Fraudulent, False Hope 4 ALS, MS, PARKINSONS & MUSCULAR DYSTROPHY Runs Rampant on the Internet

Wow, everyone is out to make a buck these days, regardless of the consequences. It can be anything from Lyme disease treatments, sure-fire systems & regimens, Stem cell transplant scams or the latest miracle elixirs from the MLM (aka network marketing) company of the month. How about the “Financial Placebo Effect”. It’s gone too far and I’m not the first to notice. Blogs and sites are popping up everywhere to warn patients and families out there. Scams are abundant! Just search “supplement scams” or “stem cell cures for ALS”

Having a public profile and being a vocal online ALS advocate means that I am a target for some incredibly sincere “sounding” emails and guinea pig requests and even the occasional psycho that bothers to track down a phone number. It takes some balls to phone in your scam to an ALS patient. Here’s just the tip of the iceberg…

========= Fraudulent False Hope Email Example =========

Dear [your name here],

I hope you are doing well in the midst of your ALS ordeal.  Please feel free to email or call me after you read this account of my experience and that of Eric Edney and others.  If my memory is correct, Eric was in a wheel chair and had lost the use of most of his left arm when he begin his program of recovery.  I was fortunate to begin my program mush earlier.
MY ALS RECOVERY AND THAT OF ERIC EDNEY
www.ericiswinning.com/
I have had all the symptoms of ALS except the muscle wasting  I would like to share what I learned and the peer reviewed science I have found with you and all other PALS.  
According to my neurologist, I had all the symptoms of ALS IN 2OO3 except muscle wasting.Since then I have successfully lessened my problems.
By detoxing mercury in many ways including taking OSR which the FDA took off the market because "it was too effective" ??, high doses of selenium as "sodium selenite" and in yeast bound form (absolutely not, I repeat not "selenomethionine"), taking sweat baths, and supplementing with manganese, various forms of sulfur and antioxidants, most of my symptoms are greatly diminished. Manganese helped me control cramps and fasiculations.  I am actually healthier and my muscle cramps and fasiculations have almost completely disappeared.  If I stop talking manganese I have choking problems and leg cramps.
I also begin to supplement with large dose of glutamine powder about 2005, which I believe helps prevent muscle wasting BUT YOU HAVE TO DETOXIFY FIRST BEFORE TAKING GLUTAMINE.  IT CAN CAUSE PROBLEMS SUCH AS MUSCLE WASTING IF YOU HAVE NOT DETOXED SUFFICENTLY.
I also discovered that MAGNESIUM STEARATE was contributing to my very severe leg cramps.  When I eliminated all magnesium  stearates from my supplements my cramps ceased.  
My mercury came from my mercury/silver fillings (I have none) and flu shots (I never have them!) and some sea food (Rarely).
Mercury is probably the major factor in causing most neurological disorders such as ALS, Alzheimer's. MS and Parkinson's Disease. The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) tell us:

"The nervous system is very sensitive to all forms of mercury."
http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/tfacts46.html#bookmark05

Metallic mercury vapors come off mercury/silver fillings for the life of the fillings. This is explained in detail in Petition to Reconsider filed with FDA. See www.iaomt.org/articles/files/files314/petition%20for%20reconsideration%20090309.pdf   at page 24.for the science for the connection between mercury and neurological disorders. For ALS read pages 34-36 for the science to support the connection between mercury and this devastating neurological disorder.  The above website summarizes the ten peer reviewed science/medical papers connecting mercury exposure to ALS.  Lead is probably also a factor as it is highly synergistically toxic with mercury.
Mercury/silver fillings are by far the largest source of mercury, much more so then fish. Unfortunately most MDs are unaware of this or that mercury might be a factor in causing ALS. The International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology (IAOMT.org) is pushing this issue with the FDA by demanding a ban of mercury/silver fillings.
If considering having your fillings removed, be sure your dentist insures minimal exposure to the mercury vapor created by drilling to to remove. Most dentist do not realize the dangers to the patient & dental staff at the time of removal.  Many PALS have not benefited from this procedure because they were not probably protected from the large amounts of mercury vapor and particulate matter generated.    See http://www.iaomt.org/articles/category_view.asp
Here is a trailer to an unfinished documentary trailer on people who have slowed and even stopped the progression of their ALS:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjMLsa6I5tI&context=C34bbd2cADOEgsToPDskKqsOXOIar17QVmiyd5RBUV

Go to www.ericiswinning.com for more information on ALS,  Eric Edney has a compelling story of overcoming ALS. Eric says:

"If you have any neuro-degenerative illness, you could benefit from our book. Actually, there are over forty neuro-degenerative illnesses for which they do not have a CURE. That includes Multiple Sclerosis - Parkinson's - Alzheimer's - Fibromyalgia, and more. This is only my opinion, but I am convinced that almost all of these neuro illnesses are caused by the same thing; toxins such as pesticides, and heavy metals including mercury, lead, and arsenic." [1 person’s opinion]

I can explain what I did and am doing in much more detail.  I genuinely believe the progress of most ALS can be dramatically slowed or stopped if the symptoms have not progressed too far.  
I can be called at a/c 859   H-266-0364  C-619-7001  O-226-0700 or emailed robertereeves1@gmail.com.  Please at least let me know you received this even if you want no more information.  
Best wishes to you for health, Bob Reeves

__________________

Watch out! Express your views to people who spread false hope for profit. Let them know how you feel. Notify authorities if what they’re doing is illegal !

Falling and ALS; A How “not” to guide…

PALS (people w/ ALS)… FALLING? You’re not the only one. 
Well, it’s official, I’ve mastered the art of falling… after a few (4-5) previous tumbles and a few stitches…  This one took the “cake”.
I’m still recovering 4 days later, but have dizziness and concussion affects as well as headaches. I am always in my chair when out and about. but this happened in transition.  It won’t happen again.
I was unconscious for about a minute while 911 was called to the Target parking lot.  Julie held my head and people in the parking lot came to our aide.  So happy she didn’t faint at the site of my heavily bleeding head.  She tends to do that and was an incredible trooper through this.
She is the most amazing women on the planet. I don’t remember anything until the Emergency Room and I was told that I kept repeating the same questions over and over (which the paramedics told Julie was totally normal).  “what happened?, what happened?”

So, I was put in a neck brace and 2 CAT-scans later they determined that there was no brain swelling or torn arteries in my neck.  I wear a simple foam neck brace now until my muscles feel better.  The 6 stitches come out in 7 days. 
All that excitement of an ambulance ride and paramedics attention and I don’t remember any of it.











Now I’m on the way to recovery!

Clarification:
I still walk and fell backwards while standing there… I wasn’t in the chair! Just waiting while it was being unloaded … She ran to help me and left the chair which ended up falling off the other way. Two independent, yet related incidents. Chair is fine too.

Why I Like Pirates?

arrrrgggh, more be comin' soon...

ALS Update on Steve Gleason, wow!

Steve Gleason, NCAA and NFL Football player diagnosed with ALS, is a role model for living in the face of adversity.

ALS fight and progression …

Steve Smith...

I’m working on another update video. A lot has changed since this one.

My old update

JPL's Curiosity mission comes down to this: the Martian surface

I am so excited for this!

Neil Mottinger from NASA, who will be sitting in the room across the hall from the command center when the 7 Minutes of Terror takes place, sent me this article from the Los Angeles Times which does a great job of describing the landing sequence of the Mars Rover Curiosity (and as usual I added a bunch of photos).

We’ll be watching !

  July 14, 2012
On Aug. 5 (this Sunday evening), as nervous Jet Propulsion Laboratory engineers watch, the fate of the rover — capable of pulverizing rocks and ingesting soil — will rest on a landing sequence so far-fetched that some scientists were skeptical it could work. More than half of missions to Mars, dating to a series of fly-by attempts by the Soviet Union in the 1960s, have failed, and JPL remains the only institution to deposit a successful robot on the Red Planet.
By Scott Gold

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory's David Oh, left, and Ray Baker, right, discuss the Curiosity rover's mission to Mars.

After a journey of nearly nine months, the six-wheel laboratory above is scheduled to touch down on the Red Planet at 10:31 p.m. PDT on Sunday, Aug. 5.
Three weeks from tonight, an amiable, whip-smart engineer named Ray Baker will be staring into his computer screen at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, hopeful and helpless — or, as he puts it, "sweating blood."
The night will have been 10 years and $2.5 billion in the making, incorporating the work of 5,000 people in 37 states. And then, 154 million miles from home, the fate of the most ambitious machine humans have sent to another planet will rest on a seven-minute landing sequence so far-fetched it looks like something Wile E. Coyote devised to catch the Road Runner.

After a journey of nearly nine months, the six-wheel laboratory NASA has dubbed Curiosity is scheduled to touch down on Mars at 10:31 p.m. PDT on Aug. 5.
Curiosity's science could captivate the public like no other space mission in recent memory. The robot is equipped with a nuclear-powered lab capable of vaporizing rocks and ingesting soil, furthering the search for signs of life, revolutionizing the study of Mars and potentially paving the way for human exploration.
Initially, though, the allure of the mission will come in its daredevil landing on the floor of a crater. In the time it takes to drive to the grocery store, the spacecraft will change shape like a toy Transformer six times, slowing from 13,000 mph to 1.7 mph while using 76 pyrotechnic devices, ropes, knives and the largest supersonic parachute ever built.

"When you work through the engineering, it actually makes a lot of sense," said Baker, who has been an engineer since 2001 at La Cañada Flintridge's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is managing the mission for NASA. "But it looks crazy."
What's more, the entire sequence must run on its own, because Mars is so far away that scientists can't fly the craft remotely; they will have sent their last command to the spacecraft two hours earlier.
Curiosity will send an alert when it enters the Martian atmosphere, but it will take the message roughly 14 minutes to reach Earth. So, by the time the message is received, the craft will have already been on the surface for seven minutes, either intact or wrecked. NASA has labeled this period "seven minutes of terror."
Mars is a notoriously difficult place to land a machine. "It's known for eating spacecraft," said Devin Kipp, another of the 30-odd JPL engineers responsible for Curiosity's landing sequence.
Beyond the travel involved, Mars' atmosphere is 100 times thinner than Earth's — just enough to cause problems but not enough to slow down a spacecraft to a manageable speed without powerful assistance. More than half of missions to Mars, dating to a series of fly-by attempts by the Soviet Union in the 1960s, have failed, and JPL remains the only institution to deposit a successful robot on the Red Planet.
The elaborate landing sequence for Curiosity grew out of necessity. As it was being designed, scientists began ratcheting up their ambitions. That meant new gadgets, which begot more gadgets needed to power and protect them. "The rover started to grow," Baker said. Before long, the plan called for a 2,000-pound rover the size of a small car — five times heavier than NASA's previous Mars rovers.
Landing sequences used in the past wouldn't work. The contraption that in 2004 allowed the Spirit and Opportunity rovers to bounce in an air bag to resting positions became too heavy to launch when scaled up for Curiosity. Engineers initially wanted to land Curiosity on a platform, then pilot it down a ramp. But the platform design grew to unmanageable proportions.
So the engineers came up with something new — a sequence so odd that even some of the scientists tasked with building the thing were highly skeptical.

Curiosity, folded inside a heat shield, will hit the Martian atmosphere at 13,000 mph, firing thrusters to stabilize its course and steer it toward the crater. Atmospheric friction will heat the shield to 1,600 degrees and begin to slow the craft.

When it reaches about 1,000 mph, an explosive charge will release a massive parachute that is packed to the density of wood and capable of withstanding 65,000 pounds of force.


NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission will use the largest parachute ever built to fly on a planetary mission. The parachute uses a configuration called disk-gap-band. It has 80 suspension lines, measures more than 165 feet (50 meters) in length, and opens to a diameter of nearly 51 feet (16 meters). The parachute is designed to survive deployment at Mach 2.2 in the Martian atmosphere, where it will generate up to 65,000 pounds of drag force.

In this photo above from October 2007, engineers check out an early parachute design for the MSL descent being tested in a wind tunnel at NASA Ames Research Center.
(Credit: NASA/JPL, Pioneer Aerospace)

The craft will then discard its heat shield, which would otherwise act like a lens cap on a camera — Curiosity's radar couldn't "see" the ground to find its target.


NASA’s Curiosity Mars Science Laboratory Rover inside the entry aeroshell
Technicians are connecting Curiosity's Heat Shield and Back Shell. At the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the "back shell powered descent vehicle" configuration, containing NASA's Mars Science Laboratory rover, Curiosity, is being placed on the spacecraft's heat shield. Launch is set for Nov. 25, 2011 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
In less than two minutes, the spacecraft will slow to about 200 mph. It will then jettison the parachute and, for a brief moment, be in free fall.
"Here's where it gets really exciting," Baker said with a laugh.
Eight rocket engines pointed at the ground will erupt, arresting the fall. But the discarded parachute will be falling right behind; Curiosity could stick the landing, only to find itself smothered by the massive chute. So the craft will use the engines to lurch about 350 yards, out of the chute's path.
The spacecraft will then be about a mile above the ground. In the next 35 seconds, the rockets will slow the craft to less than 2 mph.
In theory, the rockets could provide a gentle enough landing to finish the job. But in practice, they would kick up such a dust storm that it could ruin the rover. So at 66 feet, the rover will fall yet again. As the craft descends, Curiosity will be spat out by a "sky crane," lowered by 25-foot ropes as the rover unfurls its wheels.



A last critical moment will come when Curiosity's wheels touch down, because the spacecraft will suddenly lose half its weight. If it begins to drift, the ropes could drag the rover. So Curiosity has 0.7 of a second to fire pyrotechnic charges that send blades sweeping across the nylon tethers. Once the ropes are cut, the craft above — its job completed — will rocket off, crash-landing a safe 450 meters away.
Then, finally, the rover will be alone, and safe, and prepared to begin the mission.
"I've been trying to imagine it," Baker said. "I'm looking forward to seeing what my reaction will be. We'll be celebrating like mad. We're down safe. The descent stage is over — and it's game time for the science team."

The engineers are spending their final days tinkering with the system to ensure that they are prepared for any problems, such as unusually high winds.
On a recent morning, a dozen engineers gathered at JPL in the same room they'll be in the night of the landing. They were sending a software patch to the rover as it flew toward Mars, intended to make the craft more impervious to unusual atmospheric conditions.
Inside the room, there was little sound other than the hum of 100 computers and occasional engineer-speak: "Niner Eight Bravo." "Load the binary." The file was a mere 190 kilobytes; a desktop computer would load that amount of information in seconds, but because Curiosity was 140 million miles away, it took 29 minutes. Engineers watched the clock warily. One tapped his wristwatch as if he were waiting for a train.
"Just waiting on the speed of light," Baker said under his breath. "Too slow for us."
Then, the spacecraft responded — success.
There are few days left to tinker. Before long, engineers will send their last commands and hope for the best. "We talk to the spacecraft every day," Baker said. "But pretty soon it's time to just watch it fly."
Engineers are a superstitious sort — they'll be eating their traditional peanuts the night of the landing, some wearing their lucky mission shirts — but they're confident about the landing sequence, most of the time.

In the beginning, "there were a lot of questions," said Steve Sell, a member of the entry, descent and landing engineering team. A large group, including engineers and astronauts — even pilots who had flown Sikorsky Skycrane heavy-lift helicopters — weighed in with concerns and corrections. By now, after hundreds of tests and fixes, "we're very comfortable," Sell said.
"There's always a little bit of you that thinks there is an 'unknown unknown,' and that's the thing we always fear," he said. "On landing day, we'll all be nervous. But I don't think any of us will be thinking that there was something else we should have done."
Engineers ran many tests on the parachute, for instance, in a massive wind tunnel. They're confident the chute will withstand the force needed to slow the craft down. But it was more difficult, because of atmospheric differences, to make sure the chute will inflate the same way above Mars that it did in the tunnel.
"It's not really possible to do an end-to-end test on Earth — because Earth is not Mars," Kipp said. "The whole program was based on doing it in pieces, and putting those pieces together will prove that the system will work as a whole. But the first time we do that end-to-end test, it's not a test. It's the real thing. On Mars."
When time permits and you want to see some amazing animation showing the voyage, landing, and Curiosity at work without the narration watch this 11:20 minute video. Very well done!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4boyXQuUIw

ALS-stricken NFL player and coach, the first patient to undergo new procedure for reprogramming adult stem cells, shows auspicious results

What do you all think about this?
GULF SHORES, Ala., July 26, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Eight years ago, Frank Orgel, a former NFL football player and college coach, was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease. Orgel's quality of life declined to the point that he could not move his left arm or leg, walk or even stand on his own. But, within a few days of undergoing a new stem cell reprogramming technique performed by Dr. Jason R. Williams at Precision StemCell (http://www.precisionstemcell.com), Orgel's constant muscle fasciculation (muscle twitching) lessened significantly. Within weeks, he was able to walk in a pool of water and stand unassisted.
The technique performed on Orgel is InVivo reprogramming, which reprograms adult stem cells into neural stem cells. The procedure involves harvesting adult stem cells from the patient's own fat, which Dr. Williams obtains via minimally invasive liposuction, and then using image-guided therapy to insert the stem cells into the patient's spine. For three to five days after the procedure, Dr. Williams places the patient on an oral medication that, as laboratory research has shown, causes stem cells to reprogram, converting them into neural stem cells.
"We are the only facility in the United States performing the InVivo reprogramming procedure," said Dr. Williams. "Frank was the first patient in the world, that we are aware of, to have the procedure done."
Orgel attests to the efficacy of the new procedure. "My leg normally drags and would have to be moved for me, but now I'm able to move it myself," he stated. "I feel that this is definite improvement."
Dr. Williams, a radiologist who specializes in image-guided procedures, had already been performing magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), computed tomography (CT), ultrasound and fluoroscopy-guided stem cell injections for joint and orthopedic conditions. "This new technique of InVivo reprogramming shows great promise for possibly repairing or regenerating nerve cells," he stated. "That means it may open up opportunities for treating several neural conditions such as spinal cord injury, stroke, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease."
"We are really excited that this technique can help increase the number of neural stem cells that are transferred back into the patient," continued Dr. Williams. "We are hopeful that this will indeed help us heal or regrow nerve cells; however, it is still too soon to really know."
About Precision StemCell
Located in Gulf Shores, Alabama, Precision StemCell conducts stem cell procedures using advanced imaging techniques, which include an Open 3T MRI, a low-dose 64-Slice CT scanner, ultrasound, and real time x-ray (fluoroscopy). Headed byJason Williams, MD, a board certified radiologist with extensive training in image guided procedures, the facility performs advanced stem cell harvesting and processing with image guided stem cell injections.
Contact:
Bob Hubbard
Precision StemCell
251-948-3420
hubbard@precisionstemcell.com
http://www.precisionstemcell.com

The 2012 Transit of Venus

http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/OH/transit12.html
The transit or passage of a planet across the face of the Sun is a relatively rare occurrence. As seen from Earth, only transits of Mercury and Venus are possible. On average, there are 13 transits of Mercury each century. In contrast, transits of Venus occur in pairs with more than a century separating each pair.
The last Venus transit was in 2004 so the second event of the pair will occur on Wednesday, June 6 (Tuesday, June 5 from the Western Hemisphere). The entire event will be widely visible from the western Pacific, eastern Asia and eastern Australia as shown in Figure 1. Most of North and Central America, and northern South America will witness the beginning of the transit (on June 5) but the Sun will set before the event ends. Similarly, observers in Europe, western and central Asia, eastern Africa and western Australia will see the end of the event since the transit will already be in progress at sunrise from those locations.
Tomorrow I will bring in my telescope and have it set up in the RA-11 parking lot for anyone that wants to witness the event.
Stop on by and experience the last Venus transit for 105 years (I think it’s safe to say the last one in our lifetime (2117)).


For Northern Hemisphere locations above latitude ~67° north, all of the transit is visible regardless of the longitude. Northern Canada and all of Alaska will also see the entire event. Residents of Iceland are in a unique wedge-shaped part of the path (Region X in Figure 1). They will see both the start and end of the transit but the Sun will set for a short period around greatest transit. A similarly shaped region exists south of Australia (Region Y in Figure 1), but here, the Sun rises after the transit begins and sets before the event ends.
The principal events occurring during a transit are conveniently characterized by contacts, analogous to the contacts of an annular solar eclipse. The transit begins with contact I, the instant the planet's disk is externally tangent to the Sun. Shortly after contact I, the planet can be seen as a small notch along the solar limb. The entire disk of the planet is first seen at contact II when the planet is internally tangent to the Sun. Over the course of several hours, the silhouetted planet slowly traverses the solar disk. At contact III, the planet reaches the opposite limb and once again is internally tangent to the Sun. Finally, the transit ends at contact IV when the planet's limb is externally tangent to the Sun. Contacts I and II define the phase called ingress while contacts III and IV are known as egress. Position angles for Venus at each contact are measured counterclockwise from the north point on the Sun's disk.

                                            Table 1

Geocentric Phases of the 2012 Transit of Venus 

Event         Universal    Mountain   Position 

                 Time        Time       Angle

Contact I      22:09:38     4:09:38     41°

Contact II     22:27:34     4:27:34    38°

Greatest       01:29:36     7:29:36    345°

Contact III    04:31:39     10:31:39   293°

Contact IV     04:49:35     10:49:35   290°

Table 1 gives the geocentric times of major events during the transit. Greatest transit is the instant when Venus passes closest to the Sun's center (i.e. - minimum separation).
I added the Mountain Time Zone to Table 1. First Contact begins at 4:09:38 p.m. and because the sun sets at 8:24 p.m. (a bit earlier because of the mountains) the total transit is not visible.
During the 2012 transit, Venus's minimum separation from the Sun is 554 arc-seconds (During the 2004 transit, the minimum separation was 627 arc-seconds). The position angle is defined as the direction of Venus with respect to the center of the Sun's disk, measured counterclockwise from the celestial north point on the Sun. Figure 2 shows the path of Venus across the Sun's disk and the scale gives the Universal Time of Venus's position at any point during the transit. The celestial coordinates of the Sun and Venus are provided at greatest transit as well as the times of the major contacts.
Note that these times are for an observer at Earth's center. The actual contact times for any given observer may differ by up to ±7 minutes. This is due to effects of parallax since Venus's 58 arc-second diameter disk may be shifted up to 30 arc-seconds from its geocentric coordinates depending on the observer's exact position on Earth. Table 2 and Table 3 list predicted contact times and corresponding altitudes of the Sun for locations throughout Canada and the United States, respectively. Table 4 provides similar predictions for a number of cities around the world.