Changing stroke rehab and research worldwide now.Time is Brain! trillions and trillions of neurons that DIE each day because there are NO effective hyperacute therapies besides tPA(only 12% effective). I have 523 posts on hyperacute therapy, enough for researchers to spend decades proving them out. These are my personal ideas and blog on stroke rehabilitation and stroke research. Do not attempt any of these without checking with your medical provider. Unless you join me in agitating, when you need these therapies they won't be there.

What this blog is for:

My blog is not to help survivors recover, it is to have the 10 million yearly stroke survivors light fires underneath their doctors, stroke hospitals and stroke researchers to get stroke solved. 100% recovery. The stroke medical world is completely failing at that goal, they don't even have it as a goal. Shortly after getting out of the hospital and getting NO information on the process or protocols of stroke rehabilitation and recovery I started searching on the internet and found that no other survivor received useful information. This is an attempt to cover all stroke rehabilitation information that should be readily available to survivors so they can talk with informed knowledge to their medical staff. It lays out what needs to be done to get stroke survivors closer to 100% recovery. It's quite disgusting that this information is not available from every stroke association and doctors group.

Monday, May 7, 2012

Quicker and easier rehabilitation following a stroke - vibration

From June 2004, I don't care if its from the Catholic University of Leuven Campus Kortrijk in the Belgian province of West-Flanders. Something this easy and important should have circled the world in a day. The internet did exist back then. My earlier post on vibration did not find any real use.
http://www.alphagalileo.org/ViewItem.aspx?ItemId=38084&CultureCode=en
 By artificially vibrating certain muscle parts, the brain areas and neuronal pathways responsible for movement can be trained. This has the potential to help stroke patients recover their mobility more quickly. These are the results of PhD research by Maarten Steyvers of the Department of Kinesiology, K.U.Leuven.

People who suffer a stroke — and with longer lifespans their numbers are increasing — are often partially immobilized. Because they can no longer move certain body parts, specific areas of the brain can begin to degrade. The brain not only directs movement; movement also sends stimuli to the brain and keeps it in good condition. If the stimuli cease, the areas of the brain responsible for movement literally start to shrink.

Dr Steyvers’s research was initially carried out with healthy test subjects. He applied vibrations to certain muscle masses in the region of the wrist, since stroke victims frequently encounter problems executing hand movements. These vibrations were registered by the sensory cortex, the part of the brain responsible for perception.

Steyvers also used a new technique for measuring stimulation in the motor neurons and the motor cortex (the part of the brain located next to the sensory cortex, it directs conscious movement). At a specific vibration frequency, stimuli originating in the vibrating muscle masses had an effect not only on the sensory, but also the motor regions and neurons. The effect continued even after the stimulation ceased.

The beneficial effects are clear: it is now possible to prevent shrinking of the motor cortex, even when the muscles are immobile. If the same technique yields positive results in stroke victims — the next phase of this research — then their rehabilitation can go much faster.

I use this pad sander in my left hand for vibration. I have no clue if the frequency  is anywhere close to being correct, but that is what research is for.

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