Stroke News and Research

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A stroke is a medical emergency. Strokes happen when blood flow to your brain stops. Within minutes, brain cells begin to die. There are two kinds of stroke. The more common kind, called ischemic stroke, is caused by a blood clot that blocks or plugs a blood vessel in the brain. The other kind, called hemorrhagic stroke, is caused by a blood vessel that breaks and bleeds into the brain. "Mini-strokes" or transient ischemic attacks (TIAs), occur when the blood supply to the brain is briefly interrupted.

Common mechanisms may underlie autism's diverse mutations

Many of the seemingly disparate mutations recently discovered in autism may share common underlying mechanisms, say researchers supported in part by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), a part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The mutations may disrupt specific genes that are vital to the developing brain, and which are turned on and off by experience-triggered neuronal activity.

10 Jul 2008

How alcohol impacts heart and stroke risk may differ for men and women

The volume of alcohol consumption may have a significantly different effect on heart and stroke risk in men and women, according to a study of Japanese people published in Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association.

10 Jul 2008

Depression after stroke: a neglected problem

People who have had a stroke and the people who are close to them need more support in order to manage the consequences of stroke.

10 Jul 2008

Combining medical knowledge to save lives

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the biggest killer among chronic diseases, claiming 17 million lives globally every year. Yet doctors can only attribute 50% of cardiovascular diseases to known risk factors.

9 Jul 2008

Increased potassium/sodium in diet may decrease risk of hypertension, coronary heart disease and stroke

A new article indicates that an increased intake in minerals such as potassium, and possibly magnesium and calcium by dietary means may reduce the risk of high blood pressure and decrease blood pressure in people with hypertension. A high intake of these minerals in the diet may also reduce the risk of coronary heart disease and stroke.

8 Jul 2008

Stopping drinking may lead to health problems including depression

Scientific evidence has long suggested that moderate drinking offers some protection against heart disease, certain types of stroke and some forms of cancer.

8 Jul 2008

Lowering blood pressure reduces the risk of dementia

New research suggests that lowering blood pressure in older people could reduce their chances of dementia by 13%.

8 Jul 2008

Keeping a food diary doubles diet weight loss

Keeping a food diary can double a person's weight loss according to a study from Kaiser Permanente's Center for Health Research. The findings, from one of the largest and longest running weight loss maintenance trials ever conducted, will be published in the August issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

8 Jul 2008

A baby's smile gives mothers a natural high

Scientists say the baby's smile that brightens a mother day also lights up a part of her brain.

8 Jul 2008

Canadian case of foreign-accent syndrome after stroke

A woman in southern Ontario is one of the first cases in Canada of a rare neurological syndrome in which a person starts speaking with a different accent, McMaster University researchers report in the July issue of the Canadian Journal of Neurological Sciences.

3 Jul 2008

Statins have unexpected effect on pool of powerful brain cells

Cholesterol-lowering drugs known as statins have a profound effect on an elite group of cells important to brain health as we age, scientists at the University of Rochester Medical Center have found. The new findings shed light on a long-debated potential role for statins in the area of dementia.

3 Jul 2008

New insight into role of statins in dementia

3 Jul 2008

Significant gender differences in heart disease

Women may respond less favorably than men to cardiovascular disease (CV) drug-treatments for enlarged heart, according to NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center physician-scientists

1 Jul 2008

Hydrogen sulfide significantly improves survival after extreme blood loss

For the first time, researchers have demonstrated that the administration of minute amounts of inhaled or intravenous hydrogen sulfide, or H2S - the molecule that gives rotten eggs their sulfurous stench - significantly improves survival from extreme blood loss in rats.

1 Jul 2008

Can children have strokes?

Childhood stroke is at least as common as brain tumours in children and may be as common as all childhood cancer but the condition is under-recognised by both the public and the medical profession. A new study hopes to address some of the large gaps in the understanding of this condition.

1 Jul 2008

Low levels of high-density lipoproteins linked to memory loss, dementia risk

Low levels of high-density lipoproteins (HDL) - the "good" cholesterol - in middle age may increase the risk of memory loss and lead to dementia later in life, researchers reported in Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology: Journal of the American Heart Association.

30 Jun 2008

Sudden loss of hearing might be an early sign of stroke

Preliminary research culled from a national medical insurance records database in Taiwan suggests that sudden loss of hearing might be an early sign of vulnerability to stroke, foreshadowing an actual cerebrovascular event by as much as two years, according to a study reported in Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association.

27 Jun 2008