How to Retain the Brain After a Stroke

The death rate from stroke declined 29.7 percent from 1995 to 2005, according to the American Heart Association. Today, there are roughly 6,500,000 stroke survivors living in the United States. For these individuals, retaining their pre-stroke brain functioning is a top priority.

Instructions

• 1

  Seek immediate medical attention. There is a saying among doctors, that time is brain. In other words, immediate medical attention is required in order to minimize the damage of a stroke and thus retain as much of the pre-stroke brain functioning as possible.

  According to an article published in the Journal of Cerebrovascular Diseases, early therapies have proven the most effective. This includes thrombolysis therapy issued within the first 3 hour following a stroke and neuroprotective drugs, which must be administered early in order to be effective. Ideally, this treatment will begin prior to your arrival at the hospital and continue in the emergency room and in the stroke unit.

• 2

  Try recreational therapy. A recreational therapist works to integrate stroke survivors back into their communities. This can include taking the patient to museums and libraries, as well as organizing parties and engaging in conversations with the patient. According to Richard C. Senelick, author of the book, Living With Stroke: A Guide for Families, recreational therapy can improve your problem solving skills, relaxation, independence, mood, confidence, and other skills critical to recovery.

• 3

  Try Constraint-Induced Therapy (CIT). Most survivors compensate for the skills that they lost as a result of the stroke. For example, if strength in their right arm is lost, they use their left arm more often than they did prior to the stroke. CIT focuses on three principles: constraint (avoid compensation), forced use (require use of the impaired skill), and massed practice (require the constraint and forced use every day and all day.

  CPT is adaptable in that you can use these principles to address whatever skills were lost as a result of the stroke. For example, if you are having language problems, resist the urge to gesture, draw, or write down the words you want to speak and instead force yourself to speak throughout the day.

• 4

  Maintain a positive outlook during therapy. A 2007 study published in the British Journal of Psychiatry suggests that depression may play a role in whether or not the brain improves following a stroke. The study found that individuals who take antidepressants following a stoke show significantly more improvement in cognitive functioning than their counterparts. The author of the study cautions, however, that the gains may be attributed to the antidepressants and not whether or not the individual was depressed prior to taking them.