Thursday

I am home after three days and two nights in the hospital. my right arm is working at about 15 percent capacity after my suffering a stroke monday night. that explains the absence of capital letters. remember the lives and times of archy and mehitabel by don marquis? you will understand why i identify with the cockroach archy, who typed on marquis's newsroom typewriter at night by hopping from key to key but of course was unable to operate the shift key. thus no words were capitalized in archy's writings. i am typing with my left hand only and thus have archy's restriction to lower-case letters. since i'm working on a computer and not a typewriter, apostrophes are available to me, though they weren't to archy. a literary cockroach, c'est moi.

Friday

Progress! I can peck with the index finger of my right hand, so the shift key is within my command. Adopting the positive attitude that doctors, nurses and therapists have been prescribing, I now think of my little ischemic stroke as an incident of growth. My right leg and arm are suddenly about three inches longer than before. Heavier, too, which accounts for the foot always catching the edge of the stair it's trying to mount. Obviously, the right hand with the fork will have a hard time hitting my mouth, which has changed shape.

It is the morning of the fifth day since the wee embolus detached itself from somewhere and flew upward into my cerebral arterial tree. I was alone in the house, my wife being away on business. I had gone to bed early. I woke for a bathroom visit and discovered something was amiss with my right leg and arm. "Must have slept on it wrong," I thought. "It will clear itself up."

I'm unsure about the succeeding events. I broke two drinking glasses at different wake-up times. I couldn't seem to get them up to the kitchen counter before they slipped from my grasp. One glass I had used to take analgesic PMs, foolishly thinking that sleep would rectify my mystery malaise. Those pills were a major mistake.

I awoke again in the wee hours still refusing to admit what was happening to me. I had had some cholesterol and hypertension problems, but they were under the control of prescription drugs. Seeking activities to avoid unthinkable reality, I dressed and lurched downstairs to the garage to put out the recycle baskets and garbage can for the early morning pickup-a chore I'd forgotten to perform the previous night. I had to lean against the wall of the stairwell going down and coming back up. The right leg and foot were not performing well. I attempted to sweep up the broken glass in the kitchen. My right arm couldn't work the broom.

Keeping busy, I hauled laundry downstairs to the machine. I kept dropping items during my labored descent, leaning on and sliding down the staircase wall. Upstairs once again, I tried to brush my hair, but my right hand and arm wouldn't cooperate. Finally I brought the cordless phone to my armchair and sat down to think.

I read carefully the telephone book's warnings not to dial 911 unless it was a true emergency. By this time it was 6:30-not so early that I would seriously disturb anyone, I thought insanely. I unlocked the front door, sat back down in my chair, and dialed. I was embarrassed at the difficulty I had enunciating that I thought I might be having a stroke. Minutes later the paramedics were in the driveway along with a fire engine. The crew worried about getting me down the slippery outside stairs and into the ambulance. I hoped the sirens hadn't wakened my neighbors.

At the hospital, blood pressure off the map, I grew weary of telling people what month, date, and year it was; who was President, and how many fingers they were holding up. I politely and accurately responded to their inquiries wondering why they couldn't answer those questions for themselves. When evenings came along, I turned on the TV so I could feel similarly superior to the candidates on Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune. They sent me home the third day.

Stroke plus one month.

My thrombosis was not massive. I am recovering with a speed that seem undeserved given my idiotic refusal to accept what was happening and my eight-hour delay in calling the paramedics. Sure, I knew about strokes, but I had had no headache, no loss of vision, and being alone there was no opportunity to discover my inability to speak clearly. I have much to be thankful for.

Everyone should learn about stroke symptoms and treatment of the various kinds of strokes. A drug called rt-PA (recombinant tissue-plasminogen activator) can virtually wipe out the effects of a stroke, but the patient must get to a hospital within 90 minutes of onset. (Recent medical developments have extended that time limit.) Tests will determine whether one is a candidate for rt-PA. I waited too long and may spend the rest of my life with problems that could have been eliminated by this miracle clot-dissolving therapy.

Hopefully you never had to endure a situation of someone close to you to suffer from transient ischemic attach (TIA), also known as mini stoke, or from a stroke. In any case, you should be familiar with both kinds of stroke as they both destroy brain tissue and can produce similar long-term effects. But there are important differences in what causes them and in the symptoms that tell you which kind of stroke is happening.

Ischemic Stroke:

According to statistics, 80 percent of strokes belong to the ischemic stroke kind. These mini-strokes occur when blood flow to the brain is blocked by plaque-clogged arteries or by blood clots. This means that blood is not circulating properly inside the brain causing brain cells to die if even for a few minutes no oxygen is transmitted to them via the blood.

- Symptoms: Sudden numbness or weakness, especially on one side of the body; difficulty speaking or understanding speech; trouble seeing in one or both eyes; dizziness and a sudden loss of balance; falling in and out of consciousness; chest pain and shortness of breath. These last three symptoms are less-brain-centered and are more commonly experienced by women.

Hemorrhagic Stroke:

These brain hemorrhages happen when a blood vessel in the brain bursts, spilling blood into the surrounding tissue. There are various causes of these bursts. The most frequent is the rupture of an aneurysm, a weak spot on the wall of an artery that happens to be in your brain-aneurysms can occur elsewhere in the body, too. Experts point out that women are twice as likely as men to have an aneurysm in the brain and are more likely to have multiple aneurysms than men. Two other causes for bleeding in the brain are: hypertension, which can create enough pressure to break an artery wall, and arteriovenous malformation (AVM) in the brain. This is a snarl of defective blood vessels and capillaries whose thin walls are prone to rupture.

- Symptoms: A sudden violent headache, as if cracking a fault like through the brain's delicate architecture. The patient may also suffer from blurred vision or nausea.

If you ever suspect you might be having a TIA or stroke or believe you are witnessing someone else having one, make sure 911 (or your local emergency unit) be called immediately. Tell the dispatcher that, if possible, you want to be transported to a hospital with a stroke center. Do not attempt to drive to the emergency room yourself. Stroke patients who arrive at the hospital by ambulance are evaluated sooner by an ER physician, get the necessary testing and are admitted to the hospital or intensive-care unit more frequently than those who arrive by taxi or car. Most importantly, bring someone prepared to advocate for you or the patient. Be prepared by being informed and act fast!

The type of stroke that results when a blood clot travels to the brain -- called an ischemic stroke -- is more likely to occur on days when the air contains a larger concentration of particulate matter, according to a study published online in Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association.

Researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) examined air quality on a total of 37,000 days in nine cities. Risk of hospitalization for ischemic stroke was 1 percent higher on days with relatively high levels of air pollution, compared with low-air pollution days, reports lead author Gregory Wellenius, ScD, postdoctoral fellow in cardiology at BIDMC.

Third Cause of Death in US

"Although these effects sound relatively small," says Wellenius, "given the large number of people exposed to air pollution and the large number of people at risk for stroke ... the actual number of strokes could be significant."

Stroke is the third leading cause of death in the US, affecting more than 700,000 individuals each year.

A "consistent increased risk" for cardiac health problems associated with exposure to ambient air particles was established in earlier research by Wellenius and coauthors Murray Mittleman, MD, DrPH, of BIDMC's Cardiovascular Epidemiology Research Unit and Joel Schwartz, PhD, of HSPH.

"Air pollution has been shown to trigger heart attacks and to aggravate the conditions of patients with congestive heart failure," says Mittleman, who is also an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.

"These new findings, demonstrating that incidence of clot-based strokes also increase, [are] in keeping with our earlier data showing a relationship between air pollution and heart and lung disorders," he notes.

The researchers also looked at the incidence of hemorrhagic stroke, which is caused by bleeding in the brain, during the same "high pollution" days, notes Wellenius, but found no association between the two.

Reducing Exposure May Lower Risk

The air pollution in question -- particulate matter smaller than 10 micrometers in diameter -- includes particles from car and truck exhaust, power plants and refineries. The measurements were provided by the US Environmental Protection Agency from nine US cities: Birmingham, Ala., Chicago, New Haven, Conn., Cleveland, Detroit, Minneapolis, Pittsburgh, Salt Lake City and Seattle.

The authors analyzed hospital admissions among a group of Medicare patients with an average age of 79. Seventy-five percent of the patients were white, and 61 percent were female. Their findings showed that during the course of their study, there were 155,503 hospital admissions for ischemic stroke.

The final analysis demonstrated a 1.03 percent rise in ischemic stroke on the days with the highest pollution measures.

"We don't know exactly what mechanisms are involved that trigger these cardiac events," says Wellenius. "However, we do know that particulates in the air promote inflammation, which is a significant risk factor for cardiac events; that exposure to particulates can lead to changes in heart rate and blood pressure; and that pollution can cause changes in coaguable states (related to blood clotting abilities)."

The authors say that future research will focus on finding out which pollutants are most toxic, as well as which patients are at greatest risk for health problems stemming from air pollution.

"Taken together with previous work, these latest results support the idea that reducing exposure to particulate matter may reduce the risk of strokes and heart attacks," they conclude.

Copyright 2005 Daily News Central

We have all seen those television adverts that tell us drinking Green Tea can prevent or even cure cancer. Are these claims actually true, although Green Tea naturally contains many antioxidants there is no real proof that it can or will help prevent cancer. But it does now appear that Green Tea can help prevent the risk of clot related strokes.

To prove this theory, a recent study conducted in Japan, by the Japanese government and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association by Dr. Shinichi Kuriyama of Tohoku University. Dr. Kuriyama suggested that the Japanese are less likely than Americans to suffer from heart disease and stroke. This study is a bit more particular because of the large number of participants that were used for the study, 40,530.

Most of the studies that have been conducted to date regarding Green Tea have ended with conflicting results, even those studies conducted by the National Cancer Institute. Nonetheless, tea drinking is very common in Japanese culture so the research seems to refute criticisms of previous studies.

In America, those who drink Green Tea tend to be of a wealthier status and much more health conscious, where as in Japan, green tea is pretty much used in their staple diet. But there were a few factors that created certain results. The heavy tea drinkers in this Japanese study also tended to eat more vegetables and fruits which is a diet that reduces cardiovascular disease and cancer risks. Another major factor of the study that sets the Japanese apart from Americans, the Japanese are a lot less over weight than most Americans.

Women who drank five cups or Green Tea a day had a 31% lower risk of dying from cardiovascular disease in comparison to those women who drank one cup a day. Cardiovascular disease consists of heart disease and stroke, the number one killer for women in the U.S, as for the men the risk was reduced by 22%.

As mentioned, tea naturally contains antioxidants – it is a substance that keeps the (red & white) cells in your body healthy. There are more antioxidants in Green Tea than in black, there have been studies on animals that show that catechins (a type of antioxidant) seems to shrink cancerous tumors but not prevent them. Studies on humans have shown that tea can lower cholesterol and keep arteries clean.

The main problem with this study is it “points you in a direction” but is not totally conclusive in it's findings. The study itself seemed to have a few loop holes. From the 40,530 participants that took part in the study over the seven years, 1134 participants did die of cancer and 892 died from cardiovascular disease. This is really not too surprising since a major requirement for entry onto the study was being diagnosed with cancer or cardiovascular disease, or at least having the possibility of getting either.

About the Author:

http://www.CarlHampton.com http://www.fcdtcm.com

Diabetes is a disease in which the body either lacks insulin or does not produce enough insulin to breakdown ingested glucose into cells. As a result, the glucose remains in the blood and causes damage to blood vessels. A high content of glucose in the blood is called hyperglycemia and is often a precursor to having heart attacks and strokes. People who have diabetes have twice as much chance of having a heart attack and/or stroke as those without this condition.

In addition to diabetes itself being a risk factor for heart attacks and strokes, there are other risk factors that people with diabetes should be aware of in order to reduce the risk factor of having a heart attack and/or stroke. This includes central obesity; studies by the American Heart Association have indicated that while obesity by itself is a risk for a heart attack, carrying excess weight around the waist increases the risk of having a heart attack. This is believed to be due to abdominal fat increases bad cholesterol more than fat on other areas of the body.

Speaking of cholesterol, those with diabetes should carefully monitor their cholesterol carefully. Because their blood vessels could already be weakened by the excessive glucose in the blood level, their arteries could become blocked even easier than those without diabetes. Monitoring cholesterol is important for everyone, but imperative for those with diabetes.

Hypertension is also a dangerous condition for those with diabetes and could lead to heart attacks or strokes. Damaged blood vessels having to work harder to pump blood from your heart throughout your body could cause heart damage, stroke, and eye problems.

Clearly, those who have diabetes must not only, carefully monitor the disease, but be aware of the complications that can rise from diabetes. While it is important for everyone to check their blood pressure, cholesterol and maintain an ideal weight, on a regular basis it is even more important for someone who has diabetes and most doctors will ensure regular checks are made.

In order to reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke for people with diabetes, it is important, first of all, to manage the disease. By eating proper foods, exercising and taking your medication, you can maintain a good glucose level in your blood that will reduce your risk of heart attacks and strokes. Also by monitoring your cholesterol and blood pressure and seeing your physician on a regular basis, you can stop any potential problems before the onset of such.

Type II diabetes is reaching epidemic proportions in the United States as well as most developed regions of the western world. It does not have to be a killer. By empowering yourself to learn all you can about managing diabetes and complying with the instructions of your physician, you can live an active and long life with diabetes and have an excellent chance at reducing the risk of acquiring any of the complications associated with this disease. Knowledge and facing the situation is the key. Those who refuse to follow advice, who prefer to eat whatever they feel like, do not exercise and pretend that the disease does not exist put themselves at risk.

Alison McKenzie
http://www.alison-mckenzie-online.com
http://www.alison-mckenzie-online.com/blog