Category Archives: Dr. Dalal Akoury

Why are Stem Cells Important?

May 3, 2015

What are stem cells, and why are they important?

Stem cellStem cells are very special, powerful cells found in both humans and also in other animals. Stem cells are the precursors of all cells in the human body. What makes stem cells special is that they are regenerative and malleable. They have the ability to replicate themselves and to repair and replace other tissues in the human body. Some tissues, like skin, need constant renewal, which could not take place without skin stem cells. Other stem cells repair damage to the body’s tissues, for example, rebuilding damaged or degenerating muscle tissue. New research also indicates that stem cell malfunction or damage may be responsible for certain cancers and even muscular-degeneration diseases like Muscular Dystrophy.

Stem cells differ from other kinds of cells in the body. All stem cells have three general features that make them different from other body cells. These features are: they are capable of dividing and renewing themselves for long periods. They are unspecialized and they can give rise to specialized cell types. Stem cells are capable of dividing and renewing themselves for long periods. Unlike muscle cells, blood cells, or nerve cells which do not normally replicate themselves, stem cells may replicate many times, or proliferate.

The stem cells have a unique ability to divide and become more specialized cells forming cells like bone, blood, or muscle. It is this ability that makes them attractive agents in many areas of medicine. They can therefore be used to fight very many diseases in the regenerative medicine. Another advantage of stem cell therapy treatments is that autologous stem cell transport is made possible. This means that a person may be treated by doctors harvesting the stem cells from the patient and having the stem cells reimplanted into the same patient after finding out what was lacking in the patient. This reduces risks of infection as well as rejection which are helpful to the patient.

Importance of stem cells

the stem cells are very important cells in the body and have been since targeted for treatment of degenerative diseases. They have been called the center pieces of regenerative medicine. Medicine that involves growing new cells, tissues and organs to replace or repair those damaged by injury, disease or aging. there ability to proliferate into other cells of the body like the bone and muscle tissues have made them a priority in treatment of various degenative diseases like aging and even osteoporosis among others. here is how stem cells work in treatment of various diseases.

Rejuvenation– the stem cells can be used in rejuvenation process. through rejuvenation the bodies healing ability is boosted. Typically, the body is programmed to naturally repair itself that is why after you get a cut you can stay without going to hospital but still get healed within a very short time. However there other crucial organs that when damaged do not easily get repaired. When the body’s cells cannot get differentiated to give rise to new healthy cells and heal the damaged cell then there is a problem. According to Mayo clinic the cells that were once thought of as terminally differentiated including the heart, lungs and nerves which are more specialized are able to remodel as they possess ability to self-renew. However researchers are still working to come up with strategies through which the ability of these cells to self-heal can be enhanced.

Stem cellReplacement– here the stem cells can be used to replace the damaged cells.in degenerative diseases like osteoporosis the damaged tissues can be replaced with fresh stem cells that will proliferate into more functional bone issues and relieve the system of the damaged tissues. the stem cells can be transplanted in autologous manner where the stem cells will be harvested in the adipose or the bone marrow and be used to replace the affected cells in organ. with autologues stem cell transplant the issue of donor is not a problem neither are there issues of rejection nor the need for immunosuppression .

Regeneration- Through regeneration the stem cells are delivered to diseased tissues or organs, where they will ultimately restore tissue and organ function. This can be done through cell-based therapy or by using cell products, such as growth factors. Bone marrow transplants are an example of regeneration. Regeneration aims to awaken cells that are not functional or have malfunctions. With stem cell therapy there is hope for affordable healthcare solutions that heal the body whole without life threatening side effects.

Stem cells are a cutting edge

Stem cells are capable of self-renewing giving rise to several copies of themselves. They also have the capability of shifting shape and changing type, therefore they can be used to form the cells that are damaged and restore the functions of the damaged tissues. The stem cells can be used to replace the cells that have malfunctioned due to structural damage. The amazing part of the stem cell differentiation is that when a stem cell divides both the daughter cell and the parent stem cells have the potential to differentiate into different cells or to still remain as stem cells. Owing to this ability of stem cells to differentiate into more specialized cells, they can rebuild lost blood vessels, reverse scarring, regenerate damaged nerves, and bring back the healthy you.

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Stem cell therapy has a lot to offer to patients, Visit us at AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Centre at Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Dr. Dalal Akoury (MD) an expert in integrative and regenerative medicine will be able to help.

What are stem cells, and why are they important?

 

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Unique Properties of Stem Cells

May 3, 2015

What Are The Unique Properties Of All Stem Cells?

Stem CellsThe stem cells have been hailed for their efficacy in treatment of certain diseases especially those that are degenerative in nature like the Parkinson’s disease, osteoarthritis and even the Huntington’s disease. To accomplish all its medicinal capabilities the stem cells must have certain properties that are not present in other body cells. They therefore differ from other cells in the body. The stem cells are available majorly in the bone marrows and the adipose tissues but can also be harvested from placentas after a safe delivery. The stem cells have three general properties regardless of their source. These properties are; they are capable of dividing and renewing themselves for long periods; they are unspecialized; and they can give rise to specialized cell types. It is these distinct characteristics of the stem cells that make them effective in treatment of degenerative diseases.

The other cells found in the body like the nerve cells, the muscle cells and the blood cells are not able to replicate themselves unlike the stem cells that are able to proliferate after long periods of time. Typically, a starting population of stem cells that proliferates for many months in the laboratory can yield millions of cells. What is more is that the daughter cells are capable of long term self-renewal giving rise to more unspecialized cells.

Despite the vast research that has been done on the stem cells and their ability to treat certain diseases there are some information that are still required which we can only hope that researchers will one day find an answer to. These questions are as follows:

  • Scientists are trying to understand two fundamental properties of stem cells that relate to their long-term self-renewal:
  • Why can embryonic stem cells proliferate for a year or more in the laboratory without differentiating, but most adult stem cells cannot; and
  • What are the factors in living organisms that normally regulate stem cell proliferation and self-renewal?

When these answers are addressed there will be a valid explanation to how cell proliferation is regulated during normal embryonic development or during the abnormal cell division that leads to cancer. Such information would also enable scientists to grow embryonic and non-embryonic stem cells more efficiently in the laboratory to help in treatment of diseases.

The stem cells are unspecialized

Stem cells remain unspecialized even after long hours in the laboratory after getting harvested. The scientists have spent years of research trying to find out factors that make the stem cells unspecialized and differentiating into different cell types. It took two decades to learn how to grow human embryonic stem cells in the laboratory following the development of conditions for growing mouse stem cells. In a similar manner the scientists must first understand the signals that enable adult stem cell population to proliferate and remain unspecialized before they will be able to grow large numbers of unspecialized adult stem cells in the laboratory for medicinal use.

The stem cells are not specialized and hence are not able to perform specific functions. Unlike heart muscle cells, the stem cells are not able to pump blood through the body, they can neither carry oxygen molecules through the bloodstream like red blood cells nor can they kill pathogens like the white blood cells but they can give rise to more of all these cells; they can form bone, heart muscle cells, blood cells and even nerve cells. So they are then unspecialized cells that have the unique ability to give rise to specialized and more vital functional specialized cells.

Stem cellsThe process through which undifferentiated stem cells give rise to specialized cells is known as differentiation. It is through this process of differentiation that the stem cells become even more specialized. Scientists are just beginning to understand the signals inside and outside cells that trigger each step of the differentiation process. The internal signals are controlled by a cell’s genes, which are interspersed across long strands of DNA and carry coded instructions for all cellular structures and functions. In contrast, the external signals for cell differentiation include chemicals secreted by other cells, physical contact with neighboring cells, and certain molecules in the microenvironment. The interaction of signals during differentiation causes the cell’s DNA to acquire epigenetic marks that restrict DNA expression in the cell and can be passed on through cell division giving rise to more specialized cells.

There are however some questions that should be addressed and these may include; Are the internal and external signals for cell differentiation similar for all kinds of stem cells? Can specific sets of signals be identified that promote differentiation into specific cell types? Finding answers to these questions may help scientists to find new ways to control stem cell differentiation in the laboratory, thereby growing cells or tissues that can be used for specific purposes such as cell-based therapies or drug screening.

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With these distinct characteristics of the stem cells especially their ability to give rise to different specialized cell types, the stem cells are a cutting edge to treatment of diseases. Degenerative diseases have debilitated many people but it is treatable. Dr. Dalal Akoury (MD) is an expert in integrative medicine and a founder of AWAREmed Health and Wellness Center located at Myrtle Beach South Caroline. Visit her for more information on most lifestyle diseases.

What Are The Unique Properties Of All Stem Cells?

 

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Female Sex Addiction Treatment

May 3, 2015

How to Treat Female Sex Addiction

Sex AddictionAddiction is a serious problem that should be addressed amicably to avail the best of solutions to those affected. As it stands people get addicted to different things and while some kinds of addictions are more common like drug addiction, behavioral addictions are also dangerous just as much and so should not be overlooked. Sex addiction is real and has enslaved many people men and women alike, however while sex addiction affects both males and females, the challenges faced by female addicts are greater. However contrary to what many people thin sex addiction is never really about sex, but about a hungry heart that craves intimacy. Sex is merely the vehicle that a person uses to find nurture and acceptance. The mechanism behind sex addiction is the very same mechanism behind alcohol, drug, and other addictions. Due to the fact that many women are victims of sex addiction it is therefore necessary to come up with a better understanding of this vice so as to help relieve women who are addicted to sex.

Sex addiction is also catapulted by other factors that may include the need to medicate emotional pain or escape an unsatisfactory situation, and the impulsive or even compulsive quest to satisfy unmet emotional needs. In short, sex addiction is best viewed as an attachment or intimacy disorder.

Sex addiction in itself is a problem but it may also lead to other forms of addiction like addiction to drugs and other substances. Addiction from sex can also span from highly dysfunctional families where members are not given the warmth of the family embrace. In absence of this females most likely seek this affection elsewhere, an affection that is mostly actualized in sex. Women who are addicted to sex may also suffer from, eating disorders are common, as is chemical dependency, and compulsions for work, spending, and gambling. There is a perception that women continue to be underrepresented in health and addiction studies. This perception is trues as many individuals, both professionals and non-professionals, assume sex addiction is for men only. Research demonstrates that the majority of abuse survivors are female, making them more susceptible to addiction. It is quite unfortunate that many women continue to go undiagnosed and often treatment of past sex abuse will be too limited to prevent later sex addiction. In most cases even if counselors recognize that females can be sexually addicted, they may fail to recognize the feminine nuances that typically define female sex addiction.

Researchers have also linked childhood abuse to sex addiction in adulthood. Some of the abuses that many females are subjected to in childhood include; verbal, emotional, physical, sexual, and spiritual abuse. When a person is subjected to any of these abuses whether with illicit intentions or without intending to cause hurt, they may develop the craving for affection and even a need to be appreciated and loved, it’s these vacuum that they eventually opt to find in sexual activities that they get stuck to after sometime. When one considers the need for intimacy to be the primary motivator of a human being, it’s easy to see how abuse of any type undermines this core need and damages one’s ability to foster healthy attachment to others.

Treatments for female sex addictions

Due to its adverse effects on the lives of women, several hospitals are now offering varied avenues for treatments of female sex addiction. Most of the time any treatment begins with a comprehensive assessment of the patient’s life, relationship and sexual history. This information is utilized throughout treatment to help clients develop more loving relationships, greater intimacy and healthy sexuality which are key in sex addiction treatment.

Sex addictionSome of the sex addictions that have been specifically used for women include;

  • 12-Step meetings onsite and via electronic media
  • Weekly experiential learning days, including climbing, equine therapy and a ropes course
  • Fully gender-separate living, eating, recreational and treatment environment
  • Weekly equine therapy
  • Multi-day family program, which includes couples equine therapy sessions
  • Pastoral counseling available when requested
  • Dedicated, gender-specific residential support staff
  • A licensed and highly experienced female therapist specifically dedicated to guiding clients throughout their entire CRSR stay
  • Gender-specific, trauma-focused therapy with a trauma specialist
  • Daily group therapy and other individual work

When an effective sex addiction treatment is put in place then all the co-occurring issues with sex addiction like substance abuse, emotional trauma, eating disorders and other addictions are also curbed. Through an effective sex addiction treatment, women are invited to address underlying issues that support unhealthy relationship patterns. Women are also encouraged to help establish boundaries that may help them work toward genuine self-esteem and stable intimacy as opposed to that appreciation achieved only with sex.

Women who are struggling with sex addiction are also encouraged to work with communities that may help to ease the guilt that they feel especially if their sex addiction is fuelled by childhood abuses or bitter sexual memories that may stem from sex abuse. With these communities women are able to share their experience, an act that serves as a safety valve that helps them exhale the bitter insecurities that spur into them irresistible craving for sex.

Finally, sex addiction is a problem that many women are enslaved to. This problem needs to be treated effectively through integrative medicine. Dr. Dalal Akoury (MD) is an expert at this. Call her on (843) 213-1480 for help.

How to Treat Female Sex Addiction

 

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Antibiotics in Foods is a Health Risk

May 2, 2015

Are The Antibiotics In Your Food And Your Meet Destroying Your Health?

AntibioticsThe common adage that whatever you eat affects your health comes in handy here. we are supposed to be eating foods that help in building our bodies and laying a fortress that is not easily passed through by diseases, however with everybody having eyes fixed on the financial gains he can reap from the foods he grows it has become rather common to find that our foods are grown with enhancers that are at the end of the end of the day very dangerous to anybody eating them.

It is estimated that 99 percent of farmed animals in the US raised for food are raised in concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs). In fact, 80 percent of the antibiotics used in the US are used in agriculture. This enough to show you that the meet eaten in the US is highly concentrated in these antibiotics that eventually may turn out to be more dangerous than beneficial to us.

CAFOs are costly to your health

These foods may be easily available and priced affordable but when you take them after some time you will realize that the price at which these foods like pork, beef, egg, dairy and poultry are sold in the supermarket isn’t a true reflection of what they cost you. Most of these animals are raised like inanimate objects; they do not have even space to move, they do not see the sunlight, they do not get a gasp of fresh air and they have no clean place to sleep. theirs is to eat and eat until they are mature to be sold, eating boosters that they may mature faster, but after they are eaten for a long time is when the problems may set in.

The CAFOs are not very beneficial to you. if there is anybody who benefits from the CAFOs then only the farmers of these animals and the few involved in the industry are but the consumers stand at a loss and its quite unfortunate that while CAFOs have mastered the art of growing profits, they’ve overlooked the basic natural laws that govern growing animals and this culminates in huge health risks on those consuming these foods.

When antibiotics are used in an uncontrolled manner as has been used in the US agricultural sector they lead to an antibiotic-resistant disease. Approximately 25 million pounds of antibiotics are administered to livestock in the US every year for purposes other than treating disease, such as making the animals grow bigger faster. this are ways to maximize profits often hidden within these line ‘boosting food security ‘but the bitter reality is that those antibiotics, and even worse, antibiotic-resistant bacteria, are transferred to you via meat and even through the animal manure that is used as crop fertilizer.

According to Dr. Dr. Arjun Srinivasan, associate director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there is even bigger problem than antibiotics simply being left behind in your meat as it’s a practice that is promoting the spread of antibiotic-resistant disease.

“The more you use an antibiotic, the more you expose a bacteria to an antibiotic, the greater the likelihood that resistance to that antibiotic is going to develop. So the more antibiotics we put into people, we put into the environment, we put into livestock, the more opportunities we create for these bacteria to become resistant.” Dr. Arjun advises.

The genes that make the bacteria resistant is often shared by other bacteria, therefore the drug resistant bacteria that contaminate your meat may share these genes with other bacteria in your body making you more susceptible to sickness. Drug-resistant bacteria also accumulate in manure that is used in the fields to grow crops and enters waterways, allowing the drug-resistant bacteria to spread far and wide and ultimately back up the food chain to us. Therefore we are exposed to this risk and it is now more than just eating the beef, the pork or the poultry.

CDC links antibiotic-resistance illnesses to food

AntibioticsIn America alone antibiotic-resistant bacteria infect 2 million people every year. these infections leads to death of 23,000 Americans every year but this is nothing in comparison to the estimation of the UK prime minister David Cameron that by 2050 antibiotic resistance will have killed 300 million people, with the annual global death toll reaching 10 million. This is really a big reason to worry.

CDC has also linked antibiotic-resistant illness to food. The CDC reports that 22 percent of those illnesses are caused by food especially the foods that are sourced from CAFOs.

The composition of your microbiome is somewhat like a fingerprint. It’s unique to you but, unlike your fingerprints, highly impressionable and constantly changing. As reported by Scientific American: “The ecology of the gut microbiome may trigger or contribute to a variety of diseases, including autoimmune disorders and obesity, research suggests. Factors such as early environment, diet, and antibiotic exposure have a lot to do with why people differ from one another in the composition of their microbiomes.”

Generally when your gut flora is unhealthy, then you will be predisposed to many health problems therefore eating these foods that may culminate into antibiotic- resistance illnesses are a big leap into a haven of illnesses that eventually causes many deaths. The CAFOs generally are harmful to your gut health and so are other foods that are genetically engineered to enhance growth and pump in more profits.

There is much more to the foods we eat than just getting full and equipping your body with the needed nutrients. The foods may also cause you diseases. These foods related illnesses need to be treated effectively through integrative medicine. Dr. Dalal Akoury (MD) is an expert at this. Call her on (843) 213-1480 for help.

Are The Antibiotics In Your Food And Your Meet Destroying Your Health?

 

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Treating ALS With Stem Cell Therapy

May 2, 2015

Stem Cell Therapy As a possible Treatment of ALS

ALSALS is an acronym that stands for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, it is also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. It is rapidly progressive, fatal neurological disease that attacks the nerve cells which are responsible for controlling voluntary muscles actions that we can control the leg, face and arm muscles. ALS is the most common disease of all the diseases in group known as motor neuron diseases, which are characterized by the gradual degeneration and death of motor neurons. These are fatal diseases that have not been very easy to treat.

The motor neurons are very vital communication links between the nervous system and the voluntary muscles of the body that are located in the brain, brain stem, and spinal cord. Messages from motor neurons in the brain are transmitted to motor neurons in the spinal cord and from them to particular muscles. This communication is interrupted by ALS which leads to degeneration of both the upper and the lower motor neurons and thus messages are not sent to muscles. After sometime the malfunctioned muscles will begin to waste away which eventually leading to the brain losing its ability to control voluntary movements.

Symptoms of ALS

ALS in most cases begins subtly and might be assumed but over a time it escalates into more devastating symptoms. some of the earliest symptoms that ALS victims have to endure include fasciculations, cramps, tight and stiff muscles, muscle weakness affecting an arm or a leg, slurred and nasal speech and difficulty chewing or swallowing. The physicians often use these symptoms as suspicion of ALS.

The symptoms will show on the part of the body where the muscle is affected most. however most of the times the symptoms often first show in the arms and hands and they will feel their arms and hands fail them in performing simple tasks such as lifting a spoon, dressing up, unbuckling the belt, writing or even opening a door. Otherwise the symptoms may show with the legs becoming affected leading to tripping and tumbling over. When the symptoms begin with either the arms or the feet, it is known as limb onset ALS but when the symptoms first show as slurred speech it is termed as bulbar onset ALS.

Once the disease has begun either through limb onset or bulbar onset, the muscle atrophy will spread to the rest of the body parts as the disease progresses. Such problems as swallowing, forming words, speaking and even moving will be experienced.

ALS is a serious disease but since now there is no conventional treatment that addresses the damage that is caused, therefore till now there is no cure for ALS and other motor neuron diseases. The only treatment available today for ALS focuses only on relieving the symptoms and improving the quality of life. Drugs that are currently used like Riluzole are not very effective and can never cure the disease.

Can stem cells help in treatment of ALS?

ALSThe application of stem cells in treatment of various degenerative diseases has become so popular over a time. With ALS however the cause of muscle atrophy is not even known but still ALS is a degenerative disease and therefore if there is to be a treatment that is effective then it has to focus on correcting the damage on the motor neurons. There are researchers still working to find out what causes ALS and whether the stem cells can be used to treat ALS and other motor neuron diseases. There are different types of stem cells but mesenchymal stem cells have generated a lot of interest in researchers for their ability to heal.

Research on stem cells for treating ALS

The fact that the motor neurons are located in the brain and in the spinal cord make it very complicated to do research on the damaged cells. However there are some researchers who have braved this barrier to find some meaningful findings. A team of scientists at Harvard University in the USA used skin cells from an ALS patient to tackle this menace. The researchers began by first transforming the skin cells into induced pluripotent stem cells lab-grown stem cells that imitate the actions of embryonic stem cells that have the ability to make all the different cells of the body. After growing these stem cells, the researchers then used them to grow motor neurons that had been damaged by ASL. This research was done in 2008.

Using stem cells as a therapy for ALS

The stem cells have the ability to form other cells and tissues of the body hence can be used to replace the damaged cells. They have also been found to be effective in regeneration of cells and hence are very useful in treatment of degenerative medicine. However there has been a thought that just transplanting lab grown stem cells may not help a great deal in healing those suffering from ALS. It is thought that there are a lot of factors that cause ALS, the transplanted stem cells may also be damaged. However there is still need for research in this area to unearth the possibility of the stem cells to treat the ALS.

Finally, Degenerative diseases have debilitated many people but it is treatable. Dr. Dalal Akoury (MD) is an expert in integrative medicine and a founder of AWAREmed Health and Wellness Center located at Myrtle Beach South Caroline. Visit her for more information on most lifestyle diseases.

Stem Cell Therapy As a possible Treatment of ALS

 

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