Free Republic

More Benefits of Dark Chocolate Discovered Date Published: Wednesday, November 15th, 2006 Researchers at Johns Hopkins have found that eating even small quantities of high-quality dark chocolate every day can greatly lower your risk of stroke and heart attack. According to the report, the chemicals in dark chocolate help to reduce the speed of blood clotting by limiting the clumping of blood platelets. Dr. Diane Becker reported the findings this week in Chicago at the annual American Heart Association meeting.The study was initially designed to test the effects of aspirin on blood clotting, but too many of BeckerÂ’s subjects had...

Vital Signs Emergency room doctors trying to figure out the best way to treat someone who has just had a stroke would be able to follow a more informed course of action if they had an M.R.I. scan of the patient?s brain, a new study finds. For about a decade, doctors have been able to turn to drugs known as clot busters, which can significantly improve the outcome for people whose strokes are caused by a blockage in a blood vessel. The problem is that many strokes involve bleeding in the brain, not clotting, and the clot busters can be...

Recent successful tests of neural prosthetics bring the devices closer to widespread use. Paralyzed patients dream of the day when they can once again move their limbs. That dream is making its way to becoming a reality, thanks to a neural implant created by John Donoghue and colleagues at Brown University and Cyberkinetics Neurotechnology Systems. In 2004, Matthew Nagle, who is paralyzed due to a spinal-cord injury, became the first person to test the device, which translated his brain activity into action (see "Implanting Hope," March 2005, and "Brain Chips Give Paralyzed Patients New Powers"). Nagle's experience with the prosthetic...

Women Consider How to Interpret Health Study Results October 01, 2006 As results emerge from one of the largest women's health studies ever undertaken, women are trying to sort out how to apply the findings to their own lives. With more than 160,000 participants, the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) tracked postmenopausal women for seven to 12 years looking at, among other things, the value of menopausal hormone therapy, a low-fat diet, and calcium and vitamin D supplements. UCLA participated in the study under the direction of Howard Judd, M.D., now professor emeritus of obstetrics/gynecology. Some of the still-emerging results have...

Talk to Sen. Ted Kennedy Thu Sep 28, 1:51 PM ET This was a last-minute addition to the Talk to Power schedule, so the time for questions and comments is shorter than usual. Sen. Kennedy will be fielding your comments over the next 24 hours and responding, via an interview with host Judy Woodruff, on Friday morning. Thanks in advance to Yahoo! users for your thoughts, and to Sen. Kennedy for agreeing to participate. The question of immigration and immigration reform is likely to loom large in this forum, as it has with previous Talk to Power guests. Sen. Kennedy,...

Newswise — University of Florida researchers have shown ordinary human brain cells may share the prized qualities of self-renewal and adaptability normally associated with stem cells. Writing in an upcoming edition of Development, scientists from UF’s McKnight Brain Institute describe how they used mature human brain cells taken from epilepsy patients to generate new brain tissue in mice. Furthermore, they can coax these pedestrian human cells to produce large amounts of new brain cells in culture, with one cell theoretically able to begin a cycle of cell division that does not stop until the cells number about 10 to the...

Urgently requesting prayers from my fellow FReepers for my mother. I just received a call that they think she had a stroke this morning, she is only 58.Freepers who know about strokes and treatments, please write. I know you all are the best and can provide me with the best advice and information.Am traveling to Iowa so not sure when I will be able to post again.Please keep my mom and my family in your prayers! Thank you

A woman spoke of her distress yesterday at emerging from a stroke to find that her Geordie accent had been transformed into a Jamaican one. Linda Walker, 60, is one of only 50 people to have been recorded as suffering from foreign accent syndrome. She is now helping researchers from Newcastle University in the hope that they can find a cure for future sufferers. The condition occurs when patients wake up after a brain injury. In Mrs Walker's case it appeared as she regained consciousness from a stroke in March. She failed to realise the extent of the transformation of...

Brain can be made to self-repairTriggering stem-cell growth could help brain recover after a stroke.Stimulating a protein on the surface of the brain's stem cells helps rats recover after a stroke, US researchers have found. The discovery suggests that in humans it could be possible to provoke the body's own stem cells into repairing an injury, rather than laboriously growing and transplanting new cells.  Researchers believe that many of the body's tissues harbour stem cells capable of dividing to make new tissue. But some of these are recalcitrant and do not naturally divide to repair damage wreaked by severe injuries...

LOS ANGELES (AP) A publicist for Aaron Spelling says the pioneering television producer has died at age 83.

HALLE, Germany, May 16 (UPI) -- German scientists have reported synthesizing a compound that dramatically decreases damage to neurons in rats demonstrating stroke symptoms. Stroke is the third-leading cause of death in the United States and the most common cause of adult disability. An ischemic stroke occurs when a cerebral vessel occludes, obstructing blood flow to a portion of the brain. There is only one approved stroke therapy -- tissue plasminogen activator, which targets the thrombus within the blood vessel. Because of the lack of available stroke treatments, neuroprotective agents have also generated as much interest as thrombolytic therapies. The...

Really? THE FACTS Most people can spot the telltale signs of a heart attack. But a stroke? Studies show that stroke victims sometimes fail to realize that they have suffered an attack or to seek medical help until crucial hours later. Minor strokes are sometimes dismissed as migraines or fatigue. So when an e-mail message claiming that anyone can diagnose a stroke in three simple steps surfaced recently, it was tantalizing. It claims that an untrained bystander can tell whether people have suffered a stroke by asking them to smile, raise both arms slowly and recite a simple sentence. A...

Two new studies suggest that use of cells derived from bone marrow, as well as a seaweed-derived product called hydrogel, may prompt stem cells to repair nerve damage caused by stroke or spinal cord injury. Both studies were expected to be presented Friday at the American Academy of Neurology annual meeting, in San Diego. In one study, researchers at the Medical College of Georgia, Augusta, examined bone marrow-derived multi-potent progenitor cells, which have the ability to develop into different kinds of cells, including nervous system cells. Both human and rat bone marrow cells were transplanted into rats with induced strokes....

Researchers say they've lessened the effects of stroke in rats by transplanting stem cells into the rodents' brains. The treatment also seemed to help rats fight a condition similar to human cerebral palsy.  There's no indication yet that the treatment will work in humans, and the lead researcher cautioned that the strategy is no "magic bullet." However, tests in people could begin as early as next year, said Cesario V. Borlongan, an associate professor of neurology at the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta. Will not be a total cure The treatment is "not something that will totally cure stroke...

Patients who underwent a minimally invasive procedure to reduce their risk of a stroke by clearing plaque from neck arteries had unexpected gains in memory and mental skills, according to a study that will be presented today at a medical conference in Toronto. If the results are confirmed by other trials, wider use of the procedure may allow many elderly people to continue to live independently, said Dr. Rodney Raabe, the radiologist who led the research team at the Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane, Wash. The procedure is known as carotid stenting and has been recently developed as an...

PHOENIX — Twins Hall of Famer Kirby Puckett is expected to be removed from life support tonight, according to two people with knowledge of Puckett’s condition. Puckett suffered a massive stroke Sunday morning at his home in Scottsdale, Ariz., and underwent surgery. He has been transferred to St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix. Family members assembled at the hospital Monday to make the decision on life support. The people with knowledge of Puckett’s condition said he was expected to be removed from the life support sometime Monday. "Tough day," former Twins manager Tom Kelly said today at the...

SHENZHEN, China, March 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Shenzhen Beike Biotechnology Co., Ltd. has announced the successful treatment with umbilical cord stem cells of the youngest stroke patient ever to undergo such a procedure. The announcement was made following a two-month evaluation period by physicians in her native country, Hungary, to verify the positive results. Starting from October 28th, Beike provided umbilical cord stem cells to the Nanshan People's Hospital for the treatment of a four-month-old Hungarian baby girl named Timea Gresco, who had suffered a stroke when she was delivered three months prematurely. Umbilical cord stem cells were delivered intravenously over...

Substance levels point to high blood pressure (ANSA) - Genoa, February 24 - The kidney can give important signs of the dangers of a heart attack or stroke, Genoa University researchers say . Until now, a slight increase in the secretion of a substance called albumin - similar to albumen or egg white - was considered normal, the researchers say . But such a rise is now believed to be a danger sign or 'red flag' showing that these patients have dangerously high blood pressure and are thus at greater risk of heart attacks, the Genoa team says . By...

AP MEDICAL WRITER KISSIMMEE, Fla. -- Women who have higher natural estrogen levels also may have a higher risk of stroke - a novel finding that suggests a possible new way to prevent this deadly disease, doctors reported Friday. More study is needed to confirm these results, but they fit with much of what is already known about hormones, said several experts who were not connected with the new work. "This is really interesting," said Dr. JoAnn Manson, a women's health researcher and chief of preventive medicine at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. "These findings would be consistent...

AP MEDICAL WRITER KISSIMMEE, Fla. -- Like pouring Drano directly on a clog, doctors dramatically improved stroke survival by dripping a clot-dissolving drug right onto a blockage choking off the brain's blood supply. Many patients given this experimental treatment had stunning recoveries within a day, often without the speech loss and paralysis that can follow a stroke, doctors reported Thursday. A second study found that people given the treatment were 65 percent more likely to be able to walk, talk and function normally three months after their strokes than those given standard care. "We're very encouraged by these results," said...