Incredible Athletes

This time of year brings an incredible group of athletes to North Central Washington, but it is not likely that you have ever heard of them by name. To get an idea of what they do, you would have to spend a day or two in a wheelchair. Seriously, you should try it some time, maybe for just a few hours. Try to go without using your legs for an entire day if you really want to know what it takes to get from point A to point B by using your arms alone. Then imagine powering yourself from Lincoln Rock Park to Rocky Reach Dam, across the river, up over Navarre Coulee, through Chelan, up to Wells Dam, and back to Lincoln Rock on a bicycle built for arms. That is just what some of the wheelchair athletes riding the Dam2Dam www.Dam2Dam.org did this weekend! Continue Reading »

Breakthrough Could Help Heal Spinal Cord Injuries Without Pain

AURORA, Colo., Sept. 22 (AScribe Newswire) — Researchers at the University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine say manipulating embryo-derived stem cell precursors prior to transplanting them holds the key to using stem cell technologies for repairing spinal cord injuries in humans.

In the online Journal of Biology, Dr. Stephen Davies, an associate professor of neurosurgery reports his research team has produced two types of spinal cord support cells called astrocytes (“star” cells) from the same embryo-derived stem cell-like cells called Glial Restricted Precursor cells (GRPs) that have remarkable effects on the injured spinal cord. Continue Reading »

Sole Use Of Impaired Limb Improves Recovery In Spinal Cord Injury

ScienceDaily (Sep. 20, 2008) — A new study finds that following minor spinal cord injury, rats that had to use impaired limbs showed full recovery due to increased growth of healthy nerve fibers and the formation of new nerve cell connections.

Published in the September 17 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience, these findings help explain how Physical Therapy advances recovery, and support the use of Rehabilitation therapies that specifically target impaired limbs in people with brain and spinal cord injuries. Continue Reading »

The European Commission Grants Orphan Drug Designation to Alseres Pharmaceuticals’ Spinal Cord Injury Treatment, Cethrin(R)

HOPKINTON, Mass., Sept. 18 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Alseres Pharmaceuticals, Inc., (Nasdaq: ALSE – News) announced today that Cethrin has been granted designation as an orphan medicinal product for the treatment of traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI) by the European Commission. The European Commission’s decision was adopted on September 5, 2008 following the favorable opinion issued by the European Medicine Agency (EMEA) Committee of Orphan Medicinal Products (COMP) at their meeting on June 10 and 11, 2008. The designation was granted to Triskel EU Services, Alseres’ representative in the European Union (EU). Continue Reading »

Breakthrough in spinal injury treatment

Manipulating embryo-derived stem cells before transplanting them may hold the key to optimizing stem cell technologies for repairing spinal cord injuries in humans. Research published in BioMed Central’s open access Journal of Biology, may lead to cell based therapies for victims of paralysis to recover the use of their bodies without the risk of transplant induced pain syndromes.

Dr. Stephen Davies, Associate Professor of Neurosurgery at the University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine, reported that in collaboration with researchers at the University of Rochester, NY his research team has transplanted two types of the major support cells of the brain and spinal cord, cells called astrocytes. These two types of astrocytes, which are both made from the same embryo-derived stem cell-like precursor cell, have remarkably different effects on the spinal repair process. Continue Reading »

Sole use of impaired limb improves recovery in spinal cord injury

Animal study shows Physical Therapy works by increasing growth of nerve fibers and formation of brain cell connections

A new study finds that following minor spinal cord injury, rats that had to use impaired limbs showed full recovery due to increased growth of healthy nerve fibers and the formation of new nerve cell connections. Published in the September 17 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience, these findings help explain how physical therapy advances recovery, and support the use of Rehabilitation therapies that specifically target impaired limbs in people with brain and spinal cord injuries.

“After brain and spinal cord injuries, exercise-based physical therapy is the primary rehabilitative strategy in use today,” said Stephen Strittmatter, MD, PhD, at Yale University School of Medicine, an expert unaffiliated with the study. Continue Reading »

Injured hockey player fighting his way back

Ben Stear struggles to hold his cell phone in his hands; his fingers just won’t cooperate.

Dialing a number, text messaging and listening to his iPod — activities once second nature for the 15-year-old — have become a major struggle.

“This is easily the worst time of my life,” said Ben, as he sits in the cafeteria of Shriners Hospital for Children in Philadelphia on a recent Friday afternoon. Continue Reading »

Paralysed woman’s abseil appeal

A PARALYSED Warminster woman is appealing for people abseil 70ft down a medieval castle for charity.

Victoria Holton was paralysed in a parachuting accident in 2002 and has since become a trustee of the Southern Spinal Injuries Unit (SSIT), which supports people with spinal cord injuries living in the southwest.

The abseil will take place at Lulworth Castle in Dorset on Sunday November 2.

All funds from the charity event will go towards SSIT. Continue Reading »

Stimulator Helps Spinal Cord Patients Take Giant Steps

theDevice Helps Paralyzed Pull Ankle, Toe Upwards

Eleven-thousand people in the United States suffer from spinal cord injuries each year.

Men are more at risk than women for this type of injury, accounting for 80 percent of them. Those between the ages of 16 and 30 are most likely to suffer such an injury. Most of the time, a spinal cord injury will result in permanent paralysis and loss of sensation below the area of the spine where the injury took place.

A quadriplegic or tetraplegic is paralyzed throughout most of their body, including their arms and legs while only the lower body of a Paraplegic is paralyzed. Continue Reading »

Govt must ensure disabled have social independence

More and more people with severe disabilities are seeking to take part in social activities while living independently at home. Yet not much progress has been made since the law to promote their independence went into effect in fiscal 2006.

Among such people is Akira Kinoshita, 21, who suffered a neck injury during a judo practice session when he was a high school student. Kinoshita started living in an apartment in Meguro Ward, Tokyo, with his mother in April. Paralyzed from the neck down, he relies on an artificial respirator. But he is studying hard to enter university while receiving nursing care from a home-visit helper as well as his mother. Continue Reading »