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Feeding off another life to cure a life. I spent 6 months being a grandmother of a downs syndrome infant. We knew @ 2 months our daughter's first child would have downs syndrome. When we received the call of this information. I said to her. That we are going to love this baby for all we possibly could. Her husband's parents said, the same thing to them. Both families walking down the same road. Imagine the support the young couple needed. "Flying to the moon with out pracice." She was to arrive on the 4 the of July. But she having her own personality came on June 24,2000 She was so beautiful, she looked perfect to me. The thrill of holding a baby so young, so innocent was over powering. Like I said, she had a personality that at the early age and with her health problem she was accepting it ,as if it was normal. She was accepting. She had two sets of grand parents who made over her. She ate it all up. However her stomach was in two parts as well as her esophagus. She immediately had her stomach put together. The next was her esophagus. We live about 1 1/2 hours from the hospital. If i said, "lets go see Amelia Katherine", my husband was ready to go . If I got to hold her first, he would walk the halls. I think he wanted to hold her first. When we would arrive at the hospital and entered her room ,I felt so special like we were entering heaven. Amelia had red hair and blue eyes. Her hair was carrot red. He eyes were knowing,she knew. I didn't know, but she had eyes that knew and you can see the intelligence in then. She knew. She spent 4 months in the hospital and two at home. Her mother said, those two months were so happy they went shopping and did so much. Of course "Baby G." buying sale clothes for the next year. She was the easiest child to take care of. In December, they were trying to find the hole in her esophagus because after the operation this appeared. She was cranky that night and so after getting her settled, they, the parents, exhausted went to sleep. At 6 am, one day short of her 6th. month birthday, her mother went to check on her but she was cold. We did not go anywhere this summer except to see our angel ,Amelia Katherine. It was a wonderful summer driving to see her, to hold her and talk with her. She had a tube either in her nose or mouth. this caused her to be slow in speaking. One day while holding her and telling her she was our angel and how beautiful i thought she was and kissing her forehead. She looked at me, slowly opened her mouth and she made a sound that seemed to me to come from with in way down. i was in wondermint when she communicated to me. It is a wonderful memory I will always remember. The beauty of life we would have missed...The wonder of the God who created something so wonderful but decided when she would go back to him. God decided what was going to happen to her physical body . God decided when her soul would come back to him. God will let the scientists waste their time and our money trying to take God's place in the decision making when a person lives or dies. But in earthtime only for a little time will he let the devil rule, then he will step in and solve everything. Let God do it. Let him lead us to "do the right thing". I thank him for the blessing he gave us of our angel, Amelia Katherine. We would really have missed something so precious If not for her. If the next grandchild that comes is half as wonderful as the first we will be honored. Put your hands in God's care he will "do the right thing" you can be sure. As I rock and roll and hurt Respectfully Stephanie M ----- Or iginal Message ----- From: "Murray Charters" <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Friday, March 30, 2001 2:42 AM Subject: NEWS: New research redefining knowledge of cell death > The Dallas Morning News: > Thursday | March 29, 2001 > > New research redefining knowledge of cell death > Findings hold promise in treatment of cancer, brain conditions > By Sue Goetinck Ambrose / The Dallas Morning News > > Scientists are breathing new life into death. > It's not the kind of death that ends life. It's a natural form of > suicide - by cells - that helps the body live. > > One new report suggests that when it comes to cell suicide, > there is more than one way to die. If so, there may be fresh > opportunities to treat devastating conditions such as Lou > Gehrig's, Parkinson's and Huntington's diseases, all of which > involve the death of brain cells. Other recent findings could > help reduce the amount of chemotherapy needed to destroy > cancer cells. > > Researchers may also have new clues about why cells can kill > themselves at all. A recent study suggests that people and > other animals inherited at least some of their suicide implements > from lowly bacteria. > > In a typical day, researchers have estimated, more than > 50 billion cells are born in the human body. > > And more than 50 billion cells kill themselves. > > Sometimes cells commit suicide if they receive a harmful dose > of radiation - for instance, from too much sun exposure. That > act of suicide is for the good of the body; it may prevent > cancer or other problems caused by damaged cells. > > The immune system also depends on cell suicide to weed out > unwanted immune cells, such as those that might attack > healthy tissues. > > And death of cells is important in a budding life. Cell suicide > is the reason people usually don't have webbed fingers and > toes: Cells that connected the digits before birth have killed > themselves. And a key step in a young brain's development > is the loss of about half its cells through cell suicide. > > For years, scientists assumed that all these cells were dying > the same way - through a process called apoptosis. During > this kind of death, a cell actively destroys its own genetic > material and then breaks into pieces easily digested by > scavenger cells. > > But in a paper published recently in the Proceedings of the > National Academy of Sciences, researchers proposed that > cells kill themselves in another way. > > "This doesn't look anything like apoptosis," said > Dale Bredesen of the Buck Institute for Age Research in > Novato, Calif. "It's like night and day." > > In the new type of cell suicide - called paraptosis - cells > appear to form large, fluid-filled puddles inside. That's never > seen in apoptosis, Dr. Bredesen said. He and his colleagues > also found that some of the telltale biochemical signs of > apoptosis don't appear in paraptosis, suggesting that it's a > different form of cell death. > > Dr. Bredesen noted that other researchers have found cases > of cell death that don't look like apoptosis. Cells in mice with a > form of Lou Gehrig's disease, for instance, also seem to develop > puddles. So do cells in the developing nervous system, as well > as the cells of some primitive life forms - a type of yeast and a > slime mold. > > It could be that paraptosis is an ancient form of cell suicide that > today is overshadowed by apoptosis. > > Dr. Bredesen's idea is controversial. > "It still has to be proved or disproved," said Guy Salvesen, > a biologist at The Burnham Institute in La Jolla, Calif. > > But if the idea holds up, Dr. Bredesen said, researchers may > want to rethink their strategies for treating certain brain > diseases. Dying brain cells from mice with a form of > Huntington's disease don't have the hallmarks of apoptosis; > neither do brain cells afflicted with Parkinson's, he said. > And many biotechnology companies are trying to devise > treatments for those diseases based on preventing apoptosis. > But if paraptosis is the real culprit, those methods may not > work, Dr. Bredesen said. > > Treatments for cancer may also get a boost from recent findings > on cell suicide. Xiaodong Wang, a biochemist at the University > of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, has recently > found a cell component called Smac that lifts barriers to apoptosis. > Last year, Dr. Wang and his colleagues reported in the journal > Nature that only a small fragment of Smac is needed to do the > job. Because only a fragment is needed, it may be simpler to > design drugs that can trigger apoptosis in certain situations. > Cancer patients, for instance, could benefit from such drugs. > Chemotherapy works by triggering apoptosis, and with the > help of a drug that mimics Smac, milder doses of chemotherapy > medicines might be given. > > Smac is released from compartments inside the cell called > mitochondria. So is an enzyme that breaks down genetic > material, another feature of apoptosis, Dr. Wang said. > > Mitochondria compartments help cells turn food into energy, > and at first glance might not seem as if they should have > anything to do with apoptosis. But Dr. Wang said there > could be a connection. > > Many scientists believe that mitochondria are remnants of > bacteria that began living as parasites inside another type of > cell millions of years ago. Then the bacteria and the other cell > developed a symbiotic relationship, the theory goes; eventually, > the liaison gave rise to the cells that now form plants, fungi and > animals - including people. But even today, Dr. Wang said, the > mitochondria retain the ability to kill their host. > > Bacteria may have also made another donation that allows cells > to kill themselves, research published this year in the journal > Science suggests. A search through the human genetic > blueprint hints that some of the genes that help human cells > kill themselves are similar to genes in bacteria. It's possible, > said Eugene Koonin of the National Center for Biotechnology > Information, that this genetic gift occurred early in evolution > but after bacteria invaded cells and became mitochondria. > > Life forms on Earth today probably would have been very > different without those genetic donations, Dr. Koonin said. > > "If the tools for making this system had not been acquired," > Dr. Koonin said, "there should have been some other way of > coming up with doing the same thing." > > > http://www.dallasnews.com/science/health/321261_apoptosis_26li.html > > ******** > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] > In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn