Stroke Archive

Articles

Robotics help stroke survivors walk again

Sophisticated devices add to traditional rehabilitation techniques.

Every year, thousands of people survive strokes (or "brain �attacks"), only to become locked in an arduous struggle to regain lost function. With the help of modern rehabilitation techniques, many are able to resume a normal or near-normal lifestyle.

Others are left with substantial deficits that impair their ability to live independently.

Soft drinks found to increase stroke risk

Study implicates both diet and sugar-sweetened sodas.

Pop. Soda. Cola. No matter what you call soft drinks, they are among the unhealthiest beverages in this country. Sugar-sweetened soft drinks have been linked with coronary artery disease and its risk factors, including obesity, high blood lipid levels, hypertension, and diabetes. And although low-calorie sodas have not been extensively studied, there's new information that sugar-sweetened and diet soft drinks alike may increase the risk of stroke (American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, May 2012).

The finding comes from an analysis of two long-term studies, the Nurses' Health Study, which began in 1976 with 121,700 women, and the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study, which started in 1986 with 51,529 men. Every few years, participants in both studies complete questionnaires about their health and diet. This allows researchers to see relationships between food choices and medical conditions that arise over time.

Arm-to-arm variations in blood pressure may warrant attention

A difference of 10 or more points could signal peripheral artery disease.

Roll up both sleeves the next time you check your blood pressure at home or have it measured by a health care provider. Why? A recent analysis of 20 different studies in which blood pressure was measured in both arms came to two noteworthy conclusions.

Hidden atrial fibrillation is a possible culprit in mystery strokes

Atrial fibrillation—the rapid and ineffectual quivering of the heart's upper chambers—dramatically increases a person's risk of having a stroke. In fact, doctors estimate that about 15% of all strokes arise from atrial fibrillation. But a even greater proportion of strokes—25%—have no known cause. A new study suggests that hidden atrial fibrillation could account for many of these strokes as well.

Doctors use the term "subclinical" to describe a disease that's hidden. People don't feel any symptoms of it, and nothing abnormal shows up in routine medical tests. But it's there.

Changes to the statin label: What they really mean

The FDA has made changes to the safety label for statins, the cholesterol-lowering drugs that over 20 million Americans take in hopes of reducing their chances of having a heart attack or stroke. When the changes were announced in February 2012, it reignited a smoldering debate about the benefits and risks of statins.

If you want our bottom line, here it is: the vast majority of people taking statins should continue to take them, but some additional attention to blood sugar levels is warranted. And, as with any medication, if you're taking a statin and experience side effects, you shouldn't hesitate to contact your doctor.

Interested in more details? Read on.

Increases in blood sugar levels

The safety information for statins now says that increases in HbA1C and fasting serum glucose levels have been reported. HbA1C is a blood test that reflects average blood sugar levels; serum glucose is just another way of saying blood sugar.

Blood clots: The good, the bad, and the deadly

 

Those arising from atherosclerosis and atrial fibrillation can be very dangerous.

When you poke yourself on a thorn while gardening or get a paper cut at the office, your body marshals the forces needed to stop the flow of blood and repair the damage. If it weren't for the blood's ability to clot (form a thrombus, in medicalese), even these minor scrapes of daily living could cause us to bleed uncontrollably. These healing clots also form inside the body at sites of blood vessel injuries. Normally, when the clot's job is done, it dissolves away.

Stroke risk rises in people who are depressed

People who are depressed are more likely to develop heart disease than those who aren't. It works the other way, too — people who have heart disease are more likely to lapse into depression than their disease-free counterparts.

The same association appears to exist between depression and stroke. This isn't a huge surprise, considering that the conditions that cause heart disease — like clogged arteries and inflammation — also contribute to strokes. Still, researchers can only speculate on how depression contributes to these dangerous cardiovascular events or the biological disorders leading up to them.

Niacin + a statin does not add up to benefit

In 2011, federal health officials ended an important government-funded clinical trial designed to test whether taking niacin in addition to a cholesterol-lowering statin might do more to lower heart attack and stroke risk than just taking a statin alone. Interim data indicated that the niacin had no benefit and may have been associated with a small, unexplained increase in stroke risk.

Full results of the AIM-HIGH trial, as it was called, were published several months later in The New England Journal of Medicine. Experts continue to fight over the AIM-HIGH results in that ferocious way that experts often do. Some say the results are strong evidence for not adding niacin to statin therapy. Others are adamant that AIM-HIGH missed the mark because of the way it was designed and that it will take the results of a different trial, dubbed THRIVE, to determine if niacin-statin combinations have cardiovascular benefits.

Ask the doctor: Is there a connection between diabetes and sleep apnea?

Q. I have been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and sleep apnea. Is there any connection between the two?

A. There's one sure connection between type 2 diabetes and obstructive sleep apnea: if you're overweight, you have an increased risk of developing both conditions. But it's an unsettled question whether sleep apnea might somehow increase your chances of getting type 2 diabetes.

Another warfarin alternative for stroke prevention in people with a-fib

To switch or not is a decision for you and your doctor to make.

Warfarin's long reign as the drug for preventing stroke in people with atrial fibrillation is being challenged by the second new blood thinner to come on the market within the span of less than a year.

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