Is there a Cure for Cerebral Palsy
What is Cerebral Palsy?
Cerebral palsy is a term used to describe a group of chronic conditions affecting body movements and muscle coordination. It is caused by damage to one or more specific areas of the brain, usually occurring during fetal development or infancy. It also can occur before, during or shortly following birth.
"Cerebral" refers to the brain and "Palsy" to a disorder of movement or posture. If someone has cerebral palsy it means that because of an injury to their brain (cerebral) they are not able to use some of the muscles in their body in the normal way (palsy). Children with cerebral palsy may not be able to walk, talk, eat or play in the same ways as most other children.
Cerebral palsy is a term covering many different disorders of motor control caused by brain damage. Though researchers diligently search for a cure for cerebral palsy, none will be available until we learn how to repair damage to the brain. Preventing brain damage is the number one way to stop cerebral palsy. The brain damage causing cerebral palsy usually occurs early in fetus development but can occur from non-congenital reasons after birth as well.
Since there is currently no cure for cerebral palsy, most heath care professionals work to help people with CP to gain as much independence as possible. Physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy are utilized to maximize the potential for independence. Other treatments like medication and surgery are used to reduce spasticity, seizures and other physical symptoms of cerebral palsy.
If you are interested in learning more about intensive pediatric physical therapy to help a child with cerebral palsy, you can visit www.europeds.org which is the website for Euro-Peds® National Center for Intensive Pediatric PT out of Doctors’ Hospital of Michigan.
*Cerebral Palsy is commonly misspelled as cerable, cerebrol, cerabol, cerbal, sarabel and sarabol.
