Saturday, March 10, 2012

Brain Injury Association of Massachusetts Launches Webcast Series

The Brain Injury Association of Massachusetts (BIA-MA) has launched a webcast series to educate individuals of all ages on the signs and symptoms of brain injury, ways to prevent brain injury and the latest in treatment and therapies. The series “Brain Injury and You” will cover such topics as sports concussion, car seats for children, falls prevention, strokes and aphasia. The first webcast, “Brain Injury and You: How to be an Advocate” has been posted on BIA-MA’s website (www.biama.org) via YouTube.
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Read more: Brain Injury Association of Massachusetts Launches Webcast Series - Westborough, MA - Westborough News http://www.wickedlocal.com/westborough/newsnow/x570357679/Brain-Injury-Association-of-Massachusetts-Launches-Webcast-Series#ixzz1olFqXJ36

Thursday, March 8, 2012

Support group helps stroke victims who've lost language skills



FARMINGTON — Ernest Brown, of Kirtland, had a stroke in June 2009 and stopped understanding words. Richie Knauss, of Cortez, Colo., had a stroke in January 2007 and lost his ability to speak.
The two men and their wives meet monthly as part of an aphasia support group at San Juan Regional Rehabilitation Hospital. They are close friends who encourage and inspire each other during the lifelong recovery that follows a debilitating stroke.
"I encourage Richie ... I say, Don't give up,'" Brown said. "You have to start somewhere."
The aphasia support group started two years ago as a spinoff of a larger support group for stroke patients, said Beth Rabourn, a rehabilitation nurse at the hospital.
Aphasia is a medical condition when people lose their grasp of language. Most aphasic patients have either had a stroke or traumatic brain injury.
There are different levels of the disability, Rabourn said.
Some patients speak, but the words are nonsensical and they can't comprehend words. Others can understand speech but can't form their own words, she said. The worst-case scenario is when the different forms of aphasia overlap.
Knauss has expressive aphasia, said Joyce Lameire, a speech therapist at the hospital who worked with both men. After his stroke, he could follow instructions and understand written directions, but he couldn't put together his own words.
Brown has receptive aphasia, she said. He could speak words but he couldn't understand speech.
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Fried food raises stroke risk in older women; Daily aspirin regimen could help Aspirin use was shown to slim down the link between trans fat

Women who reported eating diets high in trans-fatty acids, or 6.1 grams a day, showed a 39 percent greater incidence of stroke due to a blocked artery than women who ate 2.2 grams per day of such fats.

Joe Gough/shutterstock.com

Aspirin use was shown to slim down the link between trans fat intake and stroke, according to a study.

Older women who eat high amounts of the kind of fat found in fried foods and baked goods face a greater risk of stroke than women who eat lower fat diets, a study suggested on Thursday.
However, aspirin use could cut those risks, said the researchers from University of North Carolina whose findings are published in the Annals of Neurology.
The data came from the largest study to date of post-menopausal women and their eating habits, and included 87,025 women between the ages 50 and 79 who were generally in good health at the time of enrollment.
Women who reported eating diets high in trans-fatty acids, or 6.1 grams a day, showed a 39 percent greater incidence of stroke due to a blocked artery than women who ate 2.2 grams per day of such fats

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/health/fried-food-raises-stroke-risk-older-women-daily-aspirin-regimen-article-1.1033281#ixzz1oZMJKwyW

Citrus fruits may keep stroke at bay for women

By Dr Ananya Mandal, MD
A new study by European and U.S. scientists shows that increased consumption of flavonoid-rich foods such as certain citrus fruits may help reduce the risk of stroke in women.
In the study published last Thursday in Stroke, a journal of the American Heart Association, researchers analyzed the flavonoid intake of 69,622 women from the U.S.-based Nurses’ Health Study, which has followed nurses since 1976 to assess risk factors for cardiovascular disease and cancer. The total flavonoid intake of the 69,622 women was calculated after they completed food intake questionnaires collected every four years using a U.S. Department of Agriculture database. They found that during 14 years of follow up surveys beginning in 1990, 1,803 incidents of strokes were confirmed from the women.
On analysis it was seen that women who ate high amounts of citrus products, which contain a specific class of flavonoid called flavanones, had a 19 per cent lower risk of ischemic (blood clot-related) stroke than women who didn't consume as much. Women with the lowest intake of flavonoids took in about 150 milligrams a day or less, compared to more than 470 mg a day by women consuming the highest level. A piece of citrus fruit normally contains 45 to 50 mg of flavanones.
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Community rallies around teen stroke victim

Community rallies around teen stroke victim

Posted March 2, 2012
Jordan McCoy is currently attending New River Community College. Photo courtesy of Ryan McCoy.
Jordan McCoy woke up Feb. 25 feeling much different than he ever had before.
The 19-year-old awoke unable to use the right side of his body or clearly communicate. Everything he attempted to say sounded like “gibberish,” said McCoy’s mother, Tracy McCoy.
Jordan McCoy was taken to Carilion New River Valley Clinic in Radford, where doctors concluded he had suffered a stroke. He was immediately shipped to Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital to begin his road to recovery.
While much of this path may still be foggy, what’s clear is that the former Christiansburg High School athlete has plenty of people to cheer him on.
Following many tests, Tracy McCoy said they believe the stroke was caused by a condition called patent foramen ovale, a small hole in the heart which allows the blood to bypass the lungs. This limits the blood’s oxygen content and makes clotting far more likely.
She said eventually the condition would have to be treated, but for now, her son’s rehabilitation is the primary concern..........................
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KTRK 13's Tim Melton suffers stroke, in recovery

Lots of emails have come into my blog asking where is KTRK 13 weekend sports guy Tim Melton? Melton hasn't appeared on air since October.

As I had posted, KTRK 13 hired former KVUE sports director Hugh Lewis to fill in last February.

Now Tim Melton breaks his silence on Facebook.

"Yes, I'm still here! Sorry for being out of touch for so long, but I suffered a stroke last October and spent two months at TIRR undergoing rehab. I thank all of you who have expressed your concern as to what caused my absence, but I wanted to wait until I had a good sense of what the future holds before saying anything.

I am happy to report I'm getting better every day...................
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Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Via Christi Stroke Center Earns Get With The Guidelines-Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award


Via Christi’s Stroke Center has received the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines®-Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award — the organization’s highest award for stroke care.

"This award is a wonderful recognition of the work of our outstanding team of employees who are dedicated to doing their best to care for stroke patients by ensuring that evidence-based care processes are consistently delivered," said Sherry Hausmann, president of Via Christi Hospital on St. Francis.
To receive the award, Via Christi met each of the program’s stroke measures at 85 percent or higher for 24 consecutive months and ranked 75 percent or higher for additional quality measures, such as admit National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale; aggressive use of medications such as tPA,...Next

After traumatic injury, recovery starts with the B.R.A.I.N.

By Ashley Curtin

Updated: 01/06/2012 06:11:45 AM PST

B.R.A.I.N. Cells pairs brain injury survivors with community volunteers amd focuses on creating a bond between the partners, which in turn helps the survivors' recovery and healing process.
Stacey Kuroiwa suffered a stroke when she was 35 and has found help in her recovery from the B.R.A.I.N. community.
At age 46, Peggy Toole of Long Beach had to learn how to walk and talk all over again. In 2007, after experiencing sudden cardiac death - a loss of heart function - and being resuscitated back to life, she remained comatose for three weeks. A prolonged loss of oxygen resulted in a traumatic brain injury that left her with ataxia and apraxia disorder - limited coordination of muscle movements, with an inability to execute learned movements. She also was left legally blind.
As a hospice registered nurse, Stacey Kuroiwa, also of Long Beach, enjoyed helping people. But in 2006, at age 35, she unexpectedly needed help of her own.
Kuroiwa suffered a stroke to the left side of her brain causing paralysis in her right arm..........Next

Monday, January 16, 2012

Happy Anniversary… to my Stroke?! By Catherine Lewallen


Murphys, CA...I am writing this on January 8th, 2012, the one-year anniversary of my stroke. What a terrifying day that was! I was alone. I was at my business, though it wasn’t open, getting some work done. Going up a stepladder I got really light-headed, as if I stood up too fast. As I tried to get down the ladder, I realized I was not in control of my legs and was going to fall. I laid there on my side, struggling to get my phone out of my pocket, with the one arm that was working. It took several tries to successfully dial for help, only to be unintelligible in my pleas.... Next

Thursday, January 12, 2012

NEWSMAN, STRANDED BY STROKE, FINALLY GOING HOME

January 10, 2012
WASHINGTON D.C. After more than 2 years, veteran newsman Diosdado Beltran will finally get the chance to go home to the Philippines.
Beltran, 67 and former news editor of the Philippine News Agency (PNA), was visiting family members in Fairfax, Virginia in 2009 when he suffered a stroke.
He survived but doctors at the Commonwealth Health and Rehab Center refused to allow him to fly back to Manila as he wanted. The trip, they warned, could be fatal.
He now reportedly speaks with a slur and has trouble sitting up, forcing him to spend the day mostly lying on the bed.
Beltran was an officer of the Samahang Plaridel, an association of veteran journalists and communicators named in honor of the pseudonym famously used by Filipino patriot Marcelo H. del Pilar who helped publish the La Solidaridad.
His doctors would only give Beltran the green light to fly back to the Philippines if a certified nurse would accompany him on the trip...Next