Boston University Researcher Awarded $11 Million to Study Scleroderma

Scleroderma Foundation eLetter

eLetter #425

Greetings!

Website Maintenance This Weekend

Our website (www.scleroderma.org) will be migrated over to a new server this weekend. Please be aware that you may not be able to access the website periodically through Sunday, Nov. 6.

If you continue to have any issues with the website after Monday, Nov. 7, please email webmaster@scleroderma.org to let us know.

We apologize for this inconvenience.

Turn Back Your Clocks on Sunday

Also, Daylight Saving Time ends at 2 a.m. Sunday. Remember, to turn your clocks back one hour.

This also is a good time to change the batteries in your smoke and carbon monoxide detectors.

Boston University Researcher Awarded $11 Million to Study Scleroderma

Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) researcher Robert Lafyatis, M.D., has won two grants from the National Institutes of Health totaling $11.3 million, to fund research into the rare disease scleroderma.

One grant is worth $8 million over five years, and the other totals $3.3 million, also over five years. Scleroderma, also called systemic sclerosis, is a complex immune disease involving widespread scarring and vascular disease within multiple organ systems, and there are few therapies currently available.

Read more from the Boston Business Journal.

Social Security Announces Benefit Increase in 2012

Monthly Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits for more than 60 million Americans will increase 3.6 percent in 2012, the Social Security Administration announced in October.

The 3.6 percent cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) will begin with benefits that nearly 55 million Social Security beneficiaries receive in January 2012. Increased payments to more than 8 million SSI beneficiaries will begin on Friday, Dec. 30, 2011.

Read the full press release from Social Security.

Hawaii Support Group

First Meeting Monday, Nov. 7

The recently formed Hawaii Support Group will hold its first meeting at 6 p.m. (Hawaii local time) Monday, Nov. 7. The meeting will be held at Kaiser Permanente Clinic, 94-1480 Moaniani Street, Waihapu, Hawaii, in Conference Room B.

For more information, contact Ken Athans at (904) 891-3085 or email hawaiisclerodermanetwork@gmail.com.

Defining What Health Truly Is

Stewart Segal, M.D, examines what health really is in a blog post from KevinMD.com. He writes, "In the 30 some years I have been practicing medicine, I have seen patients with horrible illnesses who were healthy despite being ill. These individuals had one thing in common: they refused to allow their "disease" to put them into a state of disease."

Read more from Dr. Segal on KevinMD's website.