Saturday, December 8, 2012
'Junk food' may significantly hike risk of stroke
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Thursday, March 8, 2012
Aphasia Increases Cost of Care After Ischemic Stroke
FRIDAY, Feb. 17 (HealthDay News) -- In ischemic stroke patients, aphasia is associated with greater morbidity, higher mortality, and increased length of stay, and adds $1,703 per patient to the cost of stroke-related care, according to research published online Feb. 16 in Stroke.
To quantify the contribution of aphasia to the overall cost of stroke care, Charles Ellis, Ph.D., of the VA Center for Disease Prevention and Health Interventions for Diverse Populations in Charleston, S.C., and colleagues conducted a retrospective study of 3,200 Medicare beneficiaries who experienced ischemic stroke in 2004.
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Posted by iRDMuni at 5:18 PM 1 comments
Schaumburg man doesn’t let his loss of speech crush his spirit
Schaumburg man doesn’t let his loss of speech crush his spirit
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The very idea that I’d wear the same hat as Steve — a flag-flying, lifetime NRA member and Vietnam veteran who enthusiastically challenges some of my opinions — gets me to giggling, too. Then Steve puts it into words.
Or maybe not, says Mary Beth, a better translator of Steve’s intent based on her almost 39 years of being married to the man.
When we last got together in 2007, Steve had just been diagnosed with Primary Progressive Aphasia, a rare, incurable form of dementia that strikes people as young as in their 40s and destroys the brain’s ability to communicate. Five years ago, he tol....................
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Posted by iRDMuni at 4:44 PM 1 comments
Can grapefruit stop stroke?
The research behind this story involved almost 70,000 women taking part in the Nurses’ Health Study in the US. They were asked to complete food frequency questionnaires (which asked them to recall how frequently certain foods were consumed during a specified period of time) every four years and over around 14 years of follow-up the researchers documented the numbers of strokes that occurred, overall and by type.
The researchers found that women who had the highest intak..........
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Posted by iRDMuni at 3:39 PM 0 comments
Will Drinking Diet Soda Increase Your Risk For A Heart Attack?
It should be noted that “research” has also revealed the risk of the Daily Mail misreporting a study’s findings, especially when there’s an opportunity to write an alarming headline. As Dorothy Bishop, a Professor of Neurodevelopmental Psychology at Oxford University, noted in giving the paper her “Orwellian Award for Journalistic Misrepresentation” the Mail sets the standards for inaccurate reporting of academic research....
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Posted by iRDMuni at 3:37 PM 0 comments
Medical mysteries: Was crying caused by man’s severe depression?
By Sandra G. Boodman, Published: February 20
Around 9 p.m. on Aug. 4, 2004, while Anderson and her family were crossing the street from a New Jersey beach boardwalk to their hotel, a drunk driver barreled into her husband, Richard. He was flung 26 feet before slamming headfirst onto the pavement.
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“They were preparing me for a lifetime of therapies,” recalled Rose of the weeks her husband spent at Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation in East Orange, N.J.
But no one prepared the Andersons for Richard’s unpredictable and uncontrollable weeping, which began weeks after the accident and seemed to worsen with time.
“He would cry with almost anyone,” his wife recalled. Thoughts of his dogs, his family or even happy occasions could trigger tears. His teenage daughters found the incidents, which occurred several times a week, almost unbearable.
“As things got better, this shined brighter,” said Richard Anderson, who describes himself as a “very chauvinistic kind of guy” who was mortified by his inability to control his emotions. “It was very upsetting to me to have tears just rolling down my fac....
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Posted by iRDMuni at 3:34 PM 0 comments
Transformed Patient Unveils ‘New Self’ to Inspire Guests at Heart & Stroke Seminar
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Pet Therapy: How Animals And Humans Heal Each Other
That helps explain the increasing use of animals — dogs and cats mostly, but also birds, fish and even horses — in settings ranging from hospitals and nursing homes to schools, jails and mental institutions.
Take Viola, or Vi for short. The retired guide dog is the resident canine at the Children's Inn on the campus of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md. The inn is where families stay when their children are undergoing experimental therapies at NIH.
Vi, a chunky yellow Labrador retriever with a perpetually wagging tail, greets families as they come downstairs in the morning and as they return from treatment in the afternoon. She can even be "checked out" for a walk around the bucolic NIH grounds.
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Posted by iRDMuni at 2:56 PM 0 comments
Aspirin lowers stroke risk from trans fat’ in older women
However, according to the findings from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill researchers, the risk of stroke associated with trans fat intake was lower among women taking aspirin.
The study of 87,025 generally healthy postmenopausal women aged 50 to 79 found that those whose diets contained the largest amounts of trans fats were 39 percent more likely to have an ischemic stroke than women who ate the least amount of trans fat......
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Posted by iRDMuni at 11:04 AM 0 comments
Physicians Order Costly, Redundant Neuroimaging for Stroke Patients
ANN ARBOR, Mich., March 5, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Neuroimaging for stroke patients may be unnecessarily costly and redundant, contributing to rising costs nationwide for stroke care, according to University of Michigan research.
The research, published in the Annals of Neurology, found that 95 percent of stroke patients who received magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) also had a computed tomography (CT) scan.
"Compared to CT, MRI is a more accurate test for stroke," says James F. Burke, M.D., lead author of the study and a clinical lecturer in the University of Michigan Medical School's Department of Neurology. "But our results showed that MRI is not replacing CT as the primary stroke neuroimaging study — instead, patients are getting bo
Read more here: http://www.bradenton.com/2012/03/05/3918899/physicians-order-costly-redundant.html#storylink=cpy
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Posted by iRDMuni at 10:18 AM 0 comments
Drug Might Limit Stroke Brain Damage
There is currently only one effective treatment for stroke. Tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) can dissolve the blood clots that cause a stroke.
But it has to be given very soon after symptoms appear, and doctors first have to make sure that the stroke was not caused by a ruptured blood vessel, in which case tPA can make the situation a lot worse...
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Posted by iRDMuni at 10:04 AM 0 comments
Monday, January 16, 2012
Bill Lohmann: Seeking the right words about aphasia
Now she struggles to find the right words.
Ackman, 80, of Henrico County, suffers from aphasia, a communication disorder that affects the expression and comprehension of language — the same condition that afflicts Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, whose aphasia was brought on by a brain injury caused by a gunshot wound to the head.
In Ackman's case, the culprit was a stroke, the most common cause of aphasia, according to the National Aphasia Association. As far as speaking, she has had to relearn almost everything.
"I couldn't remember anything," Ackman said Tuesday, sitting at her kitchen table Tuesday morning, as she tried to recall that day almost five years ago when the words went away.
The road back has been long. Through intensive therapy and the great support of family and friends, Ackman has regained much of her ability to communicate, but not all. To look at her, you would have no clue she has any problem at all, no idea of the frustration she feels when she tries to express herself and simply can't.
"She gets stuck on a lot of words, and she doesn't have a lot of confidence when it comes to talking to people," said Lynn Burris, one of Ackman's four children. She sometimes finds it easier to just say nothing.
Which is why Burris thought it would be helpful for her mother to connect with other aphasia patients. She believes meeting others facing the same challenges would make her mom less self-conscious and could go a long way to helping her grow more comfortable talking to others....Next
Posted by iRDMuni at 1:03 PM 0 comments
Friday, January 13, 2012
Traffic police arrested a woman for drink driving when she was actually dying from a stroke,
Julie Hawkins, 55, crashed her car and was tended by another motorist who noticed the side of her face was drooping.
But when police arrived on the scene they arrested her on suspicion of drink driving - even though another driver told them Mrs Hawkins was displaying the classic symptoms of a 'catastrophic' stroke.
The inquest heard mother-of-three Mrs Hawkins collapsed as she was taken from her car in Pontyclun, Wales, on October 14 and died of a stroke less than five hours later.
A post mortem examination showed Mrs Hawkins, from nearby Pontypridd, had no alcohol in her blood or urine at the time of the accident, as she drove home for a 50th birthday party.
He said: 'I opened the car door and at first I thought maybe she had too much to drink.
'But then I saw her face was drooping, I think on the left-hand side.
'They were the classic symptoms of a stroke. I would liken it to the advert on TV.'
After Mrs Hawkins collapsed and an ambulance arrived paramedics noticed her lips were purple.
Pc Rhodri Wilson told the inquest Mrs Hawkins gave only single word answers to his questions and he arrested her on suspicion of drink driving.
He said her speech was slurred and she replied 'no' when he asked if she had been drinking.
A spokeswoman from South Wales Police said: 'The officers acted in good faith based on the information presented to them in difficult circumstances.'
The Cardiff inquest heard Mrs Hawkins was taking painkillers for headaches in the weeks before the crash.
She died at 3.30am on October 15 at the University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff, after a scan revealed a stroke.
Mrs Hawkins is survived by sons Kristian and Nicholas and daughter Laura, all in their twenties.
Pathologist Dr Allen Gibbs told the hearing: 'In my opinion she lost control of the car when she began to have a stroke which later became catastrophic.'
The jury returned a narrative verdict that Mrs Hawkins, of Llanharan, near Pontypridd, South Wales, died of a stroke.
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Posted by iRDMuni at 6:13 PM 0 comments
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Scott Douglas, driving force behind UM Entertainment Management program, fighting back after stroke
"You started off basically paralyzed on the right side," says Judy Douglas to her husband.
"Yes, paralyzed," he nods, speaking slowly. "Leg and arm and feet."
"So you're walking now," she says.
"Yes."
"And building ..."
"... Muscles. The mass for my arm. Doug, the acupuncture ..."
"... Has been helping. And lots of physical therapy."
"Yes. Occupational. Speech. And Doug. And, uh ..."
He picks up a pen, carefully positions a sheet of yellow paper on the table in front of him, then writes a name in neatly printed letters and gazes at it intensely for a mom
Read more: http://missoulian.com/news/local/scott-douglas-driving-force-behind-um-entertainment-management-program-fighting/article_7c3240e0-39b4-11e1-b040-0019bb2963f4.html#ixzz1jIy3jpw2
Posted by iRDMuni at 7:22 PM 0 comments
Telemedicine Robots Give Time-Sensitive Stroke Care
Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia, for example, has been using a robot from InTouch Health since 2010 to help care for stroke patients. Jefferson's neurologists are now doing stroke consults via robots in 22 community hospitals (another three will come on board soon).....Next
Posted by iRDMuni at 7:06 PM 0 comments
Tragedy Leads to Hope: Mark Kelly Opens Up at the Anniversary of Giffords' Shooting
After a year of rehab and therapy to learn how to talk and walk again, the congresswoman — still limping but holding her head up high — stood before her constituents, bringing a much-needed sense of healing to the remembrances of the tragic events on that day. She was back in her hometown with her beloved husband, Navy Captain and former astronaut Mark Kelly, by her side, as he has been since that fateful day.
Everyday Health spoke with...Next
Posted by iRDMuni at 7:02 PM 0 comments
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
I Shot Asteroids – With My Eyes [VIDEO]
To start using Tobii, you sit about a foot-and–a-half from the screen and, at least initially, do have to keep your head still and stare at the screen while it calibrates. The screen shows you a series of objects that you have to look at without moving your head. Two infrared cameras shoot your eyeballs and create 3D models of your eyes than can now track their position and movement. (The whole process takes about 10 seconds.) Those cameras, by the way are art of a Tobii’s add-on eye-movement and control response system that can be used with desktops or laptops.
The technology has been programmed to work with an Asteroids-like game and even the Windows 8 Metro interface. I tried it out with the Asteroids game and found it remarkably effective — even if my asteroid-destroying skills stunk. It got so bad, I started to wish I had eight eyes instead of two..... Next
Posted by iRDMuni at 12:19 PM 0 comments