Saturday News

Contents of This Week Saturday News ▶︎ December 12th / 2015

• Definition: Stroke and Dementia

Dementia, also known as senility, is a broad category of brain diseases that cause a long term and often gradual decrease in the ability to think and remember that is great enough to affect a person's daily functioning. Other common symptoms include emotional problems, problems with language, and a decrease in motivation. A person's consciousness is not affected. A dementia diagnosis requires a change from a person's usual mental functioning and a greater decline than one would expect due to aging. These diseases also have a significant effect on a person's caregivers. A longer definition comes from Wikipedia.

• Video: Stroke and Dementia

      - When Stroke Becomes Dementia. Dr. Amy Brodtmann Lecture
      - Stroke, White Matter Disease and Alzheimer's Disease:
             Can Canada Avoid an Epidemic of Dementia?
      - OT Home Visits - Dementia vs Stroke - the Process and Outlook is 
             Very Different!!
      - My Theory on Dementia, Blood Pressure & Stroke - Dr. Eric Berg DC
      - Stroke and Dementia
      - Stroke and Dementia: What Lessons for Us
      - A Deadly Interaction: The Connection Between Stroke and Dementia
      - Cut Your Risk of Dementia & Stroke
      - Living With Dementia and Stroke or Coronary Heart Disease:
            Information for Consumers
      - Nun Study-Brain Health/Alzheimer's/Dementia/Stroke/Brain Exercise
      - Dementia, Stroke Risk Linked To Hand Strength, Walking Speed

• Headline Blog: Stroke and Dementia
• Dementia, Alzheimers and Stroke Survivors: Is There a Connection?
• Tools for Alzheimer's Screening: BrainCheck
• “Veterans and Brain Disease”
• A Test That Predicts when Survivors may Die
• Stroke, tPA and Physician Decision-Making
• Brain Food’s First Dish

• Eclectic Stuff: Many articles from many Guest Bloggers about Stroke
• Mind Over Muscle
• Precision PT = Progress 11 Years After My Stroke
• 7th Day of Positive Affirmations
• 50 Shades of Surprise
• You Can do a Lot with One Hand
• Taking Back My Life with Goals

• Weekly Columnists
• Musing: 85 with Dementia? Good Chance It's HS-AGING and Not Alzheimer's
• Sunday Stroke Survival: Hog Tied
• Caregiver: Bob's Artwork
• Jester: That was the Last Year Santa...
• TED Talks - Alanna Shaikh: How I'm Preparing to Get Alzheimer's
• Rick Mercer Report: Boston Christmas Tree & Ontario Medical Marijuana Plan
• Laid-Back Admin: Text + Image -> Original Link?

• Daily Comics: For Better Or For Worse, Dilbert, Mayes, Doonesbury

• Future Topics in SSTattler

     Saturday News | Future Topic
     --------------+---------------------------------------------
     Jan/09/2016   | Bobath (NDT - Neuro-Developmental Treatment)
     Jan/05/2016   | Emotional Recovery
     Dec/26/2015   | Christmas - A Cappella Quartet / Quintet
     Dec/19/2015   | CADASIL Syndrome 

Definition: Stroke and Dementia

Dementia From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Dementia - Comparison of a normal aged brain (left)
and the brain of a person with Alzheimer's (right).
Differential characteristics are pointed out.

Dementia, also known as senility, is a broad category of brain diseases that cause a long term and often gradual decrease in the ability to think and remember that is great enough to affect a person's daily functioning. Other common symptoms include emotional problems, problems with language, and a decrease in motivation. A person's consciousness is not affected. A dementia diagnosis requires a change from a person's usual mental functioning and a greater decline than one would expect due to aging. These diseases also have a significant effect on a person's caregivers.

The most common type of dementia is Alzheimer's disease, which makes up 50% to 70% of cases. Other common types include vascular dementia (25%), Lewy body dementia (15%), and frontotemporal dementia. Less common causes include normal pressure hydrocephalus, Parkinson's disease, syphilis, and Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease among others. More than one type of dementia may exist in the same person. A small proportion of cases run in families. In the DSM-5, dementia was reclassified as a neurocognitive disorder, with various degrees of severity. Diagnosis is usually based on history of the illness and cognitive testing with medical imaging and blood work used to rule out other possible causes. The mini mental state examination is one commonly used cognitive test. Efforts to prevent dementia include trying to decrease risk factors such as high blood pressure, smoking, diabetes and obesity. Screening the general population for the disease is not recommended.

Video: Stroke and Dementia

When Stroke Becomes Dementia. Dr. Amy Brodtmann Lecture

Published on Nov 20, 2014

SSTattler: Very excellent lecture. The lecture takes about 37 minutes but you, especially stroke survivors, have to watch this... After the lecture there is about 20 minutes for Q&A - excellent as well! People typically have problems with thinking, speech and memory immediately after a stroke - but they usually recover.

But one in three stroke survivors - even those who make a good recovery - slides into dementia. It might take two or three years to occur and the reasons have never been explained.

The Florey is trying to find out why it happens and how we might intervene to help those likely to suffer.

Dr Amy Brodtmann is a neurologist and a senior member of the Florey’s Stroke Division. She is the co-head of our Division of Behavioural Neuroscience. Dr Brodtmann is an NHMRC clinical career development fellow and is managing a longitudinal study of changes in brain volume and cognition following stroke.

Proudly supported by the Florey and the National Stroke Foundation.


Standard YouTube License @ The Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health

Headline Blog: Stroke and Dementia

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

Dementia, Alzheimers and Stroke Survivors: Is There a Connection?

Joyce Hoffman
The Tales of a Stroke Patient

Dec 6, 2015

I always wondered, if Ronald Reagen, the 40th President of the United States, could get Alzheimers, with a plethora of decisions and strategies he had to accomplish, then anyone could get Alzheimers. When he died on June 5, 2004, at 93-years-old, it was pneumonia that killed him, a complication of Alzheimers. He wrote in a public statement early on in the disease in 1994, "Unfortunately, as Alzheimer's disease progresses, the family often bears a heavy burden." And indeed it does. My mom had Alzheimers.

Age is known as the most significant factor for dementia, the early stage of potential Alzheimers. Though it is uncommon to get dementia before 65, it happens. After 65, the likelihood of developing Alzheimer's disease doubles about every five years: 1 in 14 people over the age of 65 and 1 in 6 over the age of 80. The risk factors include increasingly higher blood pressure, changes in the immune system, and an increased incidence of some diseases including stroke.

But what is the reason, I ask. As it turns out, there are multiple reasons:

Tools for Alzheimer's Screening: BrainCheck

Bill Yates
Brain Posts

Posted 15th October / 2015

Screening for cognitive decline and early Alzheimer's disease presents a clinical challenge for primary care providers.

A variety of tests and tools are available for use but limited research has focused on testing in primary care settings.

Michael Ehrensperger and colleagues recently published a study of a brief tool for screening for cognitive decline called BrainCheck.

This tool combines a patient interview, an informant interview and the Clock Drawing Test administered in combination.

The importance of this tool is that it has been studied in a feasibility and validation study design with 52 general practitioners in Switzerland and in a specialized Memory Clinic.

The key elements of the design include the following:

“Veterans and Brain Disease”

Steven H. Cornelius
Music and Stroke

Posted on April 26, 2012

New York Times / April 25, 2012

Veterans and Brain Disease

By Nicholas D. Kristof

He was a 27-year-old former Marine, struggling to adjust to civilian life after two tours in Iraq. Once an A student, he now found himself unable to remember conversations, dates and routine bits of daily life. He became irritable, snapped at his children and withdrew from his family. He and his wife began divorce proceedings.

This young man took to alcohol, and a drunken car crash cost him his driver’s license. The Department of Veterans Affairs diagnosed him with post-traumatic stress disorder, or P.T.S.D. When his parents hadn’t heard from him in two days, they asked the police to check on him. The officers found his body; he had hanged himself with a belt.

That story is devastatingly common, but the autopsy of this young man’s brain may have been historic. It revealed something startling that may shed light on the epidemic of suicides and other troubles experienced by veterans of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

A Test That Predicts when Survivors may Die

Peter G. Levine
Stronger After Stroke

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

A test of mental ability after stroke can predict how long a survivor will live (Find the study here.)

Poor performance on these tests can predict mortality in stroke survivors, a full decade before death. Previous tests have shown a link between heart disease and dementia after stroke and mortality. This is the first to show small amounts of cognitive decline correlating to mortality.

Here are the tests that they used. The longer it takes to do the tests the more "impaired psychomotor speed." Participants that were the slowest third of the group for both tests were more likely to die.

In this study, the mean result for TMT A was 47 seconds and for TMT B, 119 seconds.

Also a decline in mental function before a stroke can be an indicator of an impending stroke.

Good luck!

See the original article:

A Test That Predicts when Survivors may Die

in

Stronger After Stroke

Stroke, tPA and Physician Decision-Making

Jeff Porter
Stroke Of Faith

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Image from the National Institute
of Neurological Disorders and Stroke

A brief but thought-provoking article in the Neurology journal spells out recent survey results about the use of tissue plasminogen activator, the clot-busting drug used to treat certain stroke patients.

When is it right, when is it wrong, to apply the medication? Not in the cold scientific sense, but in the practical and ethical sense? If the patient would face devastating effects of the stroke no matter what? If the patient is in the throes of incurable dementia, such as Alzheimer's?

A snippet of the Stroke, tPA and physician decision-making
 article:

Studies like this one help to highlight and clarify the rationale behind the treatment of acute stroke. They allow us to understand the individual approaches that different physicians take to identical clinical problems. This study suggests that neurologists' decisions about tPA are based on many factors. Some of these factors include their own opinions about the quality of life a person might have after a severe stroke. For instance, Dr. Shamy discovered that most of the surveyed neurologists were less likely to give tPA to patients with dementia (like Alzheimer disease). This is in contrast to recent studies that have shown that there is no greater risk to tPA in people with dementia. Further supporting this finding was the observation that the physicians were less likely to treat patients with more severe strokes or those who might require assisted living.

Interesting results, interesting reading about decisions people face every day.

See the original article:

Stroke, tPA and Physician Decision-Making

in

Stroke of Faith

Brain Food’s First Dish

Tim Seefeldt
Brain Food Cafe for the Mind

March 15, 2015

SSTattler: Re-publish from Saturday, March 28, 2015 - Brain Food’s First Dish.

I couldn’t have written this blog five years ago. That’s because a stroke sizzled the back left side of my brain erasing my ability to read and write.

It zapped lots of other important bits, too. I was only 45, married and the father of two teen-aged girls. There were no warning signs. I’d just had a physical and seemed the picture of health. But in the blink of an eye, it looked like I’d never be able to provide – emotionally of financially — for my family again.

And the salt in the wound was that I’d been a newspaper reporter with a dream to write books that I never got around to writing. Use it or lose it, it seemed.

But it turns out that you can put Humpty Dumpty back together again. Through a blend of science, art, faith and hope I literally relearn my ABCs, how to make change and loads of other simple stuff that I used to take for granted. Thanks to this and some technology, I’m tapping out stuff on the keyboard again.

Today – March 15 – is my five year strokeaversary. To mark it, I’m going to put my rekindled writing to work on regular posts on some of the Brain Food that helped me get my noggin firing again. I’ll also share stories of amazing brain feats and phenomenon and pass on loads of things everybody can do to keep firing on all cylinders. Or maybe even to crank up the engine to become a brain Ferrari.

Eclectic Stuff

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

Mind Over Muscle

Marcelle Greene
Up Stroke

Friday, December 4, 2015

Pre-stroke I worked out listening to my iPod, thoughts meandering over yesterday, today and tomorrow.  Post-stroke my mind needs to engage as much as my muscles.  First, I relax the spastic muscles in the area I want to exercise; second, I link my brain to the muscles I want to work (harder with some than others); third, I put my core muscles in proper position. Now I exercise, holding all of the above in mind as I repeat the motions.

I liken it to golf and all I had to keep in mind simultaneously to hit the ball on the sweet spot: Keep that elbow straight, rotate those hips, keep that head down – oh yeah, and try to relax! I sucked at golf.

I’m working harder at rehabilitation than I ever did at golf.  The most mentally challenging aspect for me is correcting bad habits – not just those acquired through adaptive functioning – but those that pre-exist the stroke.

Instead of keeping my feet parallel and engaging my core muscles, I turn out one foot for stability. Eric calls it my kickstand and says a lot of people do this, which contributes to the prevalence of lower back pain. I do it when I’m standing at the kitchen counter, in line at the post office, lifting weights.

The other bad habit many of us have is to use our joints for stability instead of our muscles. It’s easier to lock our knees than to use our leg and core muscles. I use my hip like a linchpin, taking all the weight on it and cocking it as needed to move me. No wonder it hurts.

For healthy recovery, I need to stop relying on my joints and make better use of my muscles.

See the original article:

Mind Over Muscle

in

Up Stroke

Precision PT = Progress 11 Years After My Stroke

Rebecca Dutton
Home After a Stroke

December 2, 2015

I started PT after injuring my back when I fell on my patio in October.  This is my first experience with precision PT.  Instead of having me do generic exercises like walk on the treadmill, Tony evaluated the individual muscles of my back and hemiplegic (paralyzed) leg.  Here are two of the many things I learned 11 years post stroke.

#1.  Back spasms are a future risk for me because abdominal muscles on my hemiplegic side are still very weak.  The stomach crunches I have been doing (photo) let me use many muscles to assist my stomach muscles.  Tony, my PT, had me repeatedly lift only my bent hemiplegic leg slowly while lying on my back and then lower my leg without touching my foot to the mat.  OMG.
I felt increased muscle tone in my abdominals for hours.  Guess what I am doing every morning before I get out of bed.

#2.  Tony discovered I developed the bad habit of locking my hemiplegic knee so my leg muscles do not have to work.  Now I stand with both knees slightly bent during 4 activities of daily living (ADLs) - brushing my teeth, putting curlers in my hair, putting on make-up, and standing in line at the store.  Standing in line with both knees slightly bent was the hardest to do consistently.  Putting both hands on the handle of the shopping cart is a cue that makes me compliant.  Retraining the brain requires lots of repetition.  This new habit is not automatic yet, but I have become aware of when I lock this knee so I can tell it to stop.

Bottom Line:  I anchor each new exercise to a specific ADL which acts as a visual trigger.  It is wonderful not to have to think "I forgot/did not have time for X exercise" at the end of the day.

See the original article:

Precision PT = Progress 11 Years After My Stroke

in

Home After a Stroke

7th Day of Positive Affirmations

Diana Smith
Beyond Reality

December 7, 2015

Today is from my soul brother, The Ramblings of Bry on facebook and also YouTube:

You are not here just to fill space, or to be a background character in someone else’s movie.
Consider this; Nothing would be the same if you did not exist. Every place you have ever been and everyone you have ever spoken to would be different without you.
We are all connected, and we are all affected by the decisions and even the existence of those around us.
Nothing would be the same if you did not exist. The space and time you share with people may mean nothing at the time, but it will.
The energy you share, the love you spread, the time you give speaks volumes about you as a person. Each of these things are changing those around you, therefore also yourself, no matter how subtle.
Stand in the puddle of your own truth and follow your bliss, those that want to will catch on, new connections will be made especially by the open minded and free thinkers of the world.

50 Shades of Surprise

Sas Freeman

December 7, 2015

Power of surprises

It was the morning after my birthday, and several things had to be done. Each on my list of equal importance so none could be ignored or put off.

I would much rather be reflecting on the previous day: my lovely messages, gifts and visits from friends.

photo

I suddenly felt really flat and deflated but not for long! On getting downstairs I was greeted by my son,  Henry and his girlfriend, Beth at the bottom of the stairs smiling and saying ‘surprise’. The kitchen decorated with balloons, the most fabulous selection of cupcakes on the table a present, wonderful words in my card and we had birthday round two. We enjoyed our meal with prosecco and cupcakes, to follow. We had the day together and enjoyed a wonderful supper at our favourite place. All of this a total surprise. The fact they had travelled back from university to surprise me means so very much, a memory I shall cherish for many years to come.

Actions, acts of kindness as displayed, have the power to turn a day around and they do exactly that. Thanks Henry and Beth.

See the original article:

50 Shades of Surprise

in

Sas Freeman

You Can do a Lot with One Hand

Beth Sinfield
Beth's Story

Thursday, 3 December 2015

Yes, at first only having one good arm was a bit hard to adjust to. Up until the 16th September 2012, I could do anything I wanted; plait my own hair, paint my nails, pick up my dog... And then at 1am that morning, that ability went. I had neither arm, both were paralysed.

It's pretty devastating to suddenly have to rely upon someone else to do such basic tasks for me. I was 17 years old, I was meant to becoming independent, not regressing to a baby-like stage where everything was done for me. It's knowing that you physically can't do that anymore that hurts the most.

Nurses would brush my teeth for me, shower me, dress me, even shave my legs for me. My mum became my own personal assistant; she always kept my nails painted and she even used to squeeze my spots for me. That's love, right there.

My prognosis was that I'd maybe end up applying only moisturiser on my face with my right arm and help from someone else. Not the independence I was hoping for. I was crushed.

Taking Back My Life with Goals

Leslie
Living After Stroke

With 2016 looming closer and my life not close to resembling what I thought it would look like when I turned 50 (just months away), I decided to it was time to be much more proactive.

3 years ago, the stroke completely derailed my goals, ambitions, and plans. It consumed my whole world. It will always be part of every decision & action but it does not need to be the only focus. It is just another obstacle to address when working towards creating a life worth living.

I am constantly setting mini goals to accomplish weekly & daily. Although they all lead me closer to some dream, they are random. They are not focused enough for me to say in a year from now, “I did it! I accomplished what I set out to do”.

I am dedicating 2016 to setting, planning, and implementing new goals and modifying old ones for every area of my life.

Originally, I was going to dedicate December to accomplish this but upon reviewing the goal setting process this past week, I have decided that my stroke deficits would prevent me from successful completion.

Weekly Columnists

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

Musing: 85 with Dementia? Good Chance It's HS-AGING and Not Alzheimer's

Dean Reinke
Deans' Stroke Musing

Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Your doctor has more dementia stuff to create prevention protocols for. What is your doctor doing to prevent your 33% dementia chance post-stroke from an Australian study? ANYTHING AT ALL? Or is your doctor expecting you to figure this out on your own? 85 with Dementia? Good Chance It's HS-AGING and Not Alzheimer's.

3 important dementia studies focus on HS-AGING. It's a type of dementia almost as common as Alzheimer's in the 85+ group. Yet few people have heard of it. Why? What makes it different?

In those who live to a very advanced age (beyond the age of 85) HS-AGING (hippocampal sclerosis in the elderly) is almost as prevalent as Alzheimer's. Remarkably, HS-Aging appears to be a completely separate disease from Alzheimer's, although it is almost always diagnosed as Alzheimer's disease while people are alive.

Three important papers authored by Dr. Peter Nelson and others at the University of Kentucky Sanders-Brown Center on Aging, explore the neuropathology behind this little-understood brain disease.

HS-AGING, much like Alzheimer's disease, causes symptoms of dementia, such as cognitive decline and impaired memory. Although Alzheimer's disease is probably the most recognized cause of dementia, HS-AGING also causes serious cognitive impairment in many older adults.

Overview of 3 New Studies on HS-AGING:

Sunday Stroke Survival: Hog Tied

Jo Murphey
The Murphey Saga

Sunday, December 6, 2015

I'm going to be hog tied for the next couple of weeks with no time to write or edit. Going into the holidays my schedule explodes with doctor appointments:

• Dec 10th - Botox
• Dec 12th- Psych eval for Social Security Disability
• Dec 14th- Orthopedic for my torn rotator cuff
• Dec 21st- Cardiology

That's on top of my twice a week therapy sessions.

I've been busy knitting mini Christmas stockings for all my relatives. I'll be stuffing them with Sea salted caramels, chocolate dipped Pretzels, two types of fudge, and other goodies from my kitchen. So far I've gotten 50 stocking made. Only 15 left to make.

I still haven't learned to be in two places at once or growing more hands.

See the original article:

Sunday Stroke Survival: Hog Tied

in

The Murphey Saga