Happy Holidays, and Results from Our Donation Poll

 

Ho ho ho, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Good Festivus, and Happy Kwanzaa. And for anybody not covered by the previous salutations, I wish you a joyous winter solstice.

Okay, folks, the votes are in for our holiday donation contest, and it looks like the Tisch MS Research Center of New York has won in a landslide victory. The Tisch Center garnered 63% of the votes in our poll to determine which MS nonprofit should get the $500 donation derived from the prize money Wheelchair Kamikaze won in Healthline.com's "Best Health Blogs" contest.

Ultimately, over 210 people voted in our contest, with about 130 of them voting for the Tisch Center, so a resounding victory all around. This takes nothing away from the other nonprofits I offered up for votes: The Accelerated Cure Project, The Buffalo Neuroimaging Analysis Center, and The Multiple Sclerosis Association of America. All of these organizations are doing great things for the MS community and are certainly deserving of your own holiday gifts if you are so inclined. You can read more about all of them by (clicking here).

Oddly, the blog post soliciting votes for these groups was viewed almost 1200 times in the past week but only slightly more than 200 people voted in the poll. Not sure why somebody would read the post and not vote, but c'est la vie. Maybe it had something to do with Russian hacking or some other nefarious goings-on. Sad.

I will be making the donation to the to the Tisch Center as soon as I receive payment from Healthline.com, which is on its way. This past week I visited with Dr. Sadiq, the lead researcher of the Tisch MS Research Center, and he was extremely excited about the prospects for The Center's upcoming Phase 2 regenerative stem cell trial for MS patients, the first such trial to receive FDA approval. In preparation for the upcoming trial, The Center is about to start construction of the world's largest MS stem cell laboratory in the world, and is also about to publish the results of the first phase of the trial. The Phase 2 trial is currently scheduled to start in June, 2017. In addition to stem cell research, The Tisch Center is also delving into many other aspects of the MS mystery, and Dr. Sadiq had some very encouraging things to say about the whole of the Tisch Center's research efforts. He feels that his researchers are closer than ever before to unraveling some of the core mysteries of Multiple Sclerosis.

Not sure if I'll get a chance to put a post up next week, so let me take this opportunity to wish everybody a happy and healthy 2017. Here's hoping that the new year brings only good things to each and every one of us!

Thanks for reading Wheelchair Kamikaze, and for breathing life into this blog. My appreciation for all who visit these pages is beyond words…

Here's some Christmas cheer from The Godfather of Soul…

WK Takes 2nd Place in "Best Health Blogs" Contest!

Hey folks, thanks to your votes Wheelchair Kamikaze took 2^nd place in Healthline.com’s “Best Health Blogs” contest! This is really a terrific honor, particularly because of the fierce competition – 382 other blogs were nominated to participate in the contest. Big congratulations to the two 1^st place winners who apparently tied in the voting, “Lizzie’s Lungs” (click here) and “ALS and Wellness” (click here), as well as 3^rd place winner “Early Onset Alzheimer’s” (click here). And of course, a huge thank you to Healthline.com (click here) for running the contest. Although Wheelchair Kamikaze has been honored as among the top MS blogs in the past, I believe this is the first time it’s been recognized as one of the best health blogs in general. BTW, Healthline's graphic department came up with the above image. I'm not THAT much of an egomaniac…

Healthline has generously awarded Wheelchair Kamikaze $500 for its second-place finish. I’d like to donate this prize money to a worthy MS nonprofit, and I’d like Wheelchair Kamikaze readers to pick which organization should get the big bucks. We’ll do this via an online vote, much the way Healthline’s contest winners were chosen. I’ve taken the liberty to nominate four worthy organizations from which to choose. Here’s some brief background on the chosen organizations to help inform your vote. I’ve arranged the candidates in alphabetical order.

• The Accelerated Cure Project (click here) – The ACP is the organization administering the iConquerMS project (click here), a patient-centric research project in which MS patients can take a personal stake in advancing the cause of MS research by completing a series of online questionnaires, suggesting research topics of importance to them, and providing their feedback on research studies. By “crowdsourcing” a massive amount of data supplied by MS patients themselves, iConquerMS is compiling an unprecedented database on all aspects of MS that is open to researchers worldwide. This huge pool of information should reveal trends and insights into and about the disease that otherwise would have been missed by looking at smaller pools of data. I strongly encourage all readers to visit the iConquerMS website to sign up and begin participating in this tremendously important project. Your information has power, and together we can conquer MS. (Full disclosure: I am a member of the iConquerMS engagement committee).
• The Buffalo Neuroimaging Analysis Center (click here) – BNAC is a research organization devoted to shedding light on the mysteries of multiple sclerosis and other neurologic diseases through the use of innovative imaging techniques and advanced analytic tools. The group did some of the first rigorous scientific research on CCSVI when Dr. Zamboni’s vascular theory of MS first made headlines, producing findings that cast some doubt on the causative role of venous abnormalities in MS. Their research has expanded to include the role that vascular abnormalities might play in exacerbating a wide range of neurological disorders. Lead researcher Dr. Robert Zavidanov directs a team of medical researchers and scientists of a variety of disciplines, who, among many other projects, have probed the role that gray matter lesions and inflammation of the tissues that surround the central nervous system play in the MS disease process. BNAC has pioneered many revolutionary imaging techniques. Their work promises to change in a fundamental way our understanding of Multiple Sclerosis. (Full disclosure: I’m on the patient advisory board of BNAC).
• The Multiple Sclerosis Association of America (click here) – The MSAA provides vital services and support to MS patients throughout the United States. Programs include a Helpline with trained specialists; award-winning educational videos and publications, including MSAA’s magazine, The Motivator; safety and mobility equipment distribution; cooling accessories for heat-sensitive individuals; educational programs held across the country; and Lending Library among other services. For MS patients in financial need, the Association provides assistive equipment and cooling garments free of charge, as well as financial assistance for those who cannot afford to get MRIs. The scope of services and information provided by the Multiple Sclerosis Association of America is truly astounding, and even includes a smart phone app that helps patients manage their MS. Their website is a terrific resource for information on all things MS. I encourage all Wheelchair Kamikaze readers to visit the MSAA website and poke around, it’s a veritable treasure trove of information and vital services.
• The Tisch MS Research Center of New York (click here) – The Tisch Center is a worldwide leader in cutting-edge multiple sclerosis research, and is currently in preparations to begin the first FDA approved Phase 2 regenerative stem cell trial in MS patients ever conducted, expected to get started this June. The Center is building the largest stem cell research laboratory in the world, and its staff of world-class researchers has developed proprietary methodologies that transform raw mesenchymal stem cells into cells specific to the central nervous system, which should prove to be much more capable of repairing the damage done by MS than the raw cells themselves. Under the guidance of Dr. Saud Sadiq, the Tisch center is involved in a wide variety of transformative MS research projects, from identifying new disease biomarkers to understanding the mechanisms behind disease progression. The Tisch MS Research Center is totally devoted to finding the cure for Multiple Sclerosis, which is of course the ultimate desire of every MS patient and all those who love them. (Full disclosure: Dr. Sadiq is my personal neurologist).

Please take a thorough look at all of the above candidates, and vote for whichever organization you would like to see receive the $500 awarded to Wheelchair Kamikaze by Healthline.com. The poll is located at the top of the left-hand column of this page. I’ll leave the poll open for 7 days, so the results can be determined just before Christmas. Of course, all of these organizations are great candidates for your own charitable giving, should you be so inclined. Ho Ho Ho…

Once again, thanks so much to everyone who voted for Wheelchair Kamikaze in the best health blog contest…