that contribute to our knowledge of human anatomy for medical, educational, and research purposes. Continuing discoveries are being made as a result of this project.

OPRAH TAKES AN ANATOMY CLASS!

On a recent Oprah show (Sept. 1, 2004) Oprah takes a lesson in gross anatomy and literally goes Inside the Human Body (show title) under the direction of Dr. Mehmet Oz.

Dr. Oz is a highly respected surgeon and host of Second Opinion on the Discovery Channel. On the Oprah show, Dr. Oz (is he also the "wizard"?) brought samples of real human organs to graphically demonstrate the difference between normal, healthy tissue and tissue damaged by disease or pathology from over-eating, over-drinking, and smoking.

Have you ever seen fat-in-a-bag? What the heck are gallstones? What do you mean your eyeballs and kidneys shrink with diabetes? Just how long is the human tongue muscle? What does a uterine fibroid as big as a grapefruit look like anyway?

Want to find out more? Check it out! Click HERE to get to the Oprah homepage, then select the links "this week", and then click "Inside the Human Body" for episode on Sept. 1, 2004.

Here's a little diddy recently played on a commercial for St. Joseph's aspirin that originally was a song written and sung by Potsie on Happy Days. You see, Potsie was failing Anatomy so he wrote this song to help him remember how blood travels through the heart. It's called … "Pump Your Blood".