Memory-improvement series in Sun City

Brain Injury Association of Massachusetts Launches Webcast Series

WESTBOROUGH —

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

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

Joe Gough/shutterstock.com

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

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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

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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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

Posted: 01/04/2012 03:49:01 PM PST

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

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

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

Treating Stress, Speech Disorders With Music

December 16, 2011

More and more hospitals and clinics now offer music therapy as a supplementary treatment for everything from anxiety to Alzheimer's, but its efficacy varies for different conditions. Neurologist Oliver Sacks and several music therapists discuss the science and practice of music therapy.....
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Survey to find out about the daily life of stroke victims

STROKE survivors in Wales will be asked detailed questions about their daily life as part of the first survey of its kind.
The Stroke Association has developed the survey in a bid to find out what life is like for people who have had a stroke across Britain.
It is the biggest survey of its kind and will also ask detailed questions about what services stroke survivors are able to access and about their finances.

The Daily Life survey will be officially launched on Wednesday and will run until December 1. The Stroke Association is urging everyone affected by stroke in Wales to take part.
Ana Palazon, director for the Stroke Association in Wales said: “More people are surviving their stroke, this means that more of us are living with the effects of stroke in our daily lives. The Daily Life Survey will be an important tool in helping the Stroke Association to better understand the challenges stroke survivors face.”

Read More http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/2011/09/12/survey-to-find-out-about-the-daily-life-of-stroke-victims-91466-29403030/#ixzz1ZBBlNXA0

Stroke centers no worse at weekend treatment

(Reuters Health) - Hospitals that have been designated as "stroke centers" may provide just as good care on the weekend as on weekdays, new findings suggest.
That's important because previous studies have hinted that people who come to the hospital after having a stroke don't do as well if they're admitted over the weekend, when nurses and specialists might be stretched extra thin.
"This is a big concern among the physician community because we all know that not every hospital has the capacity to treat those patients on the weekend," said Dr. Ying Xian, who studies stroke care at the Duke Clinical Research Institute in Durham, North Carolina and wasn't involved in the new study...... 

http://reut.rs/o91hYa

Season of Hope

By BOB TEES

Posted 1 month ago

The seasons are changing. This week we feel it in bright days and cool nights, plus a few spectacularly stormy moments. The sadness of seeing summer slip away is balanced by the welcome relief of a return to routine that September soon will bring.

This time last year, as the seasons changed, I was preparing a presentation for Aphasia Camp at the Tim Horton's Onandaga Camp. Aphasia is partial or total loss of the ability to speak due to a brain injury, usually stroke. At the Camp, people with aphasia and their significant others spent the weekend fishing, cycling, learning, enjoying campfires, and generally relaxing in all manner of ways. The theme for the presentation was A Season of Hope, and this song was written for the Camp.
SEASON OF HOPE
There is a season to fall in love a s....... http://bit.ly/nglPLq

Fresh attack on stroke unit plan

AFTER handing over a petition against the closure of a North-East stroke unit to NHS officials, critics of the plans launched a fresh broadside.
The 780-name petition from Darlington Stroke Club opposing the proposed closure of Darlington Memorial Hospital stroke unit, was handed in to officials from NHS County Durham and Darlington yesterday.
Earlier in the day, a copy of the petition was also presented to the leader of Darlington Borough Council, Councillor Bill Dixon.
The petition was launched in response to NHS County Durham and Darlington’s proposals to back plans to centralise stroke services at the University Hospital of North Durham and close the stroke unit at Darlington Memorial Hospital.
Because of medical staffing problems, the 24-hour acute stroke service for County Durham and Darlington currently alternates between the two hospitals.
NHS County Durham and Darlington has been running a public consultation exercise on the future of acute stroke services which ends tomorrow.
The PCT’s preferred option is to centralise acute stroke services on the Durham City hospital site on the grounds that it offers better all round facilities.
Coun Dixon said he thought the petition, put together in just three weeks, was “a magnificent response”
to the proposals.
The council leader claimed some of the statistics used by the primary care trust to justify centralising at Durham City were flawed and “shoddy” and Darlington would make a better location because of the greater density of population.
He said if Darlington was not chosen as the preferred site, he would want the consultation process repeated.
Darlington MP Jenny Chapman said some of her constituents wondered whether Durham City was being favoured because consultants preferred to live in that area rather than in Darlington.
“The NHS should be run for the benefit of patients not for the convenience of consultants,” she added.
Gillian Peel, chief executive officer of Age UK Darlington, which hosts the Darlington Stroke Club, said: “I believe the consultation process is deeply flawed and very skewed in favour of Durham.”
Stroke survivor Sheila Adams, 76, from Darlington, who signed the petition, said: “I think it is a foregone conclusion – but it shouldn’t be.”
In accepting the petitition, PCT director David Gallagher said he was grateful for people taking the time to express their views.
“The consultation is about getting the views of as many people as possible. We take every view very seriously,” he added.
He stressed that where staff lived was not an issue.
A decision is expected to be taken at a PCT board meeting later in the autumn.

Comments(2)

Jolly Roger says...
5:26pm Sat 10 Sep 11

But why oh why cannot Darlington accept there are at the southern end of Durham and there are places further North than Durham where patients must travel to Darlington if the stroke unit goes there.

So in my opinion the Trust has got it right and Durham is more central for this unit.

So will those in charge listen to us as well, they should do.

CAMPAIGNERS: Darlington Borough Council leader Bill Dixon, right, receives a copy of the petition

Neurology and Neuroscience Our Stroke Centers

About Our Stroke Centers

NewYork-Presbyterian's three comprehensive Stroke Centers are among the few New York State-designated primary stroke care locations in New York City.

Our full-service Stroke Centers offer advanced resources to minimize the immediate and secondary brain damage from a stroke and maximize the patient's chance for full recovery. Stroke specialists at our neuro-intensive care units provide round-the-clock surveillance, state-of-the-art brain monitoring, and specialized medical and surgical treatments. Having advanced resources such as these are critical, especially in the first 48 hours   more read...

New source of support for stroke survivors in Ellesmere Port

Apr 13 2011 Ellesmere Port Pioneer

PEOPLE affected by stroke in Chester and West Cheshire now have access to new stroke-specific support, which aims to provide mutual help and peer support in a relaxed and social environment.
Three new groups will be run, in Ellesmere Port, Chester and Vale Royal, and are intended not only for stroke survivors but also carers and family.
Andrea Davies, long-term support co-ordinator for The Stroke Association, said: ‘We know from listening to stroke survivors that having a support network is so important in promoting rehabilitation. We’re pleased to be offering this essential service, which gives people living with the effects of stroke the opportunity to meet others with similar experiences.
‘Stroke survivors often find their world is turned upside down by stroke, and may need support in rebuilding their lives. Some may be aiming to get back to work, while others may wish to find new activities in which to become involved. This group will fill a gap and allow them to meet with others who can relate to the challenges of rebuilding their life after a stroke.”

Volunteers are also needed to help develop the service, as well as set up and run the group, which ultimately will be member led and managed. Compassion, humour and listening skills are essential to the role.  more ready...

Lower Stroke Death Risk in Close-Knit Neighborhoods

Lower Stroke Death Risk in Close-Knit Neighborhoods

Study Suggests Health Benefits for People Who Have Supportive Neighbors

By Bill Hendrick
WebMD Health News

Reviewed by Laura J. Martin, MD

April 14, 2011 -- Seniors who live in supportive neighborhoods in which they have frequent opportunities to interact with friends and neighbors may have a reduced risk of dying from a stroke compared to those who live in less sociable neighborhoods, new research suggests.
“Social isolation is unhealthy on many levels, and there is a lot of literature showing that increased social support improves not just stroke, but many other health outcomes in seniors,” study researcher Cari Jo Clark, ScD, of the University of Minnesota, says in a news release.
“What is unique about our research is that we have taken this to the neighborhood level instead of just looking at the individual.”

A Visual Guide to Understanding Stroke

Measuring Neighborhood Cohesiveness

The researchers at the University of Minnesota and Rush University in Chicago studied 5,789 seniors living in three adjacent neighborhoods in Chicago. Of those in the study, 62% were African-American and 60% women. The average age was 75.
The research team interviewed the participants about their neighborhoods and interactions with neighbors. After 11 years, 701 people had suffered a stroke for the first time and 186 people had died from a stroke.
The researchers set out to measure what they called neighborhood “cohesiveness” by asking such questions as how often the people saw neighbors and friends talking -- outside in the yard or on the street.
They also asked the study participants whether they took care of each other, such as doing yard work for one another or helped watching children, and whether the people in the neighborhood looked out for neighbors or called if they noticed a problem.

Positive Social Environment

The researchers also asked whether people knew neighbors by name, whether they had friendly talks at least once a week, and whether they could call on their neighbors for help or a favor, such as lending a cup of sugar.
For each single point in the scoring system for neighborhood cohesion, stroke survival increased 53%.
Stroke incidence didn’t differ among neighborhoods, but survival did. It was far better for those living in cohesive neighborhoods, regardless of gender.  However, the difference in stroke survival was only seen in white study participants. This difference was not seen in African-American participants.
“Obviously, a complex set of factors influences health in older adults and we need to be careful drawing conclusions from these data,” Clark says.  “Other research also has shown that the health-protective effects of cohesive neighborhoods may be stronger in whites. We plan to conduct future studies to try to understand these findings.”
The researchers say one reason seniors who suffer strokes may be more likely to survive in closer-knit neighborhoods is that others looking out for them might assist in getting help sooner if stroke symptoms occur.
“I think this indicates that a positive neighborhood social environment is as important to senior health as stress or even crime, but it is really a complex issue,” Clark says. “Nonetheless, it underscores the positive aspects of close neighbors and neighborhoods and should help bolster efforts to improve such cohesiveness.”
“Given the importance of neighborhood environments to older individuals and the fact that the population is rapidly aging, the characteristics of neighborhoods are and will continue to be of relevance to public health policies,” the researchers conclude.
The study is published in Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association.  MORE READ...

Annual Conference Scheduled for June 2nd and 3rd!

Brain Injury Association of New York State

Brain injury – it’s the last thing on your mind, until it’s the only thing on your mind. A brain injury changes everything. Nothing in your world is the same. What now? Who can you turn to? How will you find the resources you need to cope?
The Brain Injury Association of New York State is here to help. Whatever the cause of the injury - combat-related traumatic brain injury, stroke, a brain tumor, blast injury, concussion, or an acquired brain injury from exposure to chemicals - the Brain Injury Association of New York State offers resources, information and support. Here, you will find the help and hope you’ve been looking for.
Since 1982, we have provided information, resources, programs, advocacy, and support services to brain injury survivors, family members, health care professionals, and educators.
You are not alone. Here, you will find the help and hope you’ve been looking for. To navigate through our website, please click on the topics listed in the left-side menu.
Because no one should face the trauma of brain injury alone.  More read....