Deans' stroke musings: Boosting Levels of a Key Growth Factor May Help Prevent Cardiovascular Disease

Changing stroke rehab and research worldwide now.Time is Brain! trillions and trillions of neurons that DIE each day because there are NO effective hyperacute therapies besides tPA(only 12% effective). I have 523 posts on hyperacute therapy, enough for researchers to spend decades proving them out. These are my personal ideas and blog on stroke rehabilitation and stroke research. Do not attempt any of these without checking with your medical provider. Unless you join me in agitating, when you need these therapies they won't be there.

What this blog is for:

My blog is not to help survivors recover, it is to have the 10 million yearly stroke survivors light fires underneath their doctors, stroke hospitals and stroke researchers to get stroke solved. 100% recovery. The stroke medical world is completely failing at that goal, they don't even have it as a goal. Shortly after getting out of the hospital and getting NO information on the process or protocols of stroke rehabilitation and recovery I started searching on the internet and found that no other survivor received useful information. This is an attempt to cover all stroke rehabilitation information that should be readily available to survivors so they can talk with informed knowledge to their medical staff. It lays out what needs to be done to get stroke survivors closer to 100% recovery. It's quite disgusting that this information is not available from every stroke association and doctors group.

Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Boosting Levels of a Key Growth Factor May Help Prevent Cardiovascular Disease

Something to add to our non-existent stroke strategy. Our stroke association presidents should be fired for such incompetency.
http://www.alphagalileo.org/ViewItem.aspx?ItemId=157503&CultureCode=en
New research indicates that low levels of a growth factor called stem cell factor (SCF)—which is thought to be important for blood vessel repair—are linked with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease.

In a study of 384 patients with a first coronary event and 409 event-free individuals, SCF measurements had a predictive value that was in the same range as that of established cardiovascular risk factors such as LDL and HDL cholesterol. Moreover, smokers and diabetics had reduced levels of SCF in the circulation, and low blood levels of the growth factor were associated with more severe disease among patients with atherosclerosis.

“The existence of stem cells with the ability to turn into mature vascular cells has been known for several years but their role and importance has not been clear. Our study provides evidence that these cells have an important role in the protection against vascular degenerative diseases predisposing to myocardial infarction and stroke,” said Dr. Maria Wigren, lead author of the Journal of Internal Medicine article. “We also show that smoking and diabetes can have a negative effect on the reparative capacity of these cells. We hope our findings may open opportunities for the development of novel therapies stimulating the activity of these repair processes.”

Full bibliographic informationWigren M, Rattik S, Hultman K, Björkbacka H, Nordin-Fredrikson G, Bengtsson E, Hedblad B, Siegbahn A, Gonçalves I, Nilsson J (Lund University, Malmö, Skåne, Sweden; Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden; and Skåne University Hospital, Malmö, Sweden). Decreased levels of stem cell factor in subjects with incident coronary events. J Intern Med 2015; doi: 10.1111/joim.12443.