A new study from the University of Gothenburg indicates that physical activity after a stroke might be even more important than once thought.
Activity has long been known to be helpful. There’s a reason why physical therapy is one of the most widely prescribed courses of treatment in the stroke recovery process. Repetitive motions help to retrain the brain after a stroke. If body motion is compromised during a stroke because of damaged brain cells, there is often a way to relearn those motions. It can take time and be a quite difficult process, but the kinds of motions that physical therapy works through have been shown to aid in the after-stroke care process.
Physical therapy is important, but it’s not the only kind of activity that can be helpful post-stroke. The Gothenburg study indicates that people who spend four hours per week or more exercising after a stroke tend to have a better functional outcome than people that do not exercise at all.
And this makes sense. Exercise that is based on cardiovascular health has many of the same components as physical therapy–especially that repetitive motion. It’s also a lot more fun than PT, which can be a huge burden because of how it is structured. Exercise, when done right, has an element of play to it. It makes the painfulness of recovery a little bit easier to deal with.
Exercise has all sorts of health benefits when it comes to the brain, too. In fact, there’s research out there that indicates that regular endurance based exercise can help to prevent or slow the spread of dementia. It isn’t surprising that exercise can promote brain health here, too.
One of the shortcomings of this study and its line of thinking. Not all of those that are in stroke recovery are able to exercise with regularity right away. Four hours per week is a lot of exercise, especially if someone was not exercising regularly prior to their stroke. While there’s almost always an exercise that people can find to do, getting to the level of four hours per week can be really difficult if motion is seriously impacted. It can also
The team published their findings in JAMA Network Open. Hopefully, this research helps future stroke patients live a better life, one as close as possible to what they were experiencing pre-stroke.
We are not doctors here at Paradise In-Home Care. However, one of the great benefits of in-home care is that companionship is provided. While it might not be medical care, the benefits of in-home care can help to supplement overall health. For example, a caregiver who knows that exercise and activity are important can help to encourage someone to move around in a safe way, providing supervision just in case, and make the process a lot easier to go through. Being in the company of others also helps to promote mental health. It’s common for mental health to suffer after a major health event like a stroke. Being around others can help to diminish this.
Want to learn more about in-home care and its benefits? Give us a call today.
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