6 Easy Tricks to Avoid Having a Stroke

by Alesha Wilson
(Wilmington, NC)

Some people undergo stroke even without realizing it. These are mild strokes, but there are also severe strokes that render the person incapable of speech or movement in partial areas of the body. If it is very serious, the person might lose the ability to move any part of the body at all. Stroke prevention is important, and you should be aware of the ways that you can stop it from happening to you or any of your loved ones. Some tips are listed below:

1. Don't consume unnecessary fat. One reason why stroke happens is because there is no oxygen getting to the brain. If there are fats covering the veins, it would be hard for oxygen to travel through them, and thus stroke is very likely.
2. Be active. It helps to strengthen your heart and veins. The cardiopulmonary system is responsible for pumping blood around the body, and with that blood comes nutrients and toxins. Flushing them out efficiently while supplying the needed nutrients in various areas of the body as quickly as possible will help prevent any problems including stroke.
3. Avoid too much heat. Some people have stroke because of the sudden changes in the weather. If you feel that it is too hot, you might want to stay inside and change to comfortable clothes. Hydrating your body properly also helps.
4. Coordinate with a neurologist. Even if you haven't had a stroke yet, there might already be a clog inside your brain, and it may only be a matter of time before you experience that dreaded stroke. Instead of waiting for it to happen without being prepared, you can have yourself examined by a neurologist. Tests can show whether or not there are abnormalities inside your brain.

5. Do not disregard severe migraines. One signal that there is something going on in your brain is when you are always getting incessant migraines. Especially if it lasts for hours or days on end, you might want to have a doctor check it out. It's better to be sure than sorry.
6. Eat foods that help burn fat. Everyone is encouraged to eat their share of vegetables. Furthermore, a daily serving of coconut oil might also help your body metabolize, plus it has been proven to be good for the heart. There will be decreased chances of developing stroke with this healthy addition to your diet.

Sometimes a person is already undergoing stroke in front of you without you noticing it. Try to ask someone to smile, stick out his tongue and raise his left and right hand. If he can do it without fail, it means that his brain is still functioning properly and he is not having a stroke.

Alesha Wilson is a staff writer at RockwellNutrition.com, leading natural health website. You can get Rockwell Nutrition discount coupon codes by following the link.

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy

by Bobby
(Michigan)

I work in the medical field and I have seen the struggles and hardship strokes can bring. I have found that hyperbaric oxygen therapy can truly help someone with any kind of neurological injury or disease. I have made a strong effort to help people understand and receive this information regarding this therapy. The combination of pressure and increased oxygen can do wonders for allowing the brain the repair itself and help stroke victims regain physical and mental abilities they had lost. We have a created a free website listing hyperbaric clinics and facilities nationwide. This can truly help bring life back to a normal state. Our site is www.hyperbaricnation.org. I hope this can help someone who is dealing with the issues stroke can cause.

Judo Hand Exercise

by Joseph Hendron
(Crumlin Northern Ireland)

Judo hand exercise where I closed and then opened my hand helped it work. I then raised my arm to horizontal and closed and opened my hand repeatly until I could do it 100 times at a time. I hope this helps others.

A WHOLE NEW WAY OF LOOKING AT SPEAKING RECOVERY FOR THOSE WITH APHASIA

by MARK A. ITTLEMAN, M.S.
(HOUSTON, TEXAS)

A stroke or brain injury can turn a family’s world upside down in seconds. You find yourself in the battle of your life, being guided by whomever you meet at the hospital, hoping they have the answers. As time goes on and speech does not return, you begin to wonder: “What now?” “Will I (or my loved one) ever be able to speak again?”

Are you tired of gimmicks, worksheets, software, or boring one-hour sessions reciting lists of words? In my clinical practice as an expert speech-language pathologist for the past 40 years, I have seen hundreds of frustrated patients and family members who have said those very words to me.

I, too, was tired of programs that didn’t bring success to my patients. I knew there had to be a better way, so I began treating my patients differently. I put the gimmicks and worksheets and software away, and I began talking with them about things they were interested in. Imagine that! I learned that people speak much better when they talk with another human being about things they are interested in, instead of a computer screen!

Our book. The Teaching of Talking is currently being published in New York. It is a totally new concept in speech therapy. Within its pages you will find refreshing, and revolutionary speech therapy methods that will rock the world of someone you love. We believe speech therapy and speech and language stimulation are best done in the home, by family and caregivers, under the supervision of a licensed speech-language pathologist familiar with the methods contained within The Teaching of Talking.

If you have ever taught a toddler to speak, you will quickly see why our method works when others fail. We begin slowly, with simple “yes” and “no” questions and one-word answers, and we talk with the person who is learning to speak again all day long, through all of the activities of daily living. Sound familiar? If you offer a toddler some milk, you ask him to “say ‘milk.’” Well, our method is very similar. As one-word answers begin to come easily, we expand to two-word phrases, and so on.

The fact is that in today’s system, most people with mild to profound speaking difficulties will be discharged by the therapist or hospital/insurance company long before the need for therapy has ended. You no longer have to be bound to a speech-language pathologist, insurance company or management system that is going to discharge you soon anyway.

Take a proactive role in the speech and language stimulation of your loved one. Become a pivotal, active participant in your loved one’s recovery, not a passive observer, wondering if they will ever get better. So when the day comes that your loved one’s therapy is terminated or if they have been discharged, for whatever reason, you feel confident continually going forward with speech-language stimulation at home for as long as it takes to get clarity in speaking!

Respectfully submitted,

Mark A. Ittleman, M.S., CCC/SLP
Senior Speech Language Pathologist
Houston, Texas

Mental Movement Therapy

by Randy

I'm a physical therapist, and I just wanted to make you aware of a program of guided mental practice for stroke recovery, called Mental Movement Therapy. Research shows that mental practice is effective at stimulating neural "re-wiring" needed for recovery of motor control.

It's a valuable tool for people who have such little motor control that they cannot physically perform rehab exercises or movements without help. It's also a good way to refine movements, and improve precision and control. Research has proven it to be effective at "re-wiring" neural control areas of the brain, and improving arm and leg function after a stroke.


Note from www.stroke-rehab.com: Please note that submissions from others are for informational purposes only and are not professional medical advice, diagnosis, treatment or care, nor are intended to be a substitute. Always seek the advice of a physician or other qualified health provider concerning questions you have regarding your health or a loved one's health concerns.

Tauqeer Ahmed From Pakistan

by Tauqeer Ahmed
(Islamabad .Pakistan)

I use medicine and simple exercise for my arm & leg nowadays. I started exercises from your web page, and I feel better.

Comment from Stroke-rehab Thanks, Tauqueer. I'm glad the exercises have helped.

Comprehensive treatment at Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine

by Jenny
(New York City)

I have had 3 strokes and they (Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation) are the reason why I make so much progress.

Shoulder Subluxation Recovery

by Robert Thornton
(Bunker Hill, WV 25413)

My girlfriend lost the use of her left side after her stroke in April. The therapy she received helped her leg, her speech,her eating and swallowing - just about everything but her arm and hand. This is what i would like to talk about.

I have been by her side since her stroke. Every therapy she got I repeated it in her hospital room, and her recovery was amazing but they couldn't really do any thing for her arm (mainly due to the pain). I asked them about a sling to hold her arm shoulder joint in place(they said the pain and swelling was from pinched nerves in the shoulder). They said that she just had to work through the pain because there was no sling that really worked for the subluxed shoulder. My answer to that bull*&^%...I watched her therapist hold her arm in place and her pain went away. I started searching for a sling, and sadly they were right. Every sling I found caused more harm than good, and they wouldn't let me put any on her.

Well, I didn't stop there. When she got home, she had in home care and I started making different slings while her therapist kept telling me what was wrong with each sling (made 10 kinds). Finally, they started liking where I was going with number 11. I finished it, and her therapist loved it. Her pain level dropped to where she no longer takes pain meds. The recovery of her arm jumped 80% in two weeks. Now all of her doctors and therapist require her to wear the sling I made. If you would like to see what I did, I put together a web page describing it https://sites.google.com/site/subluxationsling/. Maybe this will help someone else out.

Yes, we started making my sling and offering to the public the price we charge barely covers the cost to make them. We(my girlfriend Sharon and me) make them here in our living room. It is great therapy for Sharon, and she feels better about her stroke knowing that what she has gone through is helping others with there recovery.