Sports and Spinal Cord Injuries

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Wherever you heard T.J Ford, you would always hear of his astounding and flashy plays. However, due to severe injuries, it resulted in the superstar’s retirement. Ford was a great player during his tenure in the NCAA and was already breaking records in his freshman year. Some of his accolades include the wooden player of the year at Texas when took his team the Texas Longhorns to the final four. Ford did achieve many accomplishments in the NBA, but not to his full potential has he had expected in college. Ford went through injuries throughout his NBA career such as his injured tailbone, which he gained during his rookie season and the injury that left him retired was his spinal injury. Even after months of the recovery, he was still feeling the after effects of the injury and had to take extra cautions. The injury to his tailbone caused Ford to be very injury prone, a minor injury could cause him to end career. The career ending injury would be a simple elbow to his back by Baron Davis the Knicks point guard. T.J. Ford stated that “If it's anybody else, it's just a regular play… But because of me and my condition, a simple elbow in my back has a different outcome than hitting some else in the back”. (1)

Spinal cord injuries are excruciating, emotional and physical for people who endure these damages. The spinal cord has countless nerves that run down the back and carry signals back and forth form the body to the brain. These injuries are usually caused by a blow or dislocation of a vertebra on or around the spinal cord. The spinal cord does not usually cut through the vertebrae, but the vertebrae pieces press down on the nerves, which causes a very sharp pain. Spinal cord injuries can be categorized into complete or incomplet...

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... injury a person is at their weakest. With a regular quantity of certain foods, it will help the process continue at a balanced rate. People with spinal cord injuries have different protein, carbohydrate, and fat requirements and are required to lower their calorie intake since they would have a lower metabolic rate; protein should be increased to 1.5g per kg of body weight to help increase healing of wounds, and fats should be lowered because of the lower metabolic rates of spinal cord injured individual’s. The main point of good nutrition is to prevent future damage to the body and with good nutrition it helps lower the risk of multiple illnesses such as osteoporosis, diabetes, heart disease, and urinary tract infections. Lastly, rehabilitation helps with pain management by medication like non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, narcotics, and strong pain killers.

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