Paraplegia: Paralysis of the Lower Part of the Body

Paraplegia is paralysis (loss of movement or sensation, or both) brought on by a severe trauma to the central nervous system. It is the result of damage occurring at the level of the thoracic or lumbar vertebrae of the spinal cord, or lower.

The location of the spinal cord injury (SCI) is very important as the higher up the injury, the greater the area of paralysis. Continue Reading »

Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation to be featured on TLC’s American Chopper

Episode to unveil Orange County Choppers’ first-ever wheelchair-accessible motorcycle

SHORT HILLS, N.J., Dec. 29 /PRNewswire/ — The Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation announced today that Paul Teutul Sr. and the crew from Orange County Choppers (OCC) have built a custom wheelchair-accessible motorcycle specifically to raise funds for the Reeve Foundation. A first of its kind, this trike bike allows someone living with paraplegia the opportunity to ride a motorcycle without having to transfer from their wheelchair.

The American Chopper episode featuring the Reeve Foundation/Life Rolls On bike is scheduled to air on TLC on Thursday, January 7 at 9PM ET/PT. Continue Reading »

Tackling Paraplegia

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Paralysis is a Catastrophic Injury

For an injury to be considered catastrophic, it must occur without any warning. It must also disrupt your life is some way, whether by inhibiting you from working a full-time job or by keeping your from experiencing your life in the way you had previous to the injury. It takes a lot to manage this kind of injury. It often takes several health care professionals and experts to tend to the injured as they go from the hospital to rehab and back into their community and home.

The financial burden that falls on the injured nearly always requires that they find a good injury attorney to make their life a bit easier. These attorneys work closely with professionals in the health care industry as well as rehabilitation medications. Continue Reading »

Ray of hope for patients with spinal cord injury

LUCKNOW: Pace of life subdues with age. For 56-year-old Saroj things may be worse. She fell from her roof-top in Basti last week and turned quadraplegic (paralysis of all four limbs) after suffering an acute spinal cord injury. Post-primary treatment, she was referred to Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj Medical University’s (CSMMU) traumatic paraplegia unit.

Doctors were of the view that except for a miracle, Saroj’s life would be restricted to a wheelchair once she recovered. May be not now. She underwent a marathon surgery on Saturday. Six months of care, nursing and physiotherapy may make her walk with the help of a support. Continue Reading »

The Whole World Is Watching

Hope—and anxiety—run high as the first clinical trial of embryonic-stem-cell therapy begins this summer.

Six weeks before the hoopla over President Barack Obama’s executive order lifting restrictions on embryonic-stem-cell research, Hans Keirstead, a scientist at the University of California, Irvine, was already sipping champagne. In 2005 Keirstead had published a study showing that a therapy derived from human embryonic stem cells could make partially paralyzed rats walk. Continue Reading »

Adventure Therapy

A LIFELONG STRUGGLE: People who have suffered spinal cord injuries are at higher risk for obesity than those who haven’t. Because they’re often confined to a wheelchair, the paralyzed have a hard time exercising at a rate fast enough to burn excess calories. That isn’t the only reason they struggle to keep weight off. After injury to the spinal cord, individuals usually have a slower metabolic rate or a slower speed at which they burn calories. In addition to obesity, those with spinal cord injuries are at increased risk for related conditions like glucose intolerance, insulin resistance, diabetes and coronary artery disease. Continue Reading »

Neuralstem’s Human Stem Cells Integrate into Nervous System of Rats with Animal Model of ALS

Make Synaptic Contact with Host Motor Neurons

ROCKVILLE, Md., March 9 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Transplanted human neural stem cells (hNSCs) developed by Neuralstem, Inc. (NYSE Alternext US: CUR) made synaptic contacts with the motor neurons of rats with ALS-like symptoms, a paper published in the current online edition of the Journal of Comparative Neurology reported. This constitutes evidence that the transplanted cells integrated into the nervous system of the host. The rats had a genetic mutation called SOD-1 G93A which gives them a disease similar to ALS in humans. Continue Reading »

Stationary bike helps spinal cord injury sufferers

People who have suffered spinal cord injuries are at higher risk for obesity than those who haven’t.

Because they’re often confined to a wheelchair, the paralyzed have a hard time exercising at a rate fast enough to burn excess calories.

That isn’t the only reason they struggle to keep weight off. After injury to the spinal cord, individuals usually have a slower metabolic rate or a slower speed at which they burn calories. Continue Reading »

Paraplegic raising funds

Fenelon Falls resident praises support of association

More than six years ago, a single moment changed Matt Hughes’ life forever.

In August 2002, Hughes was involved in a pool accident that left him with a spinal cord injury that paralyzed him from the chest down.

Speaking at his home in Fenelon, Hughes said that he is still making adjustments in his life. Continue Reading »