When someone experiences a vertebral rupture due to an accident, they often lose general movement in specific parts of their body. However, I’ve always wondered why, given the advancements in technology, it remains challenging to rebuild the vertebrae and allow the body to heal itself, given the body even has the ability to do it.
In: 124
The parts of the nerves that need repairing are too small to manipulate physically. Our best microsurgery isn’t good enough to repair that kind of damage yet. [We’re getting there; it’s an area of active research.](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17478254)
The chemistry is too complex for a chemical repair solution (drugs). Most medications target very specific parts or processes of a cell; nerve repair involves the entire cell, chemistry that is many orders of magnitude more complex than any medication can handle. We have made some progress in using chemistry to trigger self-repair, but nerves’ self-repair function is mostly non-existent. Stem cells appear very promising in this direction, but stem cell research is mired in religious controversy, so progress is slow.
Latest Answers