Articles - Treatments en-us http://www.thescizone.com/news N/A http://www.thescizone.com/news michael@thescizone.com 20 http://www.thescizone.com/news/articles/1652/1/Blowing-away-a-sniff-of-a-cure-/1.html Andrew Commons is determined to walk again - utterly determined. As well as following an intensive daily exercise regime, he's also undergone courses of stem cell treatment for the spinal cord injury that has confined him to a wheelchair.Just back from Beijing Tiantan Puhua Hospital, Commons says it's too early to tell whether several injections of stem cells into his spine have worked, but he's optimistic."I've now got a bit of movement in my left big toe, which is pretty good. They say if you can move your toes, you'll walk at some stage, so obviously I'm pretty hopeful about that - if the stem cells do have a benefit, with luck I'll be on my legs." michael@thescizone.com (Michael Feger) Sat, 16 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.thescizone.com/news/articles/1643/1/-Up-to-minute-techniques-may-let-paraplegic-walk-/1.html Four years ago, Maggie Anderson's spine was crushed when the minivan she was riding in hit black ice, flipped and landed on her. Anderson will forever regret not strapping on a seat belt that day in Idaho. But at 21, she's found joy in life, good friends and even a chance of escaping her wheelchair. Hope first came days after the crash, when she realized she could roll over. Three years later, after intensive daily therapy, Anderson's right leg moved. michael@thescizone.com (Michael Feger) Sun, 03 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.thescizone.com/news/articles/1635/1/Clinton-woman-to-get-stem-cell-transplant-in-China/1.html Sonya Watson hasn't walked since a terrifying wreck left her a quadriplegic, but she still dreams of getting out of her wheelchair.This week, those dreams will take her to the other side of the world where she will undergo a controversial stem cell transplant."I am doing this because the doctors told me I would never walk again and I don't believe that's true," said the 25-year-old Clinton woman. "I can't get stem cell injections here at all." michael@thescizone.com (Michael Feger) Sun, 27 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.thescizone.com/news/articles/1628/1/Blackwell-continues-pursuit-of-dream-to-walk-again/1.html Three years have passed since Tara Blackwell had her life altered in a split-second of tragedy. She has clung to hope. She has been fueled by hope. Now, for the first time since her paralyzing injury, Blackwell is ready to turn hope into a dramatic progression. Blackwell, 23, a Pine Forest High graduate and former standout softball player at Troy University, is preparing to travel to Germany on Aug. 9 for the first phase of a stem-cell procedure that could enable her to regain movement. michael@thescizone.com (Michael Feger) Fri, 18 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.thescizone.com/news/articles/1569/1/Gel-Enables-Severed-Spinal-Cord-Fibers-to-Regrow/1.html A nano-engineered gel that inhibits the formation of scar tissue at the site of a spinal injury and enables severed spinal cord fibers to regenerate has been developed by researchers at Northwestern University in Chicago. They noted that nerve fibers do have the ability to regrow after a spinal injury, but they're blocked by scar tissue that develops around the injury. After the gel is injected as a liquid into the spinal cord, it self-assembles into a scaffold that supports new nerve fibers as they grow up and down the spinal cord and penetrate the site of the injury. michael@thescizone.com (Michael Feger) Thu, 10 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.thescizone.com/news/articles/1568/1/Promising-new-drug-for-spinal-cord-injuries/1.html Each year in the United States, about 11,000 people suffer a spinal cord injury. Recent research shows what happens in the first days after an injury has a big impact on how well patients recover. And a new drug is showing big promise. Two years ago, Johnathen Picco fell through a roof doing construction. "After my operation, they said I wouldn't be able to walk again," he said. michael@thescizone.com (Michael Feger) Tue, 08 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.thescizone.com/news/articles/1565/1/Experimental-Russian-stem-cell-treatments-for-spinal-injury-credited-for-womans-progress/1.html When Kadi DeHaan took her first steps in December, two years after a car accident forced her into a wheelchair, she did it in typical Kadi style: low-key, nonchalant and with a confident grin. Apparently, she knew all along she would walk away from her pink and black wheelchair and her customized leg braces, despite a spinal cord injury at chest level and a grim prognosis that she would never walk again."Whenever it happens, it happens," she would tell her mom. michael@thescizone.com (Michael Feger) Mon, 07 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.thescizone.com/news/articles/1562/1/Running-Icy-Cold-Saline-Shown-To-Prevent-Paralysis-Among-Spinal-Cord-Injuries/1.html Lowering Body's Temperature Protects Against DamageAccording to the Spinal Cord Injury Information Network, there are about 11,000 new cases of spinal cord injuries each year in the United States. As of June 2006, there were about 253,000 people living with a spinal cord injury.When a spinal cord injury occurs, there is the primary insult -- the impact -- which neither doctors nor patients can do anything about. But there are also secondary injuries -- the damage that happens in the minutes, hours, days and weeks after the primary injury. michael@thescizone.com (Michael Feger) Sun, 06 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.thescizone.com/news/articles/1547/1/Paralyzed-Boy-Walks-Again/1.html Chase Ford's life changed forever on June 4, 2005.He fell and hit the back of his head on the wooden arm of a couch at a baby sitter's, and within days he was paralyzed, unable to move due to a spinal cord injury.]"How can you tell a child who is active that he will not be active again based on what the doctors have told you?" said his mother, Renee.In stepped researchers from the University of Louisville and Frazier Rehab. michael@thescizone.com (Michael Feger) Wed, 05 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.thescizone.com/news/articles/1531/1/British-scientists-developing-spinal-injury-treatment/1.html British scientists are developing a treatment which could allow damaged nerve fibers to regenerate within the spinal cord. Researchers from the University of Cambridge have identified a bacteria enzyme called chondroitinase, which is capable of digesting molecules within scar tissue to allow some nerve fibers to regrow, according to the BBC on Sunday. Spinal injuries are difficult to treat because the body cannot repair damage to the brain or spinal cord. Nerves could regenerate, but they are blocked by the scar tissue that forms at the site of the spinal injury. michael@thescizone.com (Michael Feger) Sun, 17 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0500