Live data from Hacker News

Woman's blindness apparently reversed by stem cell treatment

baltimoresun.com

21–25 of 25 posts

Re: Woman's blindness apparently reversed by stem cell treatment

#21
post #17
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems to have worked for the girl in this case https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVYi4sdEKeQ No one's claiming she's making it up as far as I can tell. I think it's a shame these kind of things aren't tried more.

You don't have to claim the girl is making it up for the result to be untrustworthy. There is a reason placebo controlled double blind trials are used in modern medicine. That amount of rigor is required to be certain that the observed effect wouldn't have just happened. People can get better because the human body is good at self-regulation. The placebo effect is also a real effect. The standard set for modern medic…

In this case where she couldn't see for five years and then suddenly could after the stem cells it seems unlikely to be a placebo effect.

Re: Woman's blindness apparently reversed by stem cell treatment

#22

My dad has glaucoma and did the same surgery. Not much improvement after 1 year has passed. Another eye doctor says it might take another 4 years to see some difference...

Similar experience here. A friend of mine had glaucoma but also did some surgery to remove a calcium extract from the eye. It helped a little but the vision is still the same

Re: Woman's blindness apparently reversed by stem cell treatment

#23
post #21
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't have to claim the girl is making it up for the result to be untrustworthy. There is a reason placebo controlled double blind trials are used in modern medicine. That amount of rigor is required to be certain that the observed effect wouldn't have just happened. People can get better because the human body is good at self-regulation. The placebo effect is also a real effect. The standard set for modern medic…

In this case where she couldn't see for five years and then suddenly could after the stem cells it seems unlikely to be a placebo effect.

Unlikely, but you still have an N=1. This is a case study, not proof of efficacy. It was an unknown ocular pressure that caused the blindness and could very well be an unknown and unrelated reaction that caused the recovery. Just because one event happens after another event does not mean one event caused the other. Very interesting, and worth attention and further study, but not proof.

Re: Woman's blindness apparently reversed by stem cell treatment

#24
post #15
post #3

A separate thought: Patients searching for and trying traditional and non-traditional solutions. From the article: "...a doctor pointed her to https://clinicaltrials.gov/ , the National Institute of Health's clearinghouse of studies. There she found Dr. Jeffrey N. Weiss in Margate, Fla., who was enrolling blind patients in an unorthodox stem cell study." This seems to have occurred after the patient pursued "...Chine…

Shouldn't the treatments you refer to be called "traditional" instead of "non-traditional"? Most of what we do in Western medicine is modern and not ancient.

Point taken : o )

I wrote with Western medicine in mind as "traditional", in the sense that it is standard practice, here in the United States. I can see how that's ambiguous.

Re: Woman's blindness apparently reversed by stem cell treatment

#25
post #3

A separate thought: Patients searching for and trying traditional and non-traditional solutions. From the article: "...a doctor pointed her to https://clinicaltrials.gov/ , the National Institute of Health's clearinghouse of studies. There she found Dr. Jeffrey N. Weiss in Margate, Fla., who was enrolling blind patients in an unorthodox stem cell study." This seems to have occurred after the patient pursued "...Chine…

When you refer to Scott Adams, are you referring to his vocal cord/speaking problems?

Yes; in the sense of how he used technology to connect with the medical professionals who ultimately helped him. I think he used Google Alerts, or something similar.
Post reply on HN