• Therapy for communication disorders can help you regain lost abilities in speaking, listening, writing and comprehension.
• Strengthening motor skills involves using exercises to help improve your muscle strength and coordination.
• Mobility training may include learning to use walking aids, such as braces, walkers or canes, to support part of your body’s weight while you relearn how to walk.
• Range of motion therapy uses exercises and other treatments to help lessen muscle tension (spasticity) and regain range of motion.
• Psychological therapy may involve antidepressant medications, counseling with a mental health professional and participation in support groups.
• Constraint-induced therapy, also known as “forced-use” therapy, involves restricting use of an unaffected limb while you practice moving the affected limb. Forcing you to use the affected arm or leg can help improve its function.
• Electrical stimulation involves using electricity to stimulate weakened muscles, causing them to contract. This may help with muscle re-education in some individuals.

• Age. The risk of stroke increases with age.
• Race. African Americans, Native Americans, and Alaskan Natives have a higher risk than those of other races.
• Gender. Stroke is more common in men than women until age 75, when more women than men have strokes. Because women live longer than men, more women than men die of stroke.
• Family history. The risk for stroke is greater if a parent, brother, or sister has had a stroke or transient ischemic attack (TIA). For more information, see the topic Transient Ischemic Attack (TIA).
• History of stroke or TIA.

Of all of the heat-related problems that could occur, heatstroke is the most dangerous. Heat stroke is often the result of exercising or heavy work, which takes place in hot places where the person has an inadequate fluid intake.

To suffer from a heatstroke, you do not have to be older.  Young children, older adults, people who are obese and people born with an impaired ability to sweat are at high risk of heatstroke.  Some more important risk factors include dehydration, alcohol use, cardiovascular disease and certain medications.

Since heatstroke can occur at any time to anyone, there are symptoms you should be able to identify:

• Rapid heartbeat
• Rapid and shallow breathing
• Elevated or lowered blood pressure
• Cessation of sweating
• Irritability, confusion or unconsciousness
• Feeling dizzy or lightheaded
• Headache
• Nausea
• Fainting, which may be the first sign in older adults

To read more about heatstroke visit: http://mayoclinic.com/health/first-aid-heatstroke/FA00019

Do not think that strokes only affect humans.  Your pet could suffer from a stroke as well.  To get your prepared, I have compiled a list of stroke symptoms that could give you a hint that your canine is having a stroke.  Dog Stroke symptoms are different from human stroke symptoms and occur suddenly. Dog stroke symptoms vary based on the location of the stroke.

 Some Dog stroke symptoms include:

• * tilting the head to the side
• * walking in a circle
• * turning the wrong way when called
• * eating out of only one side of the food bowl
• * loss of balance
• * lethargy/acting tired
• * loss of bladder and bowel control
• * blindness
• * sudden behavioral changes

If you want to read more about pet strokes visit: http://www.dog-health-guide.org/caninestrokesymptoms.html

• What time did your symptoms start?
• What is your complete medical history?
• Have you ever had a stroke? Have you ever had bleeding inside of your brain?
• What medications and supplements do you take on a regular basis?
• Do you suffer from a bleeding disorder?

By answering these questions, you will be able to help doctors select the best treatment for you.

Many people are unaware, but there are things you yourself can do to reduce the occurrence of a stroke.  Strokes are one of the most preventable neurological disorders.  Many of the strokes that happen place could have been prevented if people had taken certain precautions.  Some of these include not smoking and controlling weight, blood pressure, and cholesterol levels.  These precautions you can take just prove once again how important it is to stay healthy throughout your life.   Being healthy and eating the right foods can prevent other diseases as well as strokes. 

I am sure if people who have suffered from strokes knew that by following some guidelines they could have prevented it, they would have lived their lives very differently.  There is no way of knowing whether or not you will suffer from a stroke, and it is for this reason that you should live healthy no matter what.  Strokes are scary and have a big effect on the person who has suffered from it as well as everyone close to them.  Do yourself and your loved ones a favor and try to be healthy and prevent diseases that occur due to unhealthy habits.

While many of the symptoms of a stroke are similar for men and women, there are unique symptoms that are only prevalent in women.  It is important to be aware of these because you do not want to know only the common symptoms that apply to both men and women.  If you do that, then you may be unaware that you are having a stroke if the symptoms common in only women appear.  Some of the symptoms unique in women include face and limb pain, hiccups, weakness, palpitations, nausea and shortness of breath.

Just as there are unique symptoms for women when they are having a stroke, there are also unique symptoms for men that do not apply to women.  As I said before, you should know the unique symptoms for men as well as the common symptoms that both men and women experience.  Some of the stroke symptoms that pertain only to men are disorientation, confusion, or loss of consciousness, according to a new study.  Whether you are male or female, make sure you know the unique stroke symptoms of both sexes so that you are better able to determine whether or not you or someone you know is having a stroke.

• Sudden numbness, paralysis, or weakness in your face, arm, or leg, especially on only one side of your body.
• New problems with walking or balance.
• Sudden vision changes.
• Drooling or slurred speech.
• New problems speaking or understanding simple statements, or feeling confused.
• A sudden, severe headache that is different from past headaches.

Symptoms vary depending of the type of stroke, and the symptoms listed are just general symptoms.  Symptoms can change, however, depending on the extent of brain damage.

There are certain types of strokes.  One of them is a thrombotic Stroke.  A thrombotic stoke is a stroke that is caused by a thrombus, or blood clot, that develops in the arteries that supply the blood to the brain.  Older people who have high cholesterol and antherosclerosis, which is when there is a buildup of fat and lipids inside the walls of your blood vessels, are usually the types of people who suffer from a thrombotic stroke.

The symptoms of a thrombotic strokes can either occur suddenly or gradually over hours or days.  This is known as a stroke-in-evolution.  When someone is going through a thrombotic stroke, treatment must be given within three hours after the stroke symptoms begin.  The medication needed is tissue plasminogen activator, or t-PA.  It is given through an IV.  This medication is crucial because is can dissolve blood clots and restore the blood flow to the brain.  People need this medication right away because they will have a less long-term disability following their stroke.

For more information on thrombotic strokes visit: http://heart-disease.health-cares.net/thrombotic-stroke.php  

Some people are confused about what exactly a stroke is.  A stroke, as defined by the World Health Organization, or WHO, is, “a neurological deficit of cerebrovascular cause that persists beyond 24 hours or is interrupted by death within 24 hours.”  In other words, a stroke is when you rapidly lose brain function due to lack of blood supply to the brain. 

The area of the brain that is unable to function causes you to lose the inability to move one or more limbs, makes you unable to understand or formulate speech, or you may lose vision.  Stokes may cause permanent neurological damage, complications, and death.  In the U.S. and Europe, strokes are the leading cause of adult disability.  Worldwide, strokes are the second most common cause of death.