Coping with chronic neck pain may be made easier with mindfulness training if we generalize the results of a recent pilot study into the use of the therapy for patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis. The randomized study found that group-therapy using mindfulness techniques helped patients manage daily symptoms of chronic joint pain more effectively and reduced feelings of stress in comparison to the control group. What does ‘mindfulness’ mean though, and how can you incorporate it into your neck painmanagement regime?

Staying in the Moment

The researchers carrying out this study looked at sixty-seven patients with inflammatory Rheumatoid Arthritis and chronic joint pain, including those with ankylosing spondylitis, and psoriatic arthritis, with the former a common cause of neck pain and back pain. Published in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases in December, the study details the use of mindfulness, whereby the patients try to maintain an attentive awareness to the moment. This attention to the present reality is one of the factors in Buddhist enlightenment and the researchers considered it a potential aid to patients when accepting and coping with chronic pain conditions.

Mindfulness Training Techniques

The patients in the mindfulness group were expected to have less psychological distress, better emotional processing, and less fatigue, pain, and other symptoms after completing the course. Unfortunately, the lack of a genuine control group makes assessment difficult as the patients who did not attend the group therapy were given instead a CD of mindfulness exercises to practice at home. There were thirty-six patients in the therapeutic group and thirty-five in the control group, with sixty-seven completing all of the questionnaires included in the study. The mindfulness training involved ten group sessions over fifteen weeks, with a booster session at six months after completion of the initial training. The sessions concentrated on training patients to experience the present moment, no matter how hard that was. Patients in the control group had usual care, plus the take-home CD with which to practice mindfulness should they wish.

Feeling the Pain

Exercises in mindfulness also focused on recognizing limitations, coping with strong emotions, regarding chronic pain or other issue, and the programme aimed to teach the patients to become aware of their feelings, thoughts, and physical sensations, including chronic pain, without judging the experiences or trying to avoid acknowledging the sensations.

How Viable is Mindfulness Training for Chronic Pain?

The study used practitioners trained in mindfulness therapy to deliver the programme, with the cost-effectiveness and accessibility of the scheme questionable in light of the specific training needed. The importance of the experience of the trainers in guiding patients to carry out creative exercises involving music, drawing, and sharing of stories amongst the group means that such treatment is unlikely to be available for all those suffering with chronic pain from a joint condition including cervicalgia (neck pain).

Positive Effects of Mindfulness Training in RA

The results of the mindfulness training for Rheumatoid Arthritis patients did show that there were improvements in coping abilities, stress, fatigue, and symptom control, with assessments made after the initial training was complete and after twelve months. Stress scores over twenty-three were present in thirteen of the intervention group, dropping to just two after twelve months. In the control group this went from ten to eight. The control group saw no change from baseline fatigue in the twelve month period whereas those receiving mindfulness training for chronic pain did have improvements in levels of fatigue.

Long-Lasting Results from Mindfulness Training

The lead author of the study, Heidi A. Zangi, RN, MNSc, noted that similar psychoeducational interventions, including Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, tend to have a diminishing effect with time after the end of the programmes. With tailored interventions this decline is often avoided, with the benefits for depression, anxiety, and fatigue lasting longer. A previous study also noted benefits for mindfulness training in patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis (Arthritis Rheum. 2007;57:1134-1142), and it may be that nurses and physicians working with patients with chronic neck pain could undergo additional training to deliver some of this kind of training.

Group Therapy for Chronic Joint Pain

Group therapy sessions incorporating mindfulness training for existing chronic pain support groups could help reach more patients than a new initiative based solely on such techniques. Many physicians already try to include such therapy in their practice but without the benefit of having had proper training themselves. With the evidence building to support the use of mindfulness for Rheumatoid Arthritis and chronic neck pain it may be that these techniques become more commonplace in pain management clinics.

Reference

Zangi, H.A., Mowinckel, P., Finset, A., Eriksson, L.R., Hoystad, T.O., Lunde, A.K., Hagen, K.B., (2012). A mindfulness-based group intervention to reduce psychological distress and fatigue in patients with inflammatory rheumatic joint diseases: a randomised controlled trial, Ann Rheum Dis. Published online December 20, 2011.

The discovery of stem cells only in the larger salivary gland ducts could revolutionize head and neck cancer treatment.

Stem Cells in Head and Neck Cancer

Treating head and neck cancer with radiotherapy can lead to serious loss of salivary gland function with the only current method of reducing such adverse effects being the lowering of the dose of radiotoxic therapy given. The problem with such a method is that the dose has to be substantial enough to treat the cancer and so lowering the dose may not offer the best course of treatment for patients in the long-run. Instead, researchers are now looking at the use of precise targeting of radiotherapy in order to spare substructures in the salivary gland, especially as they have observed an uneven distribution of stem cells in the salivary gland tissue.

Stem Cells and Slaiva

Stem cells present in the salivary gland are responsible for regenerating damaged tissue but it turns out that they are clustered in the larger ducts of the gland and are not found in the general salivary gland tissue. This could allow physicians to apply radiotherapy treatment for head and neck cancer in such a way as to spare these larger ducts from the toxic damage and, therefore, allow more of the stem cells to remain in order to repair other areas of the gland.

Sparing Stem Cells for Xerostomia Reduction

The researchers first observed the uneven distribution of stem cells in animals, followed by studies on human tissue. Peter van Luijk, PhD, from University Medical Center Groningen in the Netherlands, noted that the concentration of the stem cells in the center of the ducts was twice as high with twice as much regenerative capacity. Animals used in stem cell research were found to have a generalized reduction in function of the salivary gland when radiotherapy was applied across this area. In contrast, those animals who had the stem cell-rich ducts spared during radiotoxic therapy had a loss of function only in the site of irradiation rather than across the whole gland.

3D-Modelling for Radiotherapy Treatment

Using CT scans of human patients with head and neck cancer, the scientists devised a 3D model for applying various doses of radiotherapy to correlate with those areas of the gland tissue responsible for most saliva production. Using the model to then create a way of sparing salivary gland stem cells rather than following the standard gland-sparing approach to radiotherapy meant that the scientists estimate that they could reduce by half the amount of radiotherapy the stem cell areas received. This also has the advantage of not needing to alter the dose to the rest of the gland or affect coverage of the cancerous area.

Xerostomia and Stem Cells

Projections suggest that this stem cell-sparing model could result in unaffected saliva production in head and neck cancer patients a year after radiation therapy, with the parotid gland spared. Such models are not proof of principle however and stem cell clinical trials would need carrying out on human patients to test the theory. The current technique of sparing the parotid gland entirely can create difficulties in achieving an optimum dose to the tumor itself, but this new understanding of the presence of stem cells in specific ducts in the salivary glands may significantly improve outcomes for head and neck cancer patients faced with the threat of xerostomia.

Reference

P. van Luijk, S. Pringle, J.O. Deasy, V.V. Moiseenko, H. Faber, H.P. van der Laan, S. Brandenburg, J.A. Langendijk, J. Wu, R.P. Coppes, ESTRO 31: European Society for Radiotherapy and Oncology 2012 Annual Conference: Abstract OC 167. Stem Cell Sparing Radiotherapy of Head and Neck Cancer to Preserve Salivary Gland Function, Presented May 10, 2012.

Radbod Darabi, MD, PhD. and Rita Perlingeiro, PhD. Stem cell researchers at the University of Minnesota.

iPSCs for Muscular Dystrophy

The stem cell researchers used induced pluripotent stem cells, rather than embryonic stem cells, derived from human skin cells and then manipulated these in the laboratory to form a rapidly dividing population of muscle-forming cells. This procedure would allow for the patient’s own cells to be used in the stem cell treatment, meaning that the stem cell transplant is unlikely to be rejected and that no embryos would be destroyed in the process of treatment.

Creating Skeletal Muscle with Stem Cells

This research is the first example of a stem cell study using human stem cells with a therapeutic purpose, previous research has always made use of mouse stem cells which led to questions over the applicability of the results to human patients. The University of Minnesota’s findings will likely lead to a number of clinical trials for muscular dystrophy using stem cell therapy as the latest research offers the proof-of-principle necessary to begin such a trial. Previous research has been obstructed by the difficulties faced by scientists in creating a large enough quantity of muscle progenitor cells to be therapeutic, leaving many muscular dystrophy sufferers with little hope of finding a stem cell treatment.

Animal Research to Human Research

The research, published in Cell Stem Cell, details a strategy for developing the requisite rapidly dividing population of skeletal myogenic progenitor cells from the iPSCs. Scientists at U of M were also the first to use embryonic stem cells from mice to treat muscular dystrophy but it is this new technique to produce muscle stem cells from skin cells that allows the researchers to look at moving into clinical trials for human patients with neuromuscular diseases.

Long-term Benefits of Stem Cell Transplants for Muscular Dystrophy

The stem cell transplants led to extensive muscle regeneration in the mice, with a resulting improvement in muscle function long-term. The mice with muscular dystrophy were given human skeletal myogenic progenitor cells developed using a process of genetic modification from two well-characterized human iPSC lines and an embryonic stem cell line with the PAX7 gene. The latter allowed the researchers to control the level of Pax7 protein needed to regenerate muscle tissue after damage. The study revealed a capacity to turn naive embryonic stem cells and the iPSCs into muscle-forming cells, giving them an efficient way to create sizeable populations of cells suitable for transplantation and treatment for muscular dystrophy using stem cells.

Restoring Muscle Tissue with Stem Cells

The stem cells transplanted into the mice appear to be much more effective in treating muscular dystrophy than human myoblasts previously used in such research and which did not persist after transplantation. The progressive degenerative nature of muscular dystrophy means that any stem cell therapy would need to address the underlying cause of the condition or be repeated time and again to regenerative damaged muscles. The long-term benefits of this latest stem cell therapy has many people feeling positive of a major breakthrough in muscular dystrophy treatment options. The technique currently uses a virus vector to bring about the genetic modification of the cells but the U of M researchers are looking into an alternative method prior to commencing human clinical trials for stem cell treatment of muscular dystrophy.

Stem cell-derived fibroids grew ten times bigger than those from main cell populations

Stem Cells ‘Go Wild’

Scientists working at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and Northwestern Memorial Hospital looked at human fibroid stem cells grafted into mice and observed a significant difference in the size of tumors resulting from the stem cell grafts and those of main cell populations. One of the researchers, Serdar Bulun, MD., who is the chair of obsetrics and gynaecology at the institutions, noted that the stem cell ‘loses its way and goes wild.’ Although stem cells only make up around 1.5% of the cells in the tumor but are the powerhouses behind the fibroids’ expansion.

Stem Cell Mutation and Tumor Growth

The specific stem cell mutation behind the fibroid growth is called MED12, with mutations of the MED12 gene recently noted in the majority of uterine fibroid tumors assessed by researchers. Knowing that this is the origin of the tumors, rather than a part of the process or an effect of tumor growth, could make a big difference in the treatments given to patients with uterine fibroid tumors. The tumors grow in response to steroid hormones such as progesterone, meaning that the hormonal changes of menopause play a role in the progression of these types of tumor.

Stem Cell Safety

In this study, the uterine fibroids originating from the stem cell population grew ten times larger than those tumors started from the main cell population, giving stem cell researchers an opportunity to see how the stem cells initiate and sustain tumor growth. Although the safety of stem cell therapy has been called into question many times, the pervading view of stem cells is as a force for good, the body’s healers, capable of regenerating damaged tissue. The discovery that stem cells cause uterine fibroid tumors may surprise many people but could, ultimately, lead to improved therapy for a widespread condition.

Reference

Masanori Ono, Wenan Qiang, Vanida Ann Serna, Ping Yin, John S. Coon, Antonia Navarro, Diana Monsivais, Toshiyuki Kakinuma, Matthew Dyson, Stacy Druschitz, Kenji Unno, Takeshi Kurita, Serdar E. Bulun, (2012), Role of Stem Cells in Human Uterine Leiomyoma Growth, PLoS ONE: Research Article, published 03 May 201210.1371/journal.pone.0036935

Once your doctor has confirmed that you have spinal stenosis, questions about your treatment options are probably the first thing to come to mind. Are there any treatments that will help relieve your pain? Will you need surgery? First, you should know that surgery to treat spinal stenosis is relatively rare and is reserved for a small percentage of patients with the condition. Second, your doctor will most likely recommend a regimen of conservative (nonsurgical) treatments to help mitigate your symptoms based on their location, frequency, and intensity, as well as your age and overall health. In the majority of cases, conservative spinal stenosis treatment is enough to relieve symptoms and help the patient return to a high quality of life.

Try Different Conservative Treatments

The conservative spinal stenosis treatment plan that you formulate with your doctor will probably require a bit of trial and error, particularly because the methods that work for one patient may not work for you. For this reason, it’s best that you take note of the conservative treatments that seem to improve your symptoms and those that don’t. For example, you may find that prescription non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) may help counteract the pain and inflammation in your neck or back better than over-the-counter options. Or, you may discover that transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) therapy helps relax your muscles and reduce spasms more effectively than thermotherapy (the application of heat) does. Whatever the case, maintaining detailed notes surrounding your treatment progress can help your doctor make additional recommendations as needed.


What About Alternative Options?

While your doctor, being a member of the mainstream medical community, will most likely not readily suggest that you try alternative spinal stenosis treatment, you always have the option of exploring these holistic therapies. In some cases, patients suffering from the pain, numbness, weakness, and tingling associated with spinal stenosis have found relief from alternative treatments, like herbal therapy, massage, chiropractic adjustments, acupuncture, and others. Before you begin any alternative treatment plan, however, you should consult both your doctor and a complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) professional to ensure that the treatments you want to try are safe and won’t interfere with any medications you may already be taking.

Above all, listen to your body. If your neck or back pain is not responding to any nonsurgical treatment, it may be time to discuss the possibility of surgery with your doctor. However, it’s important to first perform your own research and be 100 percent comfortable with all of the risks and benefits associated with a surgical procedure before you sign any consent form.

The name itself – bone spur – sounds like it would be a sharp, jutting protrusion that is sure to cause pain. On the contrary, though, bone spurs, also called osteophytes, are actually not very “spur like.” They tend to be smooth growths of bone attached to other bones, and usually occur at jointed areas that sustain a lot of rubbing and grinding. A common place for them to develop is on the sides and tops of toes when high heels are frequently worn, called “pump bumps.” The bones of the spine can also develop bone spurs, but since these are not visible like bone spurs on the toes, people generally don’t know they have spinal osteophytes unless the bony growths produce symptoms.



Bone spurs can develop in your cervical spine when facet disease, a form of osteoarthritis, sets in. This generally occurs as a result of the natural aging process, and involves the gradual deterioration of the cartilage that lines the facet joints, which are the joints located on the tops and bottoms of vertebrae. As this cartilage slowly disappears, your joint bones can start to grind against each other in a condition called “crepitus.” Crepitus itself can be painful and cause joint stiffness, spontaneous joint lockage, and inflammation of the surrounding tissues. Bone-on-bone grinding can also lead to the formation of bone spurs in or around your joint. These growths of bone can come into contact with the medial branch nerve, which innervates the joint space, or a spinal nerve root, which branches directly off the spinal cord.

Symptoms of Bone Spurs in the Neck

If one of these nerves in the neck does become irritated or compressed by a bone spur, you may experience the following symptoms:

• Localized neck pain at the joint
• Radiating pain in the neck or upper extremities
• Tingling that travels through the neck, shoulders, arms, hands, and/or fingers

Treating Bone Spurs

If you have a bone spur in the neck that produces symptoms, you will likely be able to manage your discomfort with a series of conservative (non-surgical) treatments. Always get a proper diagnosis from your doctor before beginning any treatment plan. Before suggesting possible treatments, your doctor will probably perform a physical exam, check for areas of inflammation or other abnormalities along the spine, and test your range of motion. An X-ray, MRI, or CT scan is usually used to detect the presence of a bone spur.

While treatment regimens are always tailored to each patient’s specific needs, common approaches might include physical therapy, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), stretching, and hot/cold compresses. Throughout the treatment process, stay in close communication with your doctor and report any changes in your symptoms.

Spinal stenosis symptoms are fairly easy for a spine specialist to recognize,
but for your doctor to accurately diagnose you, explaining your symptoms in as much detail as possible can be incredibly helpful. Symptoms typically arise in response to some form of nerve compression, with pressure placed on either the spinal cord or one of its nerve roots. Nerve compression can be caused by many other anatomical abnormalities in the spine, so carefully documenting your exact symptoms is essential in helping determine the cause of the stenosis, or narrowing, within your spinal column.

Common Symptoms

The discomfort you experience won’t be exactly the same as another patient with spinal stenosis, but there are a few general symptoms that may indicate restriction of the spinal canal (the space through which the spinal cord travels) or foraminal canals (the lateral intervertebral channels created by two stacked vertebrae through which spinal nerve roots travel).


Typically, spinal canal constriction in the neck or back could lead to:

• Difficulty picking up or holding objects
• Numbness or weakness in the upper or lower extremities
• Leg pain and cramping in the legs after long periods of standing or walking, which may decrease by sitting down or bending forward
• Paralysis from the point of compression down; usually in severe cases only

Constriction of one or more foraminal canals in the neck or back could result in the following spinal stenosis symptoms that radiate, or travel down the arms or legs:

• Pain
• Numbness
• Tingling
• Muscle weakness and spasticity

Carefully documenting the frequency, intensity, and location of your symptoms can provide your doctor with the information he or she needs to help ascertain a spinal stenosis diagnosis.

Managing Your Discomfort

Once your doctor confirms that your symptoms are caused by spinal stenosis, he or she can help you formulate a treatment plan to help alleviate your pain. Your doctor will likely recommend that you try several conservative, nonsurgical therapies to begin your treatment plan. These treatments might include pain medication, physical therapy, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), stretching, and other methods. In all likelihood, your symptoms will decrease over a period of weeks or months.

If a pinched nerve in your neck has been plaguing you and making some of your daily activities difficult or painful, your first instinct might be to take it easy and rest. While this can help for short periods of time, in most cases it is also extremely important to stay active when you’re managing a pinched nerve so that your body stays strong and limber. Too little activity can actually cause the muscles in your cervical spine (neck) to weaken, which can lead to stiffness and additional neck pain down the road.

Pinched Nerve Exercises for Neck Pain

Always talk to your doctor before integrating any exercises into your treatment regimen for a pinched cervical nerve. Not only should you get an accurate diagnosis to make sure that a pinched nerve is the true cause of your discomfort, but you should also work with your doctor to determine whether you should begin physical therapy or simply modify the exercise routine you’ve grown accustomed to. The exercises or stretches recommended by your doctor will likely depend on your current lifestyle and how active you were prior to your diagnosis, but some of the most common suggestions for staying fit as you deal with a pinched nerve include:

• Switching from high-impact activities like jogging and kickboxing to low-impact activities like walking, biking, swimming, and elliptical training
• Supplementing your exercise regimen with restorative yoga or light stretching
• Working with a physical therapist to increase muscle strength and range-of-motion
• Taking non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) to mitigate pain and swelling as you exercise
• Applying heat therapy prior to exercise and ice therapy after exercise, to increase circulation and reduce inflammation, respectively

How Exercise Helps Neck Pain

In addition to helping your muscles stay strong, exercise plays a variety of other roles in managing the symptoms that can often be associated with a pinched nerve in the neck. Exercise increases blood circulation, which may speed the healing process if a nerve is being pinched by injured or inflamed tissue. Physical activity also releases endorphins, which are your body’s natural painkillers.

No matter your age or general lifestyle, it’s never too late to become active and lead a healthier life, especially when dealing with a degenerative condition like a pinched nerve in the neck.

Scoliosis can cause back pain in children, infants, and adults and is a condition where the spinal curvature becomes abnormal leading, potentially, to breathing problems, pain, spinal stenosis, and abnormal posture. Many cases of scoliosis in children are mild and remain asymptomatic but other cases can become severe and debilitating.

Whilst scoliosis is not a common cause of back pain in kids, the back condition may require surgery, use of a scoliosis back brace, or other intervention to correct the abnormality. The underlying pathology of scoliosis in children can include spondylolysis, spondylolisthesis, Scheuermann kyphosis, disc herniation, or hydromyelia, although many cases of childhood scoliosis have no known cause and are referred to as idiopathic scoliosis.

Spinal Stenosis and Scoliosis Symptoms

Some spinal curvature is normal but scoliosis is a condition where the spine curves sideways rather than front to back, creating an ‘s’ or ‘c’ shape in the spine. Where the condition is identified early on as the cause of back pain in kids it can be successfully managed, treated, and prevented from becoming worse, in most cases. Longstanding spinal misalignment and scoliosis in adults may prove harder to correct and some symptoms may persist even after treatment. Pronounced abnormal spinal curvature can cause spinal stenosis with pinched nerves and further spinal degeneration creating symptoms that may become severe and permanent. Spinal curves of more than fifty degrees can cause significant problems as the lungs may become restricted, spinal structures are more liable to slip, herniate, and fracture, and spinal stenosis symptoms may be worse where a patient also develops degenerative disc disease or other back condition alongside scoliosis.

Causes of Scoliosis in Children

The cause of scoliosis is not identified in most cases although the condition often begins in childhood and tends to be more severe in girls than in boys. Catching the problem early can make a huge difference in prognosis with scoliosis as correction of the abnormal spinal curve is easier to effect as the child grows rather than later in life when the curve may be more significant. Scoliosis curvature of ten degrees or more occurs in an estimated 1.5-3%of the general population. Larger spinal curves or twenty degrees occur in 0.3-0.5% of people, and 0.2-0.3% of the population are thought to have scoliosis of thirty degrees or more.

Symptoms of Scoliosis in Children

Spotting scoliosis in children means being alert to abnormalities in posture, such as one shoulder being higher than the other or one hip appearing raised. Some parents notice that just one side of their child’s pants becomes worn and scuffed over time, indicating a possible discrepancy in leg-length due lumbar scoliosis and one hip being higher than the other. Some children with scoliosis have a shoulder blade that is more prominent than the other, or may appear to have a flat waistline on one side but not on the other.

In children with scoliosis it may also be that the child’s head appears to be off-center and that their ribs stick out or look higher on one side of the body, particularly when bending forwards. Symptoms of scoliosis in children may only present as mild postural issues but these can become more severe and pronounced as they grow and the spine continues to twist and curve abnormally. Adults with scoliosis may have trouble breathing and suffer from severe back pain.

Back Pain and Scoliosis in Childhood

Back pain in children can be caused by a variety of conditions, including scoliosis; a study by Ramirez, et al (1997), found a 23% incidence of back pain in children with idiopathic scoliosis and noted that the likelihood of back pain increased in those over fifteen years of age. Girls with scoliosis who had started their periods were also more likely to have symptoms of back pain, as were children with a history of injuries and who had more mature skeletal structures.

Curvature of more than 50 degrees is likely to cause breathing problems in those with scoliosis.

Scoliosis Correction for Children

Younger children and infants with scoliosis are considered most at risk of developing serious symptoms connected to the back condition. To check for scoliosis the doctor will assess the ribs and back to see if there are clear discrepancies. A chest or spine x-ray may then be necessary to measure the spinal curve if it is found to be abnormal. Children who are still growing may find that the spinal curvature worsens and their symptoms of scoliosis become more severe, including back pain, breathing difficulties, and even digestive issues if the postural defect is extreme. Some paediatricians believe in screening all children for scoliosis in order to catch it early and reduce its impact. Mild cases of scoliosis in children tend not to need correction or treatment as the spine may simply correct itself during growth or remain asymptomatic. Where scoliosis is diagnosed in a child they will likely need check-ups every four to six months to monitor development and some children may need to wear a scoliosis back brace to encourage proper alignment of the spine as they grow. In severe cases, if the brace does not work, children may need scoliosis surgery.

Coping with Scoliosis as a Family

Scoliosis can be a stressful condition for children as they may look and feel different to their friends and classmates and may have back pain, breathing problems, activity restrictions, and require regular visits to the doctor’s office or hospital. A back brace can also restrict activities and be uncomfortable, difficult to put on without help, and may make them feel conspicuous at school. It is important that the child understands why such interventions are necessary in order to help them cope with the condition in the best way possible. Siblings of those with scoliosis are also more likely to develop the condition themselves and so it is particularly important to monitor children’s growth in families where one or more members has the spine condition. Children with missing limbs or who are significantly shorter than their peers are also more likely to develop scoliosis, as are children who have incurred a previous spinal injury and whose vertebrae may already be out of alignment. However, in the review by Ramirez, et al, the incidence of back pain in children with scoliosis was not associated with gender, family history, or limb-length discrepancy.

Find out more about treatments for scoliosis, a spine condition that affects children and adults.

Reference

Ramirez N, Johnston CE, Browne RH., The prevalence of back pain in children who have idiopathic scoliosis. J Bone Joint Surg Am. 1997 Mar;79(3):364-8.

A quite peculiar use of embryonic stem cells has led some religious groups to urge a boycott of Pepsi, Coca Cola, and Campbell’s Soups products in recent months. Whilst rumors of there being embryonic stem cells in Pepsi remain unfounded it is being reported that these companies had employed a research group called Senomyx to conduct flavor-testing studies using cells derived from embryonic stem cell lines, thus angering pro-life groups and providing further fodder for those opposing stem cell research.

Why Use hESCs in Taste-Testing

The cells in question were allegedly used to test new drink ingredients in order to see if they produce particular protein reactions that would indicate favorable effects on the human palate. Such research could also be carried out using cells cultured from adult stem cells, cord blood stem cells, or other research methods, making it unclear as to why Semonyx would have opted for discarded human embryonic stem cells for the research. It is also unclear as to the degree of involvement that Pepsi and other companies had with the actual research methods used by the company they hired for the work.

Boycotting Pepsi – Right-to-Life Groups

A number of right-to-life groups have called for a full boycott of Pepsi’s products following the allegations about their research practices. The company has ended its contract with Semonyx however, but the public relations damage has already been done it seems and the religious right is talking up a storm about the companies involved. It could prove difficult for many to follow their lead however, as many Pepsi products are well-known and widely available brands that are seemingly unrelated to Pepsi itself. Boycotting Pepsi would mean no Mountain Dew, Sierra Mist, Gatorade, Propel, Pepsi and Diet Pepsi, Tropicana, Lipton Ice teas, Starbucks Frappucinos (bottled), and Aquafina water. The boycott is now looking at being extended to Kraft, Campbell’s, and Nestle, ironic given the existing boycott of many such major companies by liberals and democrats on the basis of their activities in developing countries and their perceived capitalist greed. For once, it may be that the left and right come together to boycott the same companies, just for different reasons.

Stem Cells in Food?

One of the unsettling things to come out of all this talk of stem cells in Pepsi’s food research is that some people have become convinced that the embryonic stem cells are actually in the food itself. There is absolutely no evidence of this occurring but that has not stopped Oklahoma considering a bill to outlaw the use of foetuses in food. The Oklahoma Senator, Ralph Storey proposed bill SB1418 banning the sale of products that are developed with or contain aborted foetal remains but this is yet to be passed into law.

Is Pepsi Using Stem Cells for Research?

Pepsi has issued a statement saying that they do not conduct or fund research using human tissue or cell lines derived from embryos or foetuses, but pro-life lobbyists are pointing to the use of a line of cells known as HEK-293 which originate from the kidneys of aborted foetuses in the 1970s. These cultured cell lines are made available to the National Institutes of Health, American Type Cell Culture, Corriel Labs, and so forth, meaning that they could be used by stem cell researchers for a variety of projects, including food research.

Embryonic Stem Cells in Food – Ordinary Business?

A Security and Exchange Commission report ruled that the use of these cells by Semonyx when conducting research for Pepsi would constitute ordinary business operations, further angering those opposed to the research. Pepsi Next is said to be performing well following its recent launch, and the possible use of the stem cell research in the development of the product has not had to be brought to the attention of shareholders due to the classification of the activity as ordinary business. It is doubtful whether many PepsiCo shareholders remain ignorant of the issue however, considering the degree of media coverage. Perhaps this is another example of how the everyday activities of a stem cell research scientist appear bewildering and frightening to those outside of the industry, whilst simply being a matter of routine to the researcher themselves.

Pepsi may have used embryonic stem cell-derived material to develop flavor enhancers in their products but it seems that no clear rebuttal or admittance is forthcoming. The nearly fifty year old cell lines are so far removed from the original aborted foetuses that much of the talk about boycotts, forced abortions, and the presence of foetal cells in Pepsi can probably be chalked up to fear-mongering rather than fact.