by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
October 7, 2004
Washington,
DC (LifeNews.com) -- The Kerry campaign released a television commercial
Thursday featuring actor Michael J. Fox. However, Fox is coming under
fire for promising false cures for patients with Alzheimer's disease.
In the ad, Fox blasts President Bush for limiting federal funding of embryonic stem cell research -- research he claims will provides cures for patients afflicted by numerous diseases.
"Stem cell research has the promise of finding cures for illnesses -- from Parkinson's to Alzheimer's to diabetes," Fox says in the commercial.
The only problem is that scientists say that embryonic stem cell research will probably never create a cure for Alzheimer's because of the nature of the debilitating disease.
"Alzheimer's is a more global disease, with an effect on numerous kinds of cells," Steve Stice, a stem cell researcher at the University of Georgia, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution newspaper in July. "That makes it much more difficult for a cell therapy to be effective."
In a patient afflicted with Alzheimer's, clumps of protein called amyloid build up within the brain and begin attacking various types of cells and the connections between cells.
Other researchers agree that potential cures, if they come about, won't happen soon.
"I just think everybody feels there are higher priorities for seeking effective treatments for Alzheimer's disease and for identifying preventive strategies," Marilyn Albert told the Associated Press in June.
Albert, a Johns Hopkins University researcher who chairs the Medical and Scientific Advisory Council of the Alzheimer's Association, says there are more promising efforts to treat the disease than waiting on the decades it could take to see results from embryonic stem cells.
Marcelle Morrison-Bogorad, associate director of the National Institute on Aging's neuroscience and neuropsychology of aging program, concurs.
"There's an awful lot going on right now that perhaps holds a little bit more immediate promise for trying to slow the disease, or even cut off its development," Morrison-Bogorad explained.
Both scientists pointed to efforts to block amyloid from building up in the brain. Such research could yield results in 5 to 10 years, much sooner than dividends from embryonic stem cell research.
In an interview on MSNBC's "Hardball" on July 12, Ron Reagan, son of President Ronald Reagan acknowledged the limitations of embryonic stem cell research cures for Alzheimer's patients.
"Alzheimer's is a disease, ironically, that probably won't be amenable to treatment through stem cell therapies," Reagan admitted.
Related web sites:
Michael J. Fox ad -
http://www.johnkerry.com/video/console.php?video=100704_michael_j_fox
