Health
Spinal cord stimulation restores movement for people with 'muscle wasting' disorder
People with spinal muscle atrophy (SMA), an inherited neuromuscular disease, usually experience muscle weakness that impacts movement.
New research suggests that electrical spinal cord stimulation could improve muscle function for these patients, even restoring the capability to walk.
In studies at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, sessions of spinal cord stimulation were shown to restore motor neuron activity and improve muscle strength in the legs for patients with SMA.
The findings were published in Nature Medicine on Feb. 5.
SPINAL CORD TREATMENT RESTORES FUNCTION FOR PARALYZED PATIENTS IN STUDY: ‘NEW HOPE’
“The patients all had a rare disease that destroys neurons in the spinal cord (much like polio) due to a genetic disorder from birth,” Dr. Peter Konrad, chairman of the Department of Neurosurgery at WVU Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute in West Virginia, told Fox News Digital. (Konrad was not involved in the study.)
Research participant Doug McCullough uses an adaptive exercise bike during a testing session at the University of Pittsburgh. (Nate Langer, UPMC and University of Pittsburgh Health Sciences)
“The disease weakens the legs and ability to walk … causing a form of slow paralysis. Stimulation of the input to the remaining neurons was thought to improve strength and stamina in patients treated this way.”
Study co-author Marco Capogrosso, assistant professor of neurological surgery at Pitt School of Medicine, said that two things need to happen to counteract neurodegeneration: neuron death must be stopped and the function of surviving neurons must be restored.
“There has been no major breakthrough in curing this disease, and so treatment is still focused on helping improve their quality of life.”
“In this study, we proposed an approach to treat the root cause of neural dysfunction, complementing existing neuroprotective treatments with a new approach that reverses nerve cell dysfunction,” Capogrosso said in a press release.
Three people with SMA participated in the study. For one month, they received spinal cord stimulation five times a week for four hours each. At the end of the trial period, they all experienced “improved motoneuron function, reduced fatigue and improved strength and walking in all participants,” the release stated.
Research participant Doug McCullough uses a bodyweight support system to walk during a testing session at the University of Pittsburgh. (Nate Langer, UPMC and University of Pittsburgh Health Sciences)
“The three patients saw an average of 40% improvement in step length, up to 180% improvement in strength, and 26-minute improvement in walking time,” said Konrad, based on his review of the study.
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“That’s a big deal for patients with this condition, who depend on assistive devices to move about with little stamina.”
One of the participants, Doug McCullough, was experiencing advanced symptoms and had difficulty walking.
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“Because my hip flexors are so weak, I basically have this waddling gait where my hips sway back and forth and I swing my legs out to the side because I can’t pick them straight up,” he said in the release. “You could clearly see from the video that my walk was improved and that I was walking faster. I had a little more natural gait. It still wasn’t completely normal, but it was better than what it was before the study.”
Researchers Genis Prat Ortega (left) and Serena Donadio (right) with the research participant Doug McCullough (center) during a testing session at the University of Pittsburgh. (Nate Langer, UPMC and University of Pittsburgh Health Sciences)
Although SMA is a progressive disease that worsens over time, the patients in the study had noticeable improvements, according to study co-author Elvira Pirondini, assistant professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at Pitt School of Medicine.
“Over the four weeks of treatment, our study participants improved in several clinical outcomes, with improvements in activities of daily living,” she said in the release.
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“For instance, toward the end of the study, one patient reported being able to walk from their home to the lab without becoming tired.”
The study is a “proof of concept” that gives hope to people with this type of genetic disability, according to Konrad.
“Toward the end of the study, one patient reported being able to walk from their home to the lab without becoming tired.”
“There has been no major breakthrough in curing this disease, and so treatment is still focused on helping improve their quality of life,” he told Fox News Digital.
“It also shows that devices such as spinal cord stimulation and other types of neuromodulation are a safe and effective method to treat paralysis when there is little to offer in the form of medications or gene therapy.”
Graduate student Scott Ensel (left) assists research participant Doug McCullough during a testing session at the University of Pittsburgh. (Nate Langer, UPMC and University of Pittsburgh Health Sciences)
Looking ahead, the team plans to continue research with other SMA patients in a new clinical trial to test the treatment’s safety and efficacy.
In the future, they hope to apply this therapy to other neurodegenerative diseases, such as ALS or Huntington’s disease.
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A new report by the American Heart Association (AHA) included some troubling predictions for the future of women’s health.
The forecast, published in the journal Circulation on Wednesday, projected increases in various comorbidities in American females by 2050.
More than 59% of women were predicted to have high blood pressure, up from less than 49% currently.
The review also projected that more than 25% of women will have diabetes, compared to about 15% today, and more than 61% will have obesity, compared to 44% currently.
As a result of these risk factors, the prevalence of cardiovascular disease and stroke is expected to rise to 14.4% from 10.7%.
The prevalence of cardiovascular disease and stroke in women is expected to rise to 14.4% from 10.7% by 2050. (iStock)
Not all trends were negative, as unhealthy cholesterol prevalence is expected to drop to about 22% from more than 42% today, the report stated.
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Dr. Elizabeth Klodas, a cardiologist and founder of Step One Foods in Minnesota, commented on these “jarring findings.”
“The fact that on our current trajectory, cardiometabolic disease is projected to explode in women within one generation should be a huge wake-up call,” she told Fox News Digital.
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“Hypertension, diabetes, obesity — these are all major risk factors for heart disease, and we are already seeing what those risks are driving. Heart disease is the No. 1 killer of women, eclipsing all other causes of death, including breast cancer.”
Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death for women in the U.S. and around the world. (iStock)
Klodas warned that heart disease starts early, progresses “stealthily,” and can present “out of the blue in devastating ways.”
The AHA published another study on Thursday revealing one million hospitalizations, showing that heart attack deaths are climbing among adults below the age of 55.
The more alarming finding, according to Klodas, is that young women were found more likely to die after their first heart attack than men of the same age.
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“This is all especially tragic since heart disease is almost entirely preventable,” she said. “The earlier you start, the better.”
Children can show early evidence of plaque deposition in their arteries, which can be reversed through lifestyle changes if “undertaken early enough and aggressively enough,” according to the expert.
Moving more is one part of protecting a healthy heart, according to experts. (iStock)
Klodas suggested that rising heart conditions are associated with traditional risk factors, like smoking, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, obesity and a sedentary lifestyle.
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Doctors are also seeing higher rates of preeclampsia, or high blood pressure during pregnancy, as well as gestational diabetes. Klodas noted that these are sex-specific risk factors that don’t typically contribute to complications until after menopause.
The best way to protect a healthy heart is to “do the basics,” Klodas recommended, including the following lifestyle habits.
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Klodas especially emphasized making improvements to diet, as the food people eat affects “every single risk factor that the AHA’s report highlights.”
“High blood pressure, high blood sugar, high cholesterol, excess weight – these are all conditions that are driven in part or in whole by food,” she said. “We eat multiple times every single day, which means what we eat has profound cumulative effects over time.”
“Even a small improvement in dietary intake, when maintained, can have a massive positive impact on health,” a doctor said. (iStock)
“Even a small improvement in dietary intake, when maintained, can have a massive positive impact on health.”
The doctor also recommends changing out a few snacks per day for healthier choices, which has been proven to “yield medication-level cholesterol reductions” in a month.
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“Keep up that small change and, over the course of a year, you could also lose 20 pounds and reduce your sodium intake enough to avoid blood pressure-lowering medications,” Klodas added.
“Women should not view the AHA report as inevitable. We have power over our health destinies. We just need to use it.”
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Nearsightedness (myopia) is skyrocketing globally, with nearly half of the world’s population expected to be myopic by 2050, according to the World Health Organization.
Heavy use of smartphones and other devices is associated with an 80% higher risk of myopia when combined with excessive computer use, but a new study suggests that dim indoor lighting could also be a factor.
For years, scientists have been puzzled by the different ways myopia is triggered. In lab settings, it can be induced by blurring vision or using different lenses. Conversely, it can be slowed by something as simple as spending time outdoors, research suggests.
Nearsightedness occurs when the eyeball grows too long from front to back, according to the American Optometric Association (AOA). This physical elongation causes light to focus in front of the retina rather than directly on it, making distant objects appear blurry.
The study suggests that myopia isn’t caused by the digital devices themselves, but by the low-light environments where they are typically used. (iStock)
Researchers at the State University of New York (SUNY) College of Optometry identified a potential specific trigger for this growth. When someone looks at a phone or a book up close, the pupil naturally constricts.
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“In bright outdoor light, the pupil constricts to protect the eye while still allowing ample light to reach the retina,” Urusha Maharjan, a SUNY Optometry doctoral student who conducted the study, said in a press release.
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“When people focus on close objects indoors, such as phones, tablets or books, the pupil can also constrict — not because of brightness, but to sharpen the image,” she went on. “In dim lighting, this combination may significantly reduce retinal illumination.”
High-intensity natural light prevents myopia because it provides enough retinal stimulation to override the “stop growing” signal, even when pupils are constricted. (iStock)
The hypothesis suggests that when the retina is deprived of light during extended close-up work, it sends a signal for the eye to grow.
In a dim environment, the narrowed pupil allows so little light through that the retinal activity isn’t strong enough to signal the eye to stop growing, the researchers found.
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In contrast, being outdoors provides light levels much brighter than indoors. This ensures that even when the pupil narrows to focus on a nearby object, the retina still receives a strong signal, maintaining healthy eye development.
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The team noted some limitations of the study, including the small subject group and the inability to directly measure internal lens changes, as the bright backgrounds used to mimic the outdoors made pupils too small for standard equipment.
Researchers believe that increasing indoor brightness during close-up work could be a simple, testable way to slow the global nearsightedness epidemic. (iStock)
“This is not a final answer,” Jose-Manuel Alonso, MD, PhD, SUNY distinguished professor and senior author of the study, said in the release.
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“But the study offers a testable hypothesis that reframes how visual habits, lighting and eye focusing interact.”
The study was published in the journal Cell Reports.
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