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Week of Feb. 19, 2005; Vol. 167, No. 8 , p. 126 Stroke patients show dearth of vitamin D Nathan Seppa From New Orleans, at a meeting of the American Stroke Association Having a stroke puts elderly people at an increased risk of breaking a hip. Scientists have assumed that a major reason is that an impaired sense of balance from a stroke leads to more falls. They've also observed a loss of bone density in the first few months after a stroke, possibly from reduced mobility during this phase of recovery. Researchers now report that people recovering from a...

By The Associated Press A drug that keeps hemophiliacs from bleeding to death could also prove to be the first effective treatment for the most lethal and crippling type of stroke, the kind caused by a burst blood vessel in the brain, researchers are reporting today. In an international study, the researchers said, stroke victims given the drug - recombinant activated factor VIIa, a clot-forming drug sold as NovoSeven - were one-third less likely to die and three times as likely to survive without severe disability. But Dr. Stephan A. Mayer, a stroke specialist at Columbia University Medical Center who...

A Glimpse Ahead Timothy Snodgrass The Impossible Will Come Alive In 2005 01/28/05 In January of 2004, as we began to intercede for the New Year the Holy Spirit gave us the prophetic slogan, "The Seas will Roar in 2004". This year we were given a new slogan, "The Impossible will come Alive in 2005". As the veil of darkness begins to come down over nations and regions, along with great shakings will come great breakthroughs; signs, wonders, healings and a spectacular release of miracles in impossible circumstances. This year, although we are ultimately poised to gain much ground, there...

Yahoo! News - Few Getting Quality Stroke Care By MARILYNN MARCHIONE, AP Medical Writer NEW ORLEANS - Ten years ago, a crucial study proved that a drug could limit the damage from one of nature's biggest train wrecks: a blood clot stuck inside the head. The drug, TPA, was so powerful at dissolving blockages threatening to destroy regions of the brain that the first patient to get it, a 67-year-old man, regained the ability to walk and talk half an hour after it started flowing through his veins. "The nurses at the bedside started crying. It was very dramatic,"...

President George W. Bush apparently is using a LifeVest wearable defibrillator. This would mean he is at risk of sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) or sudden cardiac death (SCD). The LiveVest is a wearable version of "the paddles" you have seen in emergency room scenes on TV. He started using it sometime after his January 2002 fainting spell, which was attributed to choking. Photos of Mr. Bush and the device seem to show that this is the mysterious bulge seen on his back in the debates. The first graphic is a back view showing the two large electrodes that are equivalent...

BURBANK, Calif. Dec 30, 2004 — "American Bandstand" icon Dick Clark plans to watch his New Year's Eve show from the hospital bed where he is recovering from a stroke. Clark, 75, suffered what was described as a mild stroke and has been hospitalized since Dec. 6. Regis Philbin is filling in for America's oldest teenager on ABC-TV's "Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve 2005" on Friday. "Even though I won't be in New York this year, I will be watching 'New Year's Rockin' Eve' on TV and there's one tradition I intend to maintain," Clark said in a statement...

Non Embryonic Stem Cell Treatment Allows Paralysed Brazilian To Walk, Talk Again RIO DE JANEIRO, November 23, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Brazilian scientists have successfully transplanted adult stem cells into a woman's brain, facilitating her recovery from a brain hemorrhage that left her paralysed and unable to talk. Maria da Graca Pomeceno, 54, had bone marrow stem cells taken from her pelvis and injected into her damaged brain. Local television broadcasts showed her walking up stairs and talking. Hans Fernando Dohmann, director of Rio's Pro-Cardiaco Hospital, said that hers was the first reported successful treatment of this condition, but that trials...

High blood pressure and other ills also improved by operation. Obesity surgery helps patients do more than shed weight — it often cures their diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol, researchers say. The research — an analysis of 136 studies — found that such operations are more than cosmetic. They appear to alter the patient’s body chemistry itself and eliminate or relieve conditions that can lead to heart attacks, strokes and kidney failure. The analysis was funded by a Johnson & Johnson Co. subsidiary that develops and markets surgical instruments, including staplers for obesity surgery. But the results echo...

Democratic Party dismay has been mounting since Kerry ____ (fill in the blank with your favorite of any of a dozen things). Stoked by a constant barrage of well documented inconvenient facts coming out about Kerry's background and the ever-increasing popularity of President Bush and Vice President Cheney, the heated arguments between the Kerry campaign and the DNC leadership increase. Add in, too, the rousing success of the GOP convention and it appears we can stick a fork in the Democratic Party now because that goose is just about fully cooked. Another good barometer, of course, is the mania displayed...

SADDAM'S 'STROKE' Jul 28 2004 Ex-dictator's lawyer says he had brain scan and could die Exclusive By Gary Jones In Amman, Jordan SADDAM Hussein has suffered a minor stroke and could die before his trial, his defence lawyers claim. The multinational legal team is still awaiting permission to visit the deposed Iraqi ruler. A letter demanding their doctor be given access to the former dictator was yesterday sent by Jordanian lawyer Mohammed al-Rashdan to Salem Chalebi, the head of the Iraqi prosecuting authorities. Mr al-Rashdan said: "Our information is that he's in very poor health. We understand from the International...

More than 20 million Americans take aspirin regularly to help prevent heart attacks and strokes. But new evidence suggests that for many of them, the pills do little if any good. Recent studies have found that anywhere from 5 percent to more than 40 percent of aspirin users are "nonresponsive" or "resistant" to the medicine. That means that aspirin does not inhibit their blood from clotting, as it is supposed to. "They are taking it for stroke and heart attack prevention, and it's not going to work," said Dr. Daniel I. Simon, the associate director of interventional cardiology at Brigham...

CHICAGO, July 6 (Reuters) - Soy protein, a supplement many doctors recommend as a substitute for hormone therapy for postmenopausal women, did not decrease bone loss or affect other symptoms in a study of Dutch women, researchers reported Tuesday. Naturally occurring compounds called isoflavones, which are found in soybeans, are thought to mimic estrogen compounds in hormone therapy. Some women want to avoid hormone therapy because recent studies have indicated that long-term use could raise the risk of stroke, dementia and some forms of cancer. In the new study, which followed 175 Dutch women for a year, half the participants...

FRIDAY, June 25 (HealthDayNews) -- Stroke patients left with impaired arm movement for an average of nine years made impressive gains after undergoing a new kind of physiotherapy, researchers report. What's more, the therapy, called bilateral repetitive rhythmic training intervention (BATRAC), appears to work by re-wiring the brain's motor control circuitry. "This is the first study to prove that BATRAC therapy also has a neuroscience basis," said German researcher Dr. Andreas R. Luft, of the University of Tubingen. "Being able to observe changes in brain biology that account for treatment effects brings BATRAC therapy out of the shade of non-scientific...

A widower has begun a campaign to raise awareness of Beauty Parlour Stroke Syndrome following the death of his wife at 51. Malcolm Crabb said his wife Pamela became ill and was diagnosed as having had a mini-stroke after a visit to the hairdressers, during which she was shampooed over a washbasin. The rare syndrome has been linked to the prolonged distortion of the neck during shampoos. Mr Crabb, 49, an estate agent, from Poole, Dorset, married his wife in April 2000. However in September that year Mrs Crabb visited the hairdressers where she became ill after stretching her neck...

Alzheimer's disease can seem unrelentingly grim. There is no cure, no known way to prevent the illness, and the benefits of current treatments are modest at best. But in laboratories around the country, scientists are uncovering clues that may eventually — perhaps even in the next two decades — allow them to prevent, slow or even reverse the ruthless progression of the illness. "Things are more hopeful than perhaps people think," Dr. Karen Duff of the Nathan Kline Institute of New York University said. "We are on the cusp of having something really useful." That hope comes on the heels...

<p>DALLAS (AP) — Hotheaded men who explode with anger seem to be at greater risk of having a stroke, research shows. Their risk is even greater than that of men who are simply stressed-out Type A personalities.</p> <p>Angry women, on the other hand, don't run as high a risk of having a stroke or heart problems, said a study released yesterday in the American Heart Association journal Circulation.</p>

ATLANTA - U.S. infant mortality has climbed for the first time in more than four decades, in part because older women are putting off motherhood and then having multiple babies via fertility drugs, the government said Wednesday. At the same time, U.S. life expectancy reached an all-time high of 77.4 years in 2002, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. Life expectancy in 2001 was 77.2 years. The nation's infant mortality rate climbed from 6.8 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2001 to 7.0 deaths per 1,000 in 2002. The last time the rate rose was in 1958. "We...

Test Shows Device Can Arrest Damage by Removing Blood Clots From Victims An experimental device that works like a miniature corkscrew can halt often-devastating strokes by gently pulling blood clots from the brains of victims in the throes of an attack, researchers reported yesterday. In the largest test of the new technique, doctors extracted blockages in dozens of patients around the country who otherwise would have probably died or suffered serious brain damage. In some cases, the procedure immediately restored their ability to move and talk, the researchers said. Although the approach requires much more testing and perhaps refinement, a...

<p>Mayor Ron Gonzales abruptly left the stage in the middle of his State of the City speech Wednesday night.</p> <p>According to council members, the mayor stumbled as he approached the podium for his speech.</p> <p>When the lights went down for a taped speech, he reportedly leaned on the lectern, took off his glasses, slumped and then walked off the stage. He was nauseated and perspiring profusely.</p>

<p>With the closing of Pinstripes Sports Cafe on Dec. 24, some other bar owners in the city are concerned that they will be next.</p> <p>Pinstripes closed as a direct result of the state public places smoking ban, according to Frank Bokoff, who said he was a spokesman for F and J Management, the group that owned and operated the bar and grill.</p>