Why does a person who has suffered a spinal cord
injury often become much more susceptible to heart disease?
A new study undertaken at the
Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada and the
Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation seeks to answer this question. The
answer may lie in a previously less emphasized area--autonomic nervous system
pathways disrupted by
spinal cord injury (SCI).
Autonomic pathways serve involuntary functions of the internal body, involving
organs of respiration, digestion, elimination, circulation. Lungs, heart,
stomach, gall bladder, liver, pancreas, spleen, intestines, blood and lymph
vessels, reproductive organs, glands. All structures and functions unseen
by the eyes are maintained by autonomic nerve pathways which travel from the
brain through the spine to the internal body.
The research was targeted specifically to heart disease, which affects people
with spinal cord injury disproportionately, and at a younger age than the
general population.
The study involved assessments of a control group of 14 able-bodied persons and
another group of 20 persons who have sustained SCI. The group of 20 was
further subdivided into those who had sustained autonomic pathway disruption
with those who had not.
Conclusive findings showed that while both SCI groups had high cholesterol, the
group with autonomic nerve pathway disruption had considerably less glucose
tolerance and greater overall fat and abdominal fat, putting them in a
prediabetic state, a known factor in increasing heart disease risk.
Also noteworthy, the SCI control group with autonomic pathway disruption showed
less normal indicators of internal functioning overall, even with a healthy
lifestyle including exercise. It remains inconclusive at this stage
whether patients' pattern of internal dysfunction is due solely to such
disruption, or to patient characteristics after such an injury.
While there is clearly a requirement for more independent research, the study
points to a directive--more thorough screening of patients with spinal cord
injury. In addition to measuring of sensory and motor damage, patients
should be tested for autonomic nerve functioning after an injury.