By A.WillisonReviewed by B.DaviesHumans require many different repair and renewal strategies. At the earliest point in life, we need these pathways to grow and develop but in later life, we use these pathways to recover from disease and injury. For this, our bodies activate a unique type of cell known as a stem cell. Stem cells are a special form of cell, as they can make any cell type in the body, and so can provide building blocks for our organs and tissues. Over the past 20 year [...]
By Iwan SadlerWords can be powerful when spoken or in thought. Words are used on so many different levels from the expression of your thoughts to the decision you will make within the moment.Peace is delivered with words but also wars are started by the spoken or written word.We choose our life choices on words. The average person can speak between 125 and 150 words a minute, but the rate of "expanded inner speech! (word-for-word) is slightly faster than verbal speech. That puts i [...]
By Timothy BoergerReviewed by B.DaviesReason for the studyThe number of times a paper is cited is a common metric of how meaningful that paper is to the scientific community. Generally, papers that are highly cited have a profound impact on their field. If scientists look at the trends of which papers are most cited, it can give us an idea of what topics within a scientific discipline are experiencing the most interest over time.MethodsThe prominent journals publishing resear [...]
By M StewartEditor: B DaviesIt’s a commonly held belief that you can’t grow new brain cells as adult; you’re born with one hundred billion neurons and that’s as many as you’re getting. However, this isn’t quite the case. While new neurons don’t form in most parts of the human central nervous system (the brain and spinal cord), there are two special areas where new neurons do indeed arise after birth. These areas are found in specific parts of the brain w [...]
BY Alison Murphy MY...Hell...opathy Laughing & living with Cervical MyelopathyYesterday, my husband dropped me off at the swimming baths. The large float around my waist and my cycling style of swimming does raise a smile or two. Some call me a ninja turtle, some the barnacle woman. Today my predicament was in the changing room. With my combination lock. I tried it, retried it, again and again to no avail. It wasn't the wrong combination; it's [...]
By Timothy BoergerReviewed by B.DaviesNeck Muscles and CSM– An Update Part 1 of 2 This will be the first of a 2 part mini-series on the properties of muscles in the neck and how they impacts outcomes of surgery. We previously looked at this following an early piece of research from North America. This series will serve as an update on this research. Why was this study conducted?As outlined previously, the amount of fat found within muscles has been linked [...]
By O.MowforthEdited by B.DaviesWe don’t really know what symptoms a “typical” patient with myelopathy has. In fact, the huge number of often quite subtle and non-specific symptoms is probably one of the main reasons why early diagnosis is so challenging (Davies et al., 2018). When medical students prepare for exams they tend to learn stereotypical descriptions of conditions. For myelopathy, this might be a patient with walking problems and clumsy hands.Howeve [...]
As a Myelopathy.org Community Champion, I had the honour of holding the charity’s first fundraiser at my local football club. Community Champion Frank Dutton Myelopathy.org and Myelopathy Support on Facebook have been a great help for both me and my wife since my diagnosis in 2016. Since then, life has been difficult to say the least. Cervical myelopathy, and the accidents it has caused, have led to me going under the knife for no less than six major surgeries. These have significantly a [...]
