According to a clinical study conducted at the REHAB in Basel, Switzerland, THC was effective in reducing spasticity in 25 patients with spinal cord injury. In three study phases patients received oral THC, rectal THC-hemisuccinate (THC-HS) and/or placebo, each for six weeks. Originally, it was planned to start with an open phase with oral THC followed by an open phase with rectal THC-HS and then a three-way crossover placebo-controlled phase with oral THC and rectal THC-HS. Due to logistical problems with the import of THC- HS Phase 2 had to be stopped after inclusion of seven patients. Phase 3 was changed to a parallel study with oral THC and placebo.
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BRYAN – Shonnie Moore of College Station, paralyzed in a July 2005 traffic accident, has had to learn how to eat, bathe and live all over again through physical therapy.
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Pasadena, CA (PRWEB) — The illumination of the human genome has opened the door to a vast range of medical therapies. The promise of drugs and interventions tuned to the individual patient’s genetics holds persuasive advantage over the one-size-fits-all generic remedies we count on today. Further progress in this booming field of molecular medicine, however, relies in part on continuing stem cell research using human embryos. Although the cells themselves are microscopic, their use in medical research has become one of the biggest current moral issues in society.
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Inch by inch, the world is waking up to the idea that people with disabilities are sexual beings. But the obvious question remains: How does someone who requires help performing tasks such as showering or getting in and out of bed manage masturbation or sex?
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The Associated Press

September 21, 2006

Swiss biotech firm Serono SA, which earlier Thursday agreed to sell a majority stake in the company to German drugmaker Merck KGaA for $13.31 billion, said its oral cladribine treatment for multiple sclerosis has received ‘fast-track’ status from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

This designation covers patients with relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis.

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Late last month, we regaled you with a story about Toyota’s advanced collision detection technology that uses sensory data to trigger an automatic slowdown in cars. Clearly, one of the research teams at Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology is paying attention to what their countrymen in Toyota are doing — for they’ve just come up with a similar system in wheelchairs.
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Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology has announced a new smart wheelchair that features a 360-degree camera system that is aware of its surroundings. The electric wheelchair can avoid collisions with objects and other people and has the ability to tell if the user needs medical assistance.
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Late last month, we regaled you with a story about Toyota’s advanced collision detection technology that uses sensory data to trigger an automatic slowdown in cars.
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Being in a wheelchair needn’t put you off your sexual game

When Kit Hatt told her friends she was going to meet Bill in person for the first time, their biggest concern wasn’t whether they’d end up having sex together, it was how they’d have sex together.
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VANCOUVER — Researchers at the B.C. Institute of Technology are trying to help paraplegics and quadriplegics with an everyday problem that gets ignored in the high-profile quest to regenerate damaged spinal cords: How to help people have a satisfactory sex life.
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The government says it is committed to giving disabled people greater independence, but in reality progress is stifled by red tape and severe funding shortages. Andrew Cole on how a radical new bill aims to address this…
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Sept. 13, 2006 — Patients with relapsing multiple sclerosis responded well to the experimental drug fingolimod, giving new hope for an oral MS drug, new research shows.
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ANDY Lee may have broken his neck but the injury is proving no obstacle to his ambition to travel 400km across China in a wheelchair.
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Rich Hall had an ordinary life, complete with a two-story house, an engineering job in the city, three children and a beautiful wife.
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Jody Antes admits people in her profession can sometimes nag.

But training the first-grade teacher received last month showed her how to avoid that.
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LONDON, Sep. 7, 2006(AP) Wanted: bright graduate student to assist world-famous scientist. International travel, developing computer systems and dealing with the press required. Renowned astrophysicist and best-selling author Stephen Hawking has announced he is looking for a graduate student to work for him one to two years.
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Professor Greg Whyte warns too much exercise does ‘more harm than good’

The academic who trained David Walliams for his Channel swim has warned fitness fanatics that too much exercise can kill.
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One of my neighbors died in a tractor rollover.
Another blew up his fuel tank while filling up a tractor with the engine running.
I’ve ignited my own fuel tank doing the same thing.
My dad lost a portion of a thumb in a belt.
I had a flying fragment from a fence post maul lodge in my eye.
I’ve fallen off a load of hay with my 4-year-old son in my arms and just missed being run over.
I could go on, but won’t. It is for these reasons that Rick Kubik’s “The Farm Safety Handbook” interests me. I’ve been around long enough to know how sublime my stupidity can be and how dangerous the most mundane of farm work can be.
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