Mysterious stem cells: Unraveling the mystery (Part 4)

I will now summarize my long conversations with Dr. Daniel Block and Dr. Andres Morato, report on my own healings, and venture my personal views on the mystery of stem cells.

NO REJECTION OF THE STEM CELLS FROM THE EMBRYO of the cancer-resistant black sheep had been reported since 1931 when Dr. Paul Niehans discovered and started practicing the living cell therapy (LCT), and continued by his assistant, Dr. Siegfried Block, and thereafter by his daughter, Dr. Petra Block, and his grandson, Dr. Daniel Block. Moreover, their healing success is 86 percent.

Over 2,500 of these black sheep roam freely in the Block family’s 25 square-kilometer, jungle-like farm in Landsberg, Germany. The clinic specifically selects first-time mother black sheep to slaughter for their good health and optimal condition to bear high-quality offsprings. Seventy sheep are chosen initially for every batch of patients. Then, a week prior to the treatment, 20 are quarantined and two to three days prior, two of the best are slaughtered.

Within 40 minutes from the slaughter, the embryo’s parts are quickly cut to an emulsified state in their EU-certified laboratory and brought in measured syringes for injection to specific patients. Hence, the treatment is called a “living cell,” not powdered or frozen cell. Though at times, the healing is “instant,” it normally takes four to 10 weeks from the injection for the results to become evident.

THUS, 10 WEEKS AFTER, I REQUESTED DR. DENNIS SERRANO (ON OCT. 23) to evaluate my LCT. After initial tests, he said, to my utter joy, that the cancer cells in my prostate were “inactive” and that my PSA was an incredibly low 0.33. He canceled my hormone treatment and decreased my intake of Duodart to only twice a week. In turn, I advised him that my lumbar pain had not recurred since July; my tennis and golf swings were more robust; and I could walk briskly, and waltz, tango and swing nonstop for 30 minutes. However, I felt only a little improvement in my carpal tunnel and varicose veins.

Dr. Serrano will conduct more extensive tests at the end of this month to have a more definitive conclusion on my prostate. He assured me, however, that my physical, mental, and sexual agility are more than adequate. I will keep my fingers crossed and continue praying for God’s will for me.

Meanwhile, I will continue to fast intermittently to keep my weight below 70 kilos, exercise in the gym and play tennis on Mondays and Fridays, golf on Wednesdays and Saturdays, walk briskly around the Manila Polo oval on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and use my treadmill at home on Sundays.

I will also persist in (1) stimulating my brain (for I will lose it if I do not use it), (2) attending, 100 percent, all the meetings of the boards and committees of corporations, foundations, and associations I am a director, officer or member of, (3) mediating disputes among corporate and political giants, (4) socializing, traveling, dining and laughing with my family and close friends, and (5) writing my columns, also 100 percent.

I HAVE BEEN ENAMORED BY SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY since my high school days. In fact, my ambition was to be a chemical engineer. How I became a lawyer instead is another story. In my 2003 book, “The Bio-age Dawns on the Judiciary,” I wrote, “… while still trying to adjust to the transformational shifts of the information age, the world is once more buffeted by a new phenomenon—the completion of the human genome sequence on April 14, 2003. This is a momentous scientific achievement with far-reaching consequences for all of humankind, including the men and women of the judiciary.

“The term ‘genome’ refers to the totality of genetic information in a human being. Because of the completion of the sequencing project, scientists now have a complete list of the relevant parts of the human gene. It is as if all the parts of an airplane have been inventoried, thereby presaging the inevitability of assembling them into a new flying machine or—if such machine has already been assembled—of scientifically repairing a worn-out one. The completion of the project makes it possible for scientists to study, experiment on, modify or alter genetic structures to prolong life and hasten the pace of evolution.”

Taking off from this completion, Dr. Jennifer Doudna and her team invented the CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing technology to cut out defective parts of a person’s genome and insert new ones, thereby banishing organic diseases and defects to re-engineer life. For this feat, Dr. Doudna was awarded the Nobel Prize. To my mind, that feat may be the secret of stem cells—their natural ability to stimulate, revitalize, and restore the patient’s weakened tissues and organs.

To me also, more mysterious than stem cells is the fertilization of the egg by the sperm and the resulting zygote’s ability to divide itself and grow rapidly into different body parts without human intervention. This is the great mystery of life that only God can create and unravel. In the end, I can only conclude that all things begin and end with the Lord. And I can only exclaim, again and again, “To God be the glory!” and to paraphrase St. Augustine, “My heart had been restless till it rested in Christ Jesus.”

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