Recommended Summer Reading
The Healing Cell
Dr. Robin L. Smith, Dr. Max Gomez, and Monsignor Tomasz Trafny
Read The Healing Cell: How The Greatest Revolution in Medical History is Changing your Life by co-authors, Dr. Smith (Chairman and President, SFLF), Dr. Gomez (Trustee, SFLF), and Monsignor Trafny (Executive Director, STOQ Project). Learn how the adult stem cells found inside our bodies—our healing cells—can potentially be used to repair damaged hearts and organs, restore sight, kill cancer, cure diabetes, heal burns and stop the march of degenerative diseases.
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Rebecca Skloot
Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor black tobacco farmer whose cells—taken without her knowledge in 1951—became one of the most important tools in medicine, vital for developing the polio vaccine, cloning, gene mapping, and more. Henrietta’s cells have been bought and sold by the billions, yet she remains virtually unknown, and her family can’t afford health insurance. This phenomenal New York Times bestseller tells a riveting story of the collision between ethics, race, and medicine; of scientific discovery and faith healing; and of a daughter consumed with questions about the mother she never knew.
Stem Cells Saved My Life: How to be Next
Bernard van Zyl
In 2000, van Zyl suffered cardiac arrest; his heart literally stopped until doctors shocked his chest. After receiving bypass surgery, an angioplasty, and entering a cardiac rehabilitation program, van Zyl’s heart was still deteriorating. Turned down by two heart transplant centers, van Zyl’s only hope lay in a new FDA-approved clinical trial for adult stem cell therapies. One of 24 patients selected, van Zyl entered the aggressive treatment group in 2004, where adult stem cells were harvested from his own body and injected directly into his failing heart. The results were astonishing. Adult Stem Cell Saved My Life: How to be Next offers a plethora of information on the latest adult stem cell treatments for over a dozen diseases and conditions. The book also features a foreword by Dr. Douglas W. Losordo, a member of SFLF’s Scientific Advisory Board.