After our long weekend I was happy to be returning to the
group and to visit the Axolotl Research Center! Now that I have done research
at various internships around Houston and at A&M for the past school year I
was interested to see a little bit of what the research field is like in
Germany. Also the topic of regenerative properties is a very unique area to
learn more about. There facilities were not radically different than what you
would find in a large city in the US. The biggest difference was that they have
no AC! Our presenters did not seem to mind it though. Dr. Reimers gave us a
brief introduction to the Plastic Surgery Regenerative Studies they do there.
It was great to see the logic of their work from the ground up; starting with
the isolation of the messanchymal stem cells from adipose tissue to having them
adhere to the scaffold of the spider silk. We got to go into their room with
the axolotls and spiders where they harvest the silk and make scaffolds. The
graduate student Sara gave us a more in depth presentation about the axolotls
they work with. After caring for these animals and studying them so closely she
expressed that she cares about them like you would for a pet and even has one
at her home! The axolotls were very cute creatures with amazing regenerative
characteristic. There were some that you could tell had recent amputations of
limbs and were in different stages of healing. We got to observe the difference
between an axolotl that had gone through metamorphosis and the original form as
well. After metamorphosis is induced by thyroxine or iodine the axolotl grows
longer teeth and tongues, loses it gills, and has stronger muscles. The main
focus of their studies concentrate on the healing enzyme in the axolotls skin called
‘AmbLOXe’. It is been shown to increase cell proliferation and act as a cell
protector under cellular stress conditions.
On to Norderney! I can safely say that our visit to
Norderney was a main contributing factor to a major change in how I view health
and healing. The moment you step on the island you can feel the relaxing and
laid back nature of the island. I loved how there were almost no cars; everyone
rides bikes to get around the island. It is a much healthier and
environmentally friendly way to get around. One of the most treasured memories
of our trip was the Badehaus with Thalasso Therapy. It seems so unbelievable
that visitors to the island and to therapy centers, like the one we went to,
get prescriptions from their doctors to come and stay on a Kurort for 3 to 5
weeks. I had no idea that there was such a place that took this approach to
medicine and natural healing. I felt very thankful and fortunate to be able to
actually go in to the badehaus and experience the pools and mud bath therapy!
All of the pools were salt water with varying salinity and had warm, if not
very hot (fire bath), water. There was even a family friendly pool with a wave
pool and big slide, which displayed that people come with their kids to these
bath houses. My skin felt soft and refreshed after I completed the mud therapy.
The entire experience was extremely relaxing and soothing. There is not very
many people there so the environment is quiet and calming. The presentation was
also great to display that there is concrete biological basis for the
treatments and remedies offered here. They did explain that it is difficult to
get further research since the treatment they provide has no gain for the
pharmaceutical companies.
Just to round out our healing and mind body wellness on the
island we had a rather intense workout on the beach. Olivia lead us and gave a
variety of exercises like lunges and squats, jogging, and yoga. It felt great
to finally do something active since being abroad.
Overall, I loved the island and would really like to come
back and visit! I felt that we were fully immersed in the culture and
experienced the finest of what the island had to offer.
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