The Brain-Healthy Workout You Probably Aren't Doing Enough Of by mindbodygreen

 Did your doctor SHOW ANY COMPETENCE AT ALL in getting you recovered enough to do swimming without drowning?

The Brain-Healthy Workout You Probably Aren't Doing Enough Of

New Swim England fact sheet on swimming after a stroke

 Not very helpful, no instruction on swimming one-armed. In looking at videos side stroke might be possible.  I'd have to practice in 4-5 feet of water so I could stand if necessary. 

New Swim England fact sheet on swimming after a stroke

A new fact sheet which explains how people can benefit from swimming and aquatic activity after a stroke has been published by Swim England.

The Swimming after a Stroke fact sheet has been developed by the national governing body in conjunction with the University of Nottingham and the Stroke Association – and is aimed at helping more than 1.3 million stroke survivors in the country to get active.

Stroke can occur every five minutes in the UK, with 100,000 people experiencing one every year.

They can lead to long-term disability and people who have had a stroke may experience ongoing issues with their mobility and independence caused by pain, fatigue, cognitive and emotional problems.

Getting active after leaving hospital in the absence of, or with formal rehabilitation can provide a massive boost to their recovery, confidence and wellbeing, helping them to stay healthy in the future.

The fact sheet details what people after a stroke need to consider before, during and after a swimming session – and top tips on how aquatic activity can aid their recovery.

It has also been created in a format to help those who have aphasia – a common speech and language issue after a stroke.

More than 350,000 people in the UK have aphasia and this version of the fact sheet includes the use of clear illustrations and icons to support the context of the sentence.

It also contains simplified and short sentences, with bold key words based on the Stroke Association aphasia-friendly style and co-created from extensive testing with people with aphasia.

‘Allowing people to enjoy being active in the water’

Dr Fiona Moffatt, associate professor and director of professional development and wellbeing for the School of Health Sciences, University of Nottingham, and a member of Swim England’s Swimming and Health Commission, said: “Getting active again after a stroke can have numerous benefits, including lessening the risk of another stroke occurring.

“But we also know that swimming or aquatic activity can be of particular help, with a range of benefits not seen with land-based exercise

“This new fact sheet helps to explain some of those benefits and some of the approaches that will allow people to enjoy being active in water in a safe and enjoyable way.

“We were also aware however, that for those who have aphasia the standard fact sheet formats that have been so popular with other audiences might not be suitable.

“So, we developed an aphasia friendly version with the help of a specialist speech and language therapist, as part of a stakeholder group of people with lived experience of stroke and with input from the Stroke Association.”

Mike Hawkes, head of diversity and inclusion at Swim England, said: “Swim England is committed to tackling the inequalities which prevent sections of our communities from enjoying the benefits of swimming and aquatic activities in all its shapes and forms.

“We believe aquatic activities are uniquely placed to support those who may have experienced a stroke.

“By developing the aphasia friendly version of this fact sheet, we hope this opens up the opportunity to participate in aquatic activity for even more people.”

Juliet Bouverie, chief executive for the Stroke Association, added: “Getting active after stroke is incredibly important to recovering from the effects of stroke and reducing the risk of another stroke happening.

“It is brilliant to see that Swim England has developed a swimming after stroke information resource, to support stroke survivors to get back into the water or even start swimming for the first time.

“We are delighted to have been able to support the process of development. We hope that it will be used by healthcare professionals, leisure providers and people affected by stroke to encourage more stroke survivors to enjoy the benefits of being active in water.”

The new fact sheets follow 12 others developed, covering conditions such as asthma, cancer, dementia, diabetes, epilepsy, ear infection, glandular fever, mental health, musculoskeletal conditions, skin conditions, swimming before and after surgery and a fact sheet on swimming after Covid-19.

To date, more than 23,000 copies of the various fact sheets have been downloaded – with more than 275,000 visits to the fact sheet pages of the Just Swim website – since they were first developed.

Swim England will be continuing to develop new fact sheets for different conditions with support from the Swimming and Health Commission over the coming months, with a further fact sheet around swimming with multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s also due to launch very soon.

For more information on this or other aspects of Swim England’s health and wellbeing work, please email health@swimming.org

Swimming in Lake Superior

Well wading in with help and sitting on a rock 6 inches underwater facing the shore, wedged my right foot against a rock, left foot only partially wedged and my right hand grabbing a lip of the rock I'm sitting on. 1.5-2 foot waves would crash against my back, with several breaking over my head. Since the wind was from the northwest it was blowing all the warmed up top layers of water into the Duluth shores. My friends went swimming for 10-15 minutes while I enjoyed the pummeling. Both friends had to help me back to shore as the waves were still swirling around my feet.

Had a belated wedding reception on the shores of Lake Superior and watched this beautiful moonrise. Several days later the smoke from the BWCA fires were hovering all over Duluth.

Big Surprise: The Brain Can Recover Many Years After a Stroke

 This is great, but HOW DO YOU MAKE THIS EXACTLY REPEATABLE? If I were to try swimming now I would drown, so this person is definitely much higher functioning than me in regards to arm use.

Big Surprise: The Brain Can Recover Many Years After a Stroke

Abstract

Most doctors think that after a patient has a stroke, recovery only happens for 6 months to a year; after that there is no point in continuing with rehabilitation therapy. We described a patient who had a severe stroke at age 15 and was left with a completely useless left hand. Then 23 years later, after he started swimming regularly to lose weight, he had some movement in the fingers of his left hand. He began intensive therapy with exercises using a special glove, and now, 37 years after the stroke, he is still improving. The way his brain “rewired” itself all over both sides of the brain is shown with a special imaging method called functional magnetic resonance imaging. This means that intensive physiotherapy and maybe new approaches to brain recovery including stem cell therapy, need to be tried much longer after the stroke than we used to think.

Introduction

What most doctors believe is that after a stroke

Sudden loss of function of part of the brain. This may be due to a hemorrhage (a bleed) into the brain, or due to blockage of a brain artery by a clot.

, the patient can only recover for a short time, such as 6 months or a year. Young children who have strokes recover much better than people who have strokes as adults.

This is a story of a man who had a stroke at age 15 and had no use of his left hand until he began to recover 23 years later, after taking up swimming to try to lose weight [1]. He is still improving 37 years after the stroke. His story gives hope for recovery much later than we thought possible, and suggests that intensive physiotherapy, and maybe new approaches to brain recovery such as stem cell

Cells that are very primitive, that can develop into any kind of cell in the body.

therapy might improve recovery long after a stroke [2–5].

 

Could cold water hold a clue to a dementia cure?

This would require that your doctor get you recovered enough to do swimming. 

YOUR DOCTOR'S RESPONSIBILITY!

Or if your doctor is lazy and doesn't have the protocols to get you 100% recovered then maybe cold showers will do.

Adapted cold shower as a potential treatment for depression

The latest here: 

Could cold water hold a clue to a dementia cure?

The protein has been shown to slow the onset of dementia and even repair some of the damage it causes in mice.Prof Giovanna Mallucci, who runs the UK Dementia Research Institute's Centre at the University of Cambridge, says the discovery could point researchers towards new drug treatments which may help hold dementia at bay.The research - although promising - is at an early stage, but it centres on the hibernation ability that all mammals retain, which is prompted by exposure to cold.

There are already more than a million people with dementia in the UK and the total is expected to double by 2050.

Researchers are searching for new ways to treat the condition, as current options have only limited impact.

• Can cold water swimming treat depression?

• Cold open water plunge may provide instant pain relief

• Dementia: Lifestyle changes that could lower your risk

• Experts excited by brain 'wonder drug'

Bears and hedgehogs

Doctors have known for decades that cooling people down can - in certain circumstances - protect their brains.

People with head injuries and those who need cardiac operations are often cooled during surgery, as are babies.

What has not been so well understood was why cold has this protective effect.

The link with dementia lies in the destruction and creation of synapses - the connections between cells in the brain.

In the early stages of Alzheimer's and other neuro-degenerative diseases, these brain connections are lost.

This leads to the cascade of symptoms associated with dementia - including memory loss, confusion and mood swings - and, in time, the death of whole brain cells.

What intrigued Prof Mallucci was the fact that brain connections are lost when hibernating animals like bears, hedgehogs and bats bed down for their winter sleep.

About 20-30% of their synapses are culled as their bodies preserve precious resources for winter.

But when they awake in the spring, those connections are miraculously reformed.

 

Flutter kick failure

 In Florida right now, don't come here, mask wearing is hit and miss. Tried out the pool at the condo. I can't independently just move my lower left leg to propel myself in a straight direction using both legs easily. I should be able to go to any physical therapist in the world, get an exact diagnosis of the problem, THEN GET EXACT PROTOCOLS TO FIX THE PROBLEM.  I shouldn't have to solution this myself, the stroke medical world should have all the answers to 100% recovery.

Pool practice

On Super Bowl weekend prior to the big game my friends took me to a pool. Tried out several pool floats to see which would be the best to practice flutter kicks without drowning. Turns out that being stomach side down was harder to stay on the float than grasping them to my chest and laying on my back. There was no flutter kick since I have very little lower leg control, mostly whole leg movement. It took all three of them swimming by my side to make sure I was safe.  But good to know about this, something I should have received from my doctor and therapists. We have 10 million yearly stroke survivors  reinventing the wheel of stroke recovery. What a fucking waste of time and effort.

BCN3D Sigma 3D printer helps 16-year-old swimmer in stroke rehabilitation

I bet your doctors and stroke hospital have NEVER THOUGHT of anything innovative like this to help their stroke survivors. Why should they, they are paid by the hour not any results?
https://www.tctmagazine.com/3d-printing-news/bcn3d-sigma-3d-printer-swimmer-stroke-rehab/

Pedro, 16, suffered a stroke in August 2012.

by Sam Davies

11 January 2018

09:40

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Pedro takes to the pool with his 3D printed customised orthotic fin, which helps the movement of his right arm.

A 16-year-old boy has received a boost to his stroke rehabilitation after two students from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC) harnessed BCN3D’s 3D printing technology to manufacture a customised orthotic swimming fin.

Pedro is a local teenager, a sports fanatic, who was left half paralysed after a left ganglion basal haemorrhage in August 2012. Thanks to a lengthy period of rehab, Pedro recovered most of his mobility, except in his right hand which was affected by spasticity, a disorder of the central nervous system which hinders the movement of muscles.

July 2016, nearly four years on from the stroke, was the beginning of a new sports project at the Club de Natacio I’Hospitalet, a swimming club with a newly created adapted swimming section. Pedro was encountering problems with his hand positioning due to the effects of the stroke, so his coach, Alex Agut, and the President of the club, Jordi Lorca, contacted UPC’s CIM centre to discuss a potential solution. Marc Roca and Inigo Martinez-Ayo, Master’s students in Design and Engineering in Product Development at UPC, were tasked with solving the problem.

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The fin was printed in Nylon using the BCN3D Sigma machine.

The pair decided Fused Filament Fabrication technology would be their best bet, believing they could save time in the prototyping and testing phases. Using the BCN3D Sigma machine, Marc and Inigo developed the fin within four weeks. They made ten functional prototypes, where they experimented with different shapes and materials, while remaining within their €100 budget. Eventually, Marc and Inigo settled on Nylon, citing its mechanical and chemical properties, and its durability, flexibility and resistance to corrosion. PVA material was used to print supports, which Marc and Inigo say helped achieve better surface quality.

Within just a few weeks of Marc and Inigo getting to work on the project Pedro was able to utilise his swimming fin, and has seen some marked improvements in his swimming performance. Since he began wearing the fin, Pedro and his Club de Natacio I’Hospitalet coaching team have reported improvements in body position and movement; an increase of musculature in the upper body; and it has encouraged him to spend more time in the pool.

Learning to Swim Again post stroke

This should be written up as a publicly available stroke protocol. But our fucking failures of stroke associations don't even know how to do this simple thing for survivors. You are completely fucking on your own, creating your own protocols, exercises and mental cognition tasks. Putting it out in the Stroke Connection magazine is the completely fucking lazy way to attempt to communicate this to stroke survivors.
http://scmag-digi.strokeassociation.org/strokeconnection/summer_2016?pg=NaN#pgNaN

Go Ice Swimming in Finland

From Weather.coms

40 Things to Do Before You Die

I've done this numerous times in northern Minnesota, its a lot of fun right after a sauna. You have to remember to wear shoes

This would be a useful stroke therapy because of all the sensation signals being sent back to your brain. One problem, I don't see how you can dip just your hemiplegic side into the refreshing waters.

Look at that smile of pleasure on his face.