Integritus Prime

Last week in our Beyond Medicine: Lifestyle Demons series, we discussed brain damage due to a stroke. Before we get into the damage, I want to focus on three important functions of the brain. The brain has many functions and controls a large number of activities in the body. The 3 broad ones I want to focus on here are:

• Motor functions (control of body movements),
• Interpretations of sensations (such as touch, pain, taste, temperature, smell, and sight), and
• Learning (including memory, understanding, language).

The brain gives us very specific interpretations of each stimuli and then initiates and controls the appropriate action to take.

What happens in stroke or cerebro-vascular accidents (CVA) is that blood vessels or arteries supplying blood to the brain become blocked or burst due to weakening and/or hardening. This leads to brain cell damage, which shows up as weakness or paralysis of one side of the body. Depending on where in the brain an artery is damaged, the brain function affected reflects in the body. At times, only a limb may be affected, while other times the face, voice, swallowing or the whole of one side may be paralyzed.

A stroke is usually one of the main complications of lifestyle risk factors such as Hypertension (HTN), Type 2 Diabetes (T2D), high blood cholesterol and/or smoking, as we discussed earlier. Previously, we discussed how to prevent CVA from happening; however, here we want to focus on how to manage stroke. One important fact we have to remember is that the body has great powers of healing, if the mind believes it’s possible.  

When a person is at risk of developing stroke, that is, they have risk factors mentioned above, then we need to be alert to the signs and symptoms of stroke, which may include difficulty in understanding, slurred speech, weakness or tingling of one side of the body, difficulty walking, double vision or sudden severe headache. When these symptoms occur, the person has to be seen by a medical professional as soon as possible to prevent stroke from happening and/or decrease the risks leading to CVA. Once the acute problems are stabilized, the road to recovery starts where patients are trained to manage activities of daily living, such as walking, bathing, dressing and eating with minimal support. This helps with independence, self esteem, mood and quality of life and reduces dependence on care-givers. 

Long-term active management of CVA is important. It is never too late to change lifestyle. By practicing the following healthy lifestyle habits, a healthy and productive life can be led:

Lifestyle changes include:

1. Eating more whole food plant-based meals to keep cholesterol levels in check.
2. Maintaining a healthy weight using diet and exercise.
3. Quitting smoking or avoiding inhaling second-hand smoke.
4. Taking medications regularly if they are needed to control HTN, T2D, cholesterol or thinning the blood to break the clot.
5. Having regular checkups with health workers to ensure good general and mental health as well as keeping blood test results normal.
6. Receiving physical therapy regularly to exercise the limb that is weak or paralyzed.
7. Avoiding abuse of alcohol and other recreational drugs which interfere with therapy.

In other words, we must ensure that all lifestyle risk factors are controlled, hence giving the brain and body a fair chance to heal. Having a stroke is not the end of the road: remember the physical body has great powers of healing; the mind has to believe this!

Share with me what your lifestyle demons are and how you are coping, via email: Margaret@alchemusprime.com.