Use the labels in the right column to find what you want. Or you can go thru them one by one, there are only 33,864 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.
Maybe your doctor needs to go back to 1718 and read up on coffee and apoplexy. Hope s/he knows Latin and can afford $250. Does your doctor know anything newer than 300 years? https://www.ebay.com/itm/323235050456?ul_noapp=true
“Insufficient oxygen means insufficient biological
energy that can result in anything from mild fatigue to life threatening
disease. The link between insufficient oxygen and disease has now been
firmly established.”
— Dr. W. Spencer Way, Journal of the American Association of Physicians
Oxygen is absolutely essential for life, and your brain depends it more than any other part of your body.
Your brain weighs about 2% of your body weight.
But it consumes about 20% of the oxygen you breathe.
Your brain cells need to get enough oxygen to produce energy and function optimally.
If they don’t, they can start to deteriorate, leading to poor memory and concentration, low mood, lack of energy and drive.
I personally use oxygen therapy with an oxygen concentrator to support and optimize my brain function.
This post discusses oxygen therapy, the benefits, how I use it, and how it could help you.
It’s a great way to boost cognitive function, memory and energy.
Read on to learn more.
Types of Oxygen Therapy
Oxygen therapy is the use of supplemental oxygen to treat a variety of medical conditions.
Air is typically 21% oxygen by volume, but oxygen therapy increases the amount.
Hyperbaric
oxygen therapy (HBOT) is the most well-known type of oxygen therapy,
and it allows patients to inhale 100% pure oxygen in a total body
chamber.
HBOT is often used by professional athletes for recovery and performance.
But it’s expensive and not available to most people.
Luckily, it’s not the only option available to you. Normobaric oxygen therapy (NBOT) is much less expensive, and it’s easily accessible and non-invasive. I personally use NBOT at home.
Similar
to HBOT, NBOT brings a higher percentage of oxygen into the body and
can bring major benefits to your brain and cognition.
Researchers
have found that both normobaric and hyperbaric oxygen therapy increase
the amount of oxygen that is delivered to the blood and brain (1-2).
With normobaric therapy, oxygen can be delivered via an oxygen concentrator.
An oxygen concentrator is a machine that separates oxygen from room air, and then delivers the concentrated oxygen through a nasal cannula or mask.
I use this oxygen concentrator. You can get it here or here.
Make sure you read the “My Experience” section below where I discuss how to use it.
Why You Might Need Oxygen Therapy and How It Works
Hypoxia is a condition in which the body or a region of the body is deprived of adequate oxygen supply.
If this happens to you, you can end up with mitochondria dysfunction and poor brain function.
But how do you know?
You can use an oxygen saturation monitor to measure and monitor your blood oxygenation levels. I use this monitor. It’s the best and most accurate oxygen saturation monitor that is often used by medical professionals, and freely available to the public.
Your blood oxygen saturation levels (SpO2) should measure 99-100% if you want to feel optimal.
There are a number of reasons why your body and brain might not be getting enough oxygen:
Sedentary lifestyle and lack of exercise
Shallow breathing – Most people today don’t breathe well and are shallow breathers.
Chronic stress – Stress and anxiety
can also affect your breathing. If you're stressed and anxious, you end
up taking more shallow breaths. Your sympathetic “fight or flight”
nervous system is chronically active, and this reduces the amount of
oxygen that reaches your brain.
Abnormal blood pressure –
Both high and low blood pressure can be problematic and may suggest that
blood is not optimally flowing to your brain. If blood flow to your brain is poor, oxygen levels in your brain will also be suboptimal.
Normobaric oxygen therapy can help you if you’re struggling with any of these problems.
It can also help if you’re recovering from a concussion or brain injury or some sort of toxic exposure (e.g. mold).
Neuroplasticity and neurogenesis require oxygen, and increasing the delivery of oxygen to the body and brain supports the healing process of damaged tissue. Normobaric oxygen therapy has been shown to work by increasing brain blood flow, reducing permeability of the blood-brain barrier, and it may even have cholinergic properties (3-8).
Researchers have concluded that the “neuroprotective role of normobaric oxygen therapy is extremely promising” (9).
They have also found that it can lead to a number of positive cognitive outcomes, which I'll explore below.
1. Normobaric Oxygen Therapy Improves Memory and Recall
“Research has shown that oxygen administration leads to
improved long-term memory compared to a control group of normal
air-breathing.”
Several clinical studies also show that concentrated oxygen significantly enhances memory formation and recall in adults (10-11, 16-17).
In one study, inhalation of oxygen
immediately prior to learning a word list resulted in a significant
increase in the average number of words recalled 10 minutes later (14).
In
other studies, subjects who received oxygen remembered shopping lists
and faces better than subjects that didn’t receive oxygen (12-13, 18).
Researchers have also found significant positive correlations between changes in oxygen saturation and memory performance (15).
Research shows that concentrated oxygen significantly enhances cognitive performance (19-20, 29).
And it doesn’t just improve cognitive function in the elderly; it also enhances cognitive processing in young adults (21-23).
In
one study, students that inhaled oxygen while playing a computer game
performed much better compared to students who didn’t inhale any
additional oxygen (26).
In two other studies, researchers found
that the inhalation of 30% oxygen improved cognitive functioning and
performance by activating several brain areas (24-25).
“Oxygen administration appears to facilitate cognition most effectively for tasks with a higher cognitive load.”
— Advances in Natural Medicines, Nutraceuticals, and Neurocognition
They concluded that breathing a higher concentration of oxygen increases blood oxygen levels in the brain, which then supports cognition (24-25).
And other researchers have found significant correlations between blood oxygen levels and cognitive performance (27-28).
3. Normobaric Oxygen Therapy Enhances Accuracy
Several studies have found that normobaric oxygen therapy can also increase your accuracy when doing tasks.
Two
studies found that 30% and 40% oxygen administration significantly
enhanced accuracy rates compared to 21% oxygen (normal air). It did this
by increasing oxygen levels in the blood, which then stimulated
activity in the brain (31-32).
As the difficulty of the task
increased, the difference in the accuracy rate between 40% and 21%
oxygen administration also increased (33-34).
And researchers found a positive correlation between task performance and oxygen levels in the brain (33-34).
Other
research has found that 30% oxygen administration enhances accuracy
rates during verbal tasks by activating specific areas of the brain
(35-36).
4. Normobaric Oxygen Therapy Reduces Reaction Time
People who receive normobaric oxygen therapy also have faster reaction times (37-38).
In one study, participants performed visual matching tasks under 43% oxygen or 21% oxygen (normal air).
Researchers reported a significant decrease in reaction time in the presence of 43% oxygen (39).
The researchers hypothesized that normobaric oxygen therapy increases oxygen levels in the blood, which then leads to more available oxygen in the brain (39).
Another follow-up study confirmed that response time decreases during normobaric oxygen therapy due to the increase in blood oxygen levels (40). Normobaric oxygen therapy has even been shown to reduce reaction time in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) (41).
5. Normobaric Oxygen Therapy Increases Energy
“Despite comprising only 2 percent of the body’s weight, the brain gobbles up more than 20 percent of daily energy intake.”
All cells within your body need oxygen, particularly your brain cells.
They require a lot of oxygen to produce energy.
In fact, your energy levels depend on how much oxygen you have and how well your mitochondria utilize it.
If your brain doesn’t get enough oxygen, it simply won’t function properly, and you’ll end up feeling tired.
But normobaric oxygen therapy can increase energy.
Research shows that it "decreases fatigue and reduces feelings of sleepiness" (51).
6. Normobaric Oxygen Therapy Improves Neurological Function After Stroke
7. Oxygen Therapy May Help Reverse Brain Damage After Traumatic Brain Injury
Researchers found that a combination of normobaric and hyperbaric oxygen therapy reversed brain damage in 2-year-old girl who nearly drowned in a swimming pool.
She received normobaric oxygen treatment (twice daily for 45 minutes by nasal cannula), and doctors witnessed significant improvements in her neurological function (48-49). Normobaric oxygen therapy alone improved the girl’s neurological function before she started hyperbaric oxygen therapy (48-49).
She eventually made a full recovery with both types of oxygen therapy.
Researchers have also said that the “neuroprotective role of normobaric oxygen therapy is extremely promising” for traumatic brain injury (50).
I’ve also seen multiple studies with rats and mice showing that normobaric oxygen therapy reduces brain swelling and brain damage.
8. Other Possible Benefits (with Less Research Behind Them)
Increases
attention and vigilance – Oxygen administration significantly improved
performance on several measures of attention and vigilance (52).
Reduces
inflammation – Oxygen levels play a critical role in determining the
severity of the inflammatory response and ultimately the effectiveness
of anti-inflammatory drugs (53-54).
“If you use oxygen for 20 minutes, muscles become
loosened, headaches and stress seem to disappear, there is a renewed
energy and a feeling of relaxation.”
The oxygen from the concentrator is supplied through an nasal canula. It’s completely non-invasive and painless, and it’s become one of my favourite tools for supporting my brain.
I use it for about 20 to 30 minutes, a few times each week. I often do this while exercising on this indoor stationary bike. Sometimes I use it without exercising on the bike.
I also use it for about 3 to 5 minutes as needed, usually when doing work.
During a session, I use this oxygen saturation monitor to measure my blood oxygenation levels.
Your blood oxygen saturation levels (SpO2) should measure 99-100%. I see mine increase and max out while using the concentrator. My oxygen concentrator delivers up to 5 litres of oxygen per minute. I usually set mine somewhere between 3 and 5 litres per minute.
But I would recommend starting lower and working your way up.
If you believe in homopathy there are probably still trace amounts in this bottle for curing your apoplexy. The cure existed years ago and seems to have been lost to Father Time.
Common subjects of this disorder; 1. Very corpulent people, especially those who have indulged too liberally in the pernicious use of spirituous liquors. 2. Peculiar constitutions; short necks and large heads with irritable habits. 3. Indolence and excess in eating and drinking, produce a plethoric state of the system, and by distending the stomach and interrupting the function of respiration, prevent the free return of blood to the heart, 4. Long and constant application of the mind on one subject, by increasing the determination to the brain, predisposes to apoplexy. 5. Old age. May be ascribed to a venous plethora, and also an accumulation of their excitability. 6. A large undigested meal, may be considered the most frequent., for by distending the stomach, preventing in great measure the expansion of the lungs and pressing upon the aorta, it accumulates blood in the vessels of the brain and proves a very frequent source of this disease. 7. Violent exercise, by increasing the general circulation and accelerating the flow of blood to the brain will often have the same effect. 8. Vomiting. 9. Hot bathing is a frequent cause of apoplexy. Diagnosis:
Many of the appearances which drunkenness exhibits are so similar to the apoplexy that it is extremely difficult to ascertain the difference. So in 218 years the stroke world still hasn't solved this problem. The method of Cure: 1. It is of the utmost importance in the commencement of the fit, immediately to diminish the excitement of the vessels of the brain. With this intention copious bleeding is employed. Some have advised opening the temporal and carotid arteries, the vessels under the tongue. etc. Others have thought that every advantage might be derived by drawing it from the jugular veins, or from both arms at once. 2. Purging; The bowels should always be kept regularly open. We should make use of such medicines for this purpose that will act briskly, although the more dramatic purges are not to be preferred. 3. Cold Water; When this disease has been brought on by breathing carbonic acid gas or by exposure to heat. The remedy seems particularly serviceable. 4. Cool and fresh air; When the apoplexy has been brought on by breathing impure air in crowded assembles, we should immediately expose the patient to pure cool air. 5. Blisters should be applied to the head and neck, the head already having been shaved. 6. Here we must have recourse to the most stimulating applications; as cataplasms composed of garlic and mustard to the arms and feet. 7. Electricity and frictions ought to be tried and certain acrid substances, as garlic, to be held in the mouth. 8. Ardent spirits and volatile salts should be given internally.
I bet anything that was in this bottle is at least as good as what your doctor has to help you 100% recover. Send your doctor after the ingredients, it has to be better than what your doctor has.
I just bought this book on eBay. I'll be comparing it to an earlier book I bought 'An Essay On The Nature and Treatment of Apoplexy(1843)'.
I really doubt we have advanced much in the last 170 years. Ask your doctor for their thoughts on the major advances in those last 170 years. And no letting her/him research it. They should know this off the top of their heads. What exactly is your neurologist doing for you? Have them list the work they are doing and have done. Hopefully it is more than writing up 3 prescriptions for E.T.(Evaluate and Treat) to the occupational therapist, physical therapist, speech therapist. Hell a chimpanzee could write those prescriptions. That's just throwing all the responsibility for your recovery on the therapists with no diagnosis to guide them. And you're paying big bucks for that supposed expertise. And since I have no medical background I have no right to criticize the stroke medical world. They are medical gods and shall be obeyed.
If you want to know historical info about stroke/apoplexy.
PANDORA POUND, MICHAEL BURY1, SHAH EBRAHIM
Department of Primary Care and Population Sciences, Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine, Rowland Hill Street
London NW3 2PF, UK
'Department of Social Policy and Social Science, Royal Holloway College, Egham Hill, Egham, Surrey TW20 OEX, UK
Address correspondence to: R Pound. Department of Public Health Medicine, Block 8 (South Wing), St Thomas'
Hospital, Lambeth Palace Road, London SEI 7EH. Fax: (+44) 171 928 1468. Email: p.pound@umds.ac.uk
Selected lines below;
and bloodletting, vomits, purges and enemas remained
popular responses to apoplexy until the beginning of
the twentieth century.
-------------------------------------------------------------
Wepfer (1620-95) also believed that apoplexy was caused by
an obstruction in the path to the brain, with the result
that the brain did not receive enough "animal spirits".
---------------------------------------------------------------
Copland [21] provides an example of the latter, relating the
warning that Napoleon was given by his physician,
Corvisart, with regards to apoplexy: "a first attack,
which is often slight, is a summons without costs; a
second, a summons with costs; but a third is an
execution on the person".
----------------------------------------------------------------
"Those Persons, above all others, are in danger of
sudden deaths, that are of an unwieldy, corpulent
Body; that have short Necks, strait Chests, and are
subject to hitch in their Breathing; great, large heads,
with a very sanguine or pale Countenance, if they
indulge in a luxurious Manner of Living, seldom
escape a sudden, fatal stroke" [14].
-----------------------------------------------------------
as Tanner suggested in 1854:
"Where a predisposition to apoplexy is suspected,
the individual should avoid strong bodily exertion;
venereal excitement; the excitement of drunkenness;
violent mental emotion; straining at stool; long
stooping; tight neckcloths; too much indulgence in
sleep; and warm baths" [18].
---------------------------------------------------------------
Of course the latest is that stroke is the wrong term to use, because it doesn't say anything specific.
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The terminology has seduced us into believing the problem is simple.
The term ‘stroke’ should be exorcised from the medical literature. A
stroke is defined as an acute neurological event caused either by
cerebral infarction or intracerebral haemorrhage in which symptoms
persist for longer than 24 hours or which results in death. The WHO has
included subarachnoid haemorrhage as a form of stroke,1415
but many authors do not. From a neuroscientific point of view, the
term ‘stroke’ is unsatisfactory in that it includes a number of
pathologies whose management and prognosis are different. By using the
term there is thus a danger of over simplifying a complex area. Adding
qualifiers helps little. Haemorrhagic stroke, which means primary
intraparenchymal haemorrhage, is often confused with secondary
haemorrhagic transformation of an infarct. The term ischaemic stroke is
equivalent to cerebral infarction, but fails to convey the
heterogenous nature of the pathology.
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The
term ‘stroke’ is obscurantist, reductionist, and redundant. It has
connotations that are unhelpful to both the general public and the
medical profession. Better terms exist that either do not
pretend to be a diagnosis (eg, ‘brain attack’), or that have some
pathophysiological significance. ‘Stroke’ should be consigned to the dustbin of medical usage.
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Great picture at the end of the 8 pages - Help the Aged; let them sleep
We have improved greatly since then, we don't damage them with noxious treatments but we still have no useful acute or chronic treatments
