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Each year, thousands of people in Pennsylvania and the rest of the country suffer from disabling spinal cord injuries, sometimes due to personal injury accidents. In fact, more than 265,000 Americans are currently suffering from spinal cord damage, according to the National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center. Luckily, modern science is making great strides in providing treatment for these individuals.
Recently, it was reported that a potential back treatment that could be used to improve the condition of people with spinal cord injuries will be tested on several dog breeds suffering from back pain. If the treatments are successful, they could soon be made available to humans.
Preliminary drug treatments conducted on mice were highly positive, stirring optimism that the treatment would be a viable approach to treatment in people. The U.S. Department of Defense is hoping the treatment method could be used to improve the conditions of military personnel suffering from injuries to the spinal cord and has committed $750,000 to the research.
A by-product of the treatment’s successful application is that it could ultimately be used to treat certain dog breeds with chronic back problems. The study is being conducted in a collaborative effort by both doctors and veterinarians, and it is one of several such research studies designed to improve both animal and human health. Similar research focuses on inflammatory bowel disease and the connection between inflammatory brain disease and multiple sclerosis.
Although the drug could help heal spinal cord injuries causing partial or complete paralysis, the treatment does not help regenerate cells, meaning it can’t heal paralysis suffered more than a few weeks prior. But future spinal cord injuries could be immediately treated with the drug, maximizing the potential for healing.
Source: Sun Times, “Treating dogs’ spinal cord injuries could help humans, too,” Feb. 6, 2012