Exercises for neurological conditions

Good practice resource. This website will enable you to:

• Search for exercises appropriate for people with spinal cord injuries and other neurological conditions
• Select exercises and compile them into booklets for your clients
• If you create a logon (this is free), you can:
• save your clients` exercise booklets
• edit the text of exercises
• format exercise booklets in any way
• Link:
• http://www.physiotherapyexercises.com/ 
• http://www.physiotherapyexercises.com/downloads/ADHC_2009_2010.pdf 

Theraputty Exercises

Useful Video for new grads
Link:
http://alliedtherapypartners.com/2011/10/22/theraputty-exercises/ 

Just one can of a soft drink a day can increase heart attack risk by 20pc

A CAN of sugary soft drink a day increases a man's heart disease risk by 20pc, say researchers.

Levels of blood biomarkers linked to heart disease were also raised by regular consumption of sugar-sweetened drinks, a study found.

Scientists analysed data on almost 43,000 men taking part in the Hewalth Professionals Follow-Up Study, a major health and lifestyle investigation in the US.

They found the association with sugary drinks after controlling for other risk factors including smoking, physical activity, alcohol consumption and family history.

Men who drank a 12 ounce sugar-sweetened beverage a day, equivalent to one can, had a 20pc higher risk of heart disease than men who consumed no sugary drinks.

The scientists also measured fats and proteins in the blood which are indicators for heart disease.

Compared with non-drinkers, men who regularly drank sugary beverages had high levels of harmful triglyceride blood fats and the inflammation marker C-reactive protein.

They also had lower levels of high-density lipoprotein, a beneficial form of cholesterol which protects against heart disease.

"This study adds to the growing evidence that sugary beverages are detrimental to cardiovascular health," said study leader Professor Frank Hu, from the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, US.

"Certainly, it provides strong justification for reducing sugary beverage consumption among patients and, more importantly, in the general population."

Dietician Tracy Parker, from the British Heart Foundation, said: "We already know that too many sugar-sweetened drinks are bad for our teeth and the excess calories from them can make us put on weight - a risk factor for heart disease.

"But whilst we need more research to understand how else sugary drinks may affect our heart health, the study reminds us that they shouldn't be a daily part of our diet.

"Go for healthier alternatives such as water, low fat milk or unsweetened juices which are kinder to our waistlines as well as our heart."

The findings, published in the journal Circulation, were rejected by the British Soft Drinks Association.

A spokesman said: "Drinking sweetened beverages does not cause an increased risk of heart disease, not based on this study nor any other study in the available science. The authors found an association between consuming sweetened beverages and cardiovascular risk, but this could have been the result of other lifestyle changes over the 22-year study period involving men 40 to 75 years of age."

Source:By John von Radowitz

http://www.independent.ie/health/health-news/just-one-can-of-a-soft-drink-a-day-can-increase-heart-attack-risk-by-20pc-3047532.html 

OT resource for children

http://www.makewayforme.com/resources.html

Health News

Coordination Between The Eyes And Arms Has Implications For Rehabilitation, Prosthetics

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/242288.php

Brain Performance In Patients With Multiple Sclerosis Improved By Cognitive Rehabilitation

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/242002.php

Exercise Triggers Stem Cells In Muscle

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/241279.php

Helping Those With Memory Impairment Regain Independence Using Smartphone Training

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/241486.php

Worried about dementia? Oily fish really is the best protection

DIETS lacking an essential nutrient found in oily fish may hasten brain shrinkage and mental decline, a study has found.

Brain scans carried out on 1,575 people with an average age of 67 showed a greater rate of brain shrinkage in those who lacked docosahexaenoic acid (DHA).

DHA is an omega-3 fatty acid that is thought to help nerve cells communicate with each other. The richest source of the nutrient is oily fish, such as herring, mackerel and sardines.

Dr Zaldy Tan, from the University of California atLos Angeles, who led the US research reported in the journal Neurology, said: "People with lower blood levels of omega-3 fatty acids had lower brain volumes that were equivalent to about two years of structural brain ageing."

The study involved magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) brain scans and tests for mental function and omega-3 fatty acids in red blood cells.

Participants whose DHA levels were among the bottom 25pc had smaller brains than those with higher DHA levels.

Low levels of all omega-3 fatty acids were also associated with poor test scores for visual memory, problem solving, multi-tasking and abstract thinking.

Dr Marie Janson, from the British charity Alzheimer's Research UK, said: "There has been a lot of research into the effects of omega-3, and this study will add to that debate.

"One strength of this study is that it used blood samples to measure people's dietary intake of omega-3, rather than relying on answers to questionnaires to assess the link between omega-3 and cognition. However, this research does not tell us whether the people studied got worse or better over time.

"We would need to see large-scale, long-term studies before we can know whether a diet high in omega-3 can protect against dementia, and people shouldn't fill their freezers with oily fish just yet. The best evidence for reducing your risk of dementia is to eat a healthy, balanced diet, take regular exercise and keep your blood pressure and cholesterol in check."

More than 800,000 people in the UK suffer from dementia, with the majority affected by Alzheimer's disease.

- John von Radowitz

Brain Performance In Patients With Multiple Sclerosis Improved By Cognitive Rehabilitation

In a new study published in the March issue of Radiology, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) shows that cognitive rehabilitation changes brain function and improves cognitive performance in patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis(MS). 

"These results prompt the use of specific computer-based rehabilitation programs to treat deficits in selected neuropsychological domains in patients with relapsing-remitting MS," said the study's lead author, Massimo Filippi, M.D., professor of neurology at the San Raffaele Vita-Salute University and director of the "BrainMap" interdepartmental research program and the Neuroimaging Research Unit, Department of Neuroscience, Scientific Institute San Raffaele, Milan, Italy. "They also suggest that fMRI might provide useful metrics to monitor the effects of rehab in MS." 

MS is a nervous system disease affecting the brain and spinal cord. MS damages a material called the myelin sheath that surrounds and protects nerve cells. This damage disrupts messages between the brain and other parts of the body, leading to symptoms such as muscle weakness, coordination and balance difficulties, numbness, problems with vision, memory loss and other cognitive issues. MS affects women more than men and often becomes symptomatic between the ages of 20 and 40. 

In relapsing-remitting MS, the most common type, patients experience a series of attacks followed by partial or complete disappearance of symptoms. The interval between relapses can range from weeks to years. 

Cognitive impairment affects a large proportion of patients with MS in the areas of attention, information processing, executive functions, memory and visual-spatial abilities. Cognitive dysfunction impacts a range of activities, including work, driving and social integration. 

For the study, Dr. Filippi and colleagues recruited 20 patients with relapsing-remitting MS. Patients were randomized into two groups of 10. The first group received a 12-week program of computer-assisted cognitive rehabilitation of attention and information processing and executive functions, and the second (control) group received no cognitive rehabilitation. 

Aspects of the rehabilitation program included a day-planning task, which employed realistic simulations of a set of scheduled dates and duties to address the patient's ability to organize, plan and develop solution strategies; and an attention task requiring the patient to simulate driving a train, carefully observing the control panel of the train and the countryside while encountering several distractions at increasing levels of difficulty. 

All of the patients underwent neuropsychological assessment and MRI exams at baseline and after 12 weeks. As compared to their performance at baseline, the patients in the treatment group improved in tests of attention and information processing and executive functions. The fMRI results showed modifications in activity in several brain regions in the rehabilitation group, compared to the non-rehabilitation group. These fMRI modifications were correlated with cognitive improvement. 

Analysis after cognitive rehabilitation found no structural changes in the gray matter or normal-appearing white matter of the brain in the treatment group. 

"The findings demonstrated that computer-assisted cognitive rehabilitation in patients with MS results in an improvement of the trained cognitive functions," Dr. Filippi said. "However, the structural integrity of the brain's gray matter and white matter showed no modifications in these patients, suggesting an impairment of structural plasticity." 


Source:http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/242002.php