Help please...?

Question

I have some questions about human anatomy; the spine and the spinal cord:

1. If you get hit hard in the backbone/spine (a human punch), can it stunt growth? Can it cause scoliosis? Can it damage the growth plate?

2. If you get hit in the backbone/spine, can it cause a dent in the vertebrate (if it could, could it stunt growth)? Can you misalign a vertebrate (if it could, could it stunt growth)? Can it slightly push it in (if it could, could it stunt growth)?

3. What are the symptoms for spinal cord injury and if it is very very slightly damaged what would happen to your body?

4. What is the chance of damaging your spinal cord or one of the spine's vertebrate in order for you to stunt your growth? How damaged needs to be both of these to stunt growth (give examples plz).

Answer 1

I'll try to give you more specific answers.

1. If hit hard enough, yes, growth plate can be damaged. Growth plates can be damaged by trauma if enough forces are used. But I don't think'll be easy to damage growth plate of a vertegra via punch. As far as causing scoliosis. It can case what's called antalgic scoliosis. That the lateral curvature of the curve due to pain or spasm and body trying to assume the nonpainful position. Usually, it's easy to treat as once pain sources is taken care of, curvature is self corrected.

2. No..bones do not dent. If hit hard enough, you could fracture it. If the fracture is on growth plate, yes it can stunt growth. But not overall growth. Just that one segment of vertetra that was damaged. And yes you can misalign the vertebra that way. It's called anterolisthesis or retrolisthesis (slippage of vertebra forward or backward). Usual cause of the condition is trauma and you need to fracture the pedicles before this can happen. And no, this won't effect growth neither overall or segmental.

3. Some of the symptoms for spinal cord injury includes thingling, numbness, shooting pain, weak muscles, fasciculation of the muscles, loss of organ function (bowel movement or bladder control for example)...but there are many conditions that mimic each of the above symptoms..so you shouldn't try to self diagnose. If any of the symptoms exist, go see a doctor.

4. I'd rather not answer this one. Just too suspicious. It just doesn't do any good for anyone to know. If you suspect that you or someone you know may have spinal cord injury, please go to emergency room ASAP as any loss of function you may incur from spinal cord damage could be permanent if not treated within certain time frame.

Answer 2

Injury to the spine should not actually stunt your growth. Growth is control by hormones. The spinal cord is a giant nerve and serves as the pathway for communication between your brain and body.

If the bones of the spine are injured or broken, it can affect HOW you grow. Bone spurs or improperly healed bones can cause deformities like a hunchback. If these injuries cause deformities that limit the ability of the body to supply oxygen and nutrients to the body, those parts that are deprived might not grow to their full potential, like crops that don't get enough water.

Damage to the spinal cord (or even pressure on the cord from a damaged vertebra) can cause other portions of your body not to work correctly (or at all) because the commands to the muscles that control that area might not be getting through correctly (or at all). It's not easy to predict what damage/pressure will do because there are a lot of factors.

Sorry to be so vague, but it's a hugely complicated subject, and hard to give general guidelines for... Hope this helps!
Ed, RN

Answer 3

Wow. What's going on? Are you thinking you're too tall? Hope not.
1. no to everything
2. no to all questions
3. spinal cord injuries show up in many ways, but they're usually the result of a severe trauma. I've never heard of slightly damaged spinal cord.
4. the chances are poor. Don't try this. There is nothing wrong with being tall.
You may need to look into therapy about this.
I'm tall, and proud of it.