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.

Tuesday, February 24, 2026

Mid-to-late-life social network size and resilience to neurodegeneration: the Framingham Heart Study

My social network expanded dramatically post stroke after moving to Michigan and it's all due to my stroke. I need as much cognitive reserve and resilience as possible since I probably used all of mine up just surviving my stroke. Ask your competent? doctor for EXACT PROTOCOLS TO BUILD RESILIENCE AND RESERVE!

My story: I would still be leading a life of quiet desperation if still married.

Well, at age 50 I had my stroke and the result of that is making me happy for the rest of my life.  Got divorced at age 58, fired at age 56. All leading to moving to Michigan and finding lots of new friendships.

(Life is definitely better as I age, I got divorced enhancing my happiness immeasurably. I'm retired and comfortably well off. And healthy as I can be post stroke. I'm going to live a long time yet.)

 Mid-to-late-life social network size and resilience to neurodegeneration: the Framingham Heart Study

https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-8735065/v1

This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License

Background

Social stimulation from having large networks may build cognitive reserve and contribute to cognitive resilience. However, limited research has assessed whether this relationship differs across the adult life course. We examined the relationship between social network size and resilience to neurodegeneration in memory, language, and executive function among mid-to-late-life adults.

Methods

The sample included 1,602 participants from the Framingham Heart Study Offspring cohort who completed the Berkman-Syme Social Network Index (SNI) questionnaire, had available plasma total tau (t-tau) measures at Exam 8, and had neuropsychological (NP) factor scores in memory, language, and executive function. Social network size was operationalized through a calculated SNI score and categorized into small, medium, and large networks. Cognitive resilience was operationalized using a residual approach by regressing each NP factor score on the plasma t-tau measure. Linear regression was used to assess associations between social network size and cognitive resilience, adjusting for age, sex, education, APOE ε4 allele carrier status, time between the most recent NP exam visit date and Exam 8 date, physical activity, smoking status, and depressive symptoms. Models were stratified by midlife (age 47–64 years) and late-life (age 65–91 years) groups.

Results

Average age was 67 years with most participants identifying as female (n = 880; 55%). By age group, more participants were in the late-life group (n = 918; 57%) compared to the midlife group (n = 684; 43%). Large social network size was significantly associated with greater resilience to neurodegeneration in memory compared to small social network size (β = 0.070; 95% CI = 0.007–0.133). There were no significant associations between large social networks and resilience to neurodegeneration in language or executive function. In the stratified models, large social networks were only associated with resilience to neurodegeneration in executive function among the midlife group (β = 0.110; 95% CI = 0.010–0.210).

Conclusions

Large social networks may promote greater resilience to neurodegeneration in memory among mid-to-late-life adults. Specific to middle-aged adults was a significantly greater resilience in executive function associated with large networks. Additional studies in more diverse samples are needed to replicate and generalize our findings to other groups.

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