Word: parkinsonism
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George Doeschner had been suffering from Parkinson's disease for 12 years when his physician told him about an experimental surgery that might offer a cure. Researchers at the University of Colorado were taking cells from embryos and putting them in the brains of Parkinson's patients to replace cells killed by the disease. The 55-year-old electrician applied to be a part of the experiment and flew to Denver. He was prepped for surgery and sedated. A hole was drilled through his skull. Then his surgeons sewed him up and sent him home--without giving him those embryonic...
...turns out that the placebo effect is especially powerful in Parkinson's disease. That's why Curt Freed at the University of Colorado and Stanley Fahn at Columbia University decided to create a control group whose members could be fooled into thinking they were getting the full surgical treatment. "When you have something as major as surgery," says Fahn, in defense of his experiment, "wouldn't it be best to know there was some benefit...
...there were also reasons why a frail 78-year-old with Parkinson's spent two hectic days in the river city. One was that by hopping from deeply Catholic Mexico City to Catholic-founded St. Louis, he stressed solidarity within the huge territory that, despite political and economic disparities, the Vatican likes to call simply "America." Another was Archbishop Justin Rigali of St. Louis, a beloved adviser. The third reason, more subtle but equally important, might be dubbed Betty Rataj...
Some of the company's best dancers, interestingly, have a ballet background. Desmond Rich-ardson, formerly with Alvin Ailey and now a principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre, tears up the joint in Percussion 4, while Elizabeth Parkinson, an ex-Joffrey ballerina with legs as long as War and Peace, is volcanically sexy in Sing, Sing, Sing. But the Broadway gypsies are just as satisfying, especially Jane Lanier and Scott Wise, who bring welcome warmth to Fosse without compromising its essential tough mindedness...
...contrast, human cloning could, in theory, be used to obtain tissues needed to treat disorders such as Parkinson's disease and diabetes. These diseases are associated with cell types that do not repair or replace themselves, but suitable cells will one day be grown in culture. These uses cannot be justified now; nor are they likely to be in the near future...