It turns out that there is more to the benefits of breast milk than we originally though. It appears that breast milk contains stem cells that aide the further development of the infant after birth (h/t Mary Meets Dolly):
“We already know how breast milk provides for the baby’s nutritional needs, but we are only just beginning to understand that it probably performs many other functions,” says Dr Cregan, a molecular biologist at The University of Western Australia.
He says that, in essence, a new mother’s mammary glands take over from the placenta to provide the development guidance to ensure a baby’s genetic destiny is fulfilled.
“It is setting the baby up for the perfect development,” he says. “We already know that babies who are breast fed have an IQ advantage and that there’s a raft of other health benefits. Researchers also believe that the protective effects of being breast fed continue well into adult life.
“The point is that many mothers see milks as identical – formula milk and breast milk look the same so they must be the same. But we know now that they are quite different and a lot of the effects of breast milk versus formula don’t become apparent for decades. Formula companies have focussed on matching breast milk’s nutritional qualities but formula can never provide the developmental guidance.”
Simply amazing. Women should never feel inferior to men. Honestly. Men play a major role in the creation of a new human being, but they surely can never boast of the amazing nurturing and life giving properties of the female body. Rejoice, therefore, for you are fearfully and wonderfully made!!
It is also true that women’s menstrual blood is rich in stem cells that even contain properties similar to embryonic stem cells.
Right now scientists are investigating the optimal dosage and timing for stem cell therapy in adults with strokes and newborns with ischemic injuries.
If these additional laboratory studies replicate the promising results of the pilot studies, which indicate about a 25 percent improvement in recovery over controls, MCG and VA researchers hope to begin clinical trials in new ischemic injuries in adults and children within two years.
“We are looking at different procedures that we can adopt from the laboratory for the clinic,” Dr. Borlongan says. “We have at least 10 years of basic research that clearly shows that stem cells have the potential to be a new therapy for adult stroke.”
“This is a whole new paradigm, a totally different way of targeting disease,” says Dr. David Hess, chair of the MCG Department of Neurology and co-investigator.
In other stem cell news, there have been impressive results in clinical trials using bone marrow, muscle, and fat cells in in heart therapies. Many of the researchers who presented their results are members of the Adult Stem Cell Research Network. Now that sounds like a worthy cause.
Many thanks to Monica at Adult Stem Cell Awareness for her dutiful reporting on all ASC news!! She does a much better job than I do 🙂
So I was tagged with the “Excellent Blog Award” by Jean at Catholic Fire (another excellent blog) and asked to forward the award to 10 other blogs. I thought this would be a good time to give credit to some other blogs that often give me ideas an inspiration. So without further adieu, live from the Midwest Command in chilly Mid Missouri, behind the golden EIB keyboard I present more talent on loan from God:
Finally I’d like to acknowledge my parents’ blogs. They have their own Ag Media business centered around blogging. My dad, the Master Blogger, who got me into this in the first place, runs the main blog, AgWired, and my mom runs Domestic Fuel. They have caught the eye of the Ag world and have started blogs for the dairy, beef and corn industries, John Deere, the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council and the Renewable Fuels Association, among others. They also manage several podcasts like the ZimmCast.
That’s all. I was going to add Paul, but he’s been awarded more than once already and I wouldn’t want him to get a big head, you know? I’m not going to add the regular EIB rules (like giving this award to 10 other blogs). Just be happy knowing that your blog is excellent – as far as I’m concerned anyway.
P.S. I should note that I have given up reading other blogs for Lent. I spend WAY more time then I care to admit reading news stories and other blogs. I had to do it.
Human cloning: Will it be a lifesaving scientific advance, like penicillin? Or will it prove to be a horrible mistake that unleashes untold devastation upon humanity, like the accordion?…
Q. Oh, OK. What is cloning?
A. In scientific terms, it is a procedure by which a theoretically infinite number of genetically identical organisms emerge, one at a time, from a Volkswagen Beetle.
Q. No, that’s ”clowning.”
A. Whoops! Our bad! Cloning is a procedure whereby scientists, using tweezers, manipulate DNA, which is a tiny genetic code that is found in all living things as well as crime scenes that have been visited by O.J. Simpson. A single strand of DNA can be used to create a whole new organism, as was proved when scientists at Stanford University took DNA from the fingernail of a deceased man and grew a six-foot-tall, 190-pound fingernail. Unfortunately, it escaped from the laboratory and held police at bay for hours by screeching itself against a blackboard. It was finally subdued by National Guard troops equipped with earplugs and a huge emery board.
Q. Have scientists cloned any other organisms?
A. In 1997, a group of Scottish scientists cloned a sheep named Dolly, which was genetically identical to the original sheep.
Q. How could they tell?
A. They had the original farmer take a hard look at it, and he said, quote: ”That’s her, all right!”
Q. Wow.
A. Of course, he said the same thing about one of the scientists.
Q. Have there been any other successful cloning experiments?
A. Yes. In 1995, scientists in Florida used a single of strand of DNA from the Backstreet Boys to form `N Sync. Or maybe it was the other way around.
Q. What about humans?
A. We are getting very close. Recently, a firm in Massachusetts announced that it had cloned some human embryos. However, these embryos were alive for only a few hours, and stopped growing after they had formed microscopic six-cell spheres.
Q. What did the firm do with them?
A. They are currently working in Customer Service.
Read the full column, originally published 12/30/01
A Hillary, Obama or McCain Presidency is not a win for anyone, but it would have been more of a loss if dedicated pro-lifers had set aside their principles in order to avoid either one. I was impressed with the resilience of the pro-life voters who, after being ridiculed and criticized over the past year for their unfair and irrational standards, still stuck their necks out, giving the socially conservative Mike Huckabee impressive wins in the south. Maybe I’m more optimistic, or I have a more positive impression of Mike Huckabee and what he represents, than some, but I think an important statement was made by social conservatives. That yes, life issues are still vitally important to us, and that they must be seriously considered and dealt with. It’s not a sweeping change, which is badly needed, but on the issues of greatest importance, it’s a start.
What I see happening as a result, however is that now, in the absence of Mitt Romney especially, Mike and his socially conservative supporters are either simply ignored, or looked upon with a certain amount of disdain for standing in the way of this last standing “true conservative” and savior of the “conservative movement”.
Maybe we are too principled; maybe we don’t play the political game properly, but for us this is an issue that transcends partisan politics and is vital to the future of our country. Some are thankful that the Republican Party has not yet fully turned its back on its belief in the sanctity of innocent human life. But once the life of the IVF human embryo has been looked over, we have taken the first step in doing so. Even so, a harder line needs to be taken than is generally addressed in pro-life politics if we are to seriously do something about seeing our country once again stand for its founding principles. And those committed to doing so should not be taken for granted.
Both reason and bitter history should tell conservatives that sawing off the natural law leg of its stool makes the whole thing collapse. Without principles rooted in reality upon which to deliberate about the size of government proper to human beings, economic conservatism evaporates and foreign-policy conservatism turns hubristic.
Unfortunately now the rest of Huckabee’s candidacy is likely to be looked on as a joke more than anything else. But if he presses on for another week he can’t be seen as being left in the race solely for the benefit of John McCain, a claim I always took exception to, as if that means anything anymore. The GOP will reluctantly be forced to accept McCain as the nominee. And Mitt will go down as the fallen hero.
As for me, I’m done writing politics for a while. There have been many other stories that I have wanted to get to in the last week, but I’ve been torturing myself with politics instead.
“Most merciful Jesus, I beseech You through the intercession of Your dearest Mother who nurtured You from childhood, bless my native land. I beg You, Jesus, look not on our sins, but on the tears of little children, on the hunger and cold they suffer. Jesus, for the sake of these innocent ones, grant me the grace that I am asking of You for my country.”
Whatever happens today and whoever ultimately wins in November, we will get the leader we deserve and we will praise God for it – whoever it may be.
May the most just, the most lovable, and the most high Will of God be done, be fulfilled, be praised and exalted in all things forever. Amen!
“The Gospel of Life must be proclaimed, and human life defended, in all places and all times. The arena for moral responsibility includes not only the halls of government, but the voting booth as well…Every vote counts. Every act of responsible citizenship is an exercise of significant individual power. We must exercise that power in ways that defend human life, especially those of God’s children who are unborn, disabled or otherwise vulnerable.”
~USCCB Living the Gospel of Life 33, 34
Though I may not refuse to vote for either in the general election (I’ll have to do some soul searching on that one), I don’t see a Romney or a McCain victory against the pro-abortion Democrats as a “victory” for pro-lifers, or Republicans in general. It just means that the status quo in pro-life politics has once again been settled for with no change in sight. Both also support the destruction of embryonic human life for the purpose of scientific research.
So who is acceptable? As I see it, on a strictly pro-life basis, both Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul are acceptable candidates. I know, way to wait for the day of Super Tuesday to start talking about this, huh? Both candidates have the strongest positions on life issues. Both support a so-called “human life” amendment to the Constitution and would encourage its passage along with vowing to nominate constitutionalist judges to the Supreme Court.
• authored legislation that seeks to define life as beginning at conception, HR 1094.
• sponsors HR 300, which would negate the effect of Roe v Wade by removing the ability of federal courts to interfere with state legislation to protect life.
• authored HR 1095, which prevents federal funds to be used for so-called “population control.”
• twice voted against expanding funding for ESC research
Among Governor Huckabee‘s achievements as Lt. Governor and Governor in Arkansas are the following:
Passage of the Arkansas Unborn Child Amendment
Partial Birth Abortion Ban
Parental Notification law
Informed Consent (abortion) law
Unborn Child Pain Awareness law
Safe Harbor law
Unborn Victims of Violence law
In addition, Governor Huckabee was the second governor in the country to sign into law a true ban on Human Cloning, outlawing the creation and destruction of living human embryos for research.
I haven’t voted yet and it looks like it will be a last minute decision for me. Mike Huckabee has other liberal tendencies, on issues like illegal immigration and big government policies, that worry me. At the same time, while I tend to agree with his view of foreign policy, I am concerned about immediately pulling our troops out of Iraq. Both support my other favorite issue outside of the right to life – the fair tax plan and abolishing the IRS! Funny how it gets a little more complicated when all things are equal on the issue of life.
Watch Huckabee explain the Fair Tax. The legislator I interned for last year introduced the fair tax in MO and I sat in on it’s committee hearing and finally heard an thorough explanation of it and I am now an AVID supporter. Not surprisingly his bill didn’t get passed (though it did get out of committee) so he does plan on re-introducing it this year.
Dear Readers, this Presidential election has really been giving me a head(and a heart)ache. I have found my values tested like never before and I find myself constantly questioning my convictions. Because of the ideological split in our country on more issues than just the right to life, there is tremendous pressure to beat the other guy at all cost, even if we must temporarily set aside some of our deepest held moral principles or at least rationalize a way in which such a vote would actually help or advance our cause. Some of these rationalizations are quite persuasive and cause me to wonder if I’m being unfair and unrealistic in my standards for qualification. But as I listened to various athletes recite the Declaration of Independence yesterday before the Super Bowl (see video below) I thought, how can I possibly lower my standards? To do so violates not only the laws of God, but it weakens foundation for the American Nation.
When it comes to politics, the issue of life is not just about Roe v. Wade or the Supreme Court. It’s about the Constitution and the foundation of American freedom and democracy as laid out in our Declaration of Independence – the self evident truth that all men are “created equal” and endowed with the “unalienable…right to Life.” Defending this right is essential to preserving America’s freedom.
In his first inaugural address, President Abraham Lincoln said,
“If by the mere force of numbers a majority should deprive a minority of any clearly written constitutional right, it might in a moral point of view justify revolution; certainly would if such right were a vital one.”
At this point in our Nation’s history, the weakest and most vulnerable members of our society are deprived of the vital and fundamental right to life and as a result 50 MILLION Americans have been murdered in the last 35 years under the full protection of the law. Lawmakers want to give scientists a blank check to fund the immoral practice of using and destroying human embryos for scientific research and we’re moving closer and closer into the “brave new world” of artificially creating human beings for the sole purpose of such research. CLONING human beings – can you imagine!? Well, you don’t have to imagine anymore, for just this month researchers in California succeeded in cloninghuman embryos for the very first time. And this is still legal in our country!! In fact some lawmakers have recently tried to pass a federal law similar to Missouri’s 2006 Amendment 2 that would protect the cloning of human embryos for research as a federal right. Along with abortion, this is a serious violation to the inherent dignity of the human person!
If we continue at the rate we’re going, the terrorists won’t have to come over and kill us; we’re likely to destroy ourselves. In the United States we celebrate “freedom”, yet deny that freedom to the weakest and most vulnerable members of our society.
“Abraham Lincoln recognized that we could not survive as a free land when some men could decide that others were not fit to be free and should therefore be slaves. Likewise, we cannot survive as a free nation when some men decide that others are not fit to live and should be abandoned to abortion or infanticide…there is no cause more important for preserving that freedom (America as a free land) than affirming the transcendent right to life of all human beings, the right without which no other rights have any meaning.” RR, Abortion and the Conscience of a Nation
Perhaps a revolution is at hand. As the Republican Party moves further to the left on life issues, our willingness to accept whatever vaguely “pro-life” candidate they set before us who has the best chance to win, does nothing to help our cause overall. The Republican Party platform once stated (my emphasis added):
“As a country, we must keep our pledge to the first guarantee of the Declaration of Independence. That is why we say the unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life which cannot be infringed. We support a human life amendment to the Constitution and we endorse legislation to make it clear that the Fourteenth Amendment’s protections apply to unborn children. Our purpose is to have legislative and judicial protection of that right against those who perform abortions. We oppose using public revenues for abortion and will not fund organizations which advocate it. We support the appointment of judges who respect traditional family values and the sanctity of innocent human life.”
Now it seems to have been reduced to simply “appoint strict contstructionist judges.” In fact the Republican Party once stood for a lot of other things that it no longer stands for. We have won many small political battles, but I am afraid we are losing the war.
Now, I am not so delusional as to think that we can have any sort of perfection, especially in a political candidate (or any man for that matter). Perfection is not the issue. The issue is protecting every citizen’s constitutional right to life, a standard that officials from every branch of government should be held to. We can’t legislate morality, but as a nation we can stand for the moral principles our country was founded on. The answer’s not easy, but it’s simple, “if you and I have the courage to tell our elected officials that we want our national policy based on what we know in our hearts is morally right.”
“We cannot buy our security, our freedom from the threat of the bomb by committing an immorality so great as saying to a billion human beings now enslaved behind the Iron Curtain, ‘Give up your dreams of freedom because to save our own skins, we are willing to make a deal with your slave masters’…We have a rendezvous with destiny. We’ll preserve for our children this the last best hope of man on earth, or we’ll sentence them to take the last step into a thousand years of darkness…We have the ability and the right to make our own decisions and determine our own destiny.” (RR again, he was not talking about life issues then, but it fits, see video below)
We are not called to be successful, but only to be faithful.
The Declaration of Independence – listen to it, read it, memorize it
From Texas Fred: In 1776 our forefathers put their lives and fortunes on the line when they signed the Declaration of Independence, they didn’t settle for 2nd best, they didn’t choose the lesser of 2 evils, they chose FREEDOM and they staked their lives and liberty on that act of revolution
A Finnish man was able to replace his upper jaw thanks to stem cells taken from his own fatty tissue:
In this case they identified and pulled out cells called mesenchymal stem cells — immature cells than can give rise to bone, muscle or blood vessels.
When they had enough cells to work with, they attached them to a scaffold made out of a calcium phosphate biomaterial and then put it inside the patient’s abdomen to grow for nine months. The cells turned into a variety of tissues and even produced blood vessels, the researchers said.
The block was later transplanted into the patient’s head and connected to the skull bone using screws and microsurgery to connect arteries and veins to the vessels of the neck.
The report has been submitted to a medical journal for review. There’s not much more to say except, keep the treatments comin! This stuff is getting harder and harder to ignore. (H/T Wesley Smith)
So I was tagged with the “Excellent Blog Award” by Jean at 
Check out 
standards? To do so violates not only the laws of God, but it weakens foundation for the American Nation.
At this point in our Nation’s history, the weakest and most vulnerable members of our society are deprived of the vital and fundamental right to life and as a result 50 MILLION Americans have been murdered in the last 35 years under the full protection of the law. Lawmakers want to give scientists a blank check to fund the immoral practice of using and destroying human embryos for scientific research and we’re moving closer and closer into the “brave new world” of artificially creating human beings for the sole purpose of such research. CLONING human beings – can you imagine!? Well, you don’t have to imagine anymore, for just this month researchers in California 
To quote another 
best chance to win, does nothing to help our cause overall. The