Use the labels in the right column to find what you want. Or you can go thru them one by one, there are only 34,365 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.
It would make much more sense to get arm crank wheelchairs. That would be functional and you would recover the arms like you do the legs because of forced use.
Since one of the major
consequences of stroke is hemiparesis, the rehabilitation of upper limbs
is necessary to improve the quality of life. Arm cranking gesture
represents an alternative rehabilitation tool, especially if accompanied
by a biofeedback involving and motivating patients. The aim of this
pilot study was twofold: (1) to evaluate the effect of a visual and
virtual biofeedback on arm cranking gesture and (2) to estimate the
duration of pull and push phases of the crank cycle. Nine healthy and
young subjects were involved in the test and were asked to perform the
arm cranking gesture in different conditions. A stereophotogrammetric
system was adopted to create a virtual, visual and real time biofeedback
of cadence, to measure the real cadence of participants and to estimate
push and pull phases durations. Results showed that the biofeedback
helped subjects to follow an externally imposed cadence. Furthermore,
the pull phase resulted to be slightly longer than the push one,
although the angular amplitude of the two phases suggested they were the
same.
Traditionally, after a stroke, patients do physical therapy that recruits the legs, including gait exercises and balance training. But a new study published in the Journal of Neurophysiology found that regularly exercising your arms can also help recover walking ability.
Researchers from the University of Victoria in Canada found that stroke patients who did moderate-intensity rhythmic arm cycling for 30 minutes, three times a week, performed significantly better on walking tests after five weeks of training. The participants ranged in age from 57 to 87 years old, and all had suffered a stroke between seven months and 17 years earlier.
To measure walking improvements, the researchers had participants do three tests before and after arm cycling training. Test 1 measured how far they walked in six minutes; Test 2 recorded how fast they walked 10 meters; and Test 3 (officially named Timed Up and Go) determined how long it took them to stand from sitting, walk 10 feet, then return to sit in their starting place. The participants improved on all of these tests, especially the Timed Up and Go.
The advancements in walking, balance, and muscle activity seen in this study echo those reported in previous ones that combined both arm and leg cycling to rehabilitate stroke patients. But how can exercising the arms alone lead to better leg function?
The answer is neuroplasticity, or your brain's ability to adapt, says Ira Rashbaum, MD, a clinical professor at NYU School of Medicine who was not involved with the study, and past medical director of stroke rehabilitation at NYU Langone’s Rusk Rehabilitation. "The brain is a very dynamic organ and has the ability to a certain degree to restructure itself throughout your life," he explains. For instance, "in 2006 there was an article that showed with certain types of rehabilitative interventions, parts of the brain that had dealt with sensation (somatosensory cortex) could actually be remodeled to motor cortex [the part that deals with voluntary movement]. And so some of these cells can essentially flip from doing sensory functions to doing strength functions."
In the case of this recent study, arm cycling likely created a similar effect of neuroplasticity, Rashbaum says. So when nerves in the patients' arms fired up, they may have stimulated function elsewhere in the body to make up for areas damaged by stroke, thus helping with walking ability.
The results are promising, and yet another reminder that what we know about stroke rehabilitation—from recovery timeline to treatment—is ever-changing. "Most of the recovery we see after a stroke occurs within three months’ time, but particularly with things like speech, language, cognition, and thinking, those kinds of recovery can occur for even years after," says Rashbaum. "And with some newer techniques ... we’re also seeing some improvement in walking well after a year after the stroke." (This is what it's like to have a stroke at 44.)
One such technique is called body weight supported treadmill training (BWSTT), where a harness offloads some of a stroke patient's body weight and prevents them from falling as they ease back into walking with the help of a rehabilitation therapist.
Of course, the best way to minimize the impact of a stroke is to recognize the signs of one early and seek medical attention immediately. (Here's how to spot a stroke before it's too late.) Rashbaum suggests using the BE FAST (Balance, Eyes, Face, Arm, Speech, Time to call 9-1-1) method to check for scary symptoms affecting these areas, such as face drooping or garbled speech. "If you have any concern that things are not neurologically fine, you should seek emergent care."
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - A new study shows that arm exercises may improve walking ability months and even years after having a stroke. The study tested the influence of arm training on post-stroke leg function.
February, 07, 2018 - 18:57
The study, the first to test the influence of arm training on post-stroke leg function, is published ahead of print in the Journal of Neurophysiology. It was chosen as an APSselect article for February.
Researchers from the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada, worked with a group of older adults who had had a stroke between 7 months and 17 years prior to the study. The volunteers participated in three 30-minute, moderate-intensity arm cycling training sessions each week for five weeks. The research team measured the volunteers' physical abilities before and after arm training using several standardized scales and tests of physical function, including:
- Six Minute Walk, which measures how far a person can walk in six minutes;
- Timed 10 Meter Walk, which measures how quickly a person can walk 10 meters; and the
- Timed Up and Go, which measures the time it takes to stand up from a seated position, walk 10 feet, turn around, walk back and sit down again.
The researchers also tested electrical activity in the muscles and stretch reflexes in the lower legs and wrists during both arm cycling and walking tests.
The participants improved their performance significantly on all of the walking tests -- as much as 28 percent in the Timed Up and Go test. Several volunteers had less tightness in their muscles after completing the arm cycling trial, but there was no significant change in grip strength. Nerve activity increased during arm cycling as well.
"Arm cycling training activated interlimb networks that contribute to the coordination of rhythmic walking," the researchers wrote. In other words, nerves in the arms activated and adapted to improve function of the spinal cord in other areas of the body, such as the legs, affected by stroke.
These results could have a large impact on stroke rehabilitation, even years after injury, Science Daily reported.
"Although improvements in walking may not be as robust as those from other training modalities, they do highlight the integral role that training the arms can have on rehabilitation of human locomotion," the research team wrote.
A new study shows that arm exercises may improve walking ability months and even years after having a stroke. The study, the first to test the influence of arm training on post-stroke leg function, is published ahead of print in the Journal of Neurophysiology. It was chosen as an APSselect article for February.
Researchers from the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada, worked with a group of older adults who had had a stroke between 7 months and 17 years prior to the study. The volunteers participated in three 30-minute, moderate-intensity arm cycling training sessions each week for five weeks. The research team measured the volunteers' physical abilities before and after arm training using several standardized scales and tests of physical function, including:
Six Minute Walk, which measures how far a person can walk in six minutes;
Timed 10 Meter Walk, which measures how quickly a person can walk 10 meters; and the
Timed Up and Go, which measures the time it takes to stand up from a seated position, walk 10 feet, turn around, walk back and sit down again.
The researchers also tested electrical activity in the muscles and stretch reflexes in the lower legs and wrists during both arm cycling and walking tests.
The participants improved their performance significantly on all of the walking tests-;as much as 28 percent in the Timed Up and Go test. Several volunteers had less tightness in their muscles after completing the arm cycling trial, but there was no significant change in grip strength. Nerve activity increased during arm cycling as well. "Arm cycling training activated interlimb networks that contribute to the coordination of rhythmic walking," the researchers wrote. In other words, nerves in the arms activated and adapted to improve function of the spinal cord in other areas of the body, such as the legs, affected by stroke.
These results could have a large impact on stroke rehabilitation, even years after injury. "Although improvements in walking may not be as robust as those from other training modalities, they do highlight the integral role that training the arms can have on rehabilitation of human locomotion," the research team wrote.
