Health Nexus Today / Nexus Santé aujourd’hui

From Science Daily

Surprising Rate Of Recurring Heart Attacks, Strokes Globally

Despite many medicines and other treatments for patients with vascular disease, a large international study shows these patients have a surprisingly high rate of recurring events such as strokes, heart attacks and hospitalizations as well as mortality.  (read more)

Psychosocial Therapy With Antidepressants More Effective In Helping Depressed Stroke Patients

Psychosocial therapy combined with medication can effectively improve depression and recovery in stroke patients, according to a new study reported in Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association. (read more)

Simple Test May Identify Stroke Survivors At Risk Of Another Cardiovascular Event

Measuring circulation in the ankle using a device similar to a blood pressure cuff can help identify asymptomatic peripheral artery disease (PAD) in stroke and transient ischemic attack (TIA) survivors, a group at much higher risk of subsequent cerebrovascular events, according to a study in Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association. (read more)

Feelings Of Hopelessness Linked To Stroke Risk In Healthy Women

Healthy middle-aged women with feelings of hopelessness appear to experience thickening of the neck arteries, which can be a precursor to stroke, according to new research out of the University of Minnesota Medical School. (read more)

Beta-blockers And Stroke: New Insights Into Their Use For Older People

A University of Leicester-led study may have uncovered the reason why Beta-blockers are less effective at preventing stroke in older people with high blood pressure, when compared to other drugs for high blood pressure. (read more)

Smokeless Tobacco Increases Risk Of Heart Attack And Stroke, Research Finds

People who use smokeless tobacco products like snus have a slightly higher risk of having a fatal heart attack or stroke, according to research published on bmj.com. (read more)

New Technique Prevents Major Cause For Heart-related Stroke

Physicians at The Mount Sinai Medical Center were the first in the country to perform a non-surgical procedure using sutures to tie off a left atrial appendage (LAA), which is the source of blood clots leading to stroke in patients with atrial fibrillation (AFib). AFib is the most common sustained heart-rhythm disorder in the United States. (read more)

Stroke Doubles Patients’ Risk Of Hip Or Thigh Fracture

Stroke survivors have about twice the risk of breaking a hip or femur compared to those without stroke — and the risk is even greater for younger patients, women and those with recent strokes, Dutch researchers report in Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association. (read more)

Hip fracture risk doubles after stroke - http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2009/08/06/stroke-fractures.html?ref=rss

From BBC News

‘Shock’ over stroke death rates

Stroke death rates are three times higher in the poorest areas of England and Wales, a study has shown. The audit of death figures found there were 29 deaths per 100,000 men under 65 each year in the poorest areas compared with just eight in the wealthiest. (read more)

Stroke victim uses chart to speak

A woman who is “locked in” her paralysed body after a massive stroke has developed a way of communicating with her family.

She has the rare Locked-in Syndrome and her body is completely paralysed, but she can still see, hear and think.  Miss Wheatley has a colour-coded alphabet chart to talk to partner Rick Blease and Ryan, four, and Holly, one.

The system has been developed in Stepping Hill Hospital, where Michelle has been staying since the stroke. (read more)

• Cardiovascular risk after ischemic attack predicted by ultrasound
• High Blood Pressure May Lead To ‘Silent’ Strokes
• Factors That Increase Death In Stroke Patients Ages 15 To 49 identified
• Improving Impaired Attention May Help Patients Recover From Stroke
• Heart failure: Women different than men
• Poorest at risk of worst diabetes
• Heart risks ‘missed in smokers’

• Even just one healthy lifestyle change can lower your risk of heart disease
• Estrogen Can Reduce Stroke Damage By Inactivating Protein
• Risk factors of cardiovascular disease rising in poor, young
• Risk factors for cardiovascular disease increasing in younger Canadians
• Previous Exercise Helps Stroke Patients Recover Faster, Researchers Find
• Preemies born in poverty 4 times less likely ready for school
• Stroke: One Disease, Two Effects
• Annual Costs Of Stroke In US Children At Least $42 Million
• Lower IQ ‘a heart disease risk’
• Make mental-health care more accessible: Ontario minister
• Best Heart Disease And Stroke Treatments For Patients With Diabetes Found With New Tool
• CPAP Treatment Linked To Lower Mortality In Stroke Patients With OSA
• Finnish study identifies factors that increase death in stroke patients ages 15 to 49
• Some stroke survivors’ function slowly declines over time

From theglobeandmail.com

Janel Nadeau was lazily watching TV with a friend on a warm summer’s night when she got up to go to the bathroom.

As soon as the 19-year-old old stood, she collapsed to the ground. Her right side was paralyzed and, as she tried to speak, a nonsensical jumble of words tumbled out.

Deep in Ms. Nadeau’s brain, a blood vessel had exploded; she was suffering a life-threatening hemorrhagic stroke.

Fortuitously, her friend called 911 and Ms. Nadeau was rushed immediately to the stroke unit at Foothills Hospital in Calgary.

The stroke was in 2001, but Ms. Nadeau is still there – not because her treatment went badly, but because it went amazingly well.   (read more)

Dear community partners,

Health Nexus is delighted to invite you to a free, interactive webinar to celebrate Stroke Awareness Month:

Connecting the Dots: what we’ve learned…where we’re going

June 29, 2009
1:00 to 2:15 pm

If you work in stroke, chronic disease prevention, or health promotion in general, please join us to learn about:

• exciting new ways of working in collaboration, using a model that works!
• lessons learned about community engagement
• new network analysis and development tools to help us track and support community-based networks
• a newly launched e-resource to help us work together differently – across sectors

Connecting the Dots (CTD)

The webinar will focus on the highly successful model of community engagement known as ‘Connecting the Dots’ (CTD). Developed by Health Nexus in 2004, CTD has engaged nearly 1000 community stakeholders in 15 Ontario communities. CTD brings together participants from different sectors and helps them “work together differently” for greater impact.

New CTD handbook launched

At this webinar we will launch our new Connecting the Dots handbook, that community groups and organizations can use to work across sectors to leverage their joint potential to prevent chronic disease in their communities.

Exciting new tools

We’ll also be sharing some new work on network analysis and development that we have begun in the last year. This takes the idea of CTD to a new level with great possibilities. Through this technology, communities and groups will be able to craft deliberate interventions to enhance their networks.

Register early at http://www.healthnexus.ca/events/CTD/registration.html. Once you register, you will receive details on how to access the webinar.

We look forward to your participation on June 29th.

Prevent Stroke Team @ Health Nexus

Most of the materials from the South Asian Connecting The Dots event on March 4 are now available on our website. Further materials are still to come, so stay tuned.

Here’s the link:

http://www.healthnexus.ca/events/stroke/webcov.html

Health Nexus has been involved in the planning of a 12-Module course on Health Promotion and Stroke as part of a 6-module, certificate program for professionals working in stroke care across Ontario. The diploma is offered through The Chang School at Ryerson University.

A lot of our Hub and Prevent Stroke work is in this course, which will be taught as a ‘hybrid’ model, with a mix of online learning and 4 videoconferenced sessions using the Ontario Telemedicine Network on the following dates:
Week 1- April 14
Week 3 April 28
Week 6- May 19
Week 12- June 30.

Our class list includes mostly nurses, one nurse-health promoter and two physios from 6 locations: Sault Ste Marie, Sudbury, London, Barrie, Lakeridge (Oshawa) and Sunnybrook. It will be fun to meet them on the videoconference tonight. It is hoped that the course will be offered again in the fall with a wider range of stroke care professionals.

This will be an exciting way to get some experience with new technologies for online learning.

From Science Daily

Young and healthy African-American men have higher central blood pressure and their blood vessels are stiffer compared to their white counterparts, signs that the African American men are developing hypertension early and with little outward sign, according to a new study. While the study found that central blood pressure — the pressure in the aorta, near the heart — was higher in the African-American men, the study found no difference in brachial blood pressure — measured on the arm — between the two groups.

Taken together, the findings suggest that hypertension (high blood pressure) may be developing undetected in young African-American men and that measuring central blood pressure may be a better means of detecting the problem as it develops.     (Read More)

From BBC News

Most women are ignorant of small lifestyle changes that would “dramatically reduce” the risk of strokes, the Stroke Association says.

The charity has survey evidence that shows 60% of women do not remember their last blood pressure reading.

Two-thirds do not know what an optimal blood pressure reading should be. Two surveys were conducted by GFK NOP among 1,000 people aged over 16.

Stroke is the most common cause of long-term disability, it says.

Women are twice as likely to die from it as men, it added.

And it points out that a third of stroke survivors have some sort of communication difficulty. (Read more)

From Science Daily

Scientists have shown for the first time that neuroprosthetic brain implants may be able to help stroke patients with partial paralysis.

Researchers found that implants known as brain-computer interfaces (BCI) may be able to detect activity on one side of the brain that is linked to hand and arm movements on the same side of the body. They hope to use these signals to guide motorized assistance mechanisms that restore mobility in partially paralyzed limbs. (read more)