JOHNS HOPKINS Advice to avoid Stroke It’s clear that strokes are a major cause of disability and death throughout the world. But many of the prime risk factors for stroke are within your power to change. A large international study published in the Lancet underscored how far prevention efforts could go. Collecting data from stroke patients and healthy individuals in 22 countries, it found that 10 largely modifiable risk factors account for 90 percent of the risk of stroke worldwide. Here are the Big 10:
Medical testing prior to joint replacement surgery includes blood and urine tests to determine whether you are anemic, have a health issue or need medical treatments prior to surgery. Xrays and MRIs are used to help the surgeon determine the extent of joint damage, the possibility of fractured bones or cysts (holes in the bones) resulting from arthritis. Here is a short video I took at Dartmouth Hitchcock showing the sorts of Xrays needed prior to surgery. You will see the “frog” pose used to determine the space in the joint. I asked the friendly Xray tech how many Xrays are safe to have per year and how she stayed safe from xrays.
I always thought laughing was good for the heart. Whether it is a sign of contentment or it can help create it is a topic for study at least by some. A recent BBC health article reports that depression increases the risk of heart trouble and that “optimistic” people suffer less frequently from heart attacks and stroke. You don’t need to tell me. My dear talented Mother who always calls herself an optimist is a survivor, and a nice person to live with too. It may be a good idea to watch a funny movie sometimes just to feel better. Laughter improves blood flow whereas depression narrows and stresses blood vessels.
Black tea or green tea with caffeine can reduce tummy fat and lower blood pressure. Studies have shown, “Regular consumption of black tea — which is rich in flavonoids — significantly reduced blood pressure, a randomized, placebo-controlled trial showed.” Drinking three cups each day for six months lowered both diastolic and systolic blood pressure by 2 to 3 mm Hg (P≤0.05), according to Jonathan Hodgson, PhD, of the University of Western Australia in Perth, and colleagues. Even those small changes could have a large impact on health at the population level, they reported in a research letter in Archives of Internal Medicine. Those differences would be associated with a 10% reduction in the prevalence of hypertension and a 7% to 10% decrease in the risk of cardiovascular disease, they said. Hodgson and colleagues conducted a randomized trial that included 95 men and women ages 35 to 75 (mean age 56 for men and 57 for women) who were regular tea drinkers.
A compound found in oranges, grapefruit, and other citrus fruit may modestly reduce stroke risk among women, an observational study determined. Women with the highest levels of flavanone in their diet were 19% less likely to have an ischemic stroke during 14 years of follow-up. Flavanones are one of six types of commonly consumed flavonoids, which various studies have linked individually to different benefits — hypertension risk reduction with anthocyanins, lower stroke risk in some studies of flavonols — but never looked at all simultaneously. A recent study broke down food frequency data from nearly 70,000 women participating in the Nurses’ Health Study for total flavonoid intake and for each component. With dietary reports every four years over a total 14 years of follow-up, the researchers found big variations in total flavonoid intake, ranging from an average 761 mg per day in the top quintile to 97 mg per day in the bottom quintile. Tea was the biggest contributor to those levels, followed by apples and oranges or orange juice.
It is coming–Beijing fog–You may think it is just a bad-air day in Seattle or Los Angeles. Do your eyes water? Do you cough or feel short of breath? It is creeping, choking, and killing people as it comes. How can you avoid asthma, heart trouble, stroke, and depression resulting from heavy atmospheric pollution? Do you need more convincing evidence? Here are articles describing the problem. My answer is a natural approach using Asian herbs from your supermarket that are available online. Often what we need most for survival grows in our own backyard or is an everyday pleasure such as tea.
This inexpensive dried culinary fungus (a form of mushroom) is called tree ear, cloud ear, and black fungus sold in Chinese supermarkets in plastic bags or online. It is a natural blood-thinner that reduces harmful cholesterol and protects blood vessel elasticity. If you have ever had Chinese hot and sour soup you have eaten this crunchy cooking ingredient. See the previous article on PAD. Peripheral Arterial Disease a common circulation problem in which the arteries that carry blood to the legs or arms become narrowed or clogged. The most common cause of PAD is atherosclerosis, often called “hardening of the arteries” a gradual process in which cholesterol and scar tissue build up, forming plaque that clogs the blood vessels. . Soak and cook (black fungus, cloud ear, tree ear) in soup, pasta, or oatmeal. This natural blood-thinner can help prevent heart trouble and stroke. Its action has been compared to warfarin (Coumadin) a drug used to inhibit the synthesis of clotting factors, thus preventing blood clot formation–without side-effects.
Many people live with leg cramp pain or tingling and assume it is from aging rather than report it to their doctor. Peripheral arterial disease PAD, clogged or narrow arteries in the arms or legs, points to increased risk of heart attack and stroke. Has your doctor ever taken your blood pressure in the arm and the ankle? It is a direct measure of fatty plaque buildup in leg arteries and an indirect gauge of plaque accumulations throughout the entire cardiovascular system. Because atherosclerosis is systemic, women developing plaque in their legs are likely to have plaque building up in the carotid arteries, which can lead to stroke, or the coronary arteries, which can lead to heart attack. Early detection of PAD is important because these women are at significantly increased risk, and preventive measures can be taken. PAD symptoms are often ignored. They include leg, buttocks, or foot pain from walking that stops when you rest, leg cramps, cold feet, numbness, tingling, skin discoloration (legs that turn reddish purple when dangling or white, bluish toes), muscle loss in the calves, or sores on the legs and feet that heal slowly and turn dark. Sometimes there are no symptoms. Find (tree ear, cloud ear, wood ear fungi) a Chinese cooking ingredient and natural cholesterol-lowering remedy in a separate article.
Reuters) – “A pioneering clinical trial to inject stem cells into the brains of patients disabled by stroke has been cleared to progress to the next stage after the treatment raised no safety concerns in the first three candidates”. . . The procedure involves injecting ReNeuron’s neural stem cells into patients’ brains in the hope they will repair areas damaged by stroke, thereby improving both mental and physical function. It uses stem cells derived from human fetuses rather than embryos, which were used in a stem cell trial to treat patients with spinal cord injuries by Geron Corp of the United States. Why haven’t they heard of the successful treatments in Beijing at Wujing General teaching Hospital using a patient’s own stem cells to treat damage resulting from stroke? Why haven’t they seen articles on that procedure posted at this very website? In 2012 Stanford is backing what they consider to be the first Ph.D. program in stem cell treatments. They should visit Beijing where doctors have autologous stem cell treatments down to a science.
With rising costs of health care and American medical research hampered by political and other restrictions, some patients are turning to China and a hospital that has pioneered stem cell transplant treatments. Wujing General Hospital for Chinese Peoples Armed Police Forces was founded in Beijing in 1949. Located adjacent to the Olympic Basketball Stadium and forty minutes from the airport, it is one of China’s high level government and military hospitals featuring integrated healthcare services with fifty-five clinical departments and two hundred medical experts. It promotes scientific research, medical treatments, and education as a top medical center. Sinostemcells.com is the website name of the Department of Stem Cell transplantation at Wujing General Hospital. The department formed in 2003 is one of the first stem cell clinics in the world. Since then they have treated more than 2500 patients for various diseases. The website has research articles on treatments done at the hospital for cerebral palsy, spinal injury, Parkinson’s, brain injury, stroke, diabetes and others. Medical consultations are encouraged and offered online.
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