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Lab Rat Walking

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I love science and am constantly amazed at the things researchers are able to discover through careful, methodical experimentation. These human “lab rats” are the smartest people around, and they provide the best hope for our future together!

But I’m worried that we may be missing something fundamental in the latest results that suggest actual rats whose spinal cords have been severed (by scientists) can learn to walk again through the combined application of chemicals, electricity, physical therapy, technology and chocolate.

After the rodent’s spinal cords were cut (by scientists), the animals lost the use of their back legs. Different approaches were tried to get them moving again. The one that worked best used all of the above elements and resulted in a number of the rats experiencing a “nearly complete regrowth of severed spinal fibers.” Amazing. Some of the creatures were described as “sprinting up” a ramp to retrieve their reward.

There’s a video on the National Geographic website that shows all this happening.
The poor things are working so hard! But what inspired their comeback?

I didn’t see Burgess Meredith cheering them on from ringside, but I definitely heard a different kind of music to accompany the video of these striving rats. I know we’re not supposed to anthropomorphize them, but what if rat recovery from surgical paralysis is really aided, not by electricity, drugs and chocolate, but by white hot feelings of ratty vengeance that inspire them to perform unlikely feats, such as running up a very long flight of stairs?

Kinda like this?

What would you be doing in your inspirational “Rocky” training montage?

63 thoughts on “Lab Rat Walking”

  1. Since my left knee stopped working on Wednesday night I need the Rocky theme to put on my panty hose this morning.

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      1. PJ ,I was off to give a lecture-a task requiring hosiery. I am hoping this is the same thing that previously happened to my other knee-arthritis+torn meniscus Pain initially controlled with cortisone shot and eventually needed scope. Manageable problenm. Good news I only have 2 knees so this may be the end of the series!

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  2. i would be combining weight lifting, running, biking, swiming, tai chi, running up hills or stairs. i read an article the other day that the dvd excersize business is buzzing these days with poeple who pay 100 for the dvd rather than go to the club and deal cost and inconvenience of driving 20 minutes for a 40 minute workout.
    i do get a kick out of the new cultue in the locker room. it appears that women in general dont shower at the club they go home after their workout to do that. i am srprised that it is not a social event with coffee or smoothies after but so be it. the a,mazing thing i have observed at the club is that all high school age boys take showers whirlpools saunas and steambaths with swim suits or boxers on. i see it in the immigrant population and maybe thats where it comes from showering with guys form india and china but it is just odd.
    i got a tandem bicycle this year in hopes of doing a little organized excersize but so far i should probably go ahead and get started on my own. i do love to get a workout in 4 or 5 times a week and the rcky theme is not one that rings through my head while i am doing it. it would be a bit more like the song we heard the other day.

    thats not what i was looking for but its not bad.

    here is what i was looking for

    i hate the rocky music at the health club these days and the tv sets with radio channels below so people can turn on their headphones and listen while the mindlessly take the next step on the treadmill , eliptical, on a bike or a stair stepper, and whats with running on a track when we have the perfect weather going on outside? i am understanding people downtown not wanting to run behind bus fues but in the burbs where the woods get diriven by on the way to the club. whats with that. chocolate not me. maybe raspberries after the workout. an iced tea. not chocolate.

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    1. I’d kind of like to hear Kobe sing the song “Inch by Inch”..

      I think the young guys wearing boxers all the time might be related to a slight homophobia, from conversations I had with Joel when I offered that his friends could use our sauna.

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    2. Inch by inch…that’s not how I move yet, thank Goddess, but it is how I knit (garter stitch FTW!) and how I write. Bird by bird, nah, my method is word by word, and each word has to be “right” or I ‘m stuck until it is. Pretty good technique for a poet, actually, but not so good when you’re trying to write at length.

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      1. CG one year I took part in NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month. To finish successfully, an author must write 50,000 words in November,1667 a day if I remember correctly. It was all about word count and forced me to just write. There was a forum where we could share how we were dealing with that “inner editor,” IE. Someone pictured IE chained inside a locked cage in her garage, it was the only way she could keep her word count moving.

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        1. I’ve known several people who did NaNoWriMo. Most of them produced stuff that wasn’t publishable on its own but provided good material to be scavenged for other projects. One person got fired for writing on the job instead of working, but fortunately she was in a position to not care (partner made considerably more than she did).

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  3. For those who don’t read the late posts, Clyde checked in last night. His daughter and the whole kidney transplant chain are doing well. Sandy is having a bad time.

    I used to have a funny right-wing friend who spent a lifetime figuring out how he could drive to things rather than walking. He was amazed by my walking while bird hunting (which he wanted to do from a Suburban). He said, “Steve, when WW III comes along, you’ll be the last survivor. We could set you up with sandals cut from an old truck tire, some black pajamas and a little bagga rice. Set you out here on the prairie and you could out-walk anybody in the world.”

    That was then; this is now. In my Rocky moments now I would love to just be able to walk the way I once did.

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    1. glad to hear clyde is around sorry about sandy, great news abuot his daughter. if walking is your goal. that is a one step at a time proposition. get on it man. youll be there in a year or two. the good news is that year or two will go by with or without your getting involved. its up to you. i think you ar elooking great and the sleep seems to be making you less owly. keep it up.

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  4. Good morning. I should do a little physical training, but how do I work that in when there are so many other things I also want to do that don’t get enough attention? I couldn’t run the Rocky video because there is something that blocks it on my new computer. I was given a deal with my new computer that allows me to get help at no charge from Apple so I could find out why I can’t run videos like the Rocky video, but I haven’t gotten around to doing that.

    I need training on making better use of my time. Do you think Burgess Meredith could give me an inspirational speech about organizing me life so that I can get things done or do a better job of prioritizing? What kind of training would help me learn to become better organized?

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  5. At the moment, it would pretty much be my physical therapy regimen designed to regain the range of motion in my right arm and the full use of my right leg. I have progressed from “active assisted” range of motion therapy on the arm to just “active” range of motion therapy, which means that I no longer need to use my good arm to help move my injured one. In a couple of weeks, I’ll be adding weights to the regimen to regain some strength in an arm that has atrophied over a three-month period of non-use. Appropriate theme music would definitely be “Inch by Inch.”

    In the first video clip tim posted, Al Pacino says near the end that we don’t notice our abilities until we begin to lose them; boy have I come to appreciate the truth of that! I’m afraid that my leaping-tall-buildings-in-a-single-bound days are gone.

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    1. PJ, maybe you and should have a Range of Motion bout between your right arm and my left arm. My RoM went backwards last week when I gardened intensely and forgot my exercises while my mom was here.

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        2. Bolero’s not one of my favorite pieces of music. I find it tedious and interminable; it just goes on and on…like my recovery. Perhaps I need to learn to appreciate some of the subtle changes in both Bolero and my body.

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  6. Rise and Shine Baboons!

    I have my little exercise or walking regimen, depending on the time of year (see tim’s rant about getting outside–I like to walk outside in the Spring, Summer, and Autumn). I carry this out to Audiobooks, and I’m sticking with what works.

    Onward!

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  7. Dale’s introductory story calls to mind a quote from the late Will Cuppy: “Frogs will eat red-flannel worms fed to them by biologists. This tells you a great deal about both parties concerned.”

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  8. Every once in a while I think that I should get started on some kind of physical training program. It never happens or only last for a short time. My wife does get out for a walk with the dog on most days so she is including me in her program. This is just a walk around town for about 10 or 15 minutes. I used to think I was a fast walker, but now I have to push myself to keep up with my wife. However, I am able to do fairly strenuous labor without any problems. I like to hand spade my garden instead tilling it with power equipment and I use a shovel instead of a snow blower to clean my walks in the winter.

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    1. Jim, this is completely OT and random but I keep thinking you live in ‘Spring Grove’ rather than Clarks Grove.
      So I thought of you when Spring Grove announced their big auction of classic and collector cars. There’s even a Waterloo Boy on the bill.

      http://springgroveauctions.com/wp_car_dealer/

      But that’s not you so never mind. 🙂
      We detoured through Wells MN the other day coming back from Fairmont. (There’s a machinery dealership I like to drive through).

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      1. I don’t get to Fairmont very often, but I am well acquainted with Wells where some of Minnesota’s best organic farms live. If you ever think you would like to try organic farming those guys near Wells are always interested in helping and they can grow corn and soybeans that look as good or better than any of the other fields in their area.

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  9. Based on my week so far, my montage would consist of me shoveling documents into a scanner and flicking swiftly through database images to make sure they’re all bates-stamped. A montage of my athletic activity would be a very long tracking shot of me walking along the path beside the light rail, stopping to peer at ant swarms, talking to trees and crows, and nearly getting run over by bicyclists. There’d be two heart-stopping moments when I dash across busy intersections, threatened by cell-phone-distracted left-turning SUVs, and then the triumphant mounting of the stairs and home. I can’t even imagine what music they’d use–definitely not “Eye of the Tiger”, and 15 minutes of “The Imperial March” would be torturous. I’m guessing something from Holst’s “Planets,” and probably not “Jupiter,” either.

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      1. I’d never heard of that piece until now, strange to say. Gives me flashbacks to “Alive from Off Center”!

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  10. Morning–

    Well, here I am on the other end of the spectrum.

    Some one asked the other day what an ‘anti-gravity’ chair is. It’s a sort of reclining deck chair. Not sure why they call it ‘anti-gravity’ but they do.
    And I’m telling you, it is nice! Honestly, I lay down and I can just feel myself sink down and it feels like all the weights and burdens I’m carrying / thinking of, just rise up and float away! Seriously! Now, about two minutes of that and I think of the GLOTTMBD and I get up and get back at it…
    If you haven’t tried you, you should. Just go to Target / Kohls and check them out…

    We’re thinking of getting some for the living room rather then Lazy-boys. 🙂

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      2. i call that the worlds most comfortable chair. french patent holder charged 200 dollars for that chair until the patent ran out isaw it in china and spain for 30 ish niw its at costco in a choice of colors for 49 dollars and it is the world most comfortable chair i promise,

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  11. What I have added lately to my physical activity is simply standing up. I work a desk job and have been hearing on the news (MPR has had a couple of related stories) that a simple thing to help with reducing accumulation of body fat (including in your brain – eek!) is standing up every 20 minutes or so. And so much the better if I can move around a bit (go get some water, walk around the floor, even just walk around the cube wall to talk to my boss). Not exactly the stuff of “Gonna Fly Now” or “Eye of the Tiger”…that would be more like the nights where I get the dog out for a waddle (he’s a basset, not exactly a fast moving beast), get some baking done – or at least a more complete dinner made than egg salad sandwiches, get a some writing done (hah!), get the kid tucked in bed after reading the next chapter in our book, leave a note from the Tooth Fairy answering her questions, unclog the bathroom sink (again) and manage to be in bed before 11:30…

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  12. Love “Lab Rat Walking”, Dale.

    I’d probably start with me twirling around the living room at age 5, then cut to hopscotch and rollerskating, biking around the mulberry tree. Then we’ll jump straight to folk dancing, when I started to have confidence that I was coordinated again. (Notice we skipped high school and college.) Then we can have some folk dancers doing Kyustendilska Ruchenitsa (preferably from the year and a half that I was thin) and a lovely circle dance depicting plum trees, followed by some yoga and ending with T’ai Chi, the short form. Musical montage in the background…

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  13. OT – but related to the earlier topic of graduation speeches…Dessa from Doomtree (a fabulous hip hop artist and generally smart cookie) spoke at the U of MN and proclaimed the virtues of failure. It is,, indeed, a good graduation speech:

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    3. thats the one i got to see. she spoke at my daughters graduation on mothers day. she flew in the night before from europe and flew back out the afternoon after the graduation. i think she did our 125t pm and the 4 pm as well. it was a good talk. i was impressed. she is not the rapper you envision when you think of rapper. ifshe were there would be a different connotation.

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  15. OT (but nice): There has been an unusual collaboration in the country/folk music field. Mary Karr, a poet and author of some award-winning books, has collaborated with musician Rodney Crowell to create a fantastic album called “Kin.” They involved some of the best talent in the country/folk world. You can hear the album free for three more days at this site:

    http://www.folkalley.com/music/firstlisten/kin-karr-crowell#listen_area

    One of the songs has a naughty word in it I’ve never heard in a song before. 🙂

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  16. Hello Kids!

    You may not believe this but since school got out I’ve been tied up even more than usual. (insert Carlos joke here.) May 23 I flew out of MSP to New York for my son’s wedding. I stayed for a week and instead of driving right home I invited myself and daughter Kristin up to Barb’s goat farm. While Kristin busied herself taking picture, Barb and I sat in lawn chairs and drank Shandy. And YES we shared … with one of the goats but I forget which one; she had teats. Seriously – Barb has a beer-drinking mama goat! Then the next day I drove home via Albert Lea and met Mike, formerly known as Mayor Mike, for coffee and a caramel roll. Mostly we talked about how nice babooners are and how much better a state Minnesota is than South Dakota to live in because Minnesotans earn enough to buy out-of-towners coffee and a caramel roll. I also told Mike not to be a stranger on the Trail because there are enough strange people there already (tim).

    It’s good to be home and back to my carefree summer, and now I will be blogging more like God wants me to.

    Congratulations to Gus and the proud family! Math Teacher – sweet!

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    1. Holly, you are the best. I used to request that one on TLGMS, and I’ve always wanted some chorus director to let us do it! Maybe I’ll make that a project…

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      1. I concur, Holly. Great song. I’ll try to listen to it sometime. Congrats on your year-end! Will you also be blogging more this summer like moi?

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