Why Do People Lose Control

Think about the world. There is so much out of our direct control: the weather, politics, other people, time. Really, the only thing we have that is truly ours is our own bodies. What would happen if we lost control of that too? Most people would give up; lose hope. Very few people will look on the bright side and make the most of the situation. The reality is that about 12,500 people lose control of their bodies, the one thing that truly submits to their wills, each year in the United States alone due to spinal cord injuries (SCIs). Imagine if all those people could get their lives back, could regain that control. That's what I'm aiming to accomplish during my life: reversing the effects of SCIs.
I met a girl by the name of Haley Nuñez over the summer. She has a friend who loved to ride his dirtbike. One day, he lost control of the bike, and, instead of landing on his wheels, he landed on his head, causing his cervical vertebrae to fracture and his spinal cord to become severely damaged. He now uses a motorized wheelchair and will likely never ride a dirt bike again. Luckily, he was one of the very few who decided to have an optimistic outlook and still enjoy life, but there are still thousands of people who allow their lives to be ruined by catastrophes like this. They know that hope for recovery is practically hopeless because there has …show more content…
The central nervous system (CNS) is actually very different from the peripheral nervous system (PNS) when it comes to repairing itself. The PNS has chemicals that flock to sites of injuries to promote regrowth and repair, so nerve damage to a finger or toe is likely to heal. The CNS, on the contrary, sends chemicals that block cells from repairing themselves. Therefore, one of the first challenges that must be overcome is finding a way to replace those growth inhibiting chemicals with the growth-promoting chemicals found in the