Never give up and keep taking action to maximize your chances of recovery.
Not sure what you need to do? Call us on 0203 053 0111 or email support@arni.uk.com We have trainers throughout the country who can help you.
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#strokerecoveryexercises #neurorehabilitation #strokerehabilitation #neuroplasticity #strokerecovery #exerciseafterstroke #strokeexercise #NeuroRehab
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There's an exercise in The Successful Stroke Survivor book by Tom Balchin called In n’ out brushes.
This technique is fantastic for tackling ‘circumduction’; which is when your affected foot sways out to the side in a curving fashion, in order to allow you to walk whilst coping with footdrop.. As a practical exercise it’s great. It gets you to focus on foot positioning and stability. You will be surprised at your ability to do this, however close to starting to walk more fluidly you are.
Find out more in The Successful Stroke Survivor book by Tom Balchin.
If you like this post then please share it with others. Each time that you share a post, you can directly help other people – as who knows which people in the world might find us and gain, either directly from the charity or simply by being able to copy an ‘innovative and useful’ move/trick of the trade that might help them manage after stroke.
Every time you share, you could directly help someone – as knowledge is power ;)
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#strokerecovery #neuroplasticity #strokerehabilitation #neurorehab #strokesurvivors #strokesurvivorscan #strokerehab #arnistrokerehab #exerciseafterstroke #strokerecoveryexercises #walkingafterstroke #neurorehabilitation
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Ever heard of spatial neglect after stroke? 🧠👁️ Have you had it or got it yourself? If you've had a stroke on the right side of the brain, you may have this problem, where the brain ignores everything on your left side.
Your eyes will work fine, but your brain stops attending to one side. You may miss food on the left of the plate (like in the picture), walk into door frames, read only the right half of a page, or not see a car coming from the left at a crossing. It's really dangerous, and it tends to make for a slower recovery, which is why finding it early does make a real difference.
A big problem is that the usual bedside tests miss a lot of it. Someone can pass a pen-and-paper test and still neglect their left side in real life. So researchers at the University of Lucerne and Lucerne Cantonal Hospital, led by Professor Thomas Nyffeler and Dr Brigitte Kaufmann, have been trying eye-tracking instead.
In eye tracing, you look at photographs of everyday scenes, and the eye-tracker logs where your gaze went. Someone with neglect, however, looks only at the right side of the image and leaves the left almost untouched. The team measured healthy people aged 20 to 89 to work out what normal looks like at every age, giving clinicians benchmarks to compare against, and when they tested the method, it flagged over 95% of healthy people correctly.
For survivors, the appeal is obvous - as clinicians can pick up subtle neglect they'd otherwise miss. There's no speaking involved, so it works whatever your first language, and even if your speech has been affected. It's quick. And you can do it again and again, so a therapist can see whether your neglect is improving as rehab goes on.
ARNI Stroke Rehab & Recovery says: neglect often goes unnoticed, so if clinicians can pick it up sooner by using something like this (and keep checking it through rehab), that would be rather useful....
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#ARNIStrokeRehab #SpatialNeglect #StrokeRecovery #StrokeRehabilitation #StrokeResearch
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Imagine a tiny magnetic thread steering itself through the brain's blood vessels to clear a stroke - science fiction, right?! But amazingly, it's being built right now... 🧠🧲, A team from MIT, through a spinout called Magnendo is developing a robotic (pictured) arm that could change how severe strokes are treated.
As ou know, when a large clot blocks a major artery in the brain, the treatment is a thrombectomy, threading a guidewire up through the blood vessels to pull the clot out. The hard part is the journey; the brain's vessels are narrow, winding and very tricky to navigate, and doing it by hand takes real skill andprecious time.
Magnendo's answer is a soft, hair-thin guidewire with tiny magnetic particles built into its tip. Instead of being pushed and twisted by hand, it's steered from outside the body by a robot-controlled magnet, following the magnetic field around the sharpest bends.
And, in lab and animal testing it reached hard-to-reach spots in the brain faster and more safely than a hand-controlled wire, and it made experienced and less-experienced operators perform more alike. The team has now been backed to develop it further, with the eventual aim of the system navigating largely on its own, guided by imaging and AI.
So what could this mean for us? I: think first; speed, as very minute a major artery is blocked, brain tissue is lost, so anything that gets the clot out faster means less damage and better recovery. Second, access; thrombectomy is one of the most effective treatments in all of stroke medicine, but right now it's only available at a handful of specialist centres, because it needs a highly trained expert. A robot that can do the tricky navigation could one day bring this treatment to far more hospitals, so that where you happen to live can be negated...
This is early-stage and years from your local hospital, so it's not something to expect tomorrow. But the direction is hopeful; faster, safer clot removal, available in more places, for more people. Sounds good to us at ARNI Stroke Rehab & Recovery - what's your view? Please let us know in the comments below!
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#ARNIStrokeRehab #Thrombectomy #StrokeTreatment
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What sources can you look at to get started with your recovery? Well, you could start by have a read of Had a Stroke? Now What? to get you started. I’ve done my best in 244 pages of the neurorehabilitation evidence-base, over 25 years of experience as a survivor and help from the numerous worldwide experts in stroke I’m lucky enough to be supported by/linked with, to provide you with the best picture of ‘what to try/do/what perhaps to avoid’. This book gives lots of indicators concerning the evidence applicable for your situation right now. It also shows lots more paths (many via the 3rd Sector like ARNI, concerning how you can ask people out there to send you links/clips/sites to help you get more acquainted in the importance of the evidence.
www.strokesolutions.co.uk/product/had-a-stroke-now-what-book/ #neurorehabilitation #strokerehab #exerciseafterstroke #strokerecoveryexercises #neuroplasticity #strokerecovery #strokeexercise
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Sometimes with stroke rehab you need to 'think outside the box' and modify exercises to make them achievable. Here's a way you can modify the 'downward facing dog' e#strokerecoveryn#StrokeRehabr#strokeexerciser#NeuroRehabt#neuroplasticityu#arnistrokeu#arnistrokecharitys#strokerehabilitationi#ARNIstrokerehablitation #arnistrokerehab
Downaward Facing Dog used in Stroke rehabilitation
Using Downward Facing Dog modifications to treat upper extremity he...
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You know there’s a problem, you want to change, and you’re ready to work hard – now you need a road map. This is where having a good ARNI Trainer can help you set realistic goals; helping you know where you’re going and how to get there. You’ll receive instructions, exercises, or activities to help you improve.
Call us on 0203 053 0111, or email support@arni.uk.com to find out if there's a trainer near you who can help you.
www.arni.co.uk
#arnistrokerehab #neuroplasticity #strokerehab #strokeexercise #strokerecovery #neurorehab #strokerehabilitation #neurorehabilitation #strokerecoveryexercises #exerciseafterstroke #ARNIstrokerehab
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Have you ever noticed your stroke-affected walking gets worse the moment you have to think about something else? 🧠🚶 Well, this is called dual-task interference, and it's one of the reasons why so many survivors stumble when they're walking and talking, or crossing a busy road while working out where they're going.
So, most of the time you're walking, your mind is on something else too, and after a stroke that's when falls most tend to happen. Training really helps, obviously, to negate this. In fact, looking at the latest Neurorehabilitation and Neural Repair journal online, researchers at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University have just published a study in Neurorehabilitation and Neural Repair on it. They had chronic stroke survivors walk on flat ground and step over obstacles while doing mental tasks like recalling a shopping list or counting backwards in threes.
The harder the mental task, the more the walking suffered, and the worst results came with tasks done 'in your head', like subtraction. Their conclusion was that a one-size-fits-all assessment misses this, and survivors need their own specific weaknesses identified so training can target them. It's actually really obvious if you think about it!
A 2015 ARNI RCT found an eight-week dual-task programme cut falls by 25% and injurious falls by 22% against the control group, and further reviews show dual-task training improves walking speed, stride length, balance and attention. So practise the way real life works: pair your walking with a mental task, naming animals, counting backwards or holding a shopping list in your head as you go.
ARNI Stroke Rehab & Recovery says: falls are one of the biggest threats to independence after stroke, and dual-task training targets them directly. The ARNI Instructors and I build this think-and-move practice straight into our rehab 'menu-book', because walking well on a treadmill is useless if it falls apart out in the real world with its unpredictableness.... do you agree? ;)
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#ARNIStrokeRehab #StrokeRecovery #FallsPrevention #DualTask #StrokeRehabilitation
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Balance and gait are essential components of functional movement, yet balance and mobility problems are among the most frequent and disabling effects of stroke, with 7 in 8 strokes affecting those over 44 years of age.
Balance (both standing and walking) training is the only effective treatment for balance disorders, as recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) UK.
The evidence shows that training balance and gait during stroke rehabilitation is crucial for improving mobility, reducing the risk of falls, enhancing quality of life, promoting brain plasticity, and preventing secondary complications.
We have trainers throughout the country who can help you with your recovery. Call us on 0203 053 0111 or email support@arni.uk.com to find out if there's one near you.
www.arni.c#strokerecoveryexercisesc#StrokeRehabr#neuroplasticityi#neurorehabilitationa#strokeexerciser#strokerehabilitationa#NeuroRehabr#exerciseafterstroket#strokerecoveryovery
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A study being completed by Tom Oliani as part of his doctorate in Clinical Psychology at the University of Sheffield concerns well-being after stroke. 
One Comment
I am 71, female, and had a stroke 17yrs ago. I lay on the floor for 28hrs, then an indeterminate time on the ambulance, going through A/E, then into a bed, when I awoke my daughter asked me something, I answered her, and she told me later she didn’t understand a word I said. I stayed in hospital for 3 weeks, not getting much better, then I went to my sister-in-law, who was a nurse. I had, and paid for, a Physio, OT, speech therapist, and by the time I left, 5weeks, I could walkabout 4/5 feet, then collapsing, my speech went up from 25% to about 70%. I tried to put my feet on the stairs, and I remember thinking I’d never walk up stairs again. I next went to Wolfson, and they were brilliant, I stayed for the full 3mnths, and at the end of that, I could walk about 25ft, I did art, they taught me to cook a bit, to iron, etc. When I was taken for walks by my physio for 6 weeks,she asked me what I would do and I said Art, and could I do Pilates – she said “oh no” and I said to myself “You wait”. The following g day I went and signed up for Art & Pilates! I broke my arm a year later, was taken by ambulance to Kingston again, and the radiographer said “you’ve broken your arm before” and the only time I might have broken was when I had a Stroke! I was showed how to go up an escalator. I went on to do Pilates twice a week for 13yrs, I went to INS once a week, while there I stood up in front of St George’s students and told them about my journey, and told them about my broken arm, so that they could think about it, and remember it! Then I moved here to Lynwood Village, and have a pool, and I tried to swim on my back with our trainer, and I did it, I couldn’t believe it – so when it’s open, I swim for an hour three times a week! I do Art, I used to go to the cinema and to see the theatre there, the real theatre, we have outings, I do sewing up of the squares to make blankets, do things here and just enjoy everything! I have always lived on my own, once the children have flown, been seeing them, and going to Denmark to see one daughter & family, been on a cruise, been to fly to Barbados. And I am one handed, my left hand which I had to learn to write again, and my right leg is a little iffy, but I just soldier on, and I enjoy everything, for 17yrs!!! My children tell me I’m dogged, I think I’m just cantankerous!!!