TheraVitae Wishes Everyone A Happy Thanksgiving

We at Theravitae would like to wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving. This is a very special holiday and it reminds us of the things we do have and can be thankful for. These days it is easy to focus on the gloom and doom, but it is much harder to think about the joy and hope we already have in our lives. So on this day, we can reflect on those things that make us happy and that we can be grateful for.

And a very special thank you to all of our patients who in the midst of a heart disease epidemic, have taken a chance with us and our VesCell Adult Stem Cell treatment for heart disease and peripheral artery disease. There are treated patients out there like James Eilert, Andy Jordan, Dee Coates, Bob Grinstead as well as other patients (you know who you are) who have taken a large chunk of their spare time and unselfishly helped and counseled others who were in the same boat- suffering from heart disease or peripheral artery disease.

I personally am thankful for being just a tiny cog in this company that helps give hope and improve the quality of life of heart and PAD patients who once had no hope until VesCell stem cell technology came along.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

September 28th is World Heart Day

No, I didn't know it either. Last week was Cardiomyopathy Week. And today is World Heart Day. Did you get a day off? I know I didn't.

But seriously, this year's theme for World Heart Day was "know your risks". The European Society of Cardiology (ESC) says you should manage your risks and that will help stop the heart failure epidemic. Good advice and you should probably apply that advice to the stock market as well.

"28 million people in greater Europe live with heart failure, a chronic syndrome for which there is no cure" says Professor Kenneth Dickstein, Past-President the Heart Failure Association of the ESC.

Professor David Wood comments: "The vast majority of high risk patients in Europe are not provided with a professional lifestyle and risk factor management programme. Yet the evidence for such programmes shows that such systematic care improves lifestyle and reduces the prevalence of these risk factors"

Therefore, the ESC has formed a Heart Failure Matters (HFM) website where the information is "presented in a simple format for patients and their families to understand, HFM gives tips on what causes heart failure, on the symptoms and warning signs, myths and facts surrounding the disease."

Bet you didn't know: This global event (World Heart Day) is held every year on the last Sunday of September and has been celebrated all around the globe annually since 2000, with a different theme each year.

And in the "you probably knew this already" news category for today: "Keep the arteries unclogged" New Straits Times- Thanks for that hard hitting investigative reporting!.

Increase in Obesity Can Lead to Heart Disease Epidemic

To quote the Family Feud- "AND THE SURVEY SAYS--" the survey says more than 25% of Americans are obese and that we are in the midst of an obesity epidemic.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention recently completed a telephone survey of more than 350,000 people. 350,000? I bet those telephone operators received lots of overtime!

What is the significance of this survey you ask?

Well, overweight and obese people are more at risk for most health conditions including Type 2 Diabetes, stroke, and heart disease. So a heart disease epidemic can very well be on the horizon.

Here are some interesting and useless facts from that survey that you can dazzle everyone with at your next dinner party:

Tennessee, Mississippi, and Alabama were declared the "fattest" states with about 30% of the population being declared obese.

Colorado is the "thinnest" state with an 18% obesity rate.


The United States isn't the only obese country in the world. A new study just came out saying that China was also at the 25% obesity level.

And after doing a little research, it seems Australia may be "#1". This article shows that Australia has an estimated nine million of the 21 million population obese or overweight- more than 40%!!!

This is alarming because as I mentioned before, this doesn't bode well for the future health of people around the world, not to mention the health care systems. The health care systems of each country will be burdened with the extra weight (I couldn't resist :) of this epidemic. Hospitals will become more overcrowded, overworked and overwhelmed by the amount of patients in the near future if we don't change - It isn't a pretty picture.