Brink of Neural Regeneration

Spinal cord lesions typically create a cavity, not upon impact but as a result of healing. Spinal cord contusions impair the endogenous nervous system, which is responsible for nervous tissue repair and regrowth. This creates a series of failed signals sent by the endogenous system to the site of spinal cord injury. Cells aren’t receiving the message that repair is needed, this is what results in prolonged loss of nervous tissue. Then, once the cavity is formed by scared glial cells, it’s at high risk for collapsing which only prevents the healing process. In the research performed by Li et al., 2020, an injectable hydrogel was tested as a possible treatment for spinal cord contusions and nervous tissue regrowth. 

The hydrogel would be able to act in benefit with the cavity due to its high compatibility with native tissue, it can “imitate biological features of native extracellular matrix” (Li et al., 2020). This creates optimal conditions for cellular regeneration while providing the stability to prevent the cavity from closing. While this has benefited the science community, we are still in search of a treatment that can facilitate enough tissue regeneration before the cavity comes to fruition in the healing process. 

Science has come an incredibly long way over the past couple hundred years and yet, it continues to advance. Medical science has gifted humanity with longer and healthier lives and in a way, its even shifted human consciousness. It’s led to a very analytical way of thinking, or in other words “I have to see it to believe it” type mindset. As a result, we’ve moved away from intuitive thinking because it “can’t be explained”. Many traditional approaches to medicine and healing were invalidated because they weren’t understood from a scientific approach, or that was until recently. For example, meditation has not only become influential to the general public, but it’s finally getting a spotlight in the research communities as well, and that’s of course due to the innumerous benefits it has to offer. 

A book titled “Becoming Supernatural” written by Dr. Joe Dispenza (2019), and all within the first chapter, he discusses a woman who was paralyzed from the waist down because her immune system was sending signals to her lower spine to attack the nervous tissue, she was diagnosed with cancer and suffered from many other medical conditions. Long story short, a year and nine months after she began meditation with one of her intents being nervous tissue regrowth, she was cured of her paralysis, cancer, and all other health disorders. Dr. Dispenza dedicates the rest of the book to how we can biologically influence our bodies through meditation. We can not only rewire our thinking habits with meditation but we can influence ourselves on a cellular level. 

This approach would be a revolutionary treatment to neurodegenerative diseases, trauma, etc., and for that reason it hopefully will be incorporated into different aspects of research. It offers a different perspective of healing and look on regenerative treatments from a scientific approah. Yet to mention, we could benefit from getting back in tune with our bodies. 

References: 

DISPENZA, DR JOE. Becoming Supernatural: How Common People Are Doing the Uncommon. HAY House UK LTD, 2019. 

Li, Xiaowei, et al. “The Effect of a Nanofiber-Hydrogel Composite on Neural Tissue Repair and Regeneration in the Contused Spinal Cord.” Biomaterials, vol. 245, 2020, p. 119978., https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biomaterials.2020.119978.