Organ

SPINAL CORD

The spinal cord is a long and narrow bundle of nervous tissue and support cells, which extends from base of our brain to the upper lumbar region. It passes through the backbone means the spine. The spinal cord consists of millions of nerve fibers that facilitates the transmission of neural signals between the brain and various parts of the body. The vertebral column is made up of 33 bones called as the vertebrae, stacked one upon the other. In between these bones lie intervertebral disc s, this holds them together and facilitates the movement of our backbone. The vertebral column has small spaces through which the spinal nerves exit the spinal cavity and spread throughout the body. A layer of cerebrospinal fluid protects it from getting damaged by coming in contact with the inner side of the vertebral column. The spinal cord is organized into the section same as the vertebral column.

Published December 22, 2021

Functions:

The primary function of the spinal cord is to facilitate transfer of information from the brain to the rest of the body and vice versa. Another function of spinal cord is to co ordinate our reflexes. Reflexes are basically built in responses of our body to danger stimuli. Like if you touch the hot object, you pull your hand back as soon as you sense the heat. Almost all important human body functions, including the respiratory control and sexual health depends directly or indirectly on the spinal cord.

Diseases:

The causes of the spinal cord disorders include injuries, infections, a blocked blood supply, and compression by a fractured bone or a tumour. Spinal stenosis, spina bifida, spinal muscular atrophy, prolapse of vertebral disc may cause pain in back most of the times, Spondylosis may be cervical spondylosis, lumbar spondylosis, these are the conditions which can cause pain or stiffness in back.

Interesting Facts:

You know the interesting thing about spinal bones that when we are babies, we have thirty three vertebrae, but as adults we end up with twenty six. What happens to the nine remaining bones? Four of them fuse to make our tail bone and five fuse to make the back of the pelvis. The spine contains over 120 muscles, 220 ligaments and over 100 joints.