Saturday News

Contents of This Week Saturday News ▶︎ January 30th / 2016

• Definition: Neuroregeneration

Neuroregeneration refers to the regrowth or repair of nervous tissues, cells or cell products. Such mechanisms may include generation of new neurons, glia, axons, myelin, or synapses. Neuroregeneration differs between the peripheral nervous system (PNS) and the central nervous system (CNS) by the functional mechanisms and especially the extent and speed. When an axon is damaged, the distal segment undergoes Wallerian degeneration, losing its myelin sheath. The proximal segment can either die by apoptosis or undergo the chromatolytic reaction, which is an attempt at repair. In the CNS, synaptic stripping occurs as glial foot processes invade the dead synapse.

Nervous system injuries affect over 90,000 people every year. It is estimated that spinal cord injuries alone affect 10,000 each year. As a result of this high incidence of neurological injuries, nerve regeneration and repair, a subfield of neural tissue engineering, is becoming a rapidly growing field dedicated to the discovery of new ways to recover nerve functionality after injury. A longer definition comes from Wikipedia. 

• Video: Neuroregeneration
• The Neuroregeneration Program at Johns Hopkins’ Institute for Cell Engineering
• Neurology - Nerve Damage and Regeneration
• WMIF 2015 | Regeneration, Cell Therapy, and Neurocare: Products? Delivery?
• Helping the Body Regrow Nerves - Science Nation
• Nerve Regeneration - Everything You Need To Know - Dr. Nabil Ebraheim
• Paving the Path for Nerve Regeneration
• Project 71 - Microstructure Imaging of Nerve Regeneration Network
• KUSI Interview with Dr. Justin Brown, MD Neurosurgeon on Nerve Regeneration Breakthrough
• Stem Cells and Neuroregeneration

• Headline Blog: Neuroregeneration
• Hypertension Treatment with Renal Nerve Ablation
• Brain Plasticity Will Blow Your Mind
• Oh, What a Feeling!

• Weekly Columnists
• Musing: Clue to Brain Regeneration Discovered in Lab Mice
• Sunday Stroke Survival: An Another Six Million Dollar Word and Stroke Recovery
• Caregiver: Time for a Change
• Jester: A Nun at Hooters
• TED Talks - James Vetch: This is What Happens when you Reply to Spam Email
• Rick Mercer Report: St. Lawrence Market & Cut in Half
• Laid-Back Admin: Comparison of Web Browsers

• XKCD: Possible Undiscovered Planets

• Eclectic Stuff on Wednesday
• If You Have Aides, 3 Things You Have to Remember About Acting Like Your Own Boss, aka YOU'RE in Charge!
• Mental Practice in Stroke
• 50 Shades of Safety
• Every Stroke is Different
• Happy Belated New Year!
• Trendelenburg Gait
• My 800th Post
• Young and Old: do Do You Know What to Do?

• Future Topics in SSTattler

     Saturday News | Future Topic
     --------------+---------------------------------------------

     Feb/27/2016   | Webcomics
     Feb/23/2016   | Spasticity
     Feb/13/2016   | Learning Disability
     Feb/06/2016   | Reading Comprehension
     

Definition: Neuroregeneration

Neuroregeneration From Wikipedia,
     the free encyclopedia

SSTattler: I was / am a beginner at (human) biology at high-school - I had to read this Neuroregeneration for Wikipedia many times but eventually it made sense. If you are a beginner, like me!, read the definitions 1) The central nervous system (CNS) is the part of the nervous system consisting of the brain and spinal cord. The 2) peripheral nervous system (PNS) is the part of the nervous system that consists of the nerves and ganglia on the outside of the brain and spinal cord. Then you can tackle Neuroregeneration... and I think it will make sense!

Neuroregeneration refers to the regrowth or repair of nervous tissues, cells or cell products. Such mechanisms may include generation of new neurons, glia, axons, myelin, or synapses. Neuroregeneration differs between the peripheral nervous system (PNS) and the central nervous system (CNS) by the functional mechanisms and especially the extent and speed. When an axon is damaged, the distal segment undergoes Wallerian degeneration, losing its myelin sheath. The proximal segment can either die by apoptosis or undergo the chromatolytic reaction, which is an attempt at repair. In the CNS, synaptic stripping occurs as glial foot processes invade the dead synapse.

Nervous system injuries affect over 90,000 people every year. It is estimated that spinal cord injuries alone affect 10,000 each year. As a result of this high incidence of neurological injuries, nerve regeneration and repair, a subfield of neural tissue engineering, is becoming a rapidly growing field dedicated to the discovery of new ways to recover nerve functionality after injury. The nervous system is divided into two parts: the central nervous system, which consists of the brain and spinal cord, and the peripheral nervous system, which consists of cranial and spinal nerves along with their associated ganglia. While the peripheral nervous system has an intrinsic ability for repair and regeneration, the central nervous system is, for the most part, incapable of self-repair and regeneration. There is currently no treatment for recovering human nerve function after injury to the central nervous system. In addition, multiple attempts at nerve re-growth across the PNS-CNS transition have not been successful. There is simply not enough knowledge about regeneration in the central nervous system. In addition, although the peripheral nervous system has the capability for regeneration, much research still needs to be done to optimize the environment for maximum regrowth potential. Neuroregeneration is important clinically, as it is part of the pathogenesis of many diseases, including multiple sclerosis.

Peripheral Nervous System Regeneration

Video: Neuroregeneration

The Neuroregeneration Program at Johns Hopkins’ Institute for Cell Engineering

Published on Mar 27, 2015

Researcher Valina Dawson introduces the Neuroregeneration Program, where scientists study causes and potential treatments for conditions such as Parkinson’s and stroke. For more information, visit Hopkins Medicine - Neuroregeneration.


Standard YouTube License @ Johns Hopkins Medicine

Headline Blog: Neuroregeneration

Definition: Blog (noun). Add new material to or regularly update to a blog. (≃1990s: blog shortening of weblog)

Hypertension Treatment with Renal Nerve Ablation

Bill Yates
Brain Posts

Posted 10th December 2010 

The neuroscience of hypertension covers several important domains.  Untreated hypertension can lead to central nervous complications such as stroke and vascular dementia.  Patients with essential hypertension show hyperactive renal sympathetic nerve outflow.  This produces several effects increasing blood pressure including: stimulation of renin, increased kidney sodium reabsorption and reduced blood flow to the kidney.  The kidney signals the brain areas controlling central sympathethic tone regulation.

Diet, weight loss and pharmacotherapy form the basics for treatment of hypertension.  Despite a variety of drugs with different mechanisms of action many patients fail to achieve satisfactory blood pressure control.  Obviously, new strategies for blood pressure control are needed.

One surgical strategy undergoing study is use of a endovascular cather to interrupt signals from the renal nerves to the kidney.  A recent study published in Lancet (The Sympliciity HTN-2summarized promising results from a randomized clinical trial using renal sympathetic denervation in a group of patients with treatment-resistant hypertension.  The key design elements of the study were:

Brain Plasticity Will Blow Your Mind

Rebecca Dutton
Home After a Stroke

February 6, 2013

New research on brain plasticity will blow your mind.  One amazing finding is that new stem cells are produced in the lateral ventricles of the adult brain (1).  What is even more amazing is how these stem cells migrate from the back of the brain to the olfactory bulb in the front of the brain (2).  Using time lapse imaging scientists have been able to watch stem cells latch onto a blood vessel highway and drag themselves to their destination.  First, brain chemicals push stem cells away from their birth place.  Additional chemicals stop the stem cells from getting off track along the way.  As the cells approach their destination more chemicals pull them in the right direction.

Equally amazing is the fact that new stem cells are produced in the hippocampus that controls memory (2).  Since learning is life-long, it is hard to believe that neuroscientists used to believe that remembering everything we learn can be crammed into the memory cells we were born with.  The adult brain grows thousands of new stem cells in the hippocampus every day (3).  Diffusion tensor imaging allowed scientists to see significant microstructure changes in the hippocampus after two hours of training (4).

Oh, What a Feeling!

Marcelle Greene
Up Stroke

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

My loss of sensation was as concerning as my loss of movement. In the hospital, family members would touch my fingers or toes and ask, "Can you feel this?"

"No."

Not only did I lose sensation in my lower limbs, I could not place them in space. With my eyes closed, I could not tell if my arm rested by my side or in your hands. My perimeter had become fuzzy.

As feeling began to return in those early weeks, I qualified it: There was vibration and pressure, but not touch – no sense of skin against skin or the texture of bed sheets.

Temperature returned during a rehab shower – strange signals from my left leg. My right leg felt hot water. So, this is what hot feels like, I told myself. To this day my left side feels heat more keenly than my right. Hot is insistent.

A different sensation emerged one day as my occupational therapist worked with my arm. Her hands were cold. And so this is what cold feels like, I instructed myself. Cold is subtle – it reveals itself from a distance.

Without looking, I still cannot tell if my fingers are open or curled – grasping an object or empty. To test my sense of touch, I ask my husband to brush a cotton swab beneath my fingertips. With eyes closed, I try to tell which finger he's touching. For the first time last week, (15 months post-stroke), I was finally able to identify each finger correctly.

Who knew that having my husband tickle me with a Q-Tip could be so exciting?

See the original article:

Oh, What a Feeling!

in

Up Stroke

Weekly Columnists

Definition: Columnist |ˈkäləmnist| (noun). A blogger or a journalist contributing regularly to a blog or newspaper

Musing: Clue to Brain Regeneration Discovered in Lab Mice

Dean Reinke
Deans' Stroke Musing

Thursday, September 3, 2015

Fascinating stuff. If we had anything close to a fucking decent stroke association this would be added to one of the strategies requiring followup and foundation grants to get researchers to study this in humans. This is so god-damned brain dead simple. But I don't think we have anyone in the stroke medical leadership that has two functioning neutrons. You're fucking screwed if you have a stroke anytime in the next 50 years. More wonderful stuff from the Dana Foundation - Clue to Brain Regeneration Discovered in Lab Mic

A salamander can lose a limb or an eye and grow it back, nerves and all. A gecko can detach its tail on purpose—a great way to spoof a pursuing predator—and a new one will sprout in weeks. A zebrafish can regenerate missing parts of its heart and brain. Unfortunately we mammals just aren’t very good at regrowing lost bits. Medicine would be transformed if we could find a way to surmount this limitation, particularly in the central nervous system (CNS), where regeneration is heavily restricted.

Among the more promising leads turned up recently is a finding from Harvard researchers, published online in May, that hints at a way to boost the regeneration capacity of CNS axons—nerve fibers that are often damaged in brain injuries and neurodegenerative diseases. Therapies that exploit the new finding are years away at best, but might end up being applicable to a variety of common, debilitating conditions, from strokes to Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

“We’re pretty confident in this being quite a big deal,” says Harvard’s Michael Costigan, who was co-senior author of the study, along with Clifford J. Woolf.

The Outlier

Sunday Stroke Survival: An Another Six Million Dollar Word and Stroke Recovery

Jo Murphey
The Murphey Saga

Sunday, January 17, 2016

Okay, this week I'm starting this week with a song.


Standard YouTube License @ 4TheDarkGames

No, I don't have this phobia, but it seems to fit today's topic for discussion.

Science is grand for coming up with humongous words to describe something simple. Today's term is neuroregeneration. It's a six million dollar word for regrowth of nerves.

A few years ago, I talked about this here on my blog having experienced it first hand after a back surgery deadened all feeling in both legs from the calf down. It took two years for the nerves to start regrowing enough to regain the sensation back in my feet. It came back in quarter size increments until there was only quarter sized increments of no feeling. I'm talking about full thickness loss of sensation. Example-I stepped on a nail and it inserted clear through my shoe and out the top of my shoe, and I didn't feel it. Now I feel everything when it comes to my calf down after twenty years.

Caregiver: Time for a Change

Diane
The Pink House On The Corner

Friday, January 22, 2016

After the van was weirdly, sinisterly damaged by the errant brick -- I have come to think that a) The Universe is trying to tell me something, or b) Bob is trying to tell me something, or c) I need to get rid of that van before I totally trash it, or d) all of the above --- and so, this past week, I called the wheelchair van place where we bought the Bobmobile and got a verbal offer of $30,000 cash to buy the van back.

And I thought, well, 30 grand will more than cover the cost of a small compact car for me.

I had originally thought of buying a Mini Cooper -- they are so cute, but Bubba told me he would "divorce" me if I bought one, as, according to Bubba, they are "pieces of crap" and he, as my mechanic, advised me to (his words) "get a little Jap car" instead.

So I went searching last weekend for a Japanese car.

I started looking at Nissans because long ago, in what seems another life, I had a 1987 Sentra Hatchback named Little Blue Bomber and I absolutely loved that car and it served me well for 13 years.

Jester: A Nun at Hooters

Jackie Poff
Stroke Survivors Tattler

A nun, badly needing to use the restroom, walked into a local Hooters.

The place was hopping with music and loud conversation -- and every once in a while 'the lights would turn off.'

Each time the lights would go out, the place would erupt into cheers. However, when the revelers saw the nun, the room went dead silent. She walked up to the bartender, and asked, 'May I please use the restroom?'

The bartender replied, 'OK, but I should warn you that there is a statue of a naked man in there wearing only a fig leaf.'

'Well, in that case, I'll just look the other way,' said the nun.

So the bartender showed the nun to the back of the restaurant. After a few minutes, she came back out, and the whole place stopped just long enough to give the nun a loud round of applause.

She went to the bartender and said, 'Sir, I don't understand. Why did they applaud for me just because I went to the restroom?'

'Well, now they know you're one of us,' said the bartender, 'Would you like a drink.'

'No thank you, but, I still don't understand,' said the puzzled nun.

'You see,' laughed the bartender, 'every time someone lifts the fig leaf on that statue, the lights go out. Now -- how about that drink?'

TED Talks - James Veitch: This is What Happens when you Reply to Spam Email

TED.com

Published on Jan 9, 2016

Suspicious emails: unclaimed insurance bonds, diamond-encrusted safe deposit boxes, close friends marooned in a foreign country. They pop up in our inboxes, and standard procedure is to delete on sight. But what happens when you reply? Follow along as writer and comedian James Veitch narrates a hilarious, weeks-long exchange with a spammer who offered to cut him in on a hot deal.


Standard YouTube License @ Maikel Akkermans

Rick Mercer Report: St. Lawrence Market & Cut in Half

www.rickmercer.com

Rick at the St. Lawrence Market

Published on Jan 20, 2016

Rick spends the day working with vendors at the world famous St. Lawrence Market – one of Canada’s oldest public markets in Toronto, ON.


Standard YouTube License @ Rick Mercer Report

Canada Cut in Half

Published on Jan 20, 2016

The Nipigon River Bridge collapse divides a nation, and tears a family apart.


Standard YouTube License @ Rick Mercer Report

Laid-Back Admin: Comparison of Web Browsers

Dr. Beagle C. Cranium
Stroke Survivors Tattler

The Best Web Browser? (November 2015)

Published on Nov 11, 2015

What's the best web browser for Windows and Mac?

In this video I compared Google Chrome vs Firefox vs Microsoft Edge vs Safari vs Opera on both Windows 10 and Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan on a 2015 MacBook Pro 13" using OS X and Windows (with Boot Camp).

Tests used:

• http://peacekeeper.futuremark.com/
• https://developers.google.com/octane/
• http://html5test.com/
• http://www.browserscope.org/security/test
• http://beta.unity3d.com/jonas/WebGLBenchmark/
• Browser start and Google homepage load
• Memory usage with 8 tabs open

Standard YouTube License @ Austin Evans

Comparison of Web Browsers 

      From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

XKCD: Possible Undiscovered Planets

A Webcomic Of Romance, Sarcasm, Math, And Language

|<        < Prev        Random       Next >        >| Possible Undiscovered Planets                              |<        < Prev        Random       Next >        >| Warning: this comic occasionally contains strong language (which may be unsuitable for children), unusual humor (which may be unsuitable for adults), and advanced mathematics (which may be unsuitable for liberal-arts majors). http://xkcd.com -- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 License.

Eclectic Stuff on Wednesday

Definition: Eclectic (noun). A person who derives ideas, style, or taste from a broad and diverse range of sources

If You Have Aides, 3 Things You Have to Remember About Acting Like Your Own Boss, aka YOU'RE in Charge!

Joyce Hoffman
The Tales of a Stroke Patient

Oct 25, 2015

It's so hard to deal with people. I had aides in New Jersey and had to find even more aides for my stroke care when I came to Pittsburgh. I called them personal assistants to give the job a more elevated status. It didn't help.

One was allegedly addicted to cocaine. One brought her boyfriend every time.  One told me I was discriminating against her when she couldn't lift my wheelchair anymore. One took her 2 whining children along.

One smoked wherever she went, even when there were "no smoking" signs posted. It was like a revolving door. I hired and then I fired. But what they all had in common was they needed money--my money. It took me a year to finally figure it out.

There are tons of aides, I later found out, through various websites. But the trick is finding great ones. You have work ahead of you as well. These 3 tips will help you find and keep the aides you want!

1. Establish your role from the start 

Unless it's your wife or husband, they're your employees, not the other way around. They work for you. And as your employees, give them a fair chance of doing things their own way. Then, if you don't like the way things are done, speak up. That was the hardest part for me, realizing that they work for me. But once I did, that was the end of feeling like they were in charge. Plus, they're not mind readers. You have to tell them what you like and what you don't!

Mental Practice in Stroke

Peter G. Levine
Stronger After Stroke

Sunday, January 24, 2016

Stroke survivors, quick question...

In your dreams, have you had a stroke?

Your answer is probably no.

What if you were able to access that memory for your recovery?

You can.



Not everything that will help stroke survivors recovery is a therapy - per se. Some things you can do benefit your brain so much that they help recovery as well. An example is Mental Practice.

Mental Practice - We've published on this one a lot. The idea is pretty simple - do what athletes and musicians do... Practice mentally. You get the idea, you sit back and imagine a movement, and then when you go to actually do the movement it's better.

50 Shades of Safety

Sas Freeman

January 26, 2016

I found myself in a situation of having to dismantle our grandfather clock, and as you may know already my difficulties following stroke you can appreciate my apprehension. Nick began by carefully removing the glass outer case, revealing the brass face and workings. At this point I bent next to the clock to retrieve something when I stumbled falling towards the clock, and before I knew it, the heavy brass face and workings had fallen from height hitting the side of my head, my glasses saving a little but blood still streaming down my neck. My head throbbing, I instantly fell but fortunately into a chair by side. I appeared stunned as couldn’t move at all in anyway for what felt like several minutes but in reality I am not sure how long it lasted.

Clock

I had a piercing pain inside my head and it felt as though somehow it was bleeding, even though that sounds strange. This feeling did not really go away so despite trying to carry on and continue with things I appeared to be getting worse, and the head pain became yet more intense, painkillers not able to relieve it in any way. I decided to make an appointment with my doctor who feared it might be a bleed and sent me directly to hospital for a scan. She phoned ahead so that they were expecting me.

The triage nurse was not so helpful because as soon as I told her truthfully, that the injury had not occurred that day her attitude changed towards me, and she told me I would have to wait my turn at the back with everyone else. I explained my doctor had already spoken to someone and I was expected for a scan, however she was clearly not in a listening frame of mind.

When I was seen the doctor was totally different, I was not allowed anywhere on my own or to even walk in case it was a bleed. Despite the scan showing a lot of damage to the brain as a result of my strokes, fortunately there were no signs of a bleed.. They say I have tissue damage and bad concussion so must take painkillers regularly, keep fluids up and rest as it could take a while to recover. Concussion takes longer for someone with previous brain injury to recover from than it does for anyone else. Something else for us to bear in mind.

See the original article:

50 Shades of Safety

in

Sas Freeman

Every Stroke is Different

Barb Polan
Barb's Recovery

January 21 / 2016

Every new stroke survivor asks questions about “why,” and “how” after having a stroke, along with “when will I recover?” The most common answer to nearly every question a stroke survivor asks, is the content-free “Every patient is different, every stroke is different, and every recovery is different.”

Content-free, I say, because it’s not news that each of us is different from one another. When did we learn that? Sesame Street or kindergarten? And, obviously, any medical condition occurs differently; think about breast cancer – one of my close friends died at 42, while another, my age, is cancer-free 5 years after diagnosis.

Applied to recovery, the answer is content-free because the real answer is, “I don’t know.” And that’s the part that irks me most.

So, parts 1 and 2 are self-evident, and part 3 is a euphemism for “No one knows.” Why is the (“Every patient is different…”) answer so popular?

Certainly, the repetitive phrasing is catchy, which lends a tone of cleverness – which could be misinterpreted as wisdom.

Happy Belated New Year!

Beth Sinfield
Beth's Story

Sunday, 24 January 2016

'It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.'

So it's 2016 now. A new year has begun.

What resolutions have we all made, if any? I suppose there's the usual ones; go to the gym more, eat healthily or lose weight.

I decided this year I'm just going to set one 'goal' for myself. And that is to be happy. I've started exercising a lot more and I've gone completely healthy now (well I do have the odd takeaway now and then). My confidence at college has increased, I've set my mind into 'achieving' mode so I'm determined now to do well academically.

Stroke recovery-wise, this year (9th February) I will undergo a full investigation on my speech and soft palate to determine what exactly is wrong and from there, get options on how I can improve my talking. At the moment, my only problem with my speech is the nasality. The articulation is no longer a problem to me anymore. I know that there is an option of surgery to correct the nasality which I would improve volume and clarity as well- this would obviously be permanent and would have a typical success rate of 80-90% (so I would be near 'normal' again).

Trendelenburg Gait

Amy Shissler
My Cerebellar Stroke Recovery

October 28, 2014

It’s also called lurch gait. This gait pattern I bet is really, really common in stroke survivors. Trendelenburg gait happens when one side of the body has really weak hip abductor muscles. This is what happens… when you’re walking… let’s use the right leg, I’m gonna describe what you’ll see with the right leg. When you’re walking and it’s time for the right leg to leave the ground and advance forward, you need muscles to kick in so that your right foot can clear the ground. A lot of times after a stroke your leg will have trouble clearing the ground because of weak shin muscles leading to foot drop meaning you must strengthen your tibialis anterior muscle. In this case, it’s weak hip muscles. Stand on both feet, now lift up your right leg, do your hips stay level and unmoving or when you lifted your right leg off the ground did your right hip drop? The correct answer is that your hips stayed level. When you lift up your right leg, the hip abductor muscles on the OPPOSITE side of the body turn on to prevent your hip from dropping. Since your left leg is stationary, the only way to ABDUCT(move away from the body) the left leg is to raise the right hip. If the hip abductor muscles on the left side are weak, the right hip will drop when the right leg is lifted off of the ground. So if you see a hip drop on the right side, it means that the left hip muscles are weak.

This drop of the hip is called the Trendelenburg sign. Sometimes, the body has compensated in order to find a way to clear the foot when walking. This compensation is by the upper body leaning to the left(in the case of right hip drop) in order to pull the right leg up and allow the foot to clear the ground. So the body will lean to the affected side during advancement of the opposite leg. If you’re affected on the left, the upper body will lean to the left when advancing your right foot forward during the gait cycle. If you’re right side affected, the upper body will lean to the right when advancing the left leg forward. So if this happens to you, you’ll want to exhaustively strengthen the hip abductor muscles.

See the original article:

Trendelenburg Gait

in

My Cerebellar Stroke Recovery

My 800th Post

Diana Smith
In Sync With the Universe

January 20, 2016

I deserve a Chihuly chandelier, but keep me away from it, fragile glass and I do not mix.

I want to keep this post totally about me, taking a break from Blogging 101. I went to the casino that is about one mile from my home for the first time last night. I had a date with the guy I met on plenty of fish just over a week ago. This was our fourth date. Neither one of us gamble, neither one of us stepped a foot inside before despite driving by it many times. We ate at a restaurant and left.

I plan on going back as often as I can just to walk around, it is so big and out of the weather. There is plenty of lounge chairs for me to sit in if my legs hurt of if I get too wobbly. There is a covered parking garage that is free to park! Thank you Native Americans. I need to get into walking shape in just over 40 days I am doing the American Heart Association 3 mile Walk. This walk I did last year, but I barely made it. If I can get out of the driveway with my car, I hope to spend at least 1/2 hour walking around. I really do not gamble, not much anyway. I plan on getting my players club card. I will take advantage if they have any free play. I will also wear it on a lanyard so I look like I belong there. I also will support them on occasion by buying a treat at the snack bar. I am not a total freeloader.

I did not have anything special planned for my 800th post. I just wanted to mark the occasion. I don’t think I have ever kept track of 800 anything. I technically did not keep track of my posts, WordPress did. Thank you WordPress for the free platform.

See the original article:

My 800th Post

in

In Sync With the Universe

Young and Old: Do You Know What to Do?

Jeff Porter
Stroke of Faith

Thursday, January 21, 2016

I was 39 when my stroke hit, and I freely admit that I knew very little about strokes at the time.

And people in that age bracket have strokes every day. And that numbers have been going up.

It's disheartening to hear, then, how most young adults are not stroke savvy:

When asked what they would do if experiencing the hallmark symptoms of stroke, only about one in three people under age 45 said they would very likely head to the hospital. 

Rather, most said they would likely spend the first 3 hours after onset of weakness, numbness, and speech or vision problems waiting to see if their symptoms improved, according to a national survey by David Liebeskind, MD, and colleagues at UCLA Medical Center. ... 

"That's a real problem," Liebeskind said in a press release . "We need to educate younger people about the symptoms of stroke and convince them of the urgency of the situation, because the numbers are going up."

So know the signs of a stroke. And get help.

See the original article:

Young and Old: Do You Know What to Do?

in

Stroke of Faith

---------

Saturday News

Contents of This Week Saturday News ▶︎ January 23rd / 2016

• Definition: Global Warming

Global warming and climate change are terms for the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth's climate system and its related effects. Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate system is warming. Although the increase of near-surface atmospheric temperature is the measure of global warming often reported in the popular press, most of the additional energy stored in the climate system since 1970 has gone into ocean warming. The remainder has melted ice, and warmed the continents and atmosphere. Many of the observed changes since the 1950s are unprecedented over decades to millennia. A longer definition comes from Wikipedia. 

• Video: Global Warming
• Global Warming 101
• 13 Misconceptions About Global Warming
• Al Gore What Comes After an Inconvenient Truth
• James Hansen: Why I Must Speak Out About Climate Change
• What Would Happen If Global Warming Sped Up?
• Greenland is Melting Global Warming
• Discovery Channel - Global Warming, What You Need To Know
• Nobel Laureate Smashes the Global Warming Hoax

• Headline Blog: Global Warming
• Will I Be Homebound This Winter?
• Stroke Recovery, Stroke Rehabilitation: A Message to Therapists
• Time to Get Real on Climate Change & The War on Climate Scientists
• Status Time: Almost Seven Years Later from the Stroke
• November Sunshine

• Weekly Columnists
• Musing: The Effects of Garlic Extract Upon Endothelial Function, Vascular Inflammation, Oxidative Stress and Insulin Resistance in Adults With Type 2 Diabetes at High Cardiovascular Risk
• Sunday Stroke Survival: Ya Gotta Love Those Mini Tropical Vacations
• Caregiver: Today is Bob's 57th Birthday
• Jester: Baptizing an Irishman
• TED Talks - David Bromwich: Global Warming -- Fact or Fiction?
• Rick Mercer Report: Whitewater Kayaking & Arms Deal
• Laid-Back Admin: SEO - Search Engine Optimization

• XKCD: California

• Eclectic Stuff on Wednesday
• Why Mice Are Not Men
• Stand By Me | Playing For Change | Song Around the World
• How You or Someone You Care About can Prevent a Stroke
• Top 10 Brain Posts 2015: Exercise and Brain Integrity
• 50 Shades of Emotional Differences
• Yes! & Brain vs Cancer

• Future Topics in SSTattler

     Saturday News | Future Topic
     --------------+---------------------------------------------

     Feb/23/2016   | Spasticity
     Feb/13/2016   | Learning Disability
     Feb/06/2016   | Reading Comprehension
     Jan/30/2016   | Neuroregeneration
     

Definition: Global Warming

Global Warming From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

See as well, at least:

• Carbon Footprint From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
• Carbon Tax From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
• Scientific Opinion on Climate Change From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Global mean surface temperature change from 1880 to 2014,
relative to the 1951–1980 mean. The black line is the annual
mean and the red line is the 5-year running mean. The
green bars show uncertainty estimates. Source: NASA GISS.

Global warming and climate change are terms for the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth's climate system and its related effects.

Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate system is warming. Although the increase of near-surface atmospheric temperature is the measure of global warming often reported in the popular press, most of the additional energy stored in the climate system since 1970 has gone into ocean warming. The remainder has melted ice, and warmed the continents and atmosphere. Many of the observed changes since the 1950s are unprecedented over decades to millennia.

Video: Global Warming

Global Warming 101

Uploaded on May 18, 2007

Global warming could do more than just melt polar ice. It could change our maps, and displace people from cities and tropical islands.

Standard YouTube License @ National Geographic

Headline Blog: Global Warming

Definition: Blog (noun). Add new material to or regularly update to a blog. (≃1990s: blog shortening of weblog)

Will I Be Homebound This Winter?

Rebecca Dutton
Home After a Stroke

November 4, 2014

Trenton, New Jersey used to have such mild winters that officials closed the schools when there was only 2 inches of snow on the ground. The dip in the jet stream that brings cold Artic air south shows why Trenton was lucky (black dot = Trenton). Last winter Trenton had six major snow storms in six weeks that were measured in feet instead of inches. Strong storms in the Artic now blow the jet stream farther south to include me. So much pack ice has melted due to global warming that the air is saturated with water vapor which turns into snow on my street. I want people who have recently found my blog to see this post about one of my winter strategies. Also see my next post on using a cane in the snow.

Stroke Recovery, Stroke Rehabilitation: A Message to Therapists

Peter G. Levine
Stronger after Stroke

Saturday, December 24, 2011

There you sit, face to face with a stroke survivor. Only a few days ago he was a vibrant, energetic community member... employee... family member and now is sitting in front of you…. aphasic… hemiparetic …scared. The family sits anxiously behind him. They’re eager to get their loved one back and now they look to you. “When?” they ask. “How?” they inquire. And make no mistake, no matter who has talked to them before and no matter how blunt other health professionals have been, they hold hope for full recovery. Between their expectations and their slowly materializing nightmares, you are the last line of defense.

This is not a good time to ask, “Are my skills up to this?”

What if you simply want to do what is the best neurological therapy available? What if you want to treat based on the best available scientific evidence. What if you don't want to be influenced by the wide variety of competing schools of neurorehabilitation, each with their own books and seminars and cult of personality leaders?

Want to scrape all the BS away? Go here: meta-analysis.

Time to Get Real on Climate Change & The War on Climate Scientists

David Suzuki

Time to Get Real on Climate Change

Published on May 9, 2014

A geneticist who has made science exciting to millions of TV viewers warns that we're burning up the planet, but there's still a chance we can make it.

See more: http://bit.ly/1odyg8J


Standard YouTube License @ Moyers & Company

The War on Climate Scientists

Published on May 16, 2014

Corporations and some governments seem recklessly determined to deny the reality of global warming. In part two of his interview, environmentalist David Suzuki says killing the messenger is a strategy ripped straight from big tobacco's old playbook.

See more: http://bit.ly/1nRF0Jy


Standard YouTube License @ Moyers & Company

Status Time: Almost Seven Years Later from the Stroke

Joyce Hoffman
The Tales of a Stroke Patient

Jan 12, 2016

It seems like a few years ago that I had the stroke. But it's almost seven years ago. April 8, 2009, is the date that is burned into my consciousness. The date follows me around, like the devil that it represents. Playing piano by ear, knitting scarves, clapping when required, all gone. People say, "Be positive," but sometimes, I just can't. A stroke doesn't make me stronger. It just reminds me how fragile the human body is. Some people say "re-birthday" when they celebrate the date on which the stroke happened. "Re-birthday?" Give me a break.

That being said, looking back, I have accomplished some things that make me know that I'm progressing. There is my book, "The Tales of a Stroke Patient," published in 2012, that documents all the time before, during, and after the stroke. I liked writing the book. For me, it was a catharsis, a chance to scream about awful CNAs, nurses and doctors who pretended not to hear me, all the time keeping the names of the rehab facility and the nursing home out of the book. (It was Bacharach Institute for Rehabilitation and Absecon Manor Nursing Home, both in Southern New Jersey. I don't give a shit now).

I started a blog called the same as the book, "The Tales of a Stroke Patient," in 2010. I still write it, as long as there are people to read it. (There are 15 million strokes a year worldwide so I imagine I won't run out of readers). Currently, I have almost 112,000 people reading my blog, though some are faithful fans who read it several times. My dashboard tells me I'm read in 6 out of 7 continents, Antarctica the holdout. I don't have anything against the Antarcticans. They are probably busy with global warming.

November Sunshine

Diana Smith
In Sync With The Universe

November 7, 2011 By

It was a sun-drenched weekend, followed by a warmer than usual day today. I wish this could last all winter. I count three seasons: Spring, Summer, and Bleak. The temperature did dip into the low 20’s the last few nights. That did not stop the bugs from returning. Mosquitoes and moths still danced on the windows at dusk.

roots exposed

I managed a trip a few towns over to get new shoes. I will still wear my current favorites into the ground. I am trying to have a spare pair for backup this winter.  Once it starts to snow, I won’t be taking any pleasant road trips. I hate living in snow, and am thanking my lucky stars (or global warming) we did not see any significant amounts of the white menace yet. It is pretty to see it on the trees, and covering the dead ground. I could rely on my memories of years past if I want to see pretty.

I am trying to ready myself for snowbound hobbies, to stave off my seasonal affected depression. Time will tell if I will be able to walk with my cane over the ice and snow. I am trying to read more, but my eyes still (post stroke) get tired and blurry quick. I have wanted to try to watercolor, but I need a spark to start. I have been looking for that spark, but it is too clever and knows how to avoid funky me. I have resolved to at least get everything out tomorrow and dabble. Maybe the spark will be found by the light of the full moon.

See the original article:

November Sunshine

in

In Sync With The Universe

Weekly Columnists

Definition: Columnist |ˈkäləmnist| (noun). A blogger or a journalist contributing regularly to a blog or newspaper

Musing: The Effects of Garlic Extract Upon Endothelial Function, Vascular Inflammation, Oxidative Stress and Insulin Resistance in Adults With Type 2 Diabetes at High Cardiovascular Risk.

Dean Reinke
Deans' Stroke Musing

Saturday, January 16, 2016

If we had any strategy at all for stroke this study would be followed up because of endothelial function. But it won't be because we have NO leadership in stroke and fucking failures of stroke associations. Would this work in stroke patients without diabetes? 

The Effects of Garlic Extract Upon Endothelial Function, Vascular Inflammation, Oxidative Stress and Insulin Resistance in Adults With Type 2 Diabetes at High Cardiovascular Risk.
Journal of Diabetes and its Complications, 01/08/2016

Atkin M, et al. – This study tested the hypothesis that Aged Garlic Extract (AGE) may improve endothelial function, oxidative stress, vascular inflammation and insulin resistance in high risk cardiovascular subjects with type 2 diabetes. In this group of type 2 diabetic patients at high cardiovascular risk, 4 weeks treatment with AGE did not significantly improve endothelial function, vascular inflammation, oxidative stress or insulin resistance.

METHODS

• A double blind, placebo controlled cross-over pilot study was performed in 26 subjects with type 2 diabetes who received 1200mg of AGE or placebo daily for 4 weeks with a 4 week washout period.
• Plasma HsCRP was measured as a marker of inflammation.
• Plasma TAOS,blood GSH/GSSG and plasma LHP were measured as markers of oxidative stress/anti-oxidant defence.
• Insulin resistance was measured using the HOMA-IR method.
• Endothelial function was measured using change in the reflective index (RI) post salbutamol using digital photoplethysmography and urinary albumin/creatinine ratio was measured as a biochemical surrogate.
• Measurements were taken at baseline and after intervention with AGE or placebo.

Sunday Stroke Survival: Ya Gotta Love Those Mini Tropical Vacations

Jo MurpheyThe Murphey Saga

Sunday, January 10, 2016

I keep telling y'all, it's all about attitude. How you perceive things in and around you can make or break whether you are content and happy, or miserable and unhappy.

The way you function after a stroke is no different. You are more likely to be more productive and successful with a positive attitude than a grumpy, discontented, and negative attitude.

It's a fact of life that, if you are female, the change of life (menopause) will occur if you live long enough. One of the side effects of this is hot flashes. I look at these as personal global warming events or mini tropical vacations. They are absolutely miserable in the height of summer or a welcome burst of heat in the winter. Everybody and their sister touts a "fix" for this condition. It's that big of a thing. A huge multi billion dollar industry is devoted to relieving them.

My conjecture is... why bother? Yes, it's a physiological body reaction to the end of the productive cycle of your life, by why try to fix something that is natural and unbroken. Just like the real global warming, be it man made, or a natural occurring cycle... it happens. Accept it and move on. It's all about attitude.