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Implant Restores Paralyzed Man's Leg Movement
cylonlover writes "In a move that gives cautious hope to the millions of people suffering some form of paralysis, a team of researchers from UCLA, Caltech and the University of Louisville has given a man rendered paralyzed from the chest down after a hit-and-run accident in 2006 the ability to stand and take his first tentative steps in four years. The team used a stimulating electrode array implanted into the man's body to provide continual direct electrical stimulation to the lower part of the spinal cord that controls movement of the hips, knees, ankles and toes, to mimic the signals the brain usually sends to initiate movement (abstract)."
A small step for man, a great leap for mankind
This is supposed to be the future. It's cool that he can walk and all; but where is the iphone app that will allow me to control his legs over the internet?
Keep it up!
UCLA.
Caltech.
University of Louisiana.
Reports of American research demise seem to be premature (looking at the names the team looks multinational - hard to tell just by a name these days).
I am very small, utmostly microscopic.
That's all well and good, except that chiropractic is widely considered to be bunk science. Unless you can cite a reference to a peer-reviewed study in a medical journal that shows chiropractic was used to restore movement to a paralyzed person, I will maintain this belief...
The man has a spinal cord injury. Not a spinal COLUMN injury(though he had that too). Spinal cords do not magically heal no matter what you do to them.
I really, really wish that you nutjobs would shut the hell up. Chiropractors are a godsend, for some injuries. I blew out a portion of my disc between t11 and t12 years ago. It caused all sorts of havoc and got to the point where I could very nearly no longer walk. Chiropractic care and a good regimen of exercises turned this around completely The pain had caused muscles to tense and throw all sorts of things out of place. The chiropractor got everything back into shape, and the back pain subsided a fair bit.
Heres the news flash: My disc is still blown. It did not magically heal, nor will it. An adjustment may allow space for some extra tissue to grow make the injury less painful, but thats about it.
The worst part is your post has a hint of truth, but heaped on it is a mountain of crackpot bullshit. You're giving chiropractors everywhere a bad name, and on behalf of those of us who know how much good they CAN do I say: Please, go crawl under a rock somewhere and stay there. Its people like you that mean a lot of folks can't get their chiropractic physiotherapy covered when it could potentially be the only thing that will get them real relief.
That's simply not fair to say without knowing more about his case. In effect, this is an application of the Jr.High School experiment of connecting a battery to a frog's leg to watch it jump. Without knowing the extent of the damage (which this article could never detail) it is literally irresponsible to assert a claim that alternative treatment could do a better job.
I believe chiropractic treatment has its purposes and ranks right up there with good nutrition and exercise as natural means of treating and maintaining health issues. But there are limits to the healing capacity of the body and there are many forms of "damage" where some are eligible for typical healing and others are simply not. (A cut nerve might heal, but a segment of nervous tissue might never be able to regrow the original connections over a distance where two healthy points are too far from one another.)
If you are a doctor, be more responsible before rendering opinions. You really must have all of the facts and first-hand knowledge of the case before making such assertions.
HOLY SHIT!
1) The spinal cord is not simply a transmission mechanism. Primarily, it controls the operation of the lower extremities.
2) The spinal cord requires a minimal 'data feed' to operate - over the spinal cord itself.
To me, this explains much about paralysis and ultimately, how to conquer it. It is interesting that I had never had the idea of the spinal cord being just the 'copper' linking your extremities to your brain corrected at any point in the past.
I also know someone with spina bifida who would benefit from this, if it were possible. Of course, reading about the physical condition and special circumstances of the research volunteer (having feeling below the injury) suggests that this may not be possible.
HBI's Law: Frequency of calling others Nazis is directly correlated with the likelihood of the accuser being Communist.
CBS News has a video report on the subject. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/05/19/eveningnews/main20064470.shtml
Nice way to work around the problem of the nerves not delivering the message -- add your own communication system. It would be nice if someone figures out how to repair broken links to the spinal cord, but using a different control and communication method is a good way to get some use of that otherwise unused muscle.
Yeah seriously.
I've had back problems from time to time, mostly related to overstressed muscles. I've gone to a chiropractor for it, had therapeutic massage and spinal adjustments done, and it did a lot of good. Eliminated for weeks at a time a problem that a normal doctor would have hit with muscle relaxants and painkillers.
BUT, the first thing my chiropractor did was take X-rays, both to see the underlying problem and guide the course of treatment. And he was willing to point out that NO serious spinal injury, nothing anywhere near the level of possibly damaging the spinal cord, should be hit with chiropractic treatment. For those, they have this thing called "Traction." He's actually sent patients over to a real hospital when they showed up asking for chiropractic treatment and his X-rays showed they had a major, serious, surgery-level problem.
The problem with chiropractic medicine is that for every good chiropractor out there who treats it as medicine, you have three lying assholes who go on and on about "energy" and "life flow" and all the other sort of new-agey bunk that gives the field a bad name.
Or a paid shill.
Wow.
He reminds me of the Scientologists.
Actually the movie repeatedly states that the hero's injuries can be treated, but he can't afford it. One of the reason he agrees to act as a spy for the Colonel in the first place is a promise to get him back to Earth for treatment on company expense. It's one of the more important sub-plots of the movie and explains most of his early motivations.
I don't need a million points of light, just two points of multi-mode fiber and a 10 Gig-E router.
You mean it's not enough to shot zombies in the head?
It can be, it is just really difficult to do. Eating only meat would be no better. I am not a vegan or vegetarian, nor have ever been one intentionally nor longer than 48 hours.
Yeah, strange postings from this one we have. I just used up my last mod point earlier, damn.
This aint Daytona and you aint Dale Earnhardt. So stop trying to draft on Interstate 40.
The worst part is your post has a hint of truth, but heaped on it is a mountain of crackpot bullshit. You're giving chiropractors everywhere a bad name, and on behalf of those of us who know how much good they CAN do I say: Please, go crawl under a rock somewhere and stay there. Its people like you that mean a lot of folks can't get their chiropractic physiotherapy covered when it could potentially be the only thing that will get them real relief.
That "subluxations" cause every disease under the sun and can be cured by chiropractic is taught in most or all chiropractic schools, and is to them a normal belief.
There have been studies comparing registered massage therapists to chiropractors for back injury recovery. There was no appreciable difference in effect. Only one of them considers themselves a "doctor" though.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
No, thats a common misconception from what is for some reason a very very vocal minority. Though, I can only speak for canadian chiropractics on that score really.
Chiropractors here tend to understand that a massage therapist does do a lot of what they do. What they do however is far more targeted and they are trained to help restore function. Going to a chiropractor here will probably hurt like fucking hell the first few times at the very least, and won't improve much after that, however it will help a lot with certain types of injuries.
Soft tissue damage injuries that have nearly all the way healed but need some coaxing or some bone realignment are the ones that they're particularly good with.
The problem is that sometimes, some symptoms can be caused by a nerve that is pinching somewhere that a bone is out of line or a massive tensing of muscles caused by pain that you can't even really feel anymore could be causing something. In my case I also had tension headaches, and as a result of the back adjustments and overall mobility improvement the muscles in the back of my neck relaxed more and they've now gone away for the most part. Some of the reason they are there is other stress, but some of it was the back pain and now there is improvement.
The stuff isn't nearly a cure-all, but sometimes it causes what could be seemingly random symptoms to improve. The main thing to remember is that stress can cause all sorts of wierd symptoms and chronic pain causes severe amounts of stress. Its as simple as that. Thats why occaisionally they get the miracle case where a whole boatload of things just sort of disappeared. However 99% of the time that doesn't happen.
I know about some stories, such as one where the parents fed their child soy milk and apple juice. That is obviously incompletely. So, please cite your sources. Tell us which story, tell us what the mother was eating, and then tell us what nutrients the nursing child could not get from the breast milk. Meanwhile, please prove that your isolated case applies generally to everyone eating plant-based diets.
Please explain how proper vegan diets are difficult.