Stroke information

STROKE IDENTIFICATION:
During a BBQ, a friend stumbled and took a little fall. She assured everyone that she was fine (They offered to call paramedics). She said she had just tripped over a brick because of her new shoes.
They got her cleaned up and got her a new plate of food. While she appeared a bit shaken up, Ingrid went about enjoying herself the rest of the evening.
Ingrid’s husband called later telling everyone that his wife had been taken to the hospital. At 6:00 pm Ingrid passed away. She had suffered a stroke at the BBQ.. Had they known how to identify the signs of a stroke, perhaps Ingrid would be with us today. Some don’t die. They end up in a helpless, hopeless condition instead.
It only takes a minute to read this…
A neurologist says that if he can get to a stroke victim within 3 hours he can totally reverse the effects of a stroke… totally . He said the trick was getting a stroke recognized, diagnosed, and then getting the patient medically cared for within 3 hours, which is tough.
RECOGNIZING A
Thank God for the sense to remember the ’3′ steps, STR . Read and Learn!
Sometimes symptoms of a stroke are difficult to identify. Unfortunately, the lack of awareness spells disaster. The stroke victim may suffer severe brain damage when people nearby fail to recognize the symptoms of a stroke.
Now doctors say a bystander can recognize a stroke by asking three simple questions:
S * Ask the individual to SMILE.
T * Ask the person to TALK and SPEAK A SIMPLE SENTENCE, coherently..
(i.e. It is sunny out today.)
R * Ask him or her to RAISE BOTH ARMS.
If he or she has trouble with ANY ONE of these tasks, call emergency number immediately and describe the symptoms to the dispatcher.
New Sign of a Stroke ——–Stick out Your Tongue
NOTE: Another ‘sign’ of a stroke is this: Ask the person to ‘stick’ out his tongue… If the tongue is ‘crooked’, if it goes to one side or the other,that is also an indication of a stroke.
A cardiologist says if everyone who gets this e-mail sends it to 10 people; you can bet that at least one life will be saved.

acts of kindness reduce risk of Alzheimer’s

Second Opinion Health Alert

                December 19, 2008

             
          Can this act of kindness  reduce your risk of Alzheimer‘s by 89%?
          The incidence of Alzheimer’s disease is increasing rapidly.  There still
is no satisfactory treatment. Even alternatives have little impact.  So
prevention is absolutely vital. Now, what if I told you it’s possible to
reduce your risk of getting Alzheimer’s disease by 89%? Would you be
interested?
          This treatment doesn’t cost anything. But it does require  some effort on
your part. No, it’s not exercise — though exercise does help
considerably. The treatment is quite simple. All you have to do is serve
others.
          Yep, that’s all there is to it. You see, There’s a lot of  research on
conscientiousness and longevity. Work going back into the early  1990s
strongly suggests a relationship. And now we’re seeing this research
applied to memory.
          In fact, this latest study shows that serving others not  only reduces
your risk of Alzheimer’s by a whopping 89%, but it also reduces  your risk
of mild cognitive decline, as well.
          This study followed 997 older Catholic nuns, priests, and  brothers
without dementia at the start of the study. The researchers evaluated  the
Catholics with a 12-item measure of conscientiousness. Then they followed
the participants for 12 years or until they died. The researchers
controlled  the subjects for other personality traits, activity patterns,
and vascular  conditions. Of course, they also controlled for age, sex,
and education.  Eighteen percent (176) of the patients developed
Alzheimer’s during the study.
          The authors found that those with the highest  conscientiousness scores
(90th percentile) had the lowest risk. And those with  the lowest scores
(10th percentile), had the highest risk.
          
            
          In those who died, the researchers did pathological  examinations of their
brains at autopsy. Conscientiousness had a measurable  modifying effect on
the development of neurofibrillary pathologic changes and  cerebral
infarction (stroke) before death. Neurofibrillary tangles are a
pathological hallmark of Alzheimer’s brains. This research strongly
suggests  that conscientiousness can markedly reduce very nasty anatomical
changes in  your brain while maintaining brain function.
          There are a lot of nutritional steps you can take to reduce  your risk of
dementia, but none of them can compare to these results. Does  serving
others really work this well? Consider Mother Teresa. She lived a very
productive life until she died at 87. Many people consider her one of the
most  conscientious people of all time.
          I know many seniors who volunteer their time in service  after they
retire. They seem happier, more active, and have a higher self  worth. I
also see many patients who are working well into their 80s with no
apparent decline at all. While my experience is observational only, I
strongly  believe there’s a significant benefit to your health when you
serve others.
          This research is a compelling reason to reach out to others  and help them
whenever possible. And now we know that serving others also  serves
ourselves. Many of us make a point of helping others during the  holidays.
That’s great. But this year, keep doing it throughout the year. It’s  a
great way to keep your brain healthy.
          Yours for better health and  medical freedom, 

FEMALE HEART ATTACKS

Subject: FEMALE HEART ATTACKS

 
 

  NURSE’S  HEART ATTACK EXPERIENCE

I  am an ER nurse and this is the best description of this event that I have ever  heard. Please read, pay attention, and send it on!

FEMALE  HEART ATTACKS

I  was aware that female heart attacks are different, but this is the best  description I’ve ever read.

Women  and heart attacks (Myocardial infarction). Did you know that women rarely have  the same dramatic symptoms that men have when experiencing heart attack ..

you  know, the sudden stabbing pain in the chest, the cold sweat, grabbing the  chest & dropping to the floor that we see in the movies. Here is the story  of one woman’s   experience  with a heart attack.

‘I  had a heart attack at about 10 :30 PM with NO prior exertion, NO prior  emotional trauma that one would suspect might have brought it on. I was  sitting all snugly & warm on a cold evening, with my purring cat in my  lap, reading an interesting story my friend had sent me, and actually  thinking, ‘A-A-h, this is the life, all cozy and warm in my soft, cushy Lazy  Boy with my feet propped up.

A  moment later, I felt that awful sensation of indigestion, when you’ve been in  a hurry and grabbed a bite of sandwich and washed it down with a dash of  water, and that hurried bite seems to feel like you’ve swallowed a golf ball  going down the esophagus in slow motion and it is most uncomfortable. You  realize you shouldn’t have gulped it down so fast and needed to chew it more  thoroughly and this time drink a glass of water to hasten its progress down to  the stomach. This was my initial sensation—the only trouble was   that  I hadn’t taken a bite of anything since about 5:00 p.m.

After  it seemed to subside, the next sensation was like little squeezing motions  that seemed to be racing up my SPINE   (hind-sight,  it was probably my aorta spasms), gaining speed as they continued racing up  and under my sternum (breast bone, where one presses rhythmically when  ministering CPR).

This  fascinating process continued on into my throat and branched out into both  jaws. ‘AHA!! NOW I stopped puzzling about what was happening — we all have  read and/or heard about pain in the jaws being one of the signals of an MI  happening, haven’t we? I said aloud to myself and the cat,   Dear  God, I think I’m having a heart attack!

I  lowered the foot rest dumping the cat from my lap, started to take a step and  fell on the floor instead. I thought to myself, If this is a heart attack, I  shouldn’t be walking into the next room where the phone is or anywhere else  … but, on the other hand, if I don’t, nobody will know that I need help, and  if I wait any longer I may not be able to get up in a moment.

I  pulled myself up with the arms of the chair, walked slowly into the next room  and dialed the Paramedics … I told her I thought I was having a heart attack  due to the pressure building under the sternum and radiating into my jaws. I  didn’t feel hysterical or afraid, just stating the facts. She said she   was  sending the Paramedics over immediately, asked if the front door was near to  me, and if so, to un-bolt the door and then lie down on the floor where they  could see me when they came in.

I  unlocked the door and then laid down on the floor as instructed and lost  consciousness, as I don’t remember the medics coming in, their examination,  lifting me onto a gurney or getting me into their ambulance, or hearing the  call they made to St. Jude ER on the way, but I did briefly awaken when we  arrived and saw that the radiologist was already there in his surgical blues  and cap, helping the medics pull my stretcher out of the ambulance. He was  bending over me asking questions (probably something like ‘Have you taken any  medications?’) but I couldn’t make my mind interpret what he was saying, or  form an answer, and nodded off again, not waking up until the Cardiologist and   partner had already threaded the teeny angiogram balloon up my femoral  artery into the aorta and into my   heart  where they installed 2 side by side stints to hold open my right coronary  artery.
‘I  know it sounds like all my thinking and actions at home must have taken at  least 20-30 minutes before calling the paramedics, but actually it took  perhaps 4-5 minutes before the call, and both the fire station and St. Jude  are only minutes away from my home, and my Cardiologist was already to go to  the OR in his scrubs and get going on restarting my heart (which had stopped  somewhere between my arrival and the procedure) and installing the stints.

‘Why  have I written all of this to you with so much detail? Because I want all of  you who are so important in my life to know what I learned first hand.’

1.  Be aware that something very different is happening in your body not the usual  men’s symptoms but inexplicable things happening (until my sternum and jaws  got into the act). It is said that many more women than men die of their first  (and last) MI because they didn’t know they were having one and commonly  mistake it as indigestion, take some Maalox or other anti-heartburn  preparation and go to bed, hoping they’ll feel better in the morning when they  wake up … which doesn’t happen. My female friends, your symptoms might not  be exactly like mine, so I advise you to call the Paramedics if ANYTHING is   unpleasantly  happening that you’ve not felt before.

It  is better to have a ‘false alarm’ visitation than to risk your life guessing  what it might be!

2.  Note that I said ‘Call the Paramedics.’ And if you can take an aspirin.  Ladies, TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE!   Do  NOT try to drive yourself to the ER – you are a hazard to others on the road.

Do  NOT have your panicked husband who will be speeding and looking anxiously at  what’s happening with you instead of the road.

Do  NOT call your doctor — he doesn’t know where you live and if it’s at night  you won’t reach him anyway, and if it’s daytime, his assistants (or answering  service) will tell you to call the Paramedics. He doesn’t carry the equipment  in his car that you need to be saved! The paramedics do, principally OXYGEN  that you need ASAP. Your Dr. will be notified later.

3.  Don’t assume it couldn’t be a heart attack because you have a normal  cholesterol count. Research has discovered that a   cholesterol  elevated reading is rarely the cause of an MI (unless it’s unbelievably high  and/or accompanied by high blood pressure). MIs are usually caused by  long-term stress and inflammation in the   body,  which dumps all sorts of deadly hormones into your system to sludge things up  in there.   Pain  in the jaw can wake you from a sound sleep.   Let’s  be careful and be aware. The more we know the better chance we could survive.

A  cardiologist says if everyone who gets this mail sends it to 10 people, you  can be sure that we’ll save at least one life.

**Please  be a true friend and send this article to all your friends (male & female)  you care about!**