They cause disruptive changes to every aspect of your life and there is a lot of new information to navigate and understand. Our experts have collected everything in one place to help you learn more about your injury, locate doctors and treatment centers, find financial support, and get assistance navigating your next move.
What is the Spinal Cord? Lobes of the Brain.
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Herbal Supplements and Vitamins In recent years, doctors have increasingly recognized the power of Omega-3 fatty acids to support brain and spinal cord health. Acupuncture Acupuncture, which targets specific points on the body thought to be correlated with various ailments, has been around for thousands of years.
Psychotherapy A spinal cord injury changes your life in ways you might never have anticipated. Yoga Yoga keeps both your mind and body in excellent condition, making it easier to cope with the psychological and physical pain of a spinal cord injury. Written by Zawn Villines Zawn Villines is a writer specializing in health and legal journalism. Subscribe to Email Updates. Learn More About SpinalCord. Copyright All Rights Reserved. Sponsored by Swope, Rodante P. Written by the former director of the Spinal Cord Research and Education Foundation of the PVA, this is the first book to cover alternative therapies for spinal cord injury.
From acupuncture to laser-based therapies, herbal medicine, homeopathy, craniosacral therapy, magnetic healing, and more, the book empowers readers by: Providing clear, reliable information on alternative choices to traditional health care. Equipping readers to make more informed decisions about their own health care. Tailoring information to meet the specific needs of the approximately , individuals living with a spinal cord injury.
Providing healing modalities that minimize the risks that are especially relevant to people with SCI, like overmedication, hospitalization, and life-threatening infections.
Alternative Medicine and Spinal Cord Injury
For those who have been forced to rely on the advice of the traditional medical specialist for their health care, this book opens a broad array of holistic options. It is essential for anyone suffering from a spinal cord injury, their families, friends, caregivers, and health-care providers. The Golden Touch 5. Electromagnetic Healing Magnetic Healing: Overview Pulsed Electromagnetic Therapy: Diapulse Ferrite-Ring Magnets 8.
Alternative Medicine and Spinal Cord Injury |Demos Health
Indigenous Healing Native-American Healing: Part 1 - Philosophy Native-American Healing: Part 2 Mind Instructor: This is a good consumer-oriented book Springer Publishing Company Proudly serving the health care and helping professions. As one of the best-known Chinese traditional herbs, it has been clinically used for more than years and is mainly produced in Anhui, Shanxi, Hebei, and Jiangsu provinces in China. Until now, more than 70 compounds have been isolated and structurally identified from Danshen with various concentrations.
The major components reported from Danshen are hydrophilic depside derivatives e. Some of the structures are given in Figure 2 [ 71 ]. In TCM, Danshen is characterized as a common hemorheological drug with the following functions: Based on modern investigations, the most important and frequent clinical application of Danshen is in the treatment of coronary heart disease, like angina pectoris, coronary artery spasm, myocardial infarction, and other conditions [ 72 ].
In addition, Danshen is used to treat cerebrovascular disease, hepatitis, hepatocirrhosis, hypertension dysmenorrhea, and osteoporosis [ 73 ]. In recent years, Danshen has attracted increased attention in SCI treatment and is mostly employed as an intervention approach in the form of herbal extract or Chinese medicine injection. Considering the properties of promoting blood circulation and relieving blood stasis, it was reasonable that Danshen could improve microcirculation and increase blood flow of the injured spinal cord tissues, inhibit platelet aggregation, and reduce release of TXA 2.
By contrast, Danshen downregulated the increase of NO level in serum and spinal cord tissues [ 76 ]. Therefore, the mechanisms of Danshen on SCI treatment could be attributed to increasing the activity of ChAT in attempt to restore the motor function of spinal cord gray matter and increase the activity of associated proteins in the synapse to promote the transfer of nerve impulses. This was important in promoting the regeneration of myelin and the recovery of neurological function [ 78 ].
Complementary & Alternative Medicine
In China, the dried leaf of Ginkgo biloba L. In Western countries, medical interest in Ginkgo has grown dramatically since the s, and extracts from Ginkgo biloba leaves EGb are one of the most commonly used herbal medicinal products in Europe and in the US today [ 79 ]. EGb has been well investigated chemically for various classes of constituents. It is reported to contain a number of secondary metabolites including terpenoids, flavonoids, polyphenols, allyl phenols, organic acids, carbohydrates, fatty acids and lipids, inorganic salts, and amino acids.
However terpene trilactones e. The therapeutic indications of EGb include chest impediment, heart pain, stroke, hemiplegia, and dysphasia due to blockage of the meridians by stagnated blood and angina pectoris of the stable type in coronary heart disease and cerebral infarction with the above noted symptoms [ 22 ]. HE staining results showed that rats given EGb In addition, several studies suggested antioxidant and antiapoptosis effects in vivo , providing a possible alternative mechanism for improvement of SCI symptoms [ 86 ]. The presence of apoptotic cells, Bcl-2 and Bax expression, caspase-3 and caspase-9 expression, and iNOS were upregulated after SCI in the injured spinal cord.
In recent years, investigators have focused attention from EGb to terpene trilactones in the field of SCI treatment, and ginkgolides A and B are two active constituents that have attracted the most attention. These results indicated that ginkgolide B could efficiently decrease hyperplasia and overgrowth of astrocytes, prevent the formation of glial scar, and decrease the accumulation of macrophages and activation of microglia, as well as preventing demyelination of axons and promoting regeneration of axons to some extent [ 93 ].
Ginseng is the dried root and rhizome of Panax ginseng C. Although it is a traditional herbal medicine in oriental countries, especially China, Korea, and Japan, Ginseng has been widely used all over the world. For its promising healing and restorative properties, it has occupied a prominent position in the list of best-selling natural products in the world. Since the first isolation of six ginsenosides derived from Ginseng in the s [ 94 ], many ginsenosides have been isolated and identified.
Among various ginsenosides, Rb 1 , Rg 1 , Rg 3 , Re, and Rd are the most frequently studied variants, and the structures of some typical constituents are given in Figure 3 b. Many pharmacological activities of Ginseng extracts have been discovered since the s, and most of them are attributed to ginsenosides, which include antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antidiabetic, anticancer, anti-ischemic, antiarrhythmic, antihypertensive, inhibiting platelet aggregation, adjusting lipid profiles, and improving aging [ 95 ]. Although ginsenosides are not used to treat SCI regularly, its potential therapeutic effect in SCI treatment has been confirmed by behavioral scores i.
Ginsenosides protect spinal cord neurons from both oxidative stress and apoptosis in vivo and in vitro , which may be two of the major mechanisms of SCI. Chen Araliaceae is a Chinese medicinal herb, distributed throughout the southwest of China, Burma, and Nepal. According to the Chinese Pharmacopoeia edition , the dried root and rhizome of Panax notoginseng are used as medicines, which are given the name Notoginseng Radix et Rhizoma [ 22 ]. There are various chemical constituents in Notoginseng, including ginsenosides, notoginsenosides, flavonoids, volatile oils, amino acids, and polysaccharides.
Extensive chemical studies on this herb have shown that dammarane-type saponins are the main bioactive components [ ]. In addition, Notoginseng has various pharmacological actions and is traditionally used in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases, inflammation, trauma, and hemorrhage. It is also reported to have antihypertensive, antithrombotic, antiatherosclerotic, hemostatic, antitumour, neuroprotective, immunological adjuvant, and hypoglycaemic activities [ ].
EM showed that neurons shrank and exhibited abnormal morphology. Astragali Radixis a perennial herbaceous plant of the Leguminosae family, which is widely distributed throughout the temperate regions of the world. It is derived from the dried root of Astragalus membranaceus Fisch. Hsiao or Astragalus membranaceus Fisch. The compounds contained in Astragali Radix have been isolated and identified as polysaccharides APS , triterpene saponins e. Up to now, various biological activities of these compounds or Astragali Radix extract have been investigated and reported, such as immunomodulatory, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antitumour, antidiabetic, antiviral, cardioprotective, antihyperglycemic, antiatherosclerotic, and hepatoprotective effects [ ].
The polysaccharides and triterpene saponins have been identified as the major active ingredients responsible for the bioactivities. In recent years, Astragali Radix has emerged as a potential therapeutic drug in the treatment of SCI and is mostly used as a form of herbal extract or Chinese medicine injection. Several studies have indicated that Astragali Radix has both antioxidant and neuroprotective effects in vivo , providing a possible mechanism for SCI symptoms improvement. The pharmacological intervention mechanism of all five Chinese herbs in SCI treatment is summarized in Table 2.
Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine
Besides the five herbs mentioned above, there are also some classic compound prescriptions currently used in SCI treatment, which are mainly Buyang Huanwu decoction and Zibu Piyin recipe [ — ]. It is worth noting that most of the related references of herbs and compound prescriptions are published in Chinese Journal.
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It indicates that researches of these herbs and compound prescriptions in prevention and treatment of SCI are still in a preliminary stage, and more systematic and thorough researches need to be done. Compared with natural compounds used in the treatment of SCI, Chinese herbs have their own inherent advantages and disadvantages. Because of the enormous quantity and differential chemical properties of these compounds, it is too complicated to attempt clarification of the adverse reactions resulting from DDI, not to mention predicting and preventing such effects.
On the other hand, multiconstituents of Chinese herbs have the superiority of synergistic effect and multitarget action, which can only be achieved by coadministration of several compounds in Western medicine. However, in order to give full play to superiority of Chinese herbs, more work needs to be done to explore their possible therapeutic mechanism. Spinal cord injury remains a frequent and devastating problem in modern society. Although there are no fully restorative treatments, in part because of the extremely complicated pathophysiologic mechanisms involved in SCI, various tissue engineering and cellular and molecular therapies have been tested in animal models.
Many of these have reached, or are approaching, the clinical trials phase. However, none of them has been proven successfully in treating SCI patients to date. As an important supplementary treatment for SCI, TCM may provide benefits in the therapy or repair of the injured spinal cord, which has potential to replace the use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, neurotrophic factors, or even MP.
It is now of general consensus that successful functional recovery will not simply rely on a single therapeutic approach.