Cerebellar degeneration is a disease process in which neurons in the cerebellum - the area of the brain that controls muscle coordination and balance - deteriorate and die. Diseases that cause cerebellar degeneration can also involve areas of the brain that connect the cerebellum to the spinal cord, such as the medulla oblongata, the cerebral cortex, and the brain stem. Cerebellar degeneration is most often the result of inherited genetic mutations that alter the normal production of specific proteins that are necessary for the survival of neurons.

Associated diseases: Diseases that are specific to the brain, as well as diseases that occur in other parts of the body, can cause neurons to die in the cerebellum. Neurological diseases that feature cerebellar degeneration include:

* acute and hemorrhagic stroke, when there is lack of blood flow or oxygen to the cerebellum

* cerebellar cortical atrophy, multisystem atrophy and olivopontocerebellar degeneration, progressive degenerative disorders in which cerebellar degeneration is a key feature

* Friedreich’s ataxia, and other spinocerebellar ataxias, which are caused by inherited genetic mutations that progressively kill neurons in the cerebellum, brain stem, and spinal cord

* transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (such as "Mad Cow Disease" and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease) in which abnormal proteins cause inflammation in the brain, particularly in the cerebellum

* multiple sclerosis, in which damage to the insulating membrane (myelin) that wraps around and protects nerve cells can involve the cerebellum





Other diseases that can cause cerebellar degeneration include:

* endocrine diseases that involve the thyroid or the pituitary gland
* chronic alcohol abuse that leads to temporary or permanent cerebellar damage
* paraneoplastic disorders in which tumors in other parts of the body produce substances that cause immune system cells to attack neurons in the cerebellum

Symptoms: The most characteristic symptom of cerebellar degeneration is a wide-legged, unsteady, lurching walk, usually accompanied by a back and forth tremor in the trunk of the body. Other symptoms include slow, unsteady and jerky movement of the arms or legs, slowed and slurred speech, and nystagmus -- rapid, small movements of the eyes.

What research is being done?

The NINDS funds research to find the genes involved in diseases that cause cerebellar degeneration. Discovering these genes, identifying their mutations, and understanding how the abnormal proteins they produce cause cerebellar degeneration, will eventually help scientists find ways to prevent, treat, and even cure the diseases that involve cerebellar degeneration.





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Somehow life is full of mysteries.... that even the highest mind cannot comprehend what is happening... that only "ALMIGHTY GOD" holds all the answers to the riddles here on earth.... we could not hold on to our precious life but to put our faith only to ALMIGHTY GOD....







goodbye


english version
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I came across with this article that I’ve read and I was touched by the story of a couple who lost their beloved daughter, so I want to share it with you…

Her name was Vanessa Valle Castillo married to Derrick Castillo whom they have daughter name Marriane Betina.

Marriane Betina has fair complexion, brown hair, gray eyes, and tiny red lips. But Rianne’s beauty was beyond good looks. She was also smart, kind, and sensitive. She asked for a globe when she was four years old so she could study the continents. One time after she bought her some sweets, she passed a lola with her grandson scrounging for food in the garbage. Her mother asked her if she wanted to give her sweets to them, she answered, “Mom, this is dessert! We have to buy them real food first before we give them these.” Rianne commented, she was every parent’s dream child.


In July 2005, at five years old, she was diagnosed with dengue. She had very high fever and low blood pressure. Both parents cried it was the first time Rianne was hospitalized.

In October, Rianne got high fever again. At the hospital, the doctor said Rianne had to be admitted ASAP. They found cancer cells in her blood. Her mother collapsed…. She had a acute myelogeneous leukemia, a cancer of the blood usually found in adults. Before they’ve started the treatment, they’ve talked to Rianne and assured her that the doctors would do everything they could, and told her the consequence that she may lost her hair and that she might die. Rianne’s answer crushed her mother. “But I don’t wand to die, mom. I won’t be able to see, hug, and kiss you.” How do you tell your five year old daughter that it was OK to die?

Both parents tried to explain that she was very lucky girl; that if she dies she will finally get to see Jesus. She uttered, “Mom, when I die, tell everybody to wear pink because it’s a happy color. I will be happy to see Jesus.” They cried and cried until they fell asleep.

They’ve endured months of chemotherapy sessions, blood transfusion, and blood tests. Every time she was in pain she would shout, “Jesus, have mercy!” She would sing “Angel of God, my guardian dear….” As if the song would somehow ease the pain.

Before Christmas, Rianne fainted and was rushed to the hospital. When her mother went to her side, she touched her face and asked, “How come I can see everybody but not your face, mom?” Her mother closed her eyes and prayed hard….

Her mother could no longer endure the pain so she left the ICU for five minutes but when her husband asked him to come up, she ran as fast as she can but Rianne was gone. She was gone.. and all she could remember was her pain….

Her mother cried every day after that, she missed Rianne so much. But God has his way of telling her that she’s OK. One day, after dreaming of Rianne, she woke up smiling, knowing she had become more beautiful because she accepted her death and trusted Him…
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Mandy, less than a feet tall but with a big personality, Mandy knows how to cut hair and make people look beautiful, having worked in a beauty parlor in Bataan. Her husband’s meager earning as a jeepney driver and her desire for a better life for her children, prompted her to accept a job as a domestic helper in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Her agent promised quick deployment under a fly now, pay later scheme. In May 2008, upon their arrival in Malaysia, the women were made to ride in different vehicles. Mandy rode in a vehicle that took her directly to the boss of their local recruiter, a Singaporean who lived in a three story townhouse for two weeks until the agent was able to secure an employer.

She worked as domestic helper for a couple that owned three houses and had four children, with another baby due anytime soon. She worked from5:30 in the morning to 1 a.m. the following day. Her breakfast at 6a.m. consisted of a single piece of bread and a cup of coffee. Her next meal would be at 3 p.m., comprising of bowl of gruel. Unable to cope with the demand of her work, she asked to be retuned to her agent. She was not paid a singer cent for her labor.

After a week, the girlfriend of her agent said that Mandy would be working for a spa. Mandy said she would happy in her new job. Unfortunately, her employer decided to terminate her contract for fear of being caught violating immigration laws. Mandy was granted a visa to work in Malaysia as a domestic helper, not as a massage therapist. Despite services rendered, the petite Filipina was denied her monthly pay. Mandy was told she would not be earning money because she still had an outstanding debt to her Singaporean boss.

Upon her return to the townhouse, her foreign agent asked her to go up to the third floor. There, she was slapped 20 times by her agent. Sandy’s return meant a loss of income as her second employer was asking for a refund. The Singaporean big boss demanded that Mandy admit to stealing money, including customers’ tips that she supposedly should have turned over to the agent. Repeatedly, Mandy denied the allegation, and for every denial, came a slap across the cheek from her enraged six foot tall boss.
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Minda enjoyed a comfortable living in Hong Kong. True, she was a domestic helper but her employers were kind and she was earning P40,000.00 a month. When her contract ended, she decided to come home for a brief vacation with her family in Palawan. She was offered a job by an illegal recruiter who promised her a good employer, a higher salary and quick deployment to Dubai, a place that she had heard good thins about.

She arrived in Dubai sometime in February 2006. Her first employer tried to sexually molest her. She complained to her agency, which transferred her to a different household. Her new employers included an indecent grandfather who kept trying ot open her door at 2 0”clock in the morning. Minda learned to slepp with a knife under her piloow and her bed against the door. Fearful for her life and honor, she called the Embassy to seek help but before it could send someone to rescue her, she was asked to pack and leave. Her agency ahd sold her contract and passport to another agency in Oman. Unwilling to go into prostitution and now having found the strength to assert her rights, her foreign agent in Oman decided to sell Minda to another agent, this time in Damascus, Syria.

Upon her arrival at the airport, immigration agents threw her in a detention cell for entering Syria without a visa. What she saw during her one-night stay in the immigration cell would stay with her for the rest of her life. On dingy walls, were SOS messages crudely written by desperate Filipinos. She also say a disheveled Filipino woman, with signs of mental illness, being mocked and played with by the guards.

The next day, Minda was released upon the intercession of a foreign broker who the sold her to a Sri Lankan. The Sri Lankan dispatched her to work as a domestic helper for a couple with six children. She was fed mostly kubos, wafer like bread that is staple fare in may Syrian households. She worked from dawn to dawn, doing everything from cutting tree branches to cleaning the entire house and feeding the children. Minda was hungry all the time, and would often buy a piece of bread when instructed to go to the market. After sealing the piece of bread in a plastic bag, she would hide it in the garden. When her employers went to sleep at night, she would sneak out of the kitchen door to get the bread hidden behind the bushes and eat it behind the locked door of the bathroom. Despite her hands bleeding from cutting tree branches and doing housework, every time Minda tried to collect on her salary, her employers would reply that they already paid $3,000 to her agent just to have her.
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It was more than luck that saved him from a deadly combination of hypoglycemia and mild hypothermia at high altitudes.

If you’re a mountaineer, you’ll understand what it’s like to be in Mount Apo for the first time. On that particular climb in April 2005, their group was supposed to stay for only three days. But feeling bitin, they’ve decided to stay an extra day. All 12 of them who went on the climb were all experienced mountaineers.


On their fourth day, they were scheduled to start their descent. Being allergic to chocolates, He didn’t take anything for breakfast, since his co-mountaineers made chocolate pancakes. Instead of eating, he went sleep until late that morning. When he woke up, he had a stomachache… he thought…. He’s just hungry… he took some bread, but the pain became intense, like he had a bad case of LBM…

Five hours into their hike back, his head started to feel heavy… he shrugged it off, thinking it was just fatigue. An hour later, he was having stomach pains, a headache, and nausea. But still, he kept on pushing because all he wanted was to get to the jeep that would take them back to Davao City. Five minutes before they’ve reached their pick-up point, he was vomiting heavily, feeling dizzy and disoriented.

The last thing he remembered is seeing the national rock and a small waiting shed along the curve. He put his pack of the ground and sat down. That was when he had convulsions and attacks, which he have no memory of.

It took a while for the jeep to arrive. His co-mountaineers said that he was unconscious for about two hours. He was breathing heavily, shaking violently, and uttering incoherent phrases the whole time. Fortunately, he was with the most competent mountaineers…

One was even medical student…. Immediately they warmed him up and massaged his lymph nodes and the pressure points in his feet. They gave him candy to chew and made sure that he was in a comfortable position, securing his head and his neck from impulsive movement. They also massaged some warming oil on his chest to keep him from getting too cold… Ammonia was also used to stimulate his senses….

A story that quit similar happened to me, though I’m not a mountaineer but wish to be one of them….I too experienced hypothermia which I’ve already posted… having such incident is a excruciating…. you’re body temperature will suddenly drop down to normal level… the frigid start from down your feet upward with involuntary movement of the muscles accompanied by severe pain…. But fortunately I’m still alive and I thank God for saving from such dreaded illness….
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December 18, 2005 would’ve been just another day for Germaine Santos, had it not been for that horrifying car accident that almost took her life. She was coming back from Tagaytay with her brother, mom, and the employees of her training company. As with any out-of –town trip, everyone was excited. They took two cars her brother’s Toyota Corolla and a Toyota Revo. She rode with her brother in his car together with Susan, one of mom’s employees.

It was about 3:30 in the afternoon. Along the main road in Tagaytay, they saw this white Crosswind coming from the opposite direction. Even from afar, they could see the car was coming towards their lane. Dino, her brother, is a very good driver, but they couldn’t avoid the oncoming car. They’ve thought the driver could be falling asleep at the wheel and then the Crosswind literally veered into their lane.

It was a small road, one that had only two lanes. There was a Volkswagen in front of them, which spun around twice when the Crosswind hit. They’ve thought the Crosswind would then steer clear of them. But the impact was so great. She was literally lifted off her seat and she had to push against the roof of the car to avoid banging her head. Thankfully, she and her brother were wearing seatbelts. They ended up perpendicular to the road. When she turned around, Susan’s head was sticking out of the completely shattered door. She was strewn on the backseat. Susan didn’t bleed right away but later on she would, from her ears. The car was a total wreck.

The accident happened in front of the house of a very active Seventh Day Adventist, and brought them to the hospital. The Crosswind was on the side of the road and its passengers also started coming out of the car, even the Volkswagen that spun with six Korean passengers, survived.

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I’ve posted this because of a similar incident happened to me way back when I’m still in elementary, I’ve thought that’s the end of my life when a delivery truck of a will known brand of dairy products smacked me. I was walking at the edge of the road then I have to cross at the other side when I look at both end of the road… there was no vehicle at half kilometer so to my instinct I have to proceed and supposed to be good to go, but to my surprised I woke up in the hospital two weeks after the accident. They’ve told me that I am so lucky … who could ever thought that I could survived such a tragic because I was dragged by a truck 50 meters away from the point of accident and I was kneeling underneath the belly of the monster they’ve thought that I was dead but the doctors were amazed due to no major damages only a one inch cut at the upper right side of my head and bruises. God is so good to me that he give me another life and the company of the truck shouldered all the hospital expenses and even give me two years supply of their products. After that incident everyday for me is miracle and I thank god that he gave me other chance and maybe I still have a task to fulfill….

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