News
10/20/2008
Detroit Free Press article
Paralyzed woman tests whether exercise will augment surgery
Erica Nader vs. paralysis, round 2
BY PATRICIA ANSTETT
FREE PRESS MEDICAL WRITER
Erica Nader, a West Bloomfield woman and the first U.S. patient to undergo experimental stem cell surgery in Portugal to repair her damaged spinal cord, works out intensely below a T-shirt hanging from the ceiling at her rehabilitation business.
“Train Insane or Stay the Same,” the shirt says, the same philosophy that frames Nader’s recovery from a spinal cord injury — and her unconventional rehabilitation regimen.
Paralyzed from the mid-chest down in an auto accident seven years ago, Nader, 30, has adjusted her daily intensive therapy to focus on standing upright and walking. The exercises are more intense, focused and different from the endurance and upper body strength therapy that most patients get.
She works out three hours a day, five days a week at Walk the Line to SCI Recovery, a Ferndale rehabilitation business she started last year.
It is one of about two dozen programs nationwide that emphasize intensive exercise regimens for spinal cord injury patients. More conventional programs focus on functional daily activities, like transferring from a bed to a wheelchair, or eating food or drinking from a cup. Intense therapy such as Nader’s tends to be offered to people with less serious spinal cord injuries.
Nader attributes the improvements she has made in the last year to the weight-bearing exercises in her regimen that are designed to put her feet on the ground as much as possible. During training, she usually uses either a standing frame or an overhead harness system that supports her while she takes steps.
Since changing the focus in her training to more weight-bearing activity earlier this year, she has noticed her breathing, balance and core strength improve. She feels sensation in her lower limbs at times, for the first time.
The stepping movements and knee flexion exercises, known to professionals in the field as locomotor training, help reawaken dormant nerve cells in the spinal cord, experts say, citing 20 years of studies. They should provide lifelong benefits that reduce health costs, researchers say.
The key, Nader and others say, is that the exercise must place weight on her feet, relying less on technology to do the work for her. “I call it sweat equity,” Nader said. “This is more difficult, but it’s definitely more beneficial.”
Her story provides hope and answers for the 250,000 Americans living with a spinal cord injury. More than 13,000 are newly injured each year, according to the National Spinal Cord Injury Database, a national registry. Many have been told they’d never walk again or regain functions they lost.
Not all agree
Many specialists in the field of rehabilitation medicine say they are waiting for more study about what exercises really work.
There’s concern too much exercise may weaken the bones of people already at risk of bone loss from lack of weight-bearing exercise.
“It’s premature to tell people with spinal cord injuries, if you exercise intensely enough, you’ll restore special cord function and be able to walk,” said Dr. Ed Nieshoff, director of the spinal cord injury recovery program at the Detroit Medical Center’s Rehabilitation Institute of Michigan, a top program that attracts patients from around the world.
Dr. Gianna Rodriguez, a spinal cord injury specialist at the University of Michigan’s Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, said she and others worry that intensive therapies may cause injuries.
The U-M program, like many around the country, focuses more on endurance and upper body strengthening for the most seriously injured patients.
Another obstacle is health insurance. Most plans typically don’t cover intense therapy programs. But a person injured in an auto accident, such as Nader, in a no-fault state like Michigan, can get coverage funded through a state system.
Even then, a person’s coverage may be dropped if an insurer decides progress hasn’t been made and documented.
Walk the Line charges $375 a day for three hours of exercises. Some places, including Nader’s, offer scholarships.
‘Surgery is not enough’
Nader’s story has been followed by people with spinal cord injuries worldwide since she became the first American to have stem cell surgery in Portugal, in March 2003. The operation uses adult stem cells extracted from a person’s own body, in the upper reaches of the nasal cavity, and implants them in the spinal cord at the injury site.
Her Portuguese doctor, visiting Nader’s program in September, said it’s now very clear, after 200 of the operations, that stem-cell surgery alone “is not a silver bullet” some patients seek.
“The most important thing we’ve learned is that the surgery is not enough,” said Dr. Carlos Lima, a neuropathologist and spokesman for the Lisbon stem-cell team.
“The surgery has to be complemented by rehabilitation.”
Dr. Susan Harkema, head of rehabilitation medicine at the University of Louisville and a leading researcher in the field, said locomotor training can help the most severely injured patients relearn how to stand. But they cannot manage sustained movement such as walking on their own.
Twenty years of study in humans has shown that the spinal cord has its own sophisticated nerve system that helps it recall how to move, Harkema said. She awaits new drugs, perhaps injected into the spine, to complement exercise and help regenerate spinal cord nerves. And the stronger a person is, the healthier and better he or she will be for treatments down the road, Harkema said.
“Everyone has the feeling we’re close to finding the combination of strategies” that helps patients most, added Dr. Edelle Field-Fote, associate professor of physical therapy and neurological surgery at the University of Miami, which has a cutting edge program for spinal cord injury.
Nader believes that the work and money for the therapy is worth it. She said she is stronger, quicker and healthier than she was just a year ago. She’s encouraged that seven years after her injury she continues to make progress, both walking and exercising.
Nader’s therapy remains covered. She tells people with spinal cord injuries to save money for rehab.
“However you are doing it, be sure you have a big enough pot of money to do the therapy afterwards,” said Nader.
She expects a lifetime of better health, and lower medical costs.
“Over time, I’ve learned that the actual physical part of walking is a small part of the recovery process,” Nader said.
08/14/2008
Walk The Line Hosts Town Hall Meeting
08/08/2008
Conscious Nutrition Comes to Walk The Line!
Walk The Line welcomes Heather Fleming of Conscious Nutrition August 13, 14, 15. Heather will be scheduling individual nutritional assessments, hosting a “healthy happy hour”, offering information on healthy foods, supplements and resources for better nutrition.
For more information on Heather Fleming and Conscious Nutrition visit:
www.consciousnutrition.com
Come join us at Walk The Line To SCI Recovery for a HEALTHY HAPPY HOUR Wednesday August 13. The HEALTHY HAPPY HOUR will include nutritious refreshments and snacks accompanied by a presentation.
The HEALTHY HAPPY HOUR is FREE and open to the public. Come see how easy (and FUN) eating healthy can be!!!
HEALTHY HAPPY HOUR
WEDNESDAY AUGUST 13
5-7PM
@ WALK THE LINE TO SCI RECOVERY
23257 WOODWARD
FERNDALE 48220
248-691-4540
SPACE IS LIMITED- PLEASE RSVP BY TUESDAY AUG.12
See you there!
Erica
www.walkthelinetoscirecovery.com
For more information call 248-691-4540 or email INFO@WALKTHELINETOSCIRECOVERY.COM
07/21/2008
2008 Erica Nader Award
On June 21, 2008 the 5th Annual Erica Nader Award was presented to Dr. Jerry Silver at the 2008 ASIA Conference in San Diego, CA.
The Erica Nader Award is generously funded by the Viscogliosi Brothers LLC and is awarded for breakthrough research in spinal cord regeneration.
Read Erica Nader’s presentation speech at the 2008 ASIA conference award ceremony.
Nothing Is Impossible
Difficult things take a long time, impossible things a little longer. ~Author Unknown
This quote begs the question, what is impossible? Many of us have been faced with what seems to be an “impossible” situation at some time in our lives. The odds are stacked against you, the goal seems almost out of reach and you may even question your own ability to make the impossible—possible.
The Erica Nader Award is generously funded through the Viscogliosi Brothers, LLC for breakthrough research in the area of spinal cord regeneration. Now in it’s fifth year this award has provided much needed funding for scientists leading the way in the field of spinal cord injury recovery. This award also strives to serve as a beacon of hope for those of us in the spinal cord injured communities, our family and friends.
In October of 2001 after a car accident left me with a C6/7 spinal cord injury the list of “impossibles” began to stack up. The list that slowly compiled in my head of things I would never be able to do, including walking, were all confirmed by my doctors. Many of the “impossibles” on my list such as sitting up independently, transferring independently and pushing a manual chair have all been moved to my “possible” list.
Six years ago when my family and I were looking for spinal cord injury recovery programs the words spinal cord injury and recovery were hardly even uttered in the same sentence. At that time only 2 or 3 programs existed in the world. Now, not even seven years since we first searched the Internet for “Spinal cord injury recovery” there are nearly two dozen SCI recovery-exercise based programs in the world with over half of those in the USA.
Those of us involved in intense, exercise based SCI recovery programs are making progress towards our individual goals of recovering from our injuries. We dedicate in some cases 25 hours or more a week to various “non-traditional” therapies, we sacrifice our time, money and relationships all in the pursuit of a recovery that we know is real. As a participant in such a program and the owner of a Detroit based SCI recovery facility my hope for recovery is reaffirmed daily by either my own progress or that of our clients.
This morning I have come before you to present this award on behalf of the Viscogliosi Brothers, my family and the SCI community. I have also come with a message from the “front lines”-
The SCI community is ready for recovery- with hard work and determination we are making progress everyday but we need your help to finish the job. Now more than ever the SCI community understands that recovery doesn’t come in a pill or a syringe – recovery starts as a whisper in our minds that is heard by our bodies.
This year’s recipient of the Erica Nader Award, Dr. Jerry Silver, knows a thing or two about overcoming the “impossible”. Dr. Silver has developed a micro transplantation technique which enables the injection of adult neurons into normal or lesioned white matter tracts of the adult CNS, without causing the formation of additional reactive astroglial associated inhibitory molecules via the transplantation itself. In so doing, Dr. Silver discovered that adult nerve cells could regenerate their axons with high efficiency and at high rates of speed. We are excited about his work and look forward to learning more.
While my ultimate goal of a full recovery and walking again has not yet been reached, it is within sight. The road to recovery is long and it is not traveled alone. I’d like to thank the Viscogliosi Brothers for generously supporting the Erica Nader Award, the ASIA conference for embracing spinal cord injury regeneration research and this year’s recipient, Dr. Jerry Silver, for challenging the paradigms and for his breakthrough research bringing us one step closer to the recovery so many of us seek.
07/11/2008
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO US!
One year ago today, Friday July 11, three trainers, one family, three clients and a doctor started the vision of creating the best SCI Recovery program in the world
One year later we are so happy to have expanded the WALK THE LINE family and ARE the best Recovery program in the world!
Thank you to all who have been a part of this wonderful experience.
04/27/2008
Yoga @ Walk The Line 2pm
Walk The Line along with Mindy Eisenberg and colleagues of Yoga Spirit & Wellness will be hosting an Introduction to Adaptive Yoga on Sunday April 27 from 2-4pm at Walk the Line in Ferndale.
This class will be free to attendees. A donation of $10 to benefit the MS Foundation is requested but not required for participation.
We will also need volunteers to assist with transfers and positioning throughout the class.
Please RSVP to .
Feel free to call (248-691-4540) or email for further info or questions.
04/19/2008
Reiki @ Walk The Line
Thanks to the generosity of Jen VanderWal and her colleagues for the donation of their time and energy, Walk The Line is happy to be hosting monthly free reiki shares.
Reiki is a Japanese technique for stress reduction and relaxation that also promotes healing. It is administered by “laying on hands” and is based on the idea that an unseen “life force energy” flows through us and is what causes us to be alive. If one’s “life force energy” is low, then we are more likely to get sick or feel stress, and if it is high, we are more capable of being happy and healthy.
Reiki treats the whole person including body, emotions, mind and spirit creating many beneficial effects that include relaxation and feelings of peace, security and wellbeing. Many have reported miraculous results.
Reiki is a simple, natural and safe method of spiritual healing and self-improvement that everyone can use. It has been effective in helping virtually every known illness and malady and always creates a beneficial effect. It also works in conjunction with all other medical or therapeutic techniques to relieve side effects and promote recovery.
Join us for friends, refreshments and energy! For more information and/or directions please refer to the contact us page.
04/05/2008
Yoga with Matthew Sanford, author of “Waking”
It took a devastating car accident, paralysis from the chest down, and dependence on a wheelchair before I truly realized the importance of my body.-Matthew Sanford
Matthew has dedicated his life to sharing the fundamental importance of the mind-body relationship. For him, mind-body integration is not just a personal health strategy. It is a movement of consciousness. To take hold, it must be both practical and spiritual, both inspirational and pragmatic.
Matthew teaches yoga to people of all abilities but he is a pioneer in adapting yoga for people living with disabilities.
On Saturday April 5 Matthew Sanford was generous enough to host a private yoga session for Walk The Line clients and trainers at the Johnny Kest Center For Yoga in West Bloomfield, MI.
Walk The Line is looking forward to integrating yoga into our recovery philosophy as well as hosting adaptive yoga classes open to the SCI and disabled community.
02/18/2008
Reiki at Walk The Line
Last month Walk The Line To SCI Recovery hosted the first, of hopefully many, reiki shares. Jennifer VanderWal and colleagues donated their time and healing energy to offer Walk The Line friends and family complimentary healing sessions.
Everyone had such a great time that Jen has offered to do it again!
Saturday March 1, 2008 @2pm FREE reiki share at Walk The Line in Ferndale.
01/30/2008
Walk The Line in HOUR Detroit Magazine
Walk The Line & Erica Nader are featured in the February issue of HOUR Detroit magazine on page 34.
The Insider feature focuses on Nader’s road to recovery from her SCI sustained in 2001. In July of 2007 Nader opened Walk The Line To SCI Recovery in Ferndale to offer a place of heatlh, wellness and recovery.
