No, it is not a study about a new drug that improves on what Viagra can do, it is something even better than that. Researchers from North Carolina’s Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center’s Institute for Regenerative Medicine successfully have completed a study that may help male patients who are suffering from inborn abnormalities of the reproductive organ, penile cancer, erectile dysfunction, and those who are sexually impaired as a result of accident. The researchers have grown erectile tissue in the laboratory and  have used it successfully in restoring the sexual function in rabbits. The scientists started by collecting smooth muscle cells and endothelial cells from the erectile tissue of rabbits. The cells were then grown in test tubes in the laboratory. After the cells matured and formed a sponge-like tissue, the process of surgically implanting the new erectile tissue in the rabbits followed. After a month, the implanted tissue began to reconstitute itself and formed the blood vessels necessary for erection. In time, the rabbits’ sexual functions were fully restored. The study was published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“We were able to show the tissue was able to integrate and function in the long term, which means we can start planning clinical applications in humans. Our hope is to be able to treat patients with many conditions, including congenital abnormalities of the penis, traumatic injuries, penile cancer and severe cases of erectile dysfunction that don’t benefit from drug treatments,” the director of the Institute for Regenerative Medicine at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center and senior author of the study, Dr. Anthony Atala said.

The study is really promising, but it is still in the early stage. This gives a lot of men hope because the researchers have shown that it is possible to grow erectile tissue in the laboratory. More than 30% of men do not respond to drugs for erectile dysfunction, and this study aims at addressing their problem.

Will America be seeing an enormous overhaul in the health care coverage for our nation? By the sound of it, the answer is in the affirmative. In an atypical Saturday night meeting of the U.S. House of Representatives, the new health care bill, H.R. 3962, the Affordable Health Care for America Act, passed with three votes to spare. The final count was 220-215. If passed by the Senate there will be some definite changes, though the effects that the majority of Americans will feel might be minimal. What does this bill propose?

• It restricts insurance companies from denying coverage to anyone with a pre-existing condition or for cost of care.
• It provides federal subsidies to those who cannot afford health insurance (low- to middle-income families). Are you wondering where this money comes from? Families with an income greater than $500,000 per year should expect an increase in their taxes.
• It guarantees coverage for 96% of Americans.
• As it is, this plans costs $1.3 trillion over the next decade. (This number appears to be dropping in order to encourage its passing in the Senate.)
• A stipulation in this bill is that it requires that women in this plan purchase supplemental abortion insurance with private funds if they want to be covered in the future. Representative Bart Stupak proposed this amendment that brought many of the pro-life representatives who had been against the bill to become supportive of it.

This bill has Obama’s full support; if it makes it through the Senate the next step is to have it set to work. It would be the biggest change in health care since the creation of Medicare four decades ago. However, no one can be sure whether or not it will pass through the Senate, thus all we can do is wait. But we are quite accustomed to that by now, are we not?

What’s your opinion on the health care bill? Does it give the government too much power or is it still too little or is it “just right”? Leave a comment.

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