A few days ago, blue food coloring was not much more than an additive to give food a certain appearance, but new research has found that it may be a valuable tool in reducing permanent damage to injured spinal nerves.
Research conducted at the Rochester Medical Center found that when the spine is injured, a sudden influx of Adenosine triphosphate (ATP) occurs. ATP is a compound that fuels many cellular functions, but it can cause additional damage to injured spinal nerves, resulting in more destroyed nerves than the injury could cause alone.

Building on this finding, researchers injected blue food dye into the spines of injured rats, and they found that the dye could block another spinal molecule, P2X7, from activating the ATP, resulting in reduced damage.

Rats who were injected with the dye recovered mobility with time, but with a limp. Rats who weren’t given the dye did not recover.

The experiments could bode well for future human treatment, but people who are recovering from spinal injury must still contend with pain and reduced mobility. Courses of physical therapy are common in recovery regimes, but some augment their treatment with yoga, or acupuncture. Still others use supplements to deal with joint pain, with glucosamine and chondroitin among the most typical options.