A thorough study looking at over 3,000 people who were treated at Hospital del Mar found that living in a noisy area or being subjected to noise on a consistent basis for extended periods of time can increase the chances that someone will have a serious stroke.
This study found that noise pollution plays a role in both the severity and the long term consequences of a stroke. Both of these factors are more than 30 percent greater for those that live in noisy areas, such as busy cities. Additionally, those that live in quiet, country settings saw an actual decline in risk. Strokes were 25 percent less severe than the baseline for those folks that live out in greener portions of the world.
Researchers aren’t quite sure of what to make of this information yet. For one, it implies that things other than physical health factors play an influence on how the body reacts to a stroke. There are things that are external to us that influence our overall health, and it’s hard to understand just how that works. Things like noise don’t seem like they could play a role on the cardiovascular system, but somehow they do. Controlling for factors that we don’t quite understand is difficult, and there’s even a chance that they are not the true factors. These researchers did try to account for things like air pollution, socioeconomic status, and more, but it’s tough to account for these things in an accurate manner.
The bottom line is that there are still a lot of things that we don’t understand about the human body and senior health. We’ve made a lot of steps forward in recent years, but there’s still a long way to go.
We do know that recovering from a stroke can be an intensive process. Some people grapple with this their entire lives and never seem to make progress. Because each situation is different and because each individual has different hurdles that they need to get over while they are recovering, a customized approach to recovery is vital for it to be successful.
A customized, comprehensive approach to stroke recovery is important because it includes care beyond medical care and physical therapy. Senior care plays a large part in the success of any successful recovery, even if it doesn’t seem like it does. Study after study shows that care is more effective when providers work together and communicate with one another, and this goes for senior care, too. When all of the groups and doctors working with a loved one are on the same page, the care that they can each give is a bit better.
And the end result is that your elderly loved one lives a better life.
If you’re looking for this kind of approach to a loved one’s care, reach out to us. We have someone on call that can answer all of your questions and even help you to set up a free consultation to help you learn more about how in-home care fits in with the rest of your loved one’s health.
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