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divinefurball
USA
138 Posts |
 Posted - Jul 15 2010 : 10:21:44 PM
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This might pertain to khumbaka and pranayama:
Gordon Mitchell, a researcher at the UW School of Veterinary Medicine, has green fluorescent images of motor neurons in the spinal cord on his computer screen. These nerve cells have synapses that drive muscles to action, but spinal injury stops them from working. Mitchell is investigating whether treating patients with lowered levels of oxygen for short periods of time might stimulate the spinal cord and strengthen the neural connections so that they can regain function. Tania Banak
Sometimes medical research is a slog toward predictable or inconsequential results. Other times it’s an adventure that leads to unexpected breakthroughs.
Gordon Mitchell, a professor of neuroscience at the University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary Medicine, thinks he and a team of fellow scientists may have made a discovery that falls into the breakthrough category, one that offers new hope for people paralyzed by spinal cord injuries.
Mitchell started out studying sleep apnea. But over the years he and scientists he asked to join him from the University of Saskatchewan, The Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago and the Emory School of Medicine discovered that the short periods of oxygen deprivation so worrisome for patients with sleep disorders might actually help people who are paralyzed because the sessions stimulate what scientists call “plasticity” in injured spinal cords. Plasticity is the ability of various systems in the body to adapt to changing circumstances and assume new functions.
Previous studies about reversing spinal cord damage have focused on regeneration; one recent study, for example, uses embryonic stem cells to repair damaged spinal nerves, allowing paralyzed rats to regain some function. But Mitchell’s approach seeks instead to stimulate and retrain whatever part of the sensory-motor system is still intact. In effect, his team is attempting to teach old spinal cords new tricks. “It’s nearly impossible to get the spinal cord to regrow,” Mitchell says. “But you can train it to do better.”
Other scientists exploring spinal cord plasticity have used electrical stimulation and drugs to try to prod the spinal cord into new life. Mitchell and his team are the first to experiment with alterations in the levels of oxygen patients breathe. Surprisingly, the experiments found that lowering those levels for short periods of time improved not only respiration in paralyzed animals and humans, but also led to increases in limb function and control, even after only one treatment.
“What we are doing is unique,” Mitchell says. “Nobody else in the world is doing this. We are showing that you can use this therapy to train the pathways that were already there to take on new jobs that they never did before. This is very exciting.”
So exciting, in fact, that even before the team’s most recent results have been published in a scientific journal, the U.S. Department of Defense awarded Mitchell and his team a $750,000 grant to develop the therapy at several respected rehabilitation centers in the country, including the Shepherd Center in Atlanta, Emory University and The Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago. Veterinary scientist Gillian Muir and other researchers at the University of Saskatchewan will also continue their related work with rodents.
The collaborative project is an example of “translational research,” work that bridges the gap between promising theories and animal experiments and patients in the real world. The government is especially eager to push these projects, also dubbed “Bench to Bedside” by researchers, because of the growing numbers of paralyzed veterans returning home from wars in the Middle East.
Over the next two years, researchers will combine doses of the therapy, which they call “intermittent hypoxia therapy,” with traditional rehabilitative medicine. Patients will be equipped with masks and given a week’s treatment of low oxygen sessions lasting around 30 minutes or so, explains Randy Trumbower, a principal investigator and an assistant professor of rehabilitation medicine at Emory’s School of Medicine. “We’re hoping the therapy can be an enhancement for exercise,” he explains. “We’re using it to prime the nervous system, to enhance the compensatory pathways that are already there.”
The idea that the spinal cord is plastic and flexible enough to be trained to assume new functions is a relatively new concept in medicine, Mitchell says. “We’re coming out of a fog,” he says. “People used to think the spinal cord was like copper wire. That it was hard-wired, a sort of relay station where nothing sophisticated like learning could happen.”
From years of observing the changes happening at a molecular level in the bodies of patients with sleep apnea, Mitchell says, he realized that in fact the spinal cord is vigilant, constantly changing and adapting to stimuli, almost like a sentry. The periods of low oxygen that happen regularly as patients with sleep apnea suspend breathing, he says, cause the synthesis or production of new protein molecules. These new molecules in turn strengthen signals coming from the brain to nerve cells. “It’s like turning up the volume,” he explains.
In 2009, intrigued researchers decided to find out if this plasticity could be applied to work with nerve cells that are not associated with breathing, but with movement. They decided to see if just one dose of hypoxia therapy would have any impact on the function of the ankle, about as far away as they could get from the spinal cord. “We decided to really go for it,” recalls Trumbower, then a post-doctoral fellow working with Dr. W. Zev Rymer at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago.
Trumbower fitted a group of eight patients who had been paralyzed on average for 15 years with masks and lowered their levels of oxygen for 30 minutes — giving them about the same level that they would receive if they were on a ski lift in the mountains. (Hypoxic therapy is actually used to train athletes like skiers who need to adjust to high altitudes.) After only one session, Trumbower found remarkable improvement in the patients’ ankle strength and movement.
Mitchell warns that the experiments are still very much in the early stages. “We don’t want to get people’s hopes up too high. We should not expect miracles here,” he says. “But it looks very promising. Even if we can help people take a few steps so they can go to the bathroom on their own, or breathe for a period of time without the ventilator, that can lead to a dramatic improvement in the quality of their lives,” he says.
Posted in Health_med_fit on Sunday, July 11, 2010 5:30 am Updated: 12:22 am. Spinal Cord, Gordon Mitchell
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Edited by - divinefurball on Jul 17 2010 8:51:56 PM |
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divinefurball
USA
138 Posts |
Posted - Jul 30 2010 : 6:44:15 PM
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More on this important topic:
Usefulness Of Biochemical Markers In The Evaluation The Effect Of Pranayama During The Management Of Chronic And Acute Mountain Sickness
Of late large number of low landers is going to high altitude conditions for various reasons. Most of them do suffer from acute mountain sickness. Prevention of mountain sickness is of prime importance as the treatment of any sick individual requires complicated logistics. It is here several alternate and holistic approaches are made by man for a very long time. Under this of several techniques regulated breathing or pranayama seems to be of great value. It is only of late biochemical markers to quantify the mountain sickness is identified. Understanding of the biochemical markers to evaluate the effect of pranayama in mountain sickness is of great importance. The beneficiary effects of Pranayama or regulated breathing is well established in normal healthy individuals and in several cases of sick persons at various altitude conditions. Nidisodhana which is one of the basic techniques of pranayama is found to be having maximum beneficial effects is a means of breathing exercise through alternate nostrils with an inhalation and exhalations in the ratio 1:2 in a sitting posture (Vajrasana) with 8 and 16 seconds duration. When this is practiced for 30 minutes is found to have produced increased concentration and self awareness. This simple breathing exercise is found to reduce body fat. Hence all factors of lipid profile become the indicators to assess the effects of regulated breathing. This is more so in case of low Landers when exposed to high altitude conditions. In high altitude conditions where the availability of oxygen is less and much efforts are needed on part of the physiological part of the system Pranayama. Reactive oxygen species are known to aggravate disease progression. To counteract their harmful effects, the body produces various antioxidant enzymes, viz , superoxide dismutase, glutathione reductase etc. Literature reviews revealed that exercises help to enhance antioxidant enzyme systems; hence, yogic exercises such as pranayama may be useful to combat various diseases. Apart from the lipid profile even blood glucose seems to be one of the earliest biochemical markers to quantify the effects of pranayama. Several findings indicate that Pranayama exercises have enhanced the antioxidant defense mechanism in diabetics by reducing oxidative stress. With many other beneficial effects of pranayama one can notice the significant changes in the following
§ increased lung capacity
§ improved immune system
§ recharged nervous system
§ reduced stress
§ improved memory
Though biochemical markers for many of the above indicated aspects are not clearly understood, it can be studies through various hormones and neurotransmitters playing significant role. It is proposed to use this simple pranayama technique to simulate various physiological processes and keep tracking the levels of various biochemical indicators or markers to prevent the deleterious effects of mountain sickness.
Thuppil Venkatesh, MD
Principal Advisor Quality Council of India (QCI) & National Referral Centre for Lead Poisoning in India (NRCLPI). Department of Biochemistry & Biophysics
St. John's Medical College, India
venkatesh.thuppil@gmail.com
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Regulated O2 Deprivation & Spinal Plasticity
