When a person sustains trauma to her spine, she can fracture or dislocate vertebrae in her spine, according to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). Some people may become paralyzed or lose sensation in certain areas of the body. The MayoClinic.com points out that the most common cause of spinal cord is motor vehicle accidents, which accounts for more than 40 percent of cases. Other common causes include falls, sports injuries and acts of violence. In people ages 65 and over, falls are the most common cause of spinal cord injuries. Non-traumatic events can also cause spinal cord injuries, such as arthritis, osteoporosis and cancer.
Spinal cord injuries fall into categories: incomplete and complete. People with incomplete spinal cord injuries still have some motor or sensory functions below the site of the injury, while people with complete spinal cord injuries lose all their motor and sensory functions below the site of the injury. The MayoClinic.com explains that current treatments available for spinal cord injuries cannot reverse any damage to the spinal cord. For example, if a person sustains a complete spinal cord injury, she may never be able to walk again. But some new treatments are looking at changing this. A new study funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) notes that folate can help heal spinal cord tissue damage during an injury in rats.
But what is folate? A water-soluable B vitamin, folate can be found in certain foods, such as fruits, dried peas and beans, and leafy green vegetables, such as spinach. Folate helps with the production and maintenance of new cells—the vitamin is needed by the body to make DNA and RNA. The NIH's Office of Dietary Supplements points out that women ages 19 and older should take 400 μg (micrograms) of folate a day. That amount increased to 500 μg (micrograms) a day when breast-feeding and 600 μg (micrograms) a day when pregnant.
With the NIH-funded study, the researchers found that “the healing effects of [folate] increased with dosage, until regrowth of the damaged tissue reached a maximum level.” In particular, folate helps require damaged axons, which are part of the neuron. The researchers note that when the rats with the spinal cord injuries received folate, the tissue produced receptors for folate, which take in the vitamin and allow it to be used by the nerve cells. Once absorbed, the cells produced “enzymes that attach methyl groups to DNA,” according to the NIH. While this particular study focused on rats, its finding can open up new treatment options for human patients.