Mark Sircus
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 Jay Cohen
Statin drugs are also prescribed to stroke patients for a potential 25-30% reduction of future stroke. The cost of these pills also ranges from three to four dollars a day. Another group of drugs given to stroke patients is anti-hypertensives. Often the stress of a stroke will elevate blood pressure, or it may even be one of the primary causes. Taking these drugs along with an anti-platelet drug may reduce the relative risk of stroke, death, and myocardial infarction by 32%. The price for many of the anti-hypertensives is also about three dollars a day or $1000 per year. |
Bottom Line Health
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| Botox has been used "off-label" for stroke patients for approximately five years, according to Brashear. Off-label use refers to the common practice of prescribing a drug or treatment for a purpose that has not been specifically approved by the FDA.
Botulinum toxin type A, a protein complex produced by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum, contains the same toxin that causes botulism, a potentially deadly form of food poisoning. However, sterile, purified botulin toxin in small doses also blocks the release of acetylcholine, a chemical released by nerve cells that signals muscles to contract. |
Mark Sircus
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| Dextrorphan, a noncompetitive NMDA antagonist and metabolite of cough suppressant, was the first NMDA antagonist studied in human stroke patients. Unfortunately, dextrorphan caused hallucinations and agitation; it also produced hypotension, which limited use. Magnesium is an agent with actions on the NMDA receptor and a low incidence of side effects. It may reduce ischemic injury by increasing regional blood flow, antagonizing voltage-sensitive calcium channels, and blocking the NMDA receptor. |
Bottom Line Health
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| Among stroke patients, one study conducted in Denmark showed that those who did not take an antidepressant were two to three times more likely to have another stroke within the next year.
•How effective are the current treatments for depression? The prescription antidepressants we have today are far from perfect, but they work pretty well. Approximately 80% of patients who are treated properly get substantially better. But all researchers agree that depression is underdiagnosed and undertreated. Most people still don't get the treatment they deserve. |
| Perhaps best known for its wrinkle-banishing ability, Botox can also help stroke patients recover some functioning, according to a new study.
Repeated injections of Botox, or botulinum toxin type A, helped stroke survivors regain enough function to perform everyday activities, such as dressing themselves, without pain, says Dr. Allison Brashear, a professor and chairman of neurology at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. |
Dr. Abram Hoffer, MD, FRCP (C) and Dr. Harold D. Foster, PhD
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 The authors reported that stroke patients on admission to hospital were promptly given IV niacin and, as a result, experienced a marked reduction in the incidence of subsequent strokes. McCracken also referred to a Norwegian study where arteries leading to a dog's heart were tied, thus simulating a heart attack.^ Giving intravenous niacin 15 minutes after the restriction and continuing it for 30 minutes decreased the heart damage.
Among patients in Dr Hoffer's care, C.B. |
Bottom Line Health
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| The new study is additional proof of the benefit of Botox for reducing spasticity in stroke patients.
Todd Schlifstein, MD
The team measured muscle tone as well as disability in hygiene, dressing, limb posture and pain, and asked the patients which area they most wanted to improve. None of the participants experienced serious side effects from the Botox injections, and muscle tone greatly improved by week six, Brashear says. |
| According to a US survey, only a very small percentage of stroke patients are getting tissue plasminogen activator (tPA), a powerful clot-busting drug that must be administered within three hours of the start of a stroke to have a beneficial effect.
THE SURVEY
Researchers reviewed the records of nearly 2,100 people treated at 15 hospitals in Michigan who had an ischemic stroke, the type of stroke caused by a blood clot. Only approximately 2% of the patients received tPA according to the survey. |
| Yet only between 2% and 3% of stroke patients receive this treatment.
Reasons: Victims and bystanders may not call for help immediately because they do not recognize stroke symptoms. Hospital phone operators may not recognize stroke symptoms and so discourage callers from coming in for help.
Larry B. Goldstein, MD, director, stroke program, Duke University, Durham, NC.
Breakthrough Strategies Help Prevent Death or Disability
Cathy Sila, MD, associate medical director of the Cerebrovascular Center, The Cleveland Clinic. |
Russell L. Blaylock, M.D.
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 Many of the liquid nutritional diets given to hospitalized stroke patients contain substantial levels of free glutamate and/or aspartate. Even as they start to recover, stroke patients are often fed foods containing the additive MSG. This not only increases the likelihood for increased brain injury, but also increases the likelihood of a seizure.
Because of brain swelling caused by the stroke or pre-existing hypertension, many of these patients are given powerful diuretics. To combat swelling, neurosurgeons and neurologists will also resort to the use of steroids. |
Lynne McTaggart
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 Since those early days, biofeedback has become well established as a therapy for virtually every chronic condition, from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) to menopausal hot flashes. stroke patients and victims of spinal-cord injuries now use biofeedback to rehabilitate or regain the use of paralyzed muscles. It has proved invaluable in eliminating the pain felt in a phantom limb.44 Astronauts have even used biofeedback to cure motion sickness while journeying to outer space. |
Mark Sircus
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| Another group of drugs given to stroke patients is anti-hypertensives. Often the stress of a stroke will elevate blood pressure, or it may even be one of the primary causes. Taking these drugs along with an anti-platelet drug may reduce the relative risk of stroke, death, and myocardial infarction by 32%. The price for many of the anti-hypertensives is also about three dollars a day or $1000 per year.
Another class of treatments are blood thinners called thrombin inhibitors. The main one is Warfarin, which is the main ingredient in rat poison. It acts by causing fatal hemorrhage in rats. |
Russell L. Blaylock, M.D.
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| Even as they start to recover, stroke patients are often fed foods containing the additive MSG. This not only increases the likelihood for increased brain injury, but also increases the likelihood of a seizure.
Because of brain swelling caused by the stroke or pre-existing hypertension, many of these patients are given powerful diuretics. To combat swelling, neurosurgeons and neurologists will also resort to the use of steroids. Both diuretics and steroids lower brain levels of magnesium. |
Phyllis A. Balch, CNC
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 Use of TPA is a long shot by any definition, and not too many stroke patients ever receive it. A tiny experimental corkscrew-like device is now being tested that allows a surgeon to thread the device through a blood vessel in the leg to the clot in the brain, where it is used like a corkscrew to physically extract the clot. This is just like pulling the cork out of a wine bottle, according to Dr. Sidney Starkman at UCLA Stroke Center. Blood starts flowing again to the brain, and that, in the final analysis, is what it's all about. |
Alan R. Gaby, M.D., Jonathan V. Wright, M.D., Forrest Batz, Pharm.D. Rick Chester, RPh., N.D., DipLAc. George Constantine, R.Ph., Ph.D. Linnea D. Thompson, Pharm.D., N.D.
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 Nutritional supplements that may be helpful
Vinpocetine (page 594) given by intravenous injection has been reported to improve some biochemical measures of brain function in stroke patients.53,54 A controlled trial found intravenous vinpocetine given within 72 hours of a stroke reduced some of the losses in brain function that typically follow a stroke.55 However, the reliability of human stroke research using vinpocetine has been questioned,56,57 and more double-blind trials are needed. No studies using oral vinpocetine for treating acute strokes have been published. |
The Life Extension Editorial Staff
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 The treatment of stroke patients in dedicated stroke units has been shown to reduce morbidity, mortality, and disability as well as other post stroke complications (Indredavik et al. 1999).
Stroke-Related Symptoms
The sudden onset of neutological signs and symptoms developing over a few minutes or few hours are indicative of a stroke event. Most of these strokes will be ischemic, involving a thrombus (clot), rather than hemorrhagic. However, any of the following symptoms can result from a clot ot bleed, depending upon the arteties in the btain involved in the stroke and their location. |
Gary Null, Ph.D.
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 Remedies effective in treating stroke patients are hyperbaric oxygen therapy and magnesium sulfate.
Aromatherapy can aid in stroke patients' recovery.
Emotional support of the stroke patient can speed up the healing process.
TMJ Dysfunction
Temporomandibular joint dysfunction (TMJ) is an abnormal condition characterized by facial pain and problems with the use of the lower jaw. Clicking or popping noises can accompany chewing or other movement of the jaw, and pain may affect not only the jaw itself, but the neck, face, ear, and shoulder. |
The Life Extension Editorial Staff
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| Stroke patients with the highest CRP levels were nearly 2.4 times mote likely to die within the next year compared to patients with the lowest levels (DiNapoli et al. 2001). Another of hs-CRP's strengths is its ability to detect at-risk patients with normal cholesterol levels.
The risk of stroke, according to data reported in the New England Journal of Medicine, decreased among those using statin drugs (White et al. 2000). |
Earl L. Mindell, RPh, PhD with Virginia Hopkins, MA
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| According to a study done at North Carolina's Duke University that analyzed 96 stroke patients, 37 of them who were taking drugs such as benzodiazepines (Valium, Oxazepam, Serax, Ativan, Xanax, Diazepam, etc.) took significantly longer to recover. In fact, even one dose of a drug such as the dopamine antagonist haloperidol (Haldol) can delay recovery by as much as two weeks. These human studies were a follow-up to animal studies that demonstrated the same result. |
The Life Extension Editorial Staff
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| Many thrombotic stroke patients have coronary artery disease, and heart attacks are a frequent cause of death in patients who have suffered this type of brain attack.
Anterior inferior cerebellar a.
Posterior inferior cerebellar a.
Internal carotid a.
Vertebral a. -1
Common carotid;
Cerebral arterial system. Shaded circles show common sites of plaque formation. |
| A second double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of intravenous CDP-choline (250 mg 3 times a day for 10 days) in stroke patients treated within 48 hours of their symptoms found that a significantly higher percentage of patients had a very good to fairly good recovery with CDP-choline versus placebo treatment at 10 days after stroke (Boudouresques et al. 1980).
• A small double-blind, placebo-controlled study examined the effects of CDP-choline (1000 mg a day of IV for 30 days) or placebo in 19 patients with acute stroke treated within 48 hours. |
Gary Null
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| In this study, stroke patients with the highest C-reactive protein levels had nearly a 2.4 times greater chance of experiencing a second vascular event or of dying within the next year, compared to patients with the lowest levels of C-reactive protein.
High levels of C-reactive protein indicate a potentially destructive inflammatory autoimmune condition that could predispose you to a host of degenerative diseases. C-reactive protein can be suppressed by aspirin or vitamin E. |
| Supplemental acetyl-L-carnitine administered to stroke patients brought improvements in memory, cognition, and task performance. Acetyl-L-carnitine at 1,500 mg intravenously per day brought increased cerebral blood flow to patients who had suffered a stroke at least six months before treatment.
Anticancer activity has been documented for acetyl-L-carnitine. Several animal studies also indicate that acetyl-L-carnitine may be useful in the treatment of diabetes. |
The Life Extension Editorial Staff
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| In this study, stroke patients with the highest C-reactive protein levels had nearly a 2.4 times greater chance of experiencing death or a vascular event within the next year compared to patients with the lowest levels (Di Napoli et al. 2001).
High levels of C-reactive protein also indicate a potentially destructive inflammatory autoimmune condition that could predispose a person to a host of degenerative diseases. C-reactive protein can be suppressed by ibuprofen, aspirin, or vitamin E (McMillan et al. 1995; Ikonomidis et al. 1999; Devaraj et al. 2000). |
| The authors hypothesized that the activation of the blood coagulation and platelet aggregation system may be related to elevated CRP levels in stroke patients (Tohgi et al. 2000). A feature article in the May 2002 issue of Scientific American further emphasized the link between chronic inflammation and the evolution of atherosclerosis and coronary artery disease (Libby 2002).
Measuring CRP levels (using a high-sensitivity C-reactive protein blood test) is highly recommended by the Life Extension Foundation (see Table 2 for the nor-mal and optimal range of CRP). |
Larry Trivieri, Jr.
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 We even had several stroke patients who had severely contracted arm muscles. Soon, they too were free of pain and their limbs free of contracture."33
Trigger points can be caused by trauma at any age, including prenatal injury, accidents, childhood and sexual abuse, sports injuries, the repetitive motions connected with work or hobbies, and any invasive procedure, from injections to surgery.Trigger points are often exacerbated by disease, substance abuse, and aging. |
Bill Gottlieb
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 Most doctors who treat stroke patients don't remember that disuse and a lack of weight-bearing activity results in a loss of calcium, which leads to osteoporosis," says David Steenblock, D.O., an osteopathic physician in Mission Viejo, California. Calcium loss affects not only the bone but also the muscles, causing pain, spasms, and discomfort.
To prevent osteoporosis, Dr. Steenblock says to ask your doctor for a prescription for calcitonin (Miacalcin), a calcium-containing nasal spray. "Calcitonin can help prevent osteoporosis and helps with brain repair processes as well," he says. |
Jean Carper
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 They discovered that stroke patients with above-average amounts of vitamin A, including beta carotene, were more apt to survive, to have less neurologic damage and to recover completely! Here's why: When your brain is deprived of oxygen, as in a stroke, cells begin to malfunction, leading to a series of events culminating in oxidative damage to nerve cells. But if you have lots of vitamin A in your blood, researchers speculate, it can interfere at many different stages of this cascade of events, lessening brain damage and chances of death. |
Dr. Richard Schulze and Sam Biser
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| Schulze: In six days, stroke patients had big changes with cayenne and ginkgo that would have taken six months with ginkgo alone. I saw big-time cures in stroke victims in 24 hours — but never without big doses of cayenne pepper.
I saw Alzheimer's respond in a week, big changes, with blasts of this cayenne formula. You can go from six dropperfuls a day up to two to four dropperfuls every other hour.
Brain tonic: This formula for strokes, memory, depression and hearing is 1 part Cayenne, 3 parts Ginkgo Biloba leaf, 1 part Rosemary (optional). |
Gary Null, Ph.D.
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| Aromatherapy can aid in stroke patients' recovery.
Emotional support of the stroke patient can speed up the healing process.
TMJ Dysfunction
Temporomandibular joint dysfunction (TMJ) is an abnormal condition characterized by facial pain and problems with the use of the lower jaw. Clicking or popping noises can accompany chewing or other movement of the jaw, and pain may affect not only the jaw itself, but the neck, face, ear, and shoulder. Headaches and toothaches are sometimes part of the TMJ dysfunction picture— even if all the teeth are healthy. |
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