Free Republic

Graham Miles, 66, said that through sheer willpower he regained the use of his body after he was left completely paralysed except for his eyes by a stroke in the stem of the brain which connects it to the body. His recovery is such that he can now walk, talk and even races cars. But while it has amazed doctors and his family and friends, it has also reopened the debate about assisted suicides and the assumption that completely paralysed patients can never recover. Mr Miles, a father-of-two, believes he overcame the devastating condition by tapping into the "extra capacity"...

S. T. R. STROKE IDENTIFICATION: During a BBQ, a woman stumbled and took a little fall - she assured everyone that she was fine (they offered to call paramedics) ..she said she had just tripped over a brick because of her new shoes. They got her cleaned up and got her a new plate of food. While she appeared a bit shaken up, Jane went about enjoying herself the rest of the evening Jane's husband called later telling everyone that his wife had been taken to the hospital - (at 6:00 PM Jane passed away.) She had suffered a stroke...

When Alain Reyes’s hair suddenly fell out in a freakish band circling his head, he was not the only one worried about his health. His co-workers at a shipping company avoided him, and his boss sent him home, fearing he had a contagious disease. Only later would Mr. Reyes learn what had caused him so much physical and emotional grief: he had received a radiation overdose during a test for a stroke at a hospital in Glendale, Calif. Other patients getting the procedure, called a CT brain perfusion scan, were being overdosed, too — 37 of them just up the...

Talk about surviving by a whisker. The most common type of stroke can be completely prevented in rats by stimulating a single whisker, according to a new study by UC Irvine researchers. Strokes are the No. 3 cause of death in the U.S., after heart disease and cancer. About 795,000 Americans suffer them annually, according to the American Heart Association, and more than 137,000 die as a result. So should we be tickling our own whiskers? And what about women, who are less likely to have facial hair? While it’s too soon to tell if the findings will translate to...

/begin my excerpts Kim Jong-il Losing his Marbles Lee Yong-soo 2010.07.07 Watching the same performance again in less than two weeks Ordering the rebuilding of a theater still in good shape N. Korea leader Kim Jong-il continues to show signs which put his judgment in doubt, for example, ordering the rebuilding of a theater still in good shape Quoting a source in China, Radio Free Asia (RFA) based on U.S. reported, "National Theater located in Joong-gu District of Pyongyang was torn down in last May and now being rebuilt. Citizens of Pyongyang have trouble understanding why the building which underwent...

Kim Jong-il Lights Up Again North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has apparently taken up smoking again after kicking the habit following a massive stroke in August 2008, South Korean government sources say. An ashtray sits at Kim's right hand in a Korean Central News Agency photograph showing the dictator at a football stadium in North Pyongan Province on Saturday. "If a stroke patient smokes again, the chances of a relapse increase," said one neurologist. And for diabetics like Kim "smoking can cause heart disease by damaging blood vessels," he added. Kim apparently underwent heart surgery around May 2007. In this...

A patient, believed to be having a stroke, says an officer with the Chattanooga Police Department blocked her husband from taking her to the emergency room at Erlanger Wednesday night. Aline Wright is a cancer survivor, amputee and a newlywed. Wednesday night she began to show signs she was having a stroke. "I started feeling some left arm numbness and a facial droop," said Aline. "It appeared to me that I was probably having a stroke." That's when her husband of four days, Jesse Wright, put her in the car and rushed her to the Erlanger Medical Center. Wright knows...

Johns Hopkins researchers discover pathway in mice for epicatechin's apparent protective effectResearchers at Johns Hopkins have discovered that a compound in dark chocolate may protect the brain after a stroke by increasing cellular signals already known to shield nerve cells from damage. Ninety minutes after feeding mice a single modest dose of epicatechin, a compound found naturally in dark chocolate, the scientists induced an ischemic stroke by essentially cutting off blood supply to the animals' brains. They found that the animals that had preventively ingested the epicatechin suffered significantly less brain damage than the ones that had not been given...

A Bakersfield police officer who handcuffed and detained a local neonatal surgeon moments after the doctor suffered a massive stroke has left the police department after she was investigated for making a false crime report in a separate case. The revelation could have implications for a multimillion dollar lawsuit against several taxpayer-funded agencies filed after the 2007 incident -- during which hospital care for Dr. Mohamad Harb was apparently delayed for more than an hour. Former BPD Officer Claudia Payne no longer works for the police department, Sgt. Mary DeGeare confirmed Friday. "Officer Payne resigned on March 1, 2010," DeGeare...

Eat less saturated fat: that has been the take-home message from the U.S. government for the past 30 years. But while Americans have dutifully reduced the percentage of daily calories from saturated fat since 1970, the obesity rate during that time has more than doubled, diabetes has tripled, and heart disease is still the country’s biggest killer. Now a spate of new research, including a meta-analysis of nearly two dozen studies, suggests a reason why: investigators may have picked the wrong culprit. Processed carbohydrates, which many Americans eat today in place of fat, may increase the risk of obesity, diabetes...

I just took Mrs. 2ndDivisionVet (Barbara) to the hospital. She'd been having trouble speaking, slurring words and now numbness in one hand. The CAT scan says she may have had a small stroke and they're keeping her a few days for observation.

STROKE HAPPENS. To you. To those you love. Know the signs. Act fast. A stroke happens when a part of the brain dies from lack of blood, usually because one of the arteries that supply oxygen-carrying blood to the brain has been damaged. There are two ways this can happen: Clogged vessel or ischemic stroke: Caused by blockage of a blood vessel in the brain, usually by a blood clot or by fatty deposits on the vessel wall. 85% of strokes are ischemic. Burst vessel or hemorrhagic stroke: Caused by a ruptured blood vessel, preventing normal flow and allowing blood...

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – American country music performer Charlie Daniel, whose hit "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" won him a Grammy in 1979, is recovering at home after suffering a mild stroke, his agent said. Daniels, 73, was snowmobiling in Colorado on Friday when he suffered the stroke and was released from hospital two days later. He has no plans to cancel any upcoming concert dates. "Charlie is doing well and looking forward to beginning The Charlie Daniels Band 2010 concert dates on February 27th in Ft. Pierce, Florida and February 28th in Brooksville, Florida," his agent said in...

Fiddle player extraordiare Charlie Daniels, most famous for his song "The Devil Went Down to Georgia", suffered a stroke Friday Jan 15th while snowmobiling in Durango Colorado. The news was announced yesterday via his blog www.charliedanielssoapbox.com. Mr. Daniels was treated in Durango, then airlifted approx. 230 miles to Denver for further treatment. Although the stroke was caused by a blood clot to the brain, it was considered a "minor" stroke ... Charlie has started physical therapy and is reportedly doing fine. Daniels, 73, was snowmobiling with friends when he noticed numbness in his left hand ... According to Charlie Daniels:...

(snip) The day was magnificent. The snow was smooth and deep and the trail had just been groomed. We were skimming across the snow at a good clip doing one of my favorite things in the whole world, snowmobiling in the beautiful Rocky Mountain backcountry with our snowmobile buddies Cy and Jeannie Scarborough and some other friends, hitting the high spots and just having a wonderful time. I noticed that my left hand was getting numb and thought that it was because I had been hanging on to the handle bars of my snowmobile for so long that it had...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Blocking the function of an enzyme in the brain with a specific kind of vitamin E can prevent nerve cells from dying after a stroke, new research suggests. In a study using mouse brain cells, scientists found that the tocotrienol form of vitamin E, an alternative to the popular drugstore supplement, stopped the enzyme from releasing fatty acids that eventually kill neurons. The Ohio State University researchers have been studying how this form of vitamin E protects the brain in animal and cell models for a decade, and intend to pursue tests of its potential to both...

Many strokes cannot be explained by known risk factors like high blood pressure and smoking, and scientists have speculated that infection could play a role. A new study is linking cumulative exposure to five common pathogens with an increased risk for stroke. The infections in order of significance are Chlamydia pneumoniae, Helicobacter pylori, cytomegalovirus and herpes simplex viruses 1 and 2, according to the study, published online on Nov. 9 in The Archives of Neurology. “Each of these common pathogens may persist after an acute infection and contribute to perpetuating a state of chronic low-level infection,” said the paper’s lead...

After World War II, the U.S. government invested an enormous amount of money in medicine; medical research, medical procedures and medical technologies. This investment made contemporary scientific medicine into American medicine, characterized by a continuing flow of new treatment possibilities. These advances raised all kinds of ethical questions. Some were personal and individual, others were social and political. Both type questions are addressed by a new academic discipline called bioethics. The first attempt to develop a scientific medicine took place in Greece in the 5th century B.C. It was called Hippocratic medicine. Closely linked with this first scientific medicine was...

Asking for prayers for my 77 y/o Mother-in-law, who had a stroke Sunday morning. She holds down two part-time jobs for the Church, which she will probably now lose due to her condition and the need for extended rehab.

/begin my excerpts N. Korea's Kim Jong-il, Irascible and Hallucinating(S. Korean Think Tank Head) (Seoul = Yonhap News) Kim Sung-jin = Due to complications from the stroke suffered August last year, N. Korean leader Kim Jong-il reportedly 'tends to be irascible and have trouble accepting negative reports,' according to Nam Sung-wook, the director of the Institute for National Security Strategy. He said, "During the first half of this year, Kim Jong-il's health is believe to be stable in general but he shows some idiosyncratic symptoms which are believed to be complications from his stroke." The comments are from excerpts of...