European researchers have made significant progress in the attempt to treat spinal cord injuries using stem cell therapy. Although there have been several attempt to cure spinal cord injury patients, the results were not so encouraging.

Now, however, the project “From stem cell technology to functional restoration after spinal cord injury ‘(Rescue) has promising results so far. Continue Reading »

My dad fell in church the other day. He said it happened as he was going down the steps. He felt a shooting pain in his back shortly before and there was nowhere to sit. As he walked down the step his leg gave out, he collapsed.  Other church members hurried over to catch him. He suffers from Sciatica and some arthritis. He turned 80 last July. Aging can bring about some of this. I think he’s becoming addicted to these cortisone shots. He’s had several and always seems to think that is the cure.  Once the medication wears off, the pain comes back. I was talking to him about the importance of exercise and moving around. I notice he doesn’t move around as much. Naturally, when we don’t move our body weakens.

I kept thinking, if it’s that hard for my dad to move without having paralysis. Imagine how much harder it is for the paralyzed? Well, I can imagine, because I have been. Continue Reading »

The incidence of spinal trauma sustained by military personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan is about 5 percent, according to a study published in the Sept. 19 issue of The Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery.

MONDAY, Sept. 24 (HealthDay News) — The incidence of spinal trauma sustained by military personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan is about 5 percent, according to a study published in the Sept. 19 issue of The Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery. Continue Reading »

Former Middleweight World Champion, Paul “The Punisher” Williams (41W-2L-27KO) recently gave his first televised interview since May 2012, where a motorcycle accident left the feared fighter paralyzed him from the waist down. Continue Reading »

Nobody can say Eric LeGrand never asked, “Why me?” He did. Many times.

The former Rutgers football player, who was paralyzed after a tackle during an October 2010 game, asked himself why he had a line of people waiting to visit him while so many other patients had no one. Why he was still alive when the young girl who had been in the hospital room next to him was not. Why he was lucky enough to have multiple insurance policies and a foundation to cover the expensive rehabilitation and a customized van he’d need, while other families go bankrupt, their injured son or daughter unable to get the resources they need to recover after a tragic accident.

Then he asked himself what he could do to help others. Continue Reading »

Welcome to reality. You are a teenager in the Bronx, and you have been shot by a gun. You have a spinal cord injury and a new identity: paraplegic. Life as you know it is changed in ways you never imagined.

This was the reality of rap artists Namel “Tapwaterz” Norris and Ricardo “Rickfire” Velasquez, ages 17 and 19, respectively, at the time of their life-changing accidents. Continue Reading »

When a Swiss-based researcher announced this month he had achieved some improvement in profoundly paralyzed spinal-cord-injury patients with an injection of stem cells, he generated headlines worldwide. Dr. Armin Curt’s findings were the first evidence from actual humans — though far from conclusive — that the much-hyped stem-cell concept might work in paraplegic and quadriplegic patients.

What went unsaid was that the breakthrough could have taken place in Canada. Continue Reading »

The Governor of California has just dealt a devastating blow to paralysis cure research.

Yesterday afternoon, driving home after a trip to Sacramento to talk to Secretary of Health Diana Dooley, who was very supportive about the research, I received a phone call on my cell. It was from Jeff Barbosa, legislative director to Assemblymember Bob Wieckowski.

Uh-oh. Continue Reading »

medwireNews: Results from a pilot study suggest that a moderate amount of exercise may result in enhanced immunity in paraplegic athletes.

As individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI) are known to be susceptible to recurrent infections, such as those of the respiratory tract, skin, and urinary tract, regular exercise may help minimize infection risks in this group of people, suggest the researchers. Continue Reading »

SAN DIEGO — In a study at the University of California, San Diego and VA San Diego Healthcare, researchers were able to regenerate “an astonishing degree” of axonal growth at the site of severe spinal cord injury in rats. Their research revealed that early stage neurons have the ability to survive and extend axons to form new, functional neuronal relays across an injury site in the adult central nervous system (CNS).

The study also proved that at least some types of adult CNS axons can overcome a normally inhibitory growth environment to grow over long distances. Importantly, stem cells across species exhibit these properties. The work will be published in the journal Cell on Friday (Sept. 14). Continue Reading »