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DESCRIPTION:
A spinal cord injury (SCI) is one of the most devastating of all disabilities. Every year, more than 10,000 individuals in the United States sustain a spinal cord injury. More than half of all spinal cord injuries occur in young adults, usually 16 to 30 years old, with three quarters of them male. The majority of spinal cord injuries are caused by motor vehicle accidents, violence or sports injuries. Fortunately, improvements in traumatic care over the past 50 years means that more than 90 percent of SCI victims survive their injury and go on to live normal life spans – an average of 40 years after their injury.
How does spinal cord injury pain develop?
The spinal cord and brain together comprise the Central Nervous System (CNS). The spinal cord is responsible for the body's movement and sensation. Once injured, it does not repair itself. The master link between our brains and our bodies, the spinal cord contains millions of individual nerve fibers in a highly organized weave. Nerve cells direct impulses from the brain to specific muscles in the body. The spinal cord is also a conduit for information that regulates many of our involuntary functions, including bladder, bowel and sexual functions, as well as blood pressure, respiration and temperature control. The cord also contains internal nerve circuits that regulate our walking rhythm and joint reflexes that will, for example, cause us to automatically lift our foot when we stub our toe.
The spinal cord is organized into sections along its length. Nerves from each segment connect to specific parts of the body. Thus, the severity of the injury, and the associated pain, an individual will experience depends on where on the spinal cord the injury took place. The neck, or cervical region, referred to as C1 to C8, controls signals to the neck, arms and hands, as well as respiration. Injuries in this region of the spine usually result in quadriplegia. The thoracic or upper back region, T1 to T12, controls signals to the torso and some parts of the arms. The lumbar region, L1 through L5, controls the hips and legs. Individuals with injuries in the L1 through L5 region will experience decreasing control of the hip flexors and legs.
What are the symptoms of spinal cord injury pain?
In addition to a loss of sensation or motor functioning, individuals with SCI also experience other changes. For example, they may experience bowel and bladder dysfunction. Sexual functioning is frequently affected, and while the fertility of men with SCI is affected, this is generally not the case for women. Very high injuries (C-1, C-2) can result in a loss of many involuntary functions, including the ability to breathe. Other effects of SCI may include low blood pressure, an inability to regulate blood pressure effectively, reduced control of body temperature and inability to sweat below the level of the injury. Pain is similar to Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy Syndrome (RSDS) pain and may radiate up or down the leg, but almost always resides in the rectal and pelvic area. It typically manifests itself as a burning pain in or near the rectum. Pain may also be felt in an area that is compensating for the lack of functioning in another area.
Conventional medical treatments may help relieve the symptoms of spinal cord injury pain, but they do not address the root of the problem. By strengthening structural weaknesses in the body, as natural medicine treatments like Prolotherapy do, pain associated with a spinal cord injury may be alleviated permanently.
Discover why we believe that natural medicine treatments are the best way to treat spinal cord injury pain.
Click here to read the case study of a patient with a spinal cord injury and chronic pain treated by Dr. Ross Hauser with Prolotherapy injections. This article was published in the Journal of Prolotherapy.
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