Charity

The original three causes for HOPE Wine were carefully chosen by the HOPE Wine management team. Breast Cancer, Autism and AIDS represent three of largest and most devastating diseases facing the world today. We specifically chose these three causes because each of them directly correlates with a specific demographic of people. We chose causes that and transcends into many other demographics.

From a broad prospective HOPE is something that can be celebrated by 100% of our community. Every single person knows at least one family member, neighbor, classmate or friend that has been changed by one of these three diseases. This is why HOPE is more important today than ever. By donating 50% of profit we look to aid in the fight to educate and find a cure; however, it is not just about the monetary contribution. It is HOPE Wine’s intention that with every bottle produced we spread awareness for these causes. We do this with the Ribbons on our bottles and by helping support non-profits at a local level. When our Hope Wine team donates money, cross-brands our wines with a local fundraiser, or rolls up our sleeves and volunteers at an event, it all comes back to spreading the message of HOPE.

As we grow we will make sure that new causes with new labels are added to contribute to even more people in our community. Each bottle we sell takes us closer to our next varietal, our next cause and our next opportunity to make the world a better place. It is our mission to change the world one cause at a time by donating money, spreading awareness, and providing HOPE.

BREAST CANCER

Why We Chose This Cause?

We chose Breast Cancer which is most prevalent in women ages 30 and up but affects many other people’s lives such as the children, spouses and parents of those affected. 1 in 8 females will be diagnosed with Breast Cancer in the United States, and the odds are even more staggering in specific regions. Currently the likelihood of developing breast cancer continues to rise.

Overview

Worldwide, breast cancer is the fifth most common cause of cancer death (after lung cancer, stomach cancer, liver cancer, and colon cancer). In 2005, breast cancer caused 502,000 deaths (7% of cancer deaths; almost 1% of all deaths) worldwide. Among women worldwide, breast cancer is the most common cancer and the most common cause of cancer death.

In the United States, breast cancer is the third most common cause of cancer death (after lung cancer and colon cancer). In 2007, breast cancer is expected to cause 40,910 deaths (7% of cancer deaths; almost 2% of all deaths) in the U.S. Among women in the U.S., breast cancer is the most common cancer and the second most common cause of cancer death (after lung cancer). Women in the U.S. have a 1 in 8 lifetime chance of developing invasive breast cancer and a 1 in 33 chance of breast cancer causing their death.

History

Breast cancer may be one of the oldest known forms of cancer tumors in humans. The oldest description of cancer (although the term cancer was not used) was discovered in Egypt and dates back to approximately 1600 BC. The Edwin Smith Papyrus describes 8 cases of tumors or ulcers of the breast that were treated by cauterization. The writing says about the disease, "There is no treatment." For centuries, physicians described similar cases in their practices, with the same sad conclusion. It wasn't until doctors achieved greater understanding of the circulatory system in the 17th century that they could establish a link between breast cancer and the lymph nodes in the armpit. The French surgeon Jean Louis Petit (1674-1750) and later the Scottish surgeon Benjamin Bell (1749-1806) were the first to remove the lymph nodes, breast tissue, and underlying chest muscle. Their successful work was carried on by William Stewart Halsted who started performing mastectomies in 1882. He became known for his Halsted radical mastectomy, a surgical procedure that remained popular up to the 1970s..

Treatments, Surgery and Therapy

The mainstay of breast cancer treatment is surgery when the tumor is localized, with possible adjuvant hormonal therapy (with tamoxifen or an aromatase inhibitor), chemotherapy, and/or radiotherapy. At present, the treatment recommendations after surgery (adjuvant therapy) follow a pattern. This pattern is subject to change, as every two years, a worldwide conference takes place in St. Gallen, Switzerland, to discuss the actual results of worldwide multi-center studies. Depending on clinical criteria (age, type of cancer, size, metastasis) patients are roughly divided to high risk and low risk cases, with each risk category following different rules for therapy. Treatment possibilities include radiation therapy, chemotherapy, hormone therapy, and immune therapy.

In planning treatment, doctors can also use PCR tests like Oncotype DX or microarray tests like MammaPrint that predict breast cancer recurrence risk based on gene expression. In February 2007, the MammaPrint test became the first breast cancer predictor to win formal approval from the Food and Drug Administration. This is a new gene test to help predict whether women with early-stage breast cancer will relapse in 5 or 10 years, this could help influence how aggressively the initial tumor is treated.

Radiation therapy involves using high-powered X-rays or gamma rays (XRT) that precisely target the area being treated. These X-rays or gamma rays are very effective in destroying the cancer cells that might recur where the tumor was removed. The X-rays are delivered by a machine called a linear Accelerator or LINAC. Alternatively, the use of implanted radioactive catheters (brachytherapy), similar to those used in prostate cancer treatment, is being evaluated. Radiation therapy for breast cancer is usually performed after surgery and is an essential component of breast-conserving therapy. The purpose of radiation is to reduce the chance that the cancer will recur.

Radiation therapy eliminates the microscopic cancer cells that may remain near the area where the tumor was surgically removed. The dose of radiation must be strong enough to ensure the elimination of cancer cells. However, radiation affects normal cells and cancer cells alike, causing some damage to the normal tissue around where the tumor was. Healthy tissue can repair itself, while cancer cells do not repair themselves as well as normal cells. For this reason, radiation treatments are given over an extended period, enabling the healthy tissue to heal. Treatments are typically given over a period of five to seven weeks, performed five days a week. Each treatment takes about 15 minutes.

Although radiation therapy can reduce the chance of breast cancer recurrence, it is much less effective in prolonging patient survival. According to a review of six studies by the National Cancer Institute, none of them found a survival benefit for radiation therapy. Patients who are unable to have radiation therapy after lumpectomy should consult with a surgeon who understands this research and who believes that lumpectomy (or partial mastectomy) alone is a reasonable treatment option.

Hope For the Future

Hope Wine will be donating 50% of our net profits from our Chardonnay towards creating awareness and finding a cure for breast cancer. Donations will go towards research grants for basic, clinical, and translational research; postdoctoral fellowships; and breast cancer disparities research. Ultimately it will be our aim is to reduce the burden of breast cancer on a global level through donations and awareness.

For Notes and References please see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breast_cancer

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AUTISM

Why We Chose This Cause?

We chose Autism because it is a disease that directly affects children. As many as 1 in 150 children are diagnosed with Autism, and those numbers continue to grow. Every 20 minutes another child is diagnosed with Autism. Also heavily affected by the growing numbers of Autism are the mothers and fathers of the children. Currently, over 1% of households have a child that has been diagnosed with Autism.

Overview

Autism is a brain development disorder characterized by impairments in social interaction and communication, and restricted and repetitive behavior, all exhibited before a child is three years old. These characteristics distinguish autism from milder autism spectrum disorders (ASD).

Heritability contributes a large fraction of the risk of a child's developing the disorder, although the genetics of autism are complex, and it is generally unclear which genes are responsible. In rare cases, autism is strongly associated with agents that cause birth defects. Other proposed causes, such as the exposure of children to vaccines, are controversial and the vaccine hypotheses are unsupported by convincing scientific evidence. Most recent reviews estimate a prevalence of one to two cases per 1,000 people for autism, and about six per 1,000 for ASD, with ASD averaging a 4.3:1 male-to-female ratio. The number of people known to have autism has increased dramatically since the 1980s, at least partly due to changes in diagnostic practice; the question of whether prevalence has increased is unresolved.

Autism affects many parts of the brain; how this occurs is poorly understood. Parents usually notice signs in the first year or two of their child's life. Early intervention may help children gain self-care and social skills, although few of these interventions are supported by scientific studies; there is no cure. With severe autism, independent living is unlikely; with milder autism, there are some success stories for adults, and an autistic culture has developed, with some seeking a cure and others believing that autism is a condition rather than a disorder.

History

A few examples of autistic symptoms and treatments were described long before autism was named. The Table Talk of Martin Luther contains a story of a 12-year-old boy who may have been severely autistic. According to Luther's notetaker Mathesius, Luther thought the boy was a soulless mass of flesh possessed by the devil, and suggested that he be suffocated. Victor of Aveyron, a feral child caught in 1798, showed several signs of autism; the medical student Jean Itard treated him with a behavioral program designed to help him form social attachments and to induce speech via imitation.

The New Latin word autismus (English translation autism) was coined by the Swiss psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler in 1910 as he was defining symptoms of schizophrenia. He derived it from the Greek word autos (αὐτός, meaning self), and used it to mean morbid self-admiration, referring to "autistic withdrawal of the patient to his fantasies, against which any influence from outside becomes an intolerable disturbance."

The word autism took its modern sense in 1943 when Leo Kanner of the Johns Hopkins Hospital reported 11 children with striking behavioral similarities and introduced the label early infantile autism. He suggested autism to describe the children's lack of interest in other people. Almost all the characteristics described in Kanner's first paper on the subject, notably "autistic aloneness" and "insistence on sameness", are still regarded as typical of the autistic spectrum of disorders. About the same time, the Viennese pediatrician Hans Asperger described a similar form of ASD now known as Asperger's, though for various reasons it was not widely recognized as a separate syndrome until 1981.

Treatment and Therapy

There is a broad array of autism therapies, but the efficacy of each varies dramatically from person to person. Progress toward development of medical and behavior modification remedies, for the more debilitating affects of autism, has been hindered significantly by widespread disagreements over such things as the nature and causes of autistic spectrum disorders, and by a relative paucity of efficacious therapies thus far recognized by medical authorities.

With advances in psychosocial and pharmacological interventions, the behavioral and cognitive functioning of individuals affected by autistic disorders might improve. Intensive, sustained special education programs and behavior therapy early in life might increase the ability of children with autism to acquire language and learning skills. In adults with autism, some studies have found beneficial effects of the antidepressant medications clomipramine and fluoxetine, and the newer antipsychotic medications such as Risperdal and, more traditionally, the much older drug haloperidol, possibly due to the preponderance of co-morbid disorders in those with autism significantly adding to behavioral and functional challenges more than the autism itself.

In many cases, several medications will be tried unsuccessfully, and palliative drug treatments may lose much of their effectiveness for mitigating symptoms later in life. Distinguishing between beneficial, palliative and detrimental treatments is not always straightforward.

Hope For the Future

Hope Wine will be donating 50% of our net profits from our Cabernet towards creating awareness and helping educate and support families with children who have Autism. The donated money will help provide funding for immediate, emergency, and ongoing services to children, adolescents and adults with autism.

For Notes and References please see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autism

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AIDS

Why We Chose This Cause?

We chose AIDS because it is an international epidemic. AIDS affects 39 million people worldwide and has taken the lives of well over 25 million people in the last 25 years. Anyone with a family member or a friend that has been affected with AIDS knows the incredible toll it takes on a person who has it and the people who love them. Currently AIDS continues to absolutely deplete and wipeout entire populations in different areas around the world.

Overview

Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS or Aids) is a collection of symptoms and infections resulting from the specific damage to the immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in humans, and similar viruses in other species (SIV, FIV, etc.). The late stage of the condition leaves individuals susceptible to opportunistic infections and tumors. Although treatments for AIDS and HIV exist to slow the virus' progression, there is no known cure. HIV, et al., are transmitted through direct contact of a mucous membrane or the bloodstream with a bodily fluid containing HIV, such as blood, semen, vaginal fluid, preseminal fluid, and breast milk. This transmission can come in the form of anal, vaginal or oral sex, blood transfusion, contaminated hypodermic needles, exchange between mother and baby during pregnancy, childbirth, or breastfeeding, or other exposure to one of the above bodily fluids.

History

Most researchers believe that HIV originated in sub-Saharan Africa during the twentieth century; it is now a pandemic, with an estimated 38.6 million people now living with the disease worldwide. As of January 2006, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the World Health Organization (WHO) estimate that AIDS has killed more than 25 million people since it was first recognized on June 5, 1981, making it one of the most destructive epidemics in recorded history. In 2005 alone, AIDS claimed an estimated 2.4–3.3 million lives, of which more than 570,000 were children. A third of these deaths are occurring in sub-Saharan Africa, retarding economic growth and destroying human capital. Antiretroviral treatment reduces both the mortality and the morbidity of HIV infection, but routine access to antiretroviral medication is not available in all countries. HIV/AIDS stigma is more severe than that associated with other life-threatening conditions and extends beyond the disease itself to providers and even volunteers involved with the care of people living with HIV.

Treatment and Therapy

There is currently no vaccine or cure for HIV or AIDS. The only known methods of prevention are based on avoiding exposure to the virus or, failing that, an antiretroviral treatment directly after a highly significant exposure, called post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) PEP has a very demanding four week schedule of dosage. It also has very unpleasant side effects including diarrhea, malaise, nausea and fatigue.

Current treatment for HIV infection consists of highly active antiretroviral therapy, or HAART. This has been highly beneficial to many HIV-infected individuals since its introduction in 1996 when the protease inhibitor-based HAART initially became available. Current optimal HAART options consist of combinations (or "cocktails") consisting of at least three drugs belonging to at least two types, or "classes," of anti-retroviral agents. Typical regimens consist of two nucleoside analogue reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NARTIs or NRTIs) plus either a protease inhibitor or a non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NNRTI). Because HIV disease progression in children is more rapid than in adults, and laboratory parameters are less predictive of risk for disease progression, particularly for young infants, treatment recommendations are more aggressive for children than for adults. In developed countries where HAART is available, doctors assess the viral load, rapidity in CD4 decline, and patient readiness while deciding when to recommend initiating treatment.

Research to improve current treatments includes decreasing side effects of current drugs, further simplifying drug regimens to improve adherence, and determining the best sequence of regimens to manage drug resistance. A number of studies have shown that measures to prevent opportunistic infections can be beneficial when treating patients with HIV infection or AIDS. Vaccination against hepatitis A and B is advised for patients who are not infected with these viruses and are at risk of becoming infected. Patients with substantial immunosuppression are also advised to receive prophylactic therapy for Pneumocystis jiroveci pneumonia (PCP), and many patients may benefit from prophylactic therapy for toxoplasmosis and Cryptococcus meningitis as well.

Various forms of alternative medicine have been used to treat symptoms or alter the course of the disease. In the first decade of the epidemic when no useful conventional treatment was available, a large number of people with AIDS experimented with alternative therapies. The definition of "alternative therapies" in AIDS has changed since that time. Then, the phrase often referred to community-driven treatments, untested by government or pharmaceutical company research, that some hoped would directly suppress the virus or stimulate immunity against it. Examples of alternative medicine that people hoped would improve their symptoms or their quality of life include massage, stress management, herbal and flower remedies such as boxwood,[106][107] and acupuncture; when used with conventional treatment, many now refer to these as "complementary" approaches. Despite the widespread use of complementary and alternative medicine by people living with HIV/AIDS, the effectiveness of these therapies has not been established.

Hope For the Future

Hope Wine will be donating 50% of our net profits from our Merlot towards creating awareness and helping with treatment and care for people who are effected by AIDS. The donated money will also help provide funding for education and prevention to help slow down the spread of AIDS.

For Notes and References please see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIDS

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