Fighting back from stroke Exercising helps woman recover lost abilities

By Toya Graham, Fort Mill Times, S.C. April 07--FORT MILL TOWNSHIP -- Tonia Canzoneri wears three rubber bracelets on her wrist. A red bracelet that sits nearly perfectly atop an orange bracelet offers one word: Hope.
"She gives everyone hope," says Sandy Strang, the owner of Curves in Fort Mill.
That's because Canzoneri suffered a stroke eight years ago. The stroke impacted Canzoneri's right side, took away her ability to use her right hand and slurred her speech. Doctors offered the then six-week pregnant Canzoneri a grim report.
"They told her she wouldn't walk again," Strang said.
Canzoneri, whose Charlotte home is about four miles from Tega Cay, refuses to be a victim to her stroke.
"You've got to fight," Canzoneri, 39, said. "You don't fight, your body is done. You hurt yourself."
Canzoneri fights back by working out most weekdays. Most people work out to tone their muscles or lose weight. For Canzoneri, daily trips to Curves help continue rehabilitation and gain overall muscle strength.more read...

Video Games Help Stroke Victims Rehab Motor Functions

A new study has found promise in the use of gaming in stroke rehabilitation. With the assistance of motion gaming devices such as the Eye Toy and the Wii, motor function of stroke patients in rehab programs improved by an average of 20 percent. Arm strength increased by nearly 15 percent, with nearly five times the chance for improvement. For all the technical info on the study, head over to Bloomberg Businessweek.
"Stroke rehabilitation is rapidly evolving," said Lead Researcher Dr. Gustavo Saposnik, director of the Stroke Outcomes Research Unit at St. Michael's Hospital at the University of Toronto. "Novel approaches -- including the use of virtual reality [gaming] systems -- may help improve motor impairment, activities and social participation. Virtual reality may provide an affordable, enjoyable and effective alternative to intensify treatment and promote motor recovery after stroke."
Conventional therapy provides only "modest and sometimes delayed effects" in treating the weakness, paralysis, balance and coordination difficulties that most stroke victims experience, according to Saposnik.
Video gaming is custom-tailored to help remodel the brain through challenging, task-specific, motivating actions that are repeated enough to create the new neural connections needed to get back functionality after a brain injury.
"Our study confirms the potential benefit of virtual reality in stroke rehabilitation identified in small studies," Saposnik said. "Further larger randomized trials are needed before changing practice. However, we are [going] in the right direction."  more read...

Virtual Reality Tools May Aid Stroke Recovery

Virtual Reality Tools May Aid Stroke Recovery

Studies Show High-Tech Gadgets Help Stroke Patients Improve Their Motor Strength

By Brenda Goodman
WebMD Health News

Reviewed by Laura J. Martin, MD

April 7, 2011 -- Physical therapy that makes use of high-tech gadgets like 3-D goggles, robotic gloves, and motion-tracking video game systems can help people regain strength and function in their upper arm after a stroke, a new research review shows.
Pooling data from five studies, researchers found that people who participated in rehabilitation with virtual reality technologies after a stroke had a nearly fivefold greater chance of improving their motor strength compared to those who received conventional physical therapy.
In general, the virtual therapies are designed specifically to aid stroke recovery. They include activities like playing virtual piano keys while wearing a robotic glove or swatting at virtual bugs while wearing 3D goggles.
“This technology gets people to work more and harder and be more creative,” says study researcher Mindy Levin, PhD, a professor in the School of Physical and Occupational Therapy at McGill University in Montreal. “And all of that taps into the brain’s plasticity and helps the brain change -- and that’s what we’re trying to do.”  more read....

Advice On Stroke: Every Minute Courts

Advice On Stroke: Every Minute Courts

 

Written by Alan Waterman Monday, 11 April 2011 00:02

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Intensive and massed exercise practice has been proven to improve patient movement ability and the ability to do everyday living tasks.
The HandTutor system employs virtual functional tasks.
These are computer generated tasks or games that have been formulated to allow the therapist to customize which joint or combination of joint and which movement parameter will be exercised during the practice.
In other words virtual functional tasks can be customized according to the patients movement ability.
Therefore patients with very limited or no active movement ability can, through active assisted exercises, undertake intensive and massed movement practice. Similarly if the patient has better movement ability but still needs to work on pushing this ability to its limit the virtual tasks can be customized so that the patient needs to employ for example his maximum range of moveme  MORE READ....