Spinal Cord Injury

Facts Concerning Spinal Cord Injury:

     Because the spinal cord carries messages between the brain and muscles through a network of nerve cells, an injury to the spinal cord is one of the most complicated medical traumas a person can sustain. The instant the spinal cord is damaged, vital signals that pass from the brain to the rest of the body are interrupted, which affects the entire nervous system. This can result in the paralysis of muscles, and interferes with blood pressure, body temperature regulation, sensation, bowel and bladder function, and fertility. Each of our “Gridiron Heroes” has sustained a serious neck injury consisting of one or more cervical fractures, leaving him, in medical terms, a quadriplegic.

• The average cost of surgery, hospitalization, medication, equipment, and care for a spinal cord injury patient during the first 100 days after the injury is $150,000 to $500,000. Lifetime expenses of rehabilitation and care often exceed $1 million. A family member’s loss of wages and professional opportunity (caused by the need to become a full-time caregiver) is another tremendous expense.
  


• Spinal cord injury is a life-changing event. Due to medical advances, those who sustain this injury now have a longer life expectancy, but an injured athlete’s entire family suffers severe emotional, economical, and physical cost.


• Statistics show that about one in every 100,000 high school football players will suffer serious spinal cord injury each year.

Dr. Mario A. Sanchez, CSCS, NSCA C-PT Sports Medicine Specialist  Director of the Strength and Conditioning Consulting

Dr. Sanchez has developed a special technique that involves the electrical stimulation of the neuromuscular system.  He has successfully increased the overall strength of his Olympic and professional athletes by incorporating electrical stimulation into their pre-planned training regimen.  This technique has also been especially tailored not only for Dr. Sanchez's elite athletes but for individuals who suffer from a myriad of health problems; such as, victims of stroke, Multiple sclerosis, arthritis, Parkinson' s disease, Guillian Barre syndrome, Alzheimer's disease, Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig’s disease) and victims of both non-traumatic (vascular malfunction) and traumatic spinal cord injury.

Neuromuscular electrical stimulation training

Introduction

The fundamentals governing the stimulation of nerve and muscle cells by electrical impulses have been know since the beginning of the last century. These laws were discovered and fully understood by eminent French physiologists like Lapicque and Weiss. Through a series of remarkable experiments, they succeeded in calculating a mathematical correlation between the quantity of current and duration of application required to stimulate motor nerves.
The first attempts at using NMES in training were made at the Moscow Academy of Sports Science in the 1960s, directed by Professor Kotz.
As late as 1979, the physiologist, McDonnell, who conducted research into the mechanisms that limit muscular performance, still thought of NMES in these terms: “it cannot be used because of the very high voltages required and the impossibility of creating titanic contractions”.
The progress made in electronics, especially with the arrival of microprocessors, changed this situation radically. It became possible to be protected against the risk of burning and eliminate electrical pain, provided that the NMES was applied using high quality equipment rather than some of the outlandish devices that seem better suited for creating aesthetic illusions than training muscle.  

As muscle fibers are unconscious, they have no awareness of the source imposing the work, so whether the action potential is sent directly from the brain or applied by the stimulation equipment, the fibers progress in exactly the same way as long as work done is identical quantity and quality. Given these conditions, it became vital to gather sufficient knowledge about physiology of muscle contraction and the work done by different types of muscle fiber so that electrical pulses could be programmed to apply a quantity and rate of work appropriate to performance of the muscle to be improved.

Muscle stimulation parameters

On NMES several essential parameters define the nature and quantity of the work, which will be imposed on the recruited muscle fibers during the stimulation session.
The electric pulse, which triggers off the excitation of the motoneurons.
The pulse frequency.
The duration of contraction.
The duration of rest.
The number of repetitions.
The excitability factor is called the chronaxie, this varies from one muscle to another.

Working index.
An Index of endurance
An Index of Resistance
An Index of Strength.
An Index of Explosivity.

Functional Improvement by working the muscles.

This program allows individuals to prepare for the “CURE”, by maintaining the muscles or reversing the atrophy in the muscles. Providing the same current the brain would send to the nerves and the muscles thus creating a correct functional movement. Please click on the videos below for a demonstration.

Learn more about Spinal Cord Injury

Healing Therapies
Care Cure Community Forum
Spinal Cord Injury Reserach Center
Christopher and Dana Reeve
Miami Project to Cure Paralysis