Use the labels in the right column to find what you want. Or you can go thru them one by one, there are only 29,286 posts. Searching is done in the search box in upper left corner. I blog on anything to do with stroke. DO NOT DO ANYTHING SUGGESTED HERE AS I AM NOT MEDICALLY TRAINED, YOUR DOCTOR IS, LISTEN TO THEM. BUT I BET THEY DON'T KNOW HOW TO GET YOU 100% RECOVERED. I DON'T EITHER BUT HAVE PLENTY OF QUESTIONS FOR YOUR DOCTOR TO ANSWER.
Changing stroke rehab and research worldwide now.Time is Brain!trillions and trillions of neuronsthatDIEeach day because there areNOeffective 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.
Now that is is getting colder out I have to start wearing a mitten on my affected hand, gloves are impossible. It is quite the challenge to get the spastic thumb into the thumb slot. I never had any ADL training on donning gloves or mittens. I was in Minnesota at the time so it would seem quite important even though my stroke was in May.
PEOPLE who suffer a stroke in Windsor or Slough will face longer
journeys to hospital following the closure of an emergency-response
unit.
The acute stroke unit at Wexham Park Hospital in Slough is shutting
its doors at the end of 2016, meaning anyone who suffers a stroke in the
area faces a longer journey to either High Wycombe or Chertsey from
January 1 2017.
The East Berkshire clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) say the
changes will result in better care(not results?) as Wycombe General Hospital and St
Peter’s Hospital in Chertsey have enhanced hyper acute stroke units, a
step up on the level of care possible at standard units, and offer
better chances of recovery. (Who gives a fuck about better chances? What are your recovery results? tPA full efficacy? 30day deaths? 100% recovery? )
Wexham Park will now only take responsibility for stroke rehabilitation, with a new unit going live from January 1.
But the changes have raised questions over journey times for residents in Slough and Windsor.
Councillor Lynne Jones (Ind, Old Windsor) also of the Old Windsor
Residents’ Association, said: “Maidenhead to Wycombe is fine, but
Windsor to Wycombe is another matter completely. I’m not sure the
closure is such a good idea.
“It would have been better if Wexham Park had been enhanced.”
Wycombe Hospital is situated just over 18 miles away from central
Windsor if you take the fastest route, and St Peter’s in Chertsey is
more than 10 miles away, whereas Wexham Park is 5.5 miles away from the
centre of Windsor and just two miles away from central Slough.
Patients in Maidenhead however will face a similar journey length to Wycombe as the current one to Wexham Park.
Andy Giles, 69, from Holyport, suffered a stroke on December 11, 2013, and was taken to Wexham Park for emergency care.
He said: “The care at Wexham Park has gone from strength to strength, I
hope the move is not going to be detrimental to any victim but I think
it is a case of short-term loss and long-term gain.”
Cllr David Coppinger, (Con, Bray) said: “Evidence in London has shown
that taking someone to a centre of excellence is far better than going
to a local hospital.”
Fiona Slevin-Brown, Director of Strategy and Operations for the East
Berkshire CCGs, said: “Ambulances can reach our nearest hyper acute
stroke units within the ‘golden hour’, which is the hour immediately
following the onset of stroke symptoms. Stroke patients have a much
greater chance of surviving and avoiding long-term disabilities if they
arrive at a specialist hyper acute stroke unit and receive treatment
within that first hour.”
Since you are losing 5 years of brain age due to your stroke, your doctor better have some protocols to catch back up. But don't worry, nothing like that will occur, you will need to research your own cognitive training. Good luck with that.
http://qz.com/626482/neuroscience-says-these-five-rituals-will-help-your-brain-stay-young/
Thanks to improvements in medicine, more of us are living longer.
That makes we have a heightened investment in making sure our brains
stay in shape as we age, too. While an increased life expectancy will
not necessarily lead to a higher incidence of cognitive disorders, Alzheimer’s alone is expected to affect over seven million American seniors by 2025.
Lucky for us, advanced technologies have enabled researchers to
understand how the brain works, what it responds to, and even how to
retrain it. For instance, we know our brains prefer foods with high
levels of antioxidants, including blueberries, kale, and nuts. We know
that a Mediterranean diet,
which is largely plant-based and rich in whole grain, fish, fruits, and
red wine, can lead to higher brain functions. And we know that smiling can retrain our brains to look for positive possibilities rather than negative ones.
Whether you’re 25 or 65, consider adopting these five simple rituals
that cognitive scientists say can help your brain grow new cells, form
new neural pathways, improve cognition, and keep your outlook positive
and sharp.
Congratulate yourself for small wins
The frequency of success matters more than the size of success, so don’t wait until the big wins to congratulate yourself, says B.J. Fogg,
director of the Persuasive Tech Lab at Stanford University. Instead,
come up with daily celebrations for yourself; your brain doesn’t know
the difference between progress and perceived progress.
Both progress and setbacks are said to greatly influence
our emotions. So the earlier in the day you can feel successful, the
better—feelings of excitement help fuel behaviors that will set you up
for successes. For instance, a productive morning routine can be used to
motivate you through the rest of the day. We feel happier and
encouraged as our energy levels increase, and feel anxiety or even
depression as our energy levels go down.
Keep your body active
According to neurologist Etienne van der Walt,
keeping active is one of the best ways to improve brain health. As he
told Quartz earlier this year, “Specific forms of exercises have been
shown to be very beneficial for … brain growth.”
Simply speaking, when we exercise, our heart rate increases, oxygen
is pumped to the brain at a much faster rate, and new brain cells
develop more quickly. The more brain cells we create, the easier it is
for cells to communicate with one another, developing new neural
pathways. Ultimately, our brains become more efficient and plastic,
which means better cognitive performance. A 2014 study from
the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign found that children who
regularly exercised had higher “attentional inhibition,” defined by The
New York Times as “the ability to block out irrelevant information and
concentrate on the task at hand.” The Times article also noted that study participants ended the with “heightened abilities to toggle between cognitive tasks.”It doesn’t even take that much sweat to keep your brain in good shape.
It doesn’t even take that much sweat to keep your brain in good shape. A study conducted
by the department of exercise science at the University of Georgia in
2003 found that an exercise bout of just 20 minutes is enough to change
the brain’s information processing and memory functions.
Bottom line: however you decide to keep active, just keep moving.
Stretch your brain muscles
Like other muscles in your body, if you don’t use the brain, you’ll
eventually lose it. This means it’s crucial to exercise your brain and
keep it stimulated.
Tara Swart, a senior lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, notes that it’s especially important
to target areas of your brain that you use less frequently. Good
suggestions for stretching your brain muscles include learning to speak a
new language, learning to play a new instrument, or even learning to
juggle.
To enhance his own cognitive prowess, author James Altucher tries to come up with new ideas every day. He writes about his daily system:
Take a waiter’s pad. Go to a local cafe. Maybe read an
inspirational book for 10 to 20 minutes. Then start writing down ideas.
The key here is, write 10 ideas … a waiter’s pad is too small to write a
whole novel or even a paragraph. In fact, it’s specifically made to
make a list. And that’s all you want, a list of ideas.
Mid-way through the exercise, Altucher says his brain will actually
start to “hurt.” Whether he ends up using the ideas or throwing them
away is not the point. But it is important to vary your routine. Harvard psychologist Shelley H. Carson, author of Your Creative Brain, also believes that mixing things up and even allowing yourself to become distracted can be an important cognitive tool.
Sit upright
Mothers everywhere were really onto something when they instructed
their children to sit up straight. Not only is an upright position found
to increase energy levels and enhance our overall mood, it’s also been shown to increase our confidence, as in this 2013 preliminary research conducted by Harvard Business professor Amy Cuddy and her colleague, Maarten W. Bos. Positioning yourself in a powerless, crouched position can make your brain more predisposed towards hopelessness.In
the study, the researchers found that people who sit in collapsed
positions—usually adopted to look at small wireless devices like
smartphones and tablets—were less likely to stand up for themselves.
Participants with bad posture were also the slowest to ask if they could
leave when the experiment had been declared over. On the other hand,
participants who were randomly assigned larger devices, like laptops and
desktops, were more likely to sit upright and be assertive in asking if
they could leave.
From a purely cognitive perspective, positioning yourself in a
powerless, crouched position can make your brain more predisposed
towards hopelessness, as well as more likely to recall depressive
memories and thoughts. Researchers say this phenomenon is ingrained in
our biology and traces back to how body language is “closely tied to
dominance across the animal kingdom,” as Cuddy writes in her new book, Presence.
So what’s the best way to ensure you feel powerful in both body and mind? Erik Peper, a professor
who studies psychophysiology at San Francisco State University, advises
checking your posture every hour to make sure you’re not in the iHunch,
or iPosture, position. He also advises bringing smaller devices up to
your face while in use instead of forcing yourself to look downward at
them in a collapsed position.
Sleep with your phone away from your head
There’s a lot of myths and half truths out there about how—and if—your
smartphone may be affecting the brain. While there is still a lot of
research that needs to be done on the topic of wireless devices, there does seem to be a link
between blue light—emitted by electronic screens including those of
smartphones—and sleep. Interrupting or changing our sleep patterns is
bad for a lot of reasons. For example, lack of enough deep sleep could
be preventing us from flushing harmful beta-amyloid from our brains.
According
to Swart, a senior lecturer at MIT specializing in sleep and the brain,
our brains’ natural cleansing system requires six to eight hours of
sleep. Without it, brains eventually encounter major build-ups of
beta-amyloid, a neurotoxin found in clumps in the brains of people with neurological disorders like dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.
While scientists have always known that the brain cleanses wastes,
much like the body, the sophistication of this cleansing system was investigated in 2013
by Maiken Nedergaard of the Center for Translational Neuromedicine at
the University of Rochester. This study found “hidden caves” that open
up in our brains when we’re in a deep enough sleep. This liquid cleaning
system, dubbed the “glymphatic system,” enables copious amounts of
neurotoxins to be pushed through the spinal column.
So, exactly how far away do you need to keep your smart devices?
We’re not completely sure, but Swart says it’s a good idea to not sleep
with it next to your head. Ultimately, keeping our brains healthy takes
willpower and resilience, just like with any other part of our bodies.
But as research shows, staying sound of body and mind as we age is
certainly possible—with a little effort. Correction: A previous version of this piece cited
research regarding the effects of Wi-Fi on sleep patterns that was
inconclusive. It has been updated with research regarding the effects of
blue light on sleep patterns.
I'm going to Spain for two weeks in March, 5 days in Madrid, 9 days traveling the country by car, possibly take a ferry and stay the night in Tangiers. So I bought a Marco Polo Spain/Portugal map. It folds out and folds out even more, keeping it flat on my desk in the office is almost impossible one handed. It is going to be a real challenge to use in the car. And if I have to look at the backside of the map because we go to the left side of Spain I'm going to rip it into pieces. Another missed ADL training from my therapists. I will get international data roaming so I can use GPS on my phone, That is compensation which I swore I would never do.
Nothing here gives me any sense of hope
that stem cells work. They have NO fucking clue if the stem cells even
survived and migrated to the correct locations.
1. Nothing on the objective damage in the brain.
2. No mention of even measuring if the stem cells survived
.
3. Nothing listed here proves cause and effect.
4. No mention of measuring the blood vessels that were supposedly created
5. Nothing on what exercises were done to get these new cells to take on the needed functions.
6. No mention if the new stem cells migrated to the correct place.
7. Did they objectively measure anything at all in this procedure?
20 million cells is nothing, he likely lost hundreds of millions.
I really do wonder if our researchers even know how to run research.
I could make just as strong a case that the the real cause of the improvement was the trepanation.
One
day in August last year I was reaching for food in the fridge, when I
suddenly fell unconscious. I don’t know how long I was out for and I
thought I had just tripped over.
Afterwards I felt a bit dizzy so I went for a lie down until my wife Catherine came home about an hour or two later.
I
told her I fell and didn’t feel very well, but neither of us were
particularly worried as all I had to show for my dizzy spell was a small
scratch on my elbow. I had no idea that the fall was a stroke.
The
next morning I made myself a cup of coffee, but when I tried to take a
sip, it spilt as I couldn’t co-ordinate my hand to my mouth properly.
Catherine
realised something wasn’t right so rang our daughter, Sonja, who took
me to A&E. I swiftly deteriorated and by the time I got there an
hour later, the left side of my mouth drooped and I couldn’t use my left
arm. I wasn’t too concerned, but I wasn’t thinking clearly.
The doctors recognised instantly that I was having a stroke, and I was rushed in for a brain scan.
This
showed that a blood clot was blocking blood flow to my brain and as a
result various areas were permanently damaged, including the areas that
govern movement and speech.
I was virtually paralysed down my left side, had no power in my left arm, and my speech was slurred.
The
doctors said the fall was actually a stroke and as so much time had
elapsed — about 24 hours between me having it and getting to hospital —
there was little they could do.
I spent three days in hospital resting and slowly I started to realise just how much my life would have to change.
I
spent 13 weeks in a rehabilitation centre having intense speech therapy
and physiotherapy, but I just couldn’t regain any movement in my left
arm or leg and my speech was still slurred. Things I’d taken for granted
such as walking were now beyond me.
Back
home I could no longer work and I had to rely on Catherine for most
things — and had pretty much given up on ever regaining movement in my
left side.
Then
out of the blue in June, my neurologist rang to ask if I’d like to take
part in a new trial for stem-cell therapy that would be the first ever
treatment for damage caused by a stroke, I was immediately keen.
He
explained that the treatment involved an injection of stem cells from a
tissue bank and these would help regenerate the damaged brain areas and
could restore movement. I was slightly worried about the idea of a
needle going straight into my brain, but the doctors reassured me it was
safe.
I
went in for the two-hour surgery under general anaesthetic in
September. Unsurprisingly, I don’t remember much about it, but I was
well enough to go home the next day. Over the next few weeks I started
physiotherapy and finally began to feel a change.
Before,
I’d had no control over my left arm — it just dangled by my side with
my fist clenched and it would sometimes shake uncontrollably — but now I
can lift it above my chest. My friends have told me my speech is
clearer, too. But my walking is still unsteady.
Before
the treatment I had felt self-conscious, but the stem-cell therapy has
given me a lifeline and I’m hopeful that I’ll get even better with more
physio.
THE SPECIALIST
Professor Keith Muir is a consultant neurologist at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow.
Every
year more than 150,000 people in the UK have a stroke and half of these
are left with some kind of disability because blood supply to key areas
is blocked.
Around
85 per cent of cases are ischaemic strokes, where the blood supply is
stopped due to a clot. The others are known as haemorrhagic, where a
weakened blood vessel supplying the brain bursts.
If
the supply of blood is restricted or stopped, brain cells begin to die,
resulting in permanent brain damage and disability as nerve cells don’t
regrow.
Often
if caught early, ischaemic strokes can be treated with medication to
dissolve the blood clot and restore blood supply to the affected areas.
But
these drugs have to be given within four hours of a stroke occurring in
order to be effective as brain tissue doesn’t survive very long without
a blood supply.
If
this happens and the brain cells are killed off, there is little that
doctors can do. Patients are left with irreversible disability as there
are no treatments to help brain cells grow again. These patients are
offered physiotherapy and rehabilitation, which can be of limited
effectiveness.
But
now scientists from Glasgow University and Reneuron, a biotechnology
company based in Wales, are testing whether stem cells injected into the
brain of patients after a stroke can stimulate regeneration of brain
cells and blood vessels in order to restore some function.
These
stem cells, called CTX, are derived from a brain tissue sample donated
to a tissue bank in the U.S. and transported to the hospital.
Animal studies suggest that they can stimulate some of the brain’s natural repair systems and so recover some lost function.
Before the operation a ‘dose’ of around 20 million stem cells is unfrozen in the hospital pharmacy and drawn up into a syringe.
Under general anaesthetic a neurosurgeon drills a small hole about 1cm wide in the skull.
We
slowly inject a dose of 20 million CTX stem cells into the brain, which
can take up to two hours, as the syringe is only gradually pushed down
so that the cells drip into the brain precisely. Patients are usually
ready to leave the hospital the next day.
Prof Keith Muir
We
use brain scans taken before the procedure to see where the damage is
and guide the injection, aiming to place the stem cells in an intact
area of brain close to where the stroke damage has occurred.
The
cells can’t be injected into the damaged area since there’s no tissue
there for them to hold on, and they would be washed away by the fluid
circulating in the brain. However, animal studies show that when they
are injected into nearby healthy brain tissue, the stem cells move to
the site of damage.
We
think that a chemical signal comes from damaged tissue that tells the
cells to move there. As the cells move into the injured areas they are
thought to release chemicals which stimulate the growth of nerve cells
and new blood vessels.
We
slowly inject a dose of 20 million CTX stem cells into the brain, which
can take up to two hours, as the syringe is only gradually pushed down
so that the cells drip into the brain precisely.
After
the procedure, the hole in the skull is filled with a bone substitute
material, similar to Polyfilla, and the scalp stitched.
Patients are usually ready to leave the hospital the next day.
A
safety study published in the Lancet in June involving 11 stroke
patients suggested there were no side-effects related to the cells over a
two-year follow up.
Our
current study at eight NHS centres has finished recruiting 21 patients,
and so far results suggest significant improvement in patients’
disability scores.
We are awaiting full results from this study before we plan larger trials in more patients.
WHAT ARE THE RISKS?
- A small chance of infection.
- As with any brain surgery, bleeding in the brain is a possibility.
- Seizures are occasionally seen after injections to the brain (estimated in around 2 per cent of cases).
-
There have not been any side-effects related to the injected cells so
far but long-term follow-up has only been done in a few people.
Dr
Steve Allder, a consultant neurologist in Plymouth, says: ‘I would be
amazed, given what we are learning about the brain’s capacity to recover
and how to use stem cells, if they didn’t help stroke patients improve
paralysis.
‘There will be some false starts, but I’m confident stem cells will significantly help stroke patients.’ No mention of this risk.
I see zero hopefulness about the future of stroke. I can't point to ANYTHING AT ALL that our fucking failures of stroke associations have done in 2016 that has helped stroke survivors get any closer to 100% recovery. This is where those presidents could chime in and prove me wrong, but they won't.
Alzheimer’s disease and good news? Somehow these two terms don’t fit.
After all, more than five million
Americans are afflicted with Alzheimer's disease, the sixth leading
cause of death in the U.S., which kills more of us than breast and
prostate cancer combined. Some experts estimate that as many as 16
million could be afflicted by 2050.
In 2016 alone, Alzheimer’s and other related dementias have cost
America an estimated $236 billion. While that figure is staggering, the
real cost to families and caregivers is immeasurable.
As we face a new year of fighting Alzheimer’s, the reality is that so
much about this disease is still unknown and there are more questions
than answers. What drives disease progression? What treatments are most
effective? How can we help afflicted families?
After looking into 2016 research findings, initiatives and
information on treatment and prevention, I was heartened by what I
found. Before we say farewell to 2016, let’s stop and look for hope on
the horizon, not to make us complacent but to keep the positive momentum
going forward. Here are 10 reasons why I am feeling more hopeful about the future of Alzheimer’s.
1. Awareness grew in 2016
2. Dementia rates dropped
3. More progress on the tau-amyloid connection
4. Fighting chronic inflammation may be a key prevention tool
5. New Alzheimer’s marker offers hope for treatment
6. Joint Alzheimer’s-Parkinson’s research could mean new treatments for both conditions
7. Existing glaucoma and high cholesterol drugs may lower Alzheimer’s risk
8. 5 major clinical trials aimed at Alzheimer’s prevention
9. One South American country could offer clues for future prevention
10. Federal funding for research highest in history
You will likely need to actively work to prevent this post-stroke Your doctor should have stroke protocols to increase your social connections. Unless s/he has gone the the correct route and solved these 5 causes of the neuronal cascade of death.
Thus correctly getting to the root cause of the problem - neuronal death, rather than having to solve the secondary effects like loss of social contacts. You likely will lose the first two categories that Aristotle mentions.
Lonely people quickly move to the edges of social networks — here’s why.
Loneliness makes the areas of the brain that are vigilant for threat more active, a new study finds.
This can make people who are socially isolated more abrasive and defensive — it’s a form of self-preservation.
This may be why lonely people can get marginalised.
Professor John Cacioppo, an expert on loneliness, speaking about an earlier study on the marginalisation of the lonely, said:
“We detected an extraordinary pattern of contagion that
leads people to be moved to the edge of the social network when they
become lonely.
On the periphery people have fewer friends, yet their loneliness leads them to losing the few ties they have left.
These reinforcing effects mean that our social fabric can fray at the
edges, like a yarn that comes loose at the end of a crocheted sweater.”
The new research, conducted by Professor Cacioppo and colleagues, compared the brains of lonely and non-lonely people.
Both were hooked up to an EEG machine to measure the electrical activity around the brain.
They were shown a series of words, varying in how social and positive they were.
The brains of lonely people were quicker to spot words related to social threat — such as ‘hostile’ — than non-lonely people.
In fact, lonely people were more on the look-out for words with negative connotations in general.
This could be an ancient defence mechanism to help us survive, the authors argue:
“Fish on the edge of the group are more likely to be
attacked by predators, not because they are the slowest or weakest,
but because of the ease of isolating and preying upon those on the
social perimeter.
As a result, fish have evolved to swim to the middle of the group when a predator attacks.”
Behind this is an evolutionary theory, they say:
“Being on the social perimeter is not only sad, it is dangerous.
Our evolutionary model of the effects of perceived social isolation
(loneliness) on the brain as well as a growing body of behavioral
research suggests that loneliness promotes short-term self-preservation,
including an increased implicit vigilance for social, in contrast to
nonsocial, threats.”
My stroke was probably the most stressful event in my life. What protocol needs to be created to stop these damaging stress effects from the stroke? It looks like we might have days to treat this so possibly no need to get this done in the first hours. But never mind, NOTHING will get done on this because we have NO strategy to update and NO leadership to execute that strategy. http://www.neuroscientistnews.com/research-news/late-effects-stress-new-insights-how-brain-responds-trauma
Mrs. M would never forget that day. She was walking along a busy road
next to the vegetable market when two goons zipped past on a bike. One
man's hand shot out and grabbed the chain around her neck. The next
instant, she had stumbled to her knees, and was dragged along in the
wake of the bike. Thankfully, the chain snapped, and she got away with a
mildly bruised neck. Though dazed by the incident, Mrs. M was fine
until a week after the incident.
Then, the nightmares began.
She would struggle and yell and fight in her sleep every night with
phantom chain snatchers. Every bout left her charged with anger and
often left her depressed. The episodes continued for several months
until they finally stopped. How could a single stressful event have such
extended consequences?
A new study by Indian scientists has gained insights into how a
single instance of severe stress can lead to delayed and long-term
psychological trauma. The work pinpoints key molecular and physiological
processes that could be driving changes in brain architecture.
The team, led by Sumantra Chattarji from the National Centre for
Biological Sciences (NCBS, India) and the Institute for Stem Cell
Biology and Regenerative Medicine (inStem), Bangalore, India, has shown
that a single stressful incident can lead to increased electrical
activity in the brain's amygdala. This activity sets in late, occurring
ten days after a single stressful episode, and is dependent on a
molecule known as the N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDA-R), an ion
channel protein on nerve cells known to be crucial for memory functions.
The amygdala, a small, almond-shaped groups of nerve cells, is
located deep within the temporal lobe of the brain where it is known to
play key roles in emotional reactions, memory and making decisions.
Changes in the amygdala are linked to the development of post-traumatic
stress disorder (PTSD), a mental condition that develops in a delayed
fashion after a harrowing experience.
Previously, Chattarji's group had shown that a single instance of
acute stress had no immediate effects on the amygdala of rats. Butten
days later, these animals began to show increased anxiety, and delayed
changes in the architecture of their brains, especially the amygdala.
"We showed that our study system is applicable to PTSD. This delayed
effect after a single episode of stress was reminiscent of what happens
in PTSD patients," says Chattarji. "We know that the amygdala is
hyperactive in PTSD patients. But no one knows as of now, what is going
on in there," he adds.
Investigations revealed major changes in the microscopic structure of
the nerve cells in the amygdala. Stress seems to have caused the
formation of new synapse connections in this region of the brain.
However, until now, the physiological effects of these new connections
were unknown.
You are in constant danger all the time mainly from that dangerous activity called walking. Ask your doctor to describe the breathing stroke protocol you have. Does it include this Kundalini breathing technique?
Summary: A new
study reports the rhythm of your breathing can influence neural activity
that enhances memory recall and emotional judgement. Source: Northwestern University. Breathing is not just for oxygen; it’s now linked to brain function and behavior.
Northwestern Medicine scientists have discovered for the first time
that the rhythm of breathing creates electrical activity in the human
brain that enhances emotional judgments and memory recall.
These effects on behavior depend critically on whether you inhale or exhale and whether you breathe through the nose or mouth.
In the study, individuals were able to identify a fearful face more
quickly if they encountered the face when breathing in compared to
breathing out. Individuals also were more likely to remember an object
if they encountered it on the inhaled breath than the exhaled one. The
effect disappeared if breathing was through the mouth.
“One of the major findings in this study is that there is a dramatic
difference in brain activity in the amygdala and hippocampus during
inhalation compared with exhalation,” said lead author Christina Zelano,
assistant professor of neurology at Northwestern University Feinberg
School of Medicine. “When you breathe in, we discovered you are
stimulating neurons in the olfactory cortex, amygdala and hippocampus,
all across the limbic system.”
The study was published Dec. 6 in the Journal of Neuroscience.
The senior author is Jay Gottfried, professor of neurology at Feinberg.
Northwestern scientists first discovered these differences in brain
activity while studying seven patients with epilepsy who were scheduled
for brain surgery. A week prior to surgery, a surgeon implanted
electrodes into the patients’ brains in order to identify the origin of
their seizures. This allowed scientists to acquire electro-physiological
data directly from their brains. The recorded electrical signals showed
brain activity fluctuated with breathing. The activity occurs in brain
areas where emotions, memory and smells are processed.
This discovery led scientists to ask whether cognitive functions
typically associated with these brain areas — in particular fear
processing and memory — could also be affected by breathing.
The amygdala is
strongly linked to emotional processing, in particular fear-related
emotions. So scientists asked about 60 subjects to make rapid decisions
on emotional expressions in the lab environment while recording their
breathing. Presented with pictures of faces showing expressions of
either fear or surprise, the subjects had to indicate, as quickly as
they could, which emotion each face was expressing.
When faces were encountered during inhalation, subjects recognized
them as fearful more quickly than when faces were encountered during
exhalation. This was not true for faces expressing surprise. These
effects diminished when subjects performed the same task while breathing
through their mouths. Thus the effect was specific to fearful stimuli
during nasal breathing only.
In an experiment aimed at assessing memory function
— tied to the hippocampus — the same subjects were shown pictures of
objects on a computer screen and told to remember them. Later, they were
asked to recall those objects. Researchers found that recall was better
if the images were encountered during inhalation.
The findings imply that rapid breathing may confer an advantage when someone is in a dangerous situation, Zelano said.
Removing worn-out cells might delay the buildup of artery-clogging plaques.
PHOTO: NEPHRON/CREATIVE COMMONS
Pricey plastic surgery won't stop you from
getting old. Nor will dietary supplements, testosterone injections, or
those wrinkle creams that imply they'll make you look 21 again. But this
year, researchers demonstrated one way to postpone some ravages of
time—at least in mice. When they selectively weeded out rundown cells,
the animals lived longer and remained healthier as they aged.
The
infirm cells the scientists targeted had undergone a partial shutdown
known as senescence, in which they lose the ability to divide.
Researchers think senescence may prevent worn-out, cancer-prone cells
from initiating tumors, but it may also promote aging. As we grow older,
more and more cells stop reproducing, potentially robbing our tissues
of the ability to replace dead or injured cells. Senescent cells also
discharge molecules that can cause problems such as abnormal cell growth
and inflammation.
The first study showing that
eliminating senescent cells can produce health and longevity benefits,
at least in middle-aged mice, came out in February. Deterioration of the
animals' hearts and kidneys slowed, and they didn't sprout tumors until
later in their lives. Some age-related declines, such as in memory and
muscle coordination, didn't abate. Nonetheless, the rodents outlived
their contemporaries by more than 20%.
In October, the
same research team took aim at senescent cells from the immune system
that amass in artery-clogging plaques and may drive their formation.
Removing these cells from mice that are prone to atherosclerosis reduced
the amount of fatty buildup in the animals' arteries by 60%, even
though the rodents gorged on fat-laden food.
The
multibillion-dollar question: Will taking out senescent cells help
humans stay young longer? Both studies used genetically modified mice
that clear away their senescent cells in response to a particular
compound—a technique that isn't feasible in humans. But researchers have
created several so-called senolytic drugs that slay senescent cells
without genetic tinkering. Next year, scientists will launch the first
clinical trial of one of those drugs in people who have arthritis. –Mitch Leslie
I know some survivors who have complained about vertigo. This obviously can't be done on your own until 50 years from now when your doctor finally finds out about it and prescribes it. http://www.healthy-holistic-living.com/simple-fix-vertigo-video-instructions.html
A doctor
at the University of Colorado Hospital has become a YouTube sensation.
That’s because she has developed a simple maneuver to treat vertigo at
home.
CBS4 Health Specialist Kathy Walsh first explained the treatment in a story in 2012. Since then, it’s gotten 2.6 million views on cbsdenver.com.
Assuming the same for stroke, what is your doctors sleep protocol for you? Do sleeping pills provide the same type of sleep needed? Recovery From Brain Injury, Better Sleep Go Hand in Hand
After a traumatic brain injury (TBI), people also experience major
sleep problems, including changes in their sleep-wake cycle. A study
published in the journal Neurology shows that recovering from these
conditions occurs in parallel.
“These results suggest that monitoring a person's sleep-wake cycle
may be a useful tool for assessing their recovery after TBI,” said Nadia
Gosselin, PhD, University of Montréal, Montréal, Québec. “We found that
when someone sustained a brain injury and had not recovered a certain
level of consciousness to keep them awake and aware of their
surroundings, they were not able to generate a good sleep-wake cycle.
But as they recovered, their quality of sleep improved.”
A good sleep-wake cycle was defined as being alert and active during the day and getting uninterrupted sleep at night.
The study involved 30 people aged 17 to 58 years who had been
hospitalised for moderate to severe TBI. Most of the patients were in a
coma when they were admitted to the hospital and all initially received
care in an intensive care unit. The injuries were caused by motor
vehicle accidents for 20 people, falls for 7 people, recreational or
sports injuries for 2 people, and a blow to the head for 1 person. They
were hospitalised for an average of 45 days with monitoring for the
study beginning an average of 21 days into a person's stay.
Each person was monitored daily for an average of 11 days for level
of consciousness and thinking abilities using the Rancho Los Amigos
scale, which ranges from 1 to 8. Each person also wore an activity
monitor on their wrist so researchers could measure their sleep.
Researchers found that consciousness and thinking abilities improved
hand-in-hand with measures of quality of sleep, showing a linear
relationship.
One measure, the daytime activity ratio, shows percentage of activity
that occurs during the day. Immediately after the injury, activity
occurs throughout the day and night. The study showed that participants
reached an acceptable sleep-wake cycle, with a daytime activity ratio of
at least 80%, at the same point when they emerged from a minimally
conscious state.
The participants still had inadequate sleep-wake cycles at a score of
5 on the Rancho Los Amigos scale, where people are confused and give
inappropriate responses to stimuli but are able to follow simple
commands. Sleep-wake cycles reached adequate levels at the same time
that people reached a score of 6 on the Rancho Los Amigos scale, which
is when people can give appropriate responses while still depending on
outside input for direction. At that level, they can remember relearned
tasks, but cannot remember new tasks.
The results were the same when researchers adjusted for the amount of
time that had passed since the injury and the amount of medications
they had received while they were in the ICU.
“It’s possible that there are common underlying brain mechanisms
involved in both recovery from TBI and improvement in sleep,” said Dr.
Gosselin. “Still, more study needs to be done and future research may
want to examine how hospital lighting and noise also affect quality of
sleep for those with TBI.”
SOURCE: American Academy of Neurology
Be careful out there. http://dgnews.docguide.com/risk-mi-stroke-vastly-underestimated-patients-hiv?
Current methods to predict the risk of myocardial infarction (MI) and
stroke vastly underestimate the risk in individuals with HIV, which is
nearly double that of the general population, according to a study
published online by JAMA Cardiology.
“The actual risk of heart attack for people with HIV was roughly 50%
higher than predicted by the risk calculator many physicians use for the
general population,” said Matthew Feinstein, MD, Northwestern
University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, Illinois.
The higher risk for MI -- about 1.5 to 2 times greater -- exists even
in people whose virus is undetectable in their blood because of
antiretroviral drugs.
Accurately predicting an individual’s risk helps determine whether he
or she should take medications such as statins to reduce the risk of MI
or stroke.
“If you have a higher risk for heart attack or stroke, your ability
to benefit from one of these drugs is greater and justifies the possible
side effects of a medication,” said Dr Feinstein said.
A new predictive algorithm may need to be developed to determine the actual risk for MI and stroke in people with HIV, he noted.
The study was conducted using a large, multi-centre clinical cohort
of HIV-positive individuals receiving care at 1 of 5 participating sites
around the country. The researchers analysed data from approximately
20,000 HIV-positive individuals. They compared predicted rates of MIs
based on data from the general population to the actual rates of MIs
observed in this cohort.
The primary driver of the higher risk is the HIV, scientists believe.
“There is chronic inflammation and viral replication even in people
whose blood tests don't show any sign of the virus in the blood,”
explained Dr. Feinstein.
That's because the virus still lurks in the body's tissues, creating
the inflammation that causes plaque build-up that can lead to a MI or a
stroke. This build-up occurs 10 to 15 years earlier in patients with HIV
than in people without HIV.
“It's this inflammatory state that seems to drive this accelerated
aging and these higher risks for heart disease, which are becoming more
common in HIV patients as they live longer,” said Dr. Feinstein.
The current study builds on previous HIV-related heart disease
research by Feinstein, published in November, 2016, which found that
individuals with HIV had more scarring in the heart muscle after MIs,
indicating an impaired ability to heal their hearts. Reasons for this
are unknown but are an area of active study for Feinstein and his
colleagues.
A clinical trial is underway at Northwestern Medicine to evaluate how
well common medications for heart disease prevention and treatment,
such as statin medications, work to prevent heart disease in the
HIV-infected population.
SOURCE: Northwestern University
If you need this type of surgery ask your doctor how they are reducing these post operative events. Rate of Death and MI After Non-Cardiac Surgery Decreases, But Risk of Stroke Increases
Cardiovascular complications after non-cardiac surgery remain a major
source of morbidity and mortality, according to a study published
online by JAMA Cardiology.
Despite the significant burden perioperative events place on the
national healthcare system, recent data are lacking on trends in
perioperative major adverse cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events
(MACCE) among patients hospitalised for major non-cardiac surgery.
Using the National Inpatient Sample, Sripal Bangalore, MD, New York
University School of Medicine, New York, New York, and colleagues
identified patients who underwent major non-cardiac surgery from January
2004 to December 2013.
Among 10,581,621 hospitalisations (mean age, 66 years; 57% female)
for major non-cardiac surgery, perioperative MACCE -- defined as
in-hospital, all-cause death, acute myocardial infarction (MI) or acute
ischaemic stroke -- occurred in 317,479 hospitalisations (3%),
corresponding to an annual incidence of approximately 150,000 events.
MACCE occurred most frequently in patients undergoing vascular (7.7%), thoracic (6.5%), and transplant surgery (6.3%).
Between 2004 and 2013, the frequency of MACCE declined from 3.1% to
2.6%, driven by a decline in frequency of perioperative death and acute
MI, but there was an increase in perioperative ischaemic stroke from
0.52% in 2004 to 0.77% in 2013.
Men had higher risk of perioperative MACCE than women. In analyses of
perioperative events by race and ethnicity, non-Latino black patients
had the highest rates of perioperative death and ischaemic stroke
compared with other racial groups.
“Perioperative MACCE occurs in 1 of every 33 hospitalisations for
non-cardiac surgery,” the authors wrote. “Despite improvements in
perioperative outcomes over the past decade, the significant increase in
the rate of ischaemic stroke in this analysis requires confirmation and
further study. Additional efforts are necessary to improve
perioperative cardiovascular care of patients undergoing non-cardiac
surgery.”
SOURCE: JAMA Cardiology
I bet this is totally bogus because the staff is influencing the answers. They are saying you recovered well, not even acknowledging that 100% recovery was the goal. And meeting that goal for the hospital is a complete failure. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2387020616307057
Evaluación de la satisfacción con el programa de rehabilitación tras el ictus: validación de la versión española de la Pound Satisfaction Scale☆
I sure hopes it exists, it is the only way I will get complete recovery. I don't expect stem cells to be useful in the rest of my life - 36 years. I bet your doctor has not read a single one of these 90 references. Which is why you don't have a neurogenesis protocol. Your doctor should know the answer to the three highlighted questions. http://link.springer.com/article/10.1134/S2079086416060013
A
half century of studying the neurogenesis of the adult brain has
produced much evidence for an endogenous conversion of neural stem
cells. Yet the idea receives increasing criticism, in addition to the
many positive comments. Does neurogenesis proceed at a rate sufficiently
high for its functional significance? Are new cells capable of
integrating into proper brain regions in order to perform a reparative
role? How long do new neurons persist in the integration sites, and how
significant is their role in the neuronal circuit structure? An
organizing function is hypothesized for endogenous adult brain
neurogenesis on the basis of current information. One of the main
arguments for the hypothesis is the multiplicity of key physiological
processes functionally associated with the involvement of new neurons
and glial cells: learning, memory, adaptive behavior, protective stress
responses, reproductive function, changes in the state of mind,
injuries, ischemic and neurodegenerative disorders, etc. The adjustable
reprogramming of neuronal precursors and the reparative role of new
cells are analyzed. The organizing role of neurogenesis is considered a
justified complex process that is important for the function of the
adult brain.
Keywords
adult neurogenesishippocampusdentate gyrusneurorepairadaptive function
