On the horizon

[dwitt]

I suspect in the not to distant future medical costs will tumble down. It takes bold new ideas not government pleasing a few big contributors...... Think back to when cartoons were all like Disney's multi cells and as cost got out of hand we had backgrounds stay frozen, figures stay still accept some small mouth or hand gesture. We used less cells and the jerky motion made for terrible graphics. Along came the computer and now we have cartoons that are all to real. Think computer control surgery procedures as in open heart without breaking the rib cage. Stem cells rebuilding damage body parts. Next will have a new thought on how to drastically improve medications, even if they will still be needed. Got ED lets repair what went wrong, not take 20,000% markup drugs. Have an inherited disease, repair the DNA. Yes, some will scream because we are turning off their profit spigot.

[Hidden]

I hope so dwitt but I think you are an optimist. The drug companies will always bleed the system dry because they can. It's all about greed isn't it? x

[dwitt in reply to Hidden]

So was makers of buggy whips, trying to hold onto a dead business. Problem is progress is contagious. You mean if I could use stem cells and build someone a new heart or a vascular system that some heart surgeon was going to persuade that person to go under a knife instead of seeing me? If someone could create me a duplicate lung and I could forget that I had COPD, some pill guy was going to stop me? In time the cost comes way down. Color TV's in the US cost almost $1,000 back in 1959. We were told the picture tube was so complicated and that the cost would never be what a black & white one cost. I may not live to see this happen but medical cost coming way down as well as having a long lifespan (120 years) are in mans destiny. Think about it if you could sell a countries flag that would not wear out; you would control the business. Well, if you could offer instant healing of broken bones, develop a third set of teeth , etc. We would sooner or later have cost and prices drop. You see stem sells know what to do and how to make something better than man playing God with pills and surgery. Once injected stem sells don't need a follow-up visit. The body knows what to accept and what to reject. Think about when does cure on the low cost side conflict with a Frankenstein monster. Let the government delve into that one instead of rationing my health care.

[qbjb in reply to dwitt]

Not too many years ago (3 or 4) I was in contact with a clinic in Germany who were using people's own stem cells to heal their own bodies. I very nearly went for it but they got closed down and went somewhere too far for me to fly. I always suspected the government in cahoots with drug companies were worried about losing vast income .... never prove it in a million years.

qbjb

[dwitt in reply to qbjb]

One day in the near future educated people will see an opportunity to make this better mouse trap and still make a dollar by saving you a dollar and giving you cures. They will see that you are only a one time customer but there are billions of us who will want what they're selling.

[qbjb in reply to dwitt]

Yes, I think (and certainly hope) you're right but sadly it'll be too late for so many who could have survived.

[Parvati]

According to John Hurst speaking on 'What the Future May Hold for COPD' at the Royal Society last week, any effective use of stem cells is a long way off - in fact he gave 40 years as the earliest we can expect news in that area - but at least it will be there for future generations. (Dr John Hurst is Reader in Respiratory Medicine UCL)

[dwitt in reply to Parvati]

but there using it NOW. Look up on you tube Suzanne somers having her removed breast replace with another one done with ----- you guess it

[Offcut]

Some one once said with regards to the big drug companies. There is no profit in a cure but there is in control. So that is were the investments goes.

Be Well

[dwitt in reply to Offcut]

It takes someone who doesn't know this God's mandate to realize it isn't God but someone, a business man in disguise. When you don't know the word impossible then all there is,is possibilities. I hope to be alive to see this happening but most likely it already has germinated as a concept started in some small clinic, below corporate radar. Think one day in the late 1950's, manufactures made a nice profit selling iron lungs and some nobody name Jonas Salk pop into history.

[emmo]

Sorry offcut cannot agree, it is in the interests of drug companies to fund drug use and not to eliminate the need for drugs, and until such time as governments have the courage to say no to the profits then we are stuck with the present system.

Still a good topic for discussion though.

Take care

Emmo

[emmo in reply to emmo]

oops replied to wrong person, meant to say dwitt. I blame the sun - and the government!!

[Offcut in reply to emmo]

it confused me as I thought that was what I said

[dwitt in reply to Offcut]

In brevity you get full credit. I was also thinking along these lines to different degrees since 1987 (my mom died that year). She was searching out chelation therapy - still not a reality but the concept although not a cure for PAD it did negate to a degree complications of it. I have search for cures - relative to my ills; COPD, Central Sleep Apnea, Type 2 Diabetes, HBP, PAD & chronic pain. All I find is a new drug replacing an old patent. There has to be a different direction not control by money investors.

[dwitt in reply to emmo]

It won't be the drug companies that promote cures ir will be individuals and companies that see a getter way to make things happen. If we felt there is no possibility for change then we would still be using medicine wagons and potions - voodoo medicine. Make a better mouse trap and they will knock on your door. Why was there an apple computer and Microsoft software because we already had IBM who thought consumers would never want a home computer. Yes medical cat will take a nose dive but it will take innovation from people outside the current professions. People will not stand for chemical company making insane mark-ups and all they sell is a new formula to hold onto patents with new side effects.

[O2Trees]

Nice vision dwitt but in your dreams Look at what is happening in the NHS - privatisation and the general move towards the U.S. model of healthcare will mean our care will increasingly be insurance based and hey - who will the insurance companies NOT want? All us expensive folk with long term conditions as we cost the healthcare system so much.

Re big pharma: we will all for instance need new antibiotics as everyone is getting immune to the current ones. So we all know a new generation of ABs is required but the drug companies aren't researching this - why? Because they have little interest in developing drugs which cure us as they don't make much profit from them. Instead they focus on drugs like statins which we take for life, making them loads of juicy profit. There is no profit in altruism.

There is no evidence that improvements in technology and consequent dropping of prices operate in the same way within the healthcare market.

[Sohara]

Here is a link about a clinic in Switzerland

startstemcells.com/news/sho...

Is that the one you contacted QBJB

[qbjb in reply to Sohara]

Thank you for the link, Sohara, and no this isn't the one but I must say that this seems even better than the Dusseldorf (I think) set-up. I delayed on that decision because I wanted a testimonial from their COPD patient (who was from UK) but they didn't get back to me. By the time I thought anything was worth a try, they'd notified me the government had shut them down and gorn!!

I would definitely do it now but I think it's too late for me as I can't fly and it would be a nightmare trying to get there on oxygen. I think it would be worth every penny (however much it cost) to regain one's health ... any improvement would be fantastic.

qbjb

[Sohara]

I believe it costs about £10,000 which IF it works would be worth it if you have the money, but I doubt that it does work or we would have heard more about it by now

I think there are 3 clinics in this group one is in the USA this Switz one is the dearest

I have not looked into it more myself, was waiting to see if anyone on here had actually gone for this

There are lots of reports from USA of people going for stem cell treatment and getting some good results, but not the wonderful results they were expecting.....so the jury is still out

[qbjb in reply to Sohara]

You're right, I didn't notice there are three but I don't fancy Belgrade or Moscow! Whew £10K is a lot of money but if it's life or death ... ?

I can't help wondering if successful results have been suppressed and/or 'toned down' ... or is it just my wishful thinking?

[dwitt]

I could not find a positive cure on this nor much information on this site. Has anybody found any articles outside their own ads?