Stroke Awareness Foundation Blog

  Aspirin makes the blood cells (called platelets) less sticky, so they don’t clump together, form a clot, or stick to the walls of arteries, making them narrow.  While aspirin alone can’t prevent strokes, it may be an important part of your medical treatment.  Do not start taking aspirin daily without first checking with your doctor.  Although most strokes are caused by a clot, some studies suggest that people who take aspirin regularly may be a slightly greater risk of having a stroke caused by bleeding (hemorrhagic stroke).  Medications can be an important part of your treatment plan, they do not take the place of healthy eating, regualr physical activity, and stress managment.

Stroke accounts for almost 10% of deaths worldwide, claiming more lives than HIV/AIDS.  The residual impairment after a stroke can be a devastating reduction in function and capability, and seriously affects many people’s abilities to live and work independently. For people whose lives have been changed by stroke, the Internet can be a valuable tool.  It can be a source of information and support, an essential link with the outside world.   But it can also be home to dishonest business or provide false hopes and therapies to desperate people with promises of wonder cures.  Some web sites offer products and procedures that are not approved by the Federal Drug Administration.  (FDA).   Desperate for hope and cures, some of the 6 million U.S. stroke survivors are reaching for unproven and sometimes unsafe treatments. With few options available at home in America, some are searching the Internet for experimental treatments and often land on web sites promoting treatments overseas at a price tag between $25,000 and $35,000.   Western doctors warn that patients are serving as guinea pigs in countries that are not doing the rigorous lab and human test that are needed to prove some treatments are safe and effective. 

Desperate for hope and cures, some of the 6 million U.S. stroke survivors are reaching for unproven and sometimes unsafe treatments. With few options available at home in America, some are searching the internet for experimental treatments and often land on web sites promoting treatments overseas at a price tag between $25,000 and $35,000.

Western doctors warn that patients are serving as guinea pigs in countries that are not doing the rigorous lab and human test that are needed to prove some treatments are safe and effective.

It is a myth that stroke occurs only in elderly adults.  In actuality, stroke strikes all age groups, from fetuses still in the womb to centenarians. It is true, however, that older people have a higher risk for stroke than the general population and that the rise for stroke increases with age.  For every decade after the age of 55, the risk of stroke doubles, and two-thirds of all strokes occur in people over 65 years old.  People over 65 also have a seven-fold greater risk of dying from stroke than the general population.  And the incidence of stroke is increasing proportionately with the increase in the elderly population.  When the baby boomers move into the over-65 age group, stroke and other disease will take on even greater significance in the health care field.

There is still a widely held belief among physicians that very little recovery can occur beyond the first six or 12 months after a stroke.  However science results presented at the American Stroke Association’s 2010 International Stroke Conference show that high-intensity, repetitive rehabilitation exercises can help stroke survivors significantly improve functioning in their paralyzed arm and in their quality of life even years after their disabling event.