Exercise: It's good for your brain

Do what exercise you can - it's good for the brain.

If you've read this blog before, you likely know I'm a longtime distance runner. Not everyone can do that, I realize. But almost anyone can exercise at some level of motion. And recent research reiterates that for stroke survivors, exercise is good for the brain:

The findings bolster what experts have long believed: Exercise can aid stroke recovery in multiple ways.

Myth No. 1: Aphasia and intelligence

In the next several weeks, look for occasional postings concerning myths about strokes, symptoms and survivors.

One is near and dear to my heart - aphasia.

When I had my stroke back in '98, I struggled to relearn how to speak, read and write (some people might think I'm still learning). But one very annoying aspect of this: people assumed that my intelligence was lowered because I had trouble with communication.

Finally, we're paying attention to staying out of the hospital

It's just been lately that the American health system has really paid attention to readmission - that is, you have a stroke, stay in the hospital for likely a brief time, sent home with little or no follow-up, and you wind up back in the hospital.

Many reasons, but the bottom line is that for a long time, you were left to your own devices, with little or no instruction.

Now, the industry is paying attention to avoid that cycle. Check out the recent story how a stroke care transition program has cut readmission:

"A lot of stroke programs are doing follow-up phone calls to patients," Bushnell said, "but our data shows that phone calls alone are not good enough to reduce readmissions. It is really important for patients to be engaged in their own stroke recovery, and part of that involves coming to clinic and making sure they get all the services they need."

Struggling with stroke-related impairments - invisible to the outside world?

Ever feel invisible?

Remember the movie (based on the book) "The Invisible Man" starring the great Claude Rains? Shows the down side of being invisible, you might say.

Now, what's that got to do with stroke survivors? It's those post-stroke impairments that aren't seen by much of the world - invisible. And there's a down side of that, too, that leads to a lack of understanding among co-workers and the world at large.

Physically, I was recovered to a large degree within days. But speech and fuzzy thinking took a while longer, and I'm still convinced that my speech still isn't quite right. But that's not so obvious - invisible, you might say, to much of the outside world. Not all - I had a great support network at church, home and work. Still, I can see how invisibility problems can happen.

So check out recent research about stroke survivors facing "invisible impairments" return to work:

What do you rely on? Maybe you should rely on this rescuer

I rely on your constant love; I will be glad, because you will rescue me.

-Psalm 13:5

We all need a rescuer, sooner or later.

When did you need one? Or are you waiting your turn?

Stroke survivors know what it's like to need a rescuer: Keeping you alive. Helping your initial recovery. Providing physical, speech and/or occupational therapy. Rescuers all.

God is the chief rescuer. When it comes down to it, when all rescue resources are exhausted, God is there to get us through. His constant love endures.

Easter is coming soon - on this Sunday, most Christians celebrate Christ's resurrection, the victory over even death. With strength like that, with constant love, we have our rescuer.

Rebuilding a brain: How long can it take?

So many of us have been there - desperately trying to find ways to rebuild a brain. Here's one authors take on what it takes on the best ways to rebuild your brain after a stroke:

"In a cognitive sense, it’s true I am not back to where I was – I had a good memory and sharp analytical skills," David, 56, says. "But I have come a long way and in other senses, I am well ahead of where I was – in my ability to deal with life’s difficulties. I am calm and composed, I am more compassionate and my relationship with my three teenage daughters has improved as I am less irritable and much more present with them."

He details how he recovered in his new book "How I Rescued My Brain" and hopes he can inspire the UK’s one million stroke survivors. About 150,000 people have a stroke each year in Britain and half are left with disabilities. Although you can’t recover parts of the brain that are lost, you can “rewire” it so other parts take over.

"The first three to six months after a stroke are likely to show the best recovery, and sometimes people are told they won’t recover any more after that, but the research shows you can even years later," says Dr Shamim Quadir from the Stroke Association.

I like the last phrase in the last quote - you can see improvement even years later. There's a bit of a mindset in certain corners of health care that six weeks after anything is all the recovery you're going to get. That's just too simple and often wrong.

Singing for stroke survivors

Back years ago, I felt it one Sunday morning.

Photo by lungstruck via Flickr

I'm a longtime, hymnal-using United Methodist. So one Sunday morning several months after my stroke, during a worship service, I sang along with everyone else, standing and holding a hymnal.

And suddenly, I felt like my language skills had gained a notch. This wasn't the first time I felt that way, but it was the first time while singing.

Now, here's a more recent story from across the pond on how how stroke survivors can sing:

One Voice was was set up in 2008 by Lorna Bickley and Katy Bennett as a community choir for people who had suffered strokes. Singing helps recovery of movement, memory, breathing, speaking - and confidence.

The phenomenon was first documented in Sweden in the early 18th Century when a young man who couldn't speak due to brain damage amazed the congregation at his local church by loudly singing along to hymns.

The American Stroke Association reported "the acquired language disorder now called aphasia became a subject of clinical study and a target for rehabilitation beginning in the mid-1880s".

"Since that time, every clinician working with aphasia has seen individuals who can produce words only when singing."

Great story of personal, medical advances for stroke survivors

I like personal stories. I like stories about advances in stroke treatment and prevention.

So, I really enjoyed this one - a story from a London journalist who revisited the hospital that treated him 20 years ago.

I survived a stroke 20 years ago. Now a revolution in care is under way:

What's important: Stories of survival

Today is World Stroke Day. Now, that doesn't mean a lot to me. Strokes don't keep a calendar, This blog is not part of a non-profit trying to raise profile or raise funding (both of which are needed and important, by the way).

But I did run across a Tampa Bay Times piece about the most important part of stroke awareness - people. Check out the link to read three stories of survival:

"I was having a perfect day and felt completely fine the second before my left side went out," she said.

Bedinghaus is like many Americans who have suffered a stroke and didn't see it coming.

Wednesday is World Stroke Day, and the American Heart Association and American Stroke Association of Tampa Bay use the day as an opportunity to encourage everyone to learn the warning signs of a stroke by using the acronym FAST:

Face drooping; Arm weakness; Slurred speech; and Time to call 911.

Stroke survivors struggle with heart health

Taking good care of yourself is one way to help prevent a stroke. That's especially important for those of us who've already had one.

If you've seen this blog before, you've seen lots of support of exercise, good diet and watching your blood pressure and other numbers - key elements of heart health.

And, according to recent research, many stroke survivors are facing the challenge of poor heart health:

Less than one out of every 100 stroke survivors met all of the American Heart Association's criteria for ideal cardiovascular health, researchers found.

The percentage of patients who met none or only one of the seven goals used to define ideal cardiovascular health increased from 18% in 1988-1994 to 33% in 2005-2010, and less than 1% achieved all seven goals, according to Michelle Lin, MD of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

Driving tests for stroke survivors?

I did wonder about driving after my stroke - could I remember where to go and how to get there? Turns out, my fleeting worries about this didn't pan out. However, for many, many stroke survivors, these concerns are too real.

I never took any sort of driving test to make sure my abilities were intact. In fact, a recent study highlighted that many stroke survivors resume driving without testing:

From U.S. Department of Transportation

Researchers from the Medical University of South Carolina found that more than half of the 162 stroke survivors in their study returned to driving following their stroke, with 59 percent of those returning within one month. Less than 6 percent of all stroke survivors received any formal driving evaluation before getting behind the wheel again.

"It's been my experience that even though one of the very first questions stroke patients ask is when they can go back to driving, very few will actually go and get a formal driving evaluation," said study author Dr. Shelly Ozark, an assistant professor of neurology.

"Some of that is the nature of stroke itself," she said. "Even though it can be a devastating illness, some people think if they have no problem walking or seeing, they're not affected. People don't necessarily recognize they have deficits."

For stroke survivors: Was this a concern of yours? And would you be OK taking a test?

Pot and stroke research and rats

This blog has seen postings about various research on preventing or treating strokes. I always try not to make rash promises about how something - coffee or chocolate or tea or bat spit (honest!) or snake venom - will prevent a stroke or treat a stroke.

So I was fascinated to read the many articles about how "stroke survivors" could be given cannabis to reduce brain damage:

The “exciting” research has been compiled by researchers at the University of Nottingham, who have pulled together research from around the world to suggest that ‘cannabinoids’ – chemicals related to those found in cannabis, some of which also occur naturally in the body – could reduce the size of stroke and improve neurological function.

The research – so far which has only been done on rats – indicates that all three classes of cannabinoid could be effective in shrinking the area of the brain affected by stroke and in recovering neurological function.

I put "stroke survivors" in quotes because of the second paragraph's note that the research was done on rats - not people. So the "stroke survivors" so far have been rats.

Always watch out for stories that call research "exciting" when it's done on rats. Would cannabinoids work the same on humans? Nobody knows. Keep that in mind when you read about the weed. It'll be time to be excited when it works on people.

(Photo from the National Institutes of Health)

Fascinating look at stroke results, recovery

A fascinating article - complete with videos - comes from a Canadian media outlet, how stroke survivors can experience 'bizarre' syndromes:

Every 10 minutes in Canada, someone suffers a stroke, and while the physical impacts are often obvious and familiar – a limp, or a paralyzed arm – equally devastating are the hidden, cognitive disabilities that can convince some people they’re losing their minds.

After decades of neglect, science is beginning to unravel the strange, but fascinating, neuropsychological syndromes that can occur when neurons die and the brain tries frantically to rewire lost connections – conditions that will increase as the population ages, because one of the single biggest drivers of stroke risk is age.

The articles runs through a half-dozen less common - but very real - stroke results that can change how people perceive our world and how they speak.

And it speaks to the real need for long-term therapy for stroke survivors. It quotes Dr. Dale Corbett, scientific director and chief executive officer of the Heart and Stroke Foundation’s Centre for Stroke Recovery in Ottawa.

“The brain is so fascinating, and so complicated,” said Corbett.

With the right therapy, people will often continue to recover “long past what we would have normally expected.”

Stroke recovery with an iPad

Back about 15 years ago, I used a educational toy called a Geo Safari to help me bring back some language skills after my stroke, in addition to speech therapy.

Now, moving 15 years to the present, current stroke survivors can use even cooler technology. I ran across one story how a support group uses iPads to help stroke survivors regain function:

"The applications are on my laptop," [Suzanne] Hill said. "I'm on it most of the time. There are 15 applications that I can use. I just enjoy it so much. There's no chore to any of this for me."

Indeed, some of the apps are games, such as Scrabble or connect-the-dots. Some resemble putting the user back in an elementary school classroom, such as viewing a picture of a dog, then selecting the letters from an alphabet jumble to spell d-o-g.

"I have limitations on my right side," Hill acknowledged. "My right hand is not so flexible, (but) my typing skills are coming back."

Nearly 1 in 4 stroke survivors develop PTSD, study shows

I must agree with the study author, quoted here: "Strokes are among the most terrifying life-threatening events."

Read about a study showing that nearly 1 in 4 stroke survivors develop PTSD:

A stroke may leave some survivors with post-traumatic stress disorder, which may hinder their recovery, according to a study released... .

About 23% of patients who survive a stroke or transient ischemic attack, a brief interruption of blood flow to the brain, have PTSD symptoms within a year, the study finds. About 11% have chronic PTSD, in which symptoms last three months or longer, more than a year later. The study, led by Columbia University Medical Center researchers, was published online ... in the journal PLOS ONE.

"Strokes are among the most terrifying life-threatening events," says lead author Donald Edmondson."

Stroke recovery - someday an app for that?

From across the pond, comes news about university students launching a new app in hopes of helping stroke victims:

StrokeLink, a free app that uses a patient-focused interface, empowers stroke survivors by providing them with the necessary tools to regain their independence. The app’s toolkit of health reference material and its powerful tool for rehabilitation was created to guide and actively engage stroke patients as they recover, using accessible design and rich media content.

These self-care tools include rehabilitation programs with exercises ranging from fine motor skills to full body movements, and are presented as text, pictures, or videos, accompanied by audio cues.

We've seen other technologies - video games, for one - being adapted as tools for stroke recovery. Hope this one comes to fruition, too.

Resources about stroke effects

Simple resources for stroke survivors and loved ones are all over the Web. I stumbled across this one recently, a Web tool to explore the effects of a stroke, courtesy of the National Stroke Association:

Stroke affects physical, cognitive and emotional functioning, but there are things that can be done to reduce the impact of post-stroke effects. Each patient’s stroke experience is different and depends on the type of stroke and which areas of the brain are damaged.

Effects can be experienced at varying degrees at any phase of recovery. Understanding the nature of the effects of stroke and what can be done about them is the first step to recovery.

Just follow the link to explore.

'An ever-present help in trouble'

God is our refuge and strength,
    an ever-present help in trouble.

-Psalm 46:1

Refuge. Strength. Help.

Trouble.

Who hasn't seen trouble? Some days, trouble seems to permeate a life, with struggles, setbacks and disappointment. Stroke survivors know too well how recovery can see progress one day, trouble the next.

But even in days of trouble,God is with us. Bring your needs for refuge and strength to God. You are never alone, never without help.

Will trouble magically vanish? Perhaps not. But with God's strength and help - and often, human help provided by God - you can find a refuge in your journey and strength to continue it.

Finding the 'hidden' disabilities

Not all post-stroke disabilities are easy to detect - sometimes adding to recovery difficulties. One recent article discussed how better detection of the "hidden" disabilities can help stroke survivors get help they need:

Health workers detecting the condition after a stroke could make cognitive intervention to improve the patient’s function and prevent chronic disability, according to Anna Barrett, M.D.. She is the director of Stroke Rehabilitation at the [Kessler] Foundation.

"Early detection of spatial neglect after stroke could enable cognitive interventions to improve function, and might prevent chronic disability."

Fascinating development in stroke therapy

As most survivors know, much of the time, one post-stroke struggle involves one side of the body hampered. In my case, my stroke happened on the left side of my brain, losing movement in the right arm and leg. While those movements came back thanks to some quick-thinking health professionals, this is not always the case.

Now, Reuters Health reported last week, researchers have found some interesting results about how brain stimulation may help some stroke patients:

Treating stroke patients who have lost control and awareness of one side of their body with magnetic stimulation to the brain may improve their symptoms, researchers said today.

In a new, small study published in the journal Neurology, patients who were given quick bursts of stimulation over a couple of weeks improved by about 20 percent on tests of vision and attention, while those who got a fake stimulation treatment didn't improve significantly.

But researchers said it's still unclear what types of patients might benefit from the treatment and by how much.

It might be worth our while to read the whole story. And while this is merely research and not all the answers are in, this has some positive possibilities for improving therapy for stroke patients.