Weekly Columnists

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

Musing: Dorsal Raphe Dopamine Neurons Represent the Experience of Social Isolation

Dean Reinke
Deans' Stroke Musing

Monday, February 29, 2016

Ask your doctor if damage to this area is causing your social isolation. S/he should know at least that much. What is their stroke protocol to fix that problem? Dorsal Raphe Dopamine Neurons Represent the Experience of Social Isolation.

Gillian A. Matthews3, Edward H. Nieh3, Caitlin M. Vander Weele3, Sarah A. Halbert, Roma V. Pradhan, Ariella S. Yosafat, Gordon F. Glober, Ehsan M. Izadmehr, Rain E. Thomas, Gabrielle D. Lacy, Craig P. Wildes, Mark A. Ungless4correspondenceemail, Kay M. Tye

Open Access DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2015.12.040
Open access funded by Medical Research Council

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Sunday Stroke Survival: Give Yourself Permission

Jo Murphey
The Murphey Saga

Sunday, April 3, 2016

I had a revelation, of sorts, while I was in the process of moving from my old home to my new one that I wanted to share with y'all.

Packing up to move is nobody's idea of fun. In fact, it's one of the top ten stress causing items on the list of major stress factors that heavily impact your well being. It's near the top like death of a spouse or loved one. Lord knows, I was already up to my eyeballs with that stress factor.

Moving after a stroke is no picnic.What to take. What to sell. What to donate. What to trash. All these decisions were up to little, old me. ALONE. Before, it was a couples or family thing. To top it off, I was seriously down sizing. I am going from an over 2,000 sq ft house to one less than 200. One-tenth and I had stuff galore to fill my 2,000+ sq ft when you count the attic, and out buildings. For weeks before the move, I never felt so ill prepared for a move in my entire life!

My favorite stress pic

I was hit full force with what I could do and what I could not do. There was a whole lot I just physically could not do. It wasn't that I wasn't trying. The spirit was willing, but my body couldn't. That's a bitter pill for my never-say-die attitude. To fill one box took about forty trips from where whatever it was was to the box and back again. The fact that my left side was weaker, yes even after almost four years, than my right before my stroke was a major tell. I could only carry a few things at a time to be placed in the box. That's if I didn't want to leave a trail of items between one place and another. That meant small loads, one or two items at best.

Caregiver: Easter Egg Hunt (for dogs only)

Sunday, March 27, 2016

Yesterday, I took Kona to the park where they had advertised that there would be an "Easter Egg Hunt For Dogs".

It was really quite crowded....

Field of Eggs (in the distance by the cones)
Get ready, set, go!

Jester: Old Folks

Jackie Poff
Stroke Survivors Tattler

Upon hearing that her elderly grandfather had just passed away,  Katie went straight to her grandparent's house to visit her 95-year-old grandmother and comfort her.

When she asked how her grandfather had died, her grandmother replied, "He had a heart attack while we were making love on Sunday morning."

Horrified, Katie told her grandmother that 2 people nearly 100 years old having sex would surely be asking for trouble.

"Oh no, my dear," replied granny. "Many years ago, realizing our advanced age, we figured out the best time to do it was when the church bells would start to ring. It was just the right rhythm. Nice and slow and even. Nothing too strenuous, simply in on the Ding and out on the Dong."

She paused to wipe away a tear, and continued, "He'd still be alive if the ice cream truck hadn't come along."

TED Talks - Travis Kalanick: Uber's Plan to get More People Into Fewer Cars

TED.com

Filmed February 2016

Uber didn't start out with grand ambitions to cut congestion and pollution. But as the company took off, co-founder Travis Kalanick wondered if there was a way to get people using Uber along the same routes to share rides, reducing costs and carbon footprint along the way. The result: uberPOOL, the company's carpooling service, which in its first eight months took 7.9 million miles off the roads and 1,400 metric tons of carbon dioxide out of the air in Los Angeles. Now, Kalanick says carpooling could work for commuters in the suburbs, too. "With the technology in our pockets today, and a little smart regulation," he says, "we can turn every car into a shared car, and we can reclaim our cities starting today."


Filmed February 2016 at TED2016

Laid-Back Admin: Stop publish Stroke Survivors Tattler Apr/09/2016

Dr. Beagle C. Cranium
Stroke Survivors Tattler

Stop publish Stroke Survivors Tattler Apr/09/2016

Today, the last Wikipedia/YouTube, we have:

• Apr/02/2016 - Mixed Transcortical Aphasia

It is difficult symptoms for M.T.A. because it is very rare.  I've got some YouTube on M.T.A. but it is the bottom on my list for over a year, and simply, I could not find any more. So, I will publish anyway - I hope it is useful to at least some people.

Next week have a simple article and the last article for SSTattler:

• Apr/09/2016 - Weekly Index from Jan/01/2011 to Apr/2016/02

It is a copied from ▶ Weekly Index & Future and we have indexes for 5 years every week from Jan/01/2011 to Apr/2016/02 except during summer holidays (July & August). 

Why?

Rick Mercer Report: Robotics & Seasonal Brew

www.rickmercer.com

Rick at the Robotics Competition

Published on Mar 23, 2016

Rick competes at the FIRST Robotics regional championship in Oshawa, ON.


Standard YouTube License @ Rick Mercer Report

New Seasonal Brew

Published on Mar 23, 2016

Turn Budget Day into an all-nighter.


Standard YouTube License @ Rick Mercer Report

Weekly Columnists

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

Musing: Neurogenesis and Inflammation After Ischemic Stroke: What is Known and Where we go from Here

Dean Reinke
Dean's Stroke Musing

Tuesday, August 5, 2014

What the hell is your doctor doing for their future stroke patients based upon this article?

Neurogenesis and Inflammation After Ischemic Stroke: What is Known and Where we go from Here

Matthew K Tobin, Jacqueline A Bonds, Richard D Minshall, Dale A Pelligrino, Fernando D Testai and Orly Lazarov

Abstract

This review covers the pathogenesis of ischemic stroke and future directions regarding therapeutic options after injury. Ischemic stroke is a devastating disease process affecting millions of people worldwide every year. The mechanisms underlying the pathophysiology of stroke are not fully understood but there is increasing evidence demonstrating the contribution of inflammation to the drastic changes after cerebral ischemia. This inflammation not only immediately affects the infarcted tissue but also causes long-term damage in the ischemic penumbra. Furthermore, the interaction between inflammation and subsequent neurogenesis is not well understood but the close relationship between these two processes has garnered significant interest in the last decade or so. Current approved therapy for stroke involving pharmacological thrombolysis is limited in its efficacy and new treatment strategies need to be investigated. Research aimed at new therapies is largely about transplantation of neural stem cells and using endogenous progenitor cells to promote brain repair. By understanding the interaction between inflammation and neurogenesis, new potential therapies could be developed to further establish brain repair mechanisms.

To read this article in full you may need to log in, make a payment or gain access through a site license.

See the original article:

Neurogenesis and Inflammation After Ischemic Stroke: What is Known and Where we go from Here

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Dean's Stroke Musing

Sunday Stroke Survival: What You See...

Jo Murphey
The Murphey Saga

Sunday, March 20, 2016

Credit

Ever hear, you are a product of your environment? When learning how to write, you are told show don't tell. It's basically the same thing. When you involve the senses everything in a person is touched along the neural network to the brain.

The setting of the surroundings have a positive or negative impact on the results you want to achieve. The same is true for stroke or brain injury survivors. Are you surprised?

With my youngest daughter, TBI survivor, too much stimulus would cause her to have a multifocal seizure, but if she could get to her "quiet room," a sensory deprivation closet, she could definitely reduce the effects of the seizure activity into a less violent one. We built one in our home in a walk in closet. It was padded with a sound barrier foam on the walls and ceiling, and painted black. Yes, it sounds extreme, but if you ever witnessed how bad her seizures were on her and those around her, you'd understand. She once threw off three grown men during one such attack who were trying to restrain her. She's awoken in the morning black and blue from seizures in her sleep. She actually fractured her wrist one night.

I'd read where this could happen, so we were prepared. I didn't fully understand it until I had my stroke. I would go into sensory overload if more than two people were talking to me or around me at once. My brain just couldn't hack it. I would close my eyes and fend sleep just so they would all go away. Thankfully, these effects have diminished now that the initial damage to my brain has been reached.

Caregiver: Q & A

Diane
The Pink House On The Corner

Sunday, March 20, 2016

I recently received an e-mail from a family friend & blog reader asking me some questions that were on his mind and I thought, instead of a personal reply, I would answer them here...

Q: How do you think you're doing with grief, loss and loneliness?

A: I really don't know -- I mean some days I think I do fine, others: not so good. Mostly, I miss Bob so much that it is hard to even get up in the morning. But I do. I drag myself up. The dog is a good motivator with this.

I often feel lost. I mostly feel lonely. It seems the world has become an alien place where I no longer fit in. I often ask myself, who am I? why am I still here? and what on earth do I do without Bob? I feel as if a whole half of me is missing. My identity is shattered. And I have lost my purpose in life.

This is the hardest thing I've ever been through: harder than the stroke, the lawsuit, the daily grind of caregiving. Harder I think because I no longer have hope, and before there was always hope, and something to look forward to and work toward. Now, the only thing I look forward to is the day that I may leave this earth and be with Bob again. I no longer fear death, but will welcome it with open arms when my time comes.

Jester: The Old Rancher

Jackie Poff
Stroke Survivors Tattler

Mr. Peabody, the local banker, saw his old friend Tom, an 80-year-old rancher, in town.

Tom had lost his wife the year before. Rumour had it he was marrying a 'mail order' bride.

Mr. Peabody asked Tom if the rumour was true.

Tom replied, "Yes, it is true."

Mr. Peabody asked, "May I ask the age of your new bride to be?"

Tom replied, "She'll be 21 in November."

Mr. Peabody, being a wise man, knew the sexual appetite of a young woman could not be satisfied by an 80-year-old man.

Mr. Peabody wanted Tom's remaining years to be happy. So he tactfully suggested that Tom should consider getting a hired hand to help him out on the ranch, knowing nature would take its own course.

Tom thought this was a good idea and said he would look for a hired hand that very afternoon.

Four months later, Mr. Peabody saw Tom in town again.

Mr. Peabody asked, "How is your new wife?"

Tom replied, "Good. She's pregnant."

Mr. Peabody was pleased his sage advice had worked out so well. He asked, "And how's the hired hand?"

Without hesitating, Tom said, "She's pregnant too!"

Never underestimate old men.

TED Talks - Meron Gribetz: A Glimpse of the Future Through an Augmented Reality Headset

TED.com

Filmed February 2016

What if technology could connect us more deeply with our surroundings instead of distracting us from the real world? With the Meta 2, an augmented reality headset that makes it possible for users to see, grab and move holograms just like physical objects, Meron Gribetz hopes to extend our senses through a more natural machine. Join Gribetz as he takes the TED stage to demonstrate the reality-shifting Meta 2 for the first time. (Featuring Q&A with TED Curator Chris Anderson).


Filmed February 2016 at TED2016

Laid-Back Admin: Stop SSTattler, Why?, and a Bit History

Dr. Beagle C. Cranium
Stroke Survivors Tattler

This next week will present:

1. Stop SSTattler - Stop publish Apr/09/2016 Stroke Survivors Tattler and in the future. The Guest Bloggers told a week before on e-mail Wednesday March 9th.
2. Why? - I can explain it in a very positive way.
3. History - We have a handful readers of friends in Edmonton at the start but now we have readers approx.  500+/- Users around the world every week, great Guest Bloggers, why have various Wikipedia & Video, Headline Blog, Eclectic Stuff, and Weekly Columnists, Comics, and so on...

For this week I have to scratch-my-head so that I'll to tell you the important details but lots of unimportant details I'll put them my garbage bin. Starting to scratch-my-head right now...

Regards,

Dr. Beagle C. Cranium and John C. Anderson

SSTattler11@gmail.com

Rick Mercer Report: Snow Plows & Daylight Saving Time

www.rickmercer.com

Snow Plows

Published on Mar 16, 2016

Rick joins the snow removal crew in Barrie, ON to clear the roads after a winter storm.


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The Rant - Daylight Saving Time

Published on Mar 16, 2016

Rick's Rant for March 15th, 2016.


Standard YouTube License @ Rick Mercer Report

Weekly Columnists

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

Musing: Insulin Nasal Spray Shows Promise as Treatment for Adults With Dementia and Alzheimer'S

Dean Rienke
Deans' Stroke Musing

Thursday, January 8, 2015

Would this be useful for cognitive problems post-stroke? What is your doctor doing to determine how to solve your cognitive problems? ANYTHING AT ALL?

Insulin Nasal Spray Shows Promise as Treatment for Adults With Dementia and Alzheimer'S

A man-made form of insulin delivered by nasal spray may improve working memory and other mental capabilities in adults with mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease dementia, according to a pilot study led by researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center.

The study's subjects were 60 adults diagnosed with amnesic mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or mild to moderate Alzheimer's dementia (AD). Those who received nasally-administered 40 international unit (IU) doses of insulin detemir, a manufactured form of the hormone, for 21 days showed significant improvement in their short-term ability to retain and process verbal and visual information compared with those who received 20 IU does or a placebo.

Additionally, the recipients of 40 IU doses carrying the APOE-e4 gene - which is known to increase the risk for Alzheimer's - recorded significantly higher memory scores than those who received the loser dosage or placebo, while non-carriers across all three groups posted significantly lower scores.

Previous trials had shown promising effects of nasally-administered insulin for adults with AD and MCI, but this study was the first to use insulin detemir, whose effects are longer-lasting than those of "regular" insulin.

More at link.

See the original article:

Insulin Nasal Spray Shows Promise as Treatment for Adults With Dementia and Alzheimer'S

in

Deans' Stroke Musing

Sunday Stroke Survival: Even More on Putting Words in my Mouth

Jo Murphey
The Murphey Saga

Sunday, March 13, 2016

Back in April 2015, I wrote on my expressive aphasia. My goodness! Has it been that long ago? Then again January 31, 2016 and heck, even last Sunday. For someone who has aphasia, I write quite a bit about it. This will be my 78th article.  In case anybody is counting. I'm raising an eyebrow at John over at the Stroke Tattler because he always counts when he searches my blogs for articles. "Beat you to it." :oP He usually sends me a note.

Why you may wonder...because my readers keep asking questions about it. Who are these readers?

Well, stroke or brain injury survivors like me, caregivers, even a few research study type people, and speech therapy students. But I'm no expert, but I'm living through it like others like me. The only difference is I can talk about it and even sound knowledgeable. Yes, I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express...see below.

The fact is, many folks suffering with aphasia do not have my gift of gab. This stems from my background of being medically trained and an author. Although this blog and emails are about the only things I write these days. My brain just can't handle the workload involved with public speaking and creation of stories. I suppose, one day, I could compile all these blogs into a book, but honestly who would pay for something than can get for free. I write about aphasia because I can. Lord knows, I write better than I speak. That's only because of the delete key and ability to edit.

Jester: Ponderisms

Jackie Poff
Stroke Survivors Tattler

• Can you cry under water? 
• How important does a person have to be before they are considered assassinated instead of just murdered? 
• Why do you have to "put your two cents in".. But it's only a "penny for your thoughts"? Where's that extra penny going to? 
• Once you're in heaven, do you get stuck wearing the clothes you were buried in for eternity? 
• Why does a round pizza come in a square box? 
• What disease did cured ham actually have? 
• How is it that we put man on the moon before we figured out it would be a good idea to put wheels on luggage? 
• Why is it that people say they "slept like a baby" when babies wake up like every two hours? 
• If a deaf person has to go to court, is it still called a hearing? 
• Why are you IN a movie, but you're ON TV?
• Why do people pay to go up tall buildings and then put money in binoculars to look at things on the ground? 
• Why do doctors leave the room while you change? They're going to see you naked anyway. 
• Why is "bra" singular and "panties" plural? 
• Why do toasters always have a setting that burns the toast to a horrible crisp, which no decent human being would eat? 
• If Jimmy cracks corn and no one cares, why is there a stupid song about him? 
• Can a hearse carrying a corpse drive in the carpool lane ? 
• If the professor on Gilligan's Island can make a radio out of a coconut, why can't he fix a hole in a boat? 
• Why does Goofy stand erect while Pluto remains on all fours? They're both dogs! 
• If Wile E. Coyote had enough money to buy all that ACME STUFF, why didn't he just buy dinner? 
• If corn oil is made from corn, and vegetable oil is made from vegetables, what is baby oil made from? 
• If electricity comes from electrons, does morality come from morons? 
• Why Do the Alphabet song and Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star have the same tune? 
• Why did you just try singing the two songs above? 
• Why do they call it an asteroid when it's outside the hemisphere, but call it a hemorrhoid when it's in your butt? 
• Did you ever notice that when you blow in a dog's face, he gets mad at you, but when you take him for a car ride, he sticks his head out the window? 
• Do you ever wonder why you gave me your e-mail address in the first place?