Eideard

Scientists hope to show that stem cell replacement can slow, stop, or even reverse damage caused by the disease of the central nervous system.

Some 100,000 people in Britain suffer from MS, with symptoms that can include dizziness and lack of balance, muscle spasms and blurred vision. It tends to get worse over time and there is no cure. However, later this year an international £10 million trial of up to 200 volunteers will begin looking at the effects of stem cell transplantation.

The participants, including 13 in Britain, will have stem cells harvested from their own bone marrow and grown in a laboratory before being re-injected into the bloodstream.

MS is caused by the immune system attacking a protective substance around nerve fibres called myelin. Where this happens scars, called lesions, are left behind. The hypothesis is that the stem cells will target these lesions and repair the damage…

Paolo Muraro, lead researcher on the study, based at Imperial College, London, said: “This is the first time that researchers from around the world have come together to test stem cell therapies in MS in such a large-scale clinical trial…

Just another positive avenue of experimentation now that most of the superstitious interruptions to such research have been set aside. The Brits have had less interference than physicians in the United States and we can only hope American voters won’t return us to the darkness of faith-based “science” again in the next few years.

A farmer unwittingly shot two suspected burglars who were allegedly targeting a cannabis factory, which he didn’t know existed, on his property.,,However, he found himself arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after two men who had ventured on to his land turned up in hospital with gunshot wounds.

The farmer says he had no idea he had injured the men until 16 armed police stormed his home in Crays Hill, Essex, later that day.

Edward Tibbs, 62, who suffers from multiple sclerosis and neuralgia, told detectives he had been awoken by the sound of geese and, after going outside on his mobility scooter, had shot three times into the dark, believing he was firing at a fox.

“It was an accident as far as I am concerned. I was out shooting that night on my land and apparently two people got shot there,” he said.

This is not someone I would want for a neighbor here in rural New Mexico. You don’t shoot at an animal – or a person – unless you can see what you’re firing at.

“I didn’t know anyone had been hit. If I did, I would have called the police. Apparently they went to hospital and police were called and they said where it happened. It happened at 4am, but the first I knew about it was when the police came…”

Police later discovered that a cannabis factory had been set up in a rented outbuilding on Mr Tibbs’s farm and it was thought that the two men were attempting to burgle it when they were shot.

Mr Tibbs, who said he had no knowledge of the cannabis plants, was later released without charge.

The injured men, from Basildon, were arrested on suspicion of possessing a firearm but were also released without charge. Two women who were arrested in connection with the discovery of 50 cannabis plants were also freed after questioning.

1. Way too many coincidences.

2. Is there a medical marijuana program in the UK? Mr. Tibbs sounds like he qualifies.