This is great news! Playing cards, dominos, bingo, Jenga, and ball games contribute to arm and hand recovery after a stroke in addition to your standard physio and occupational therapy program. There is another important finding here; its gains are similar to the gains from virtual reality games. In other words, if you live in low-resourced settings it does not really matter. Still, you can achieve similar improvement. It is also great news for those living in low-middle income countries. Read about: “Six rules to recover movements after stroke” About the study: The researchers1 included 141 aged 18-85 patients who…

Basic rules As in the case of regaining arm and hand movements, the following six basic rules to recover movements after stroke apply to regain walking after stroke. This post looks at the evidence about how caregivers should apply the above rules in their efforts of regaining walking ability. Assess severity The journey begins with a severity assessment. A specially trained physiotherapist should assess and start physiotherapy according to the NICE guidelines1. Start early Starting to move as early as possible, between 24 – 48 hours2, after stroke yields better recovery of walking ability as in the case of all…

Evidence exists that stroke carers can help stroke survivors regain bladder control after stroke. However, it seems that it is not in routine practice. Instead, Bladder leakage is managed with pads and catheters without treating the cause. Jo Booth, Professor of Rehabilitative Nursing at Glasgow Caledonian University.1 What stroke carers can do to help regain bladder control? Two methods to regain bladder control Train the bladder after stroke Do pelvic floor muscle exercises Who recommends those methods? In 2016, the Royal College of Physicians of their 2016 National Guidelines for Stroke2 recommend the above two methods to regain bladder control…

Stroke can result in either urinary incontinence or retention. It occurs as a result of the killing of neurons that are responsible in regulating the peeing.

Bedsores after stroke is a serious problem. With proper knowledge and care, it can be avoided.

A stroke may either weaken vision or completely shut it off. And, those who are aged may have lower vision due to age. This is another barrier to improve communication of the stroke survivors as well as those already visually impaired. Because of this, they are unable to socialize with their friends, read news, learn or engage in compatible jobs. What if they have a method that it reads the computer screen? These are “screen readers”. These are available, but expensive. How about if you have it free? Yes, while I was searching for that kind of facility, I found…

This post discusses the concept of stroke rehabilitation. This is where stroke carers have a big role to play. Here, we discuss when the stroke rehabilitation begins, what aspects it includes, and the current expert recommendations. What is stroke rehabilitation? It has three goals: Re-learning the lost skills Managing existing problems Preventing new problems When and how the stroke rehabilitation begins? The experts say it begins at the hospital as soon as the affected is medically stable. It could be as early as 48 hours of the event. The earliest rehab activity could be turning and moving arms and legs…

Have you thought about this? About the detrimental effects of prolonged bed rest? This post is about that. A little bit of history about bed rest research Researchers say that bed rest was considered as a treatment strategy in the 19th century. This view was beginning to change at the turning to the 20th century. In 1947, Dr. R.A.J. Asher wrote an article to the British Medical Journal about “Dangers of going to bed”. His article was meant for physicians: ” we should think twice before ordering our patients to bed and realize that beneath the comfort of blanket there…

Glial cells with a neuron: Source: Open Stax.org RICE University under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license We know about neurons; do we know enough about Glial cells? In fact, glial cells outnumber neurons. And, they are very close allies of neurons. If they do not exist, neurons cannot exist. Types of glial cells There are three types of glial cells: Astrocytes, Microglia, and Oligodentrocytes. The diagram below illustrates them. Astrocytes As you can see, they look like stars and in contact with both neurons and the cells of the supply routes’ walls; in this case, the smallest branches of it –…

The 2015 published Cochrane review (1) found only five studies that evaluated community walking sessions for people living a stroke. And, they concluded that the quality of evidence of these studies was very low. Furthermore, only 266 individuals had been involved in all five studies and two of the programs “mimicked” community programs. Walking certainly improves walking ability and speed after a stroke event; the activity itself brings a multitude of benefits not only economically but socially also. I could not find any reviews published after 2015. Citations Barclay RE, Stevenson TJ, Poluha W, Ripat J, Nett C, Srikesavan CS….