 |
|
One Disease, Two Effects: Stroke
July 16, 2009Congress is expected to take up legislation this summer aimed at improving the nation's healthcare system. Whatever the shape of the final bill, it will have at least some impact on one of the three leading causes of death in the U.S.: stroke.
Stroke typically occurs when arteries become blocked, preventing blood from flowing to the brain. When the brain is deprived of blood and oxygen, brain cells die and long-term brain damage results. For this reason, a stroke is also known as a brain attack. It is an illness that affects male and female brains differently although scientists are not sure why.
To discuss the current state of gender research and stroke, Patricia Hurn, a renowned expert in stroke and sex differences, and Professor and Vice Chair for research in the Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine at Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) School of Medicine, will address attendees at the Sex Steroids and Gender in Cardiovascular-Renal Physiology and Pathophysiology conference, being held July 15-18, 2009 in Broomfield, Colorado. The program, sponsored by The American Physiological Society (www.the-aps.org/press), attracts scientists in the field of gender biology, physiology, medicine and related fields.
Stroke and Gender
While both males and females are at risk for stroke, males have a particular sensitivity. Data show that male stroke victims outnumber females by about two to one. Actor Kirk Douglas, Cuban leader Fidel Castro and singer Barry White are among high profile men who have suffered a stroke.
Women are likewise at risk for stroke and, as they age, their outcomes are often worse than their male counterpart's. Hurn thinks the outcomes phenomenon may be because women are typically older than men when a stroke occurs.
In terms of stroke treatment, men again have a disadvantage. For example, tissue plasminogen activator (tPA), the only drug therapy approved by the FDA for stroke treatment, has been shown to improve stroke outcome and generate brain damage response in women but to a lesser extent in men. And even at the smallest level of new discovery -- the molecular and cellular level -- male and female dish cultures respond differently.
Is Estrogen the Answer to Stroke Prevention?
Since females carry the sex hormone estrogen researchers have long examined whether it protects the XY brain and thus shields it from stroke's injury and damage. Large scale and in-depth studies of animals have shown that there is a protective effect for animals, but results in human studies have been less conclusive.
In fact, in the U.S. government's largest study involving estrogen and cardiovascular disease, known as the Women's Health Initiative (WHI), researchers found a small detrimental risk of stroke among the women taking estrogen. Whether the risk was an anomaly due to the study parameters is not yet clear. In the meantime the effect of estrogen remains an unexplained variable in the effort to understand stroke.
A New Focus: Testosterone
Researchers have focused on the effect of estrogen for more than 15 years. With no apparent conclusion at hand, Hurn and her colleagues have shifted their investigative focus to the influence of testosterone, the primary male hormone, in stroke. According to Hurn, "We think this approach, coupled with examining brain stroke injury at the molecular and cellular level, is the best way to get at some of the underlying issues that have challenged us scientists for so long."
Conclusion
Despite the fact that men are more likely to suffer a stroke, they are not the only ones affected. The differences between male and female stroke may in fact put women at a greater disadvantages than men in terms of their health outcomes. "It is our hope that by bringing fresh approaches to existing studies we may be able to improve the chances of surviving a disease that strikes one individual every 45 seconds, and kills an individual every three minutes," says Hurn.
American Physiological Society (APS)
Stroke and Gender
While both males and females are at risk for stroke, males have a particular sensitivity. Data show that male stroke victims outnumber females by about two to one. Actor Kirk Douglas, Cuban leader Fidel Castro and singer Barry White are among high profile men who have suffered a stroke.
Women are likewise at risk for stroke and, as they age, their outcomes are often worse than their male counterpart's. Hurn thinks the outcomes phenomenon may be because women are typically older than men when a stroke occurs.
In terms of stroke treatment, men again have a disadvantage. For example, tissue plasminogen activator (tPA), the only drug therapy approved by the FDA for stroke treatment, has been shown to improve stroke outcome and generate brain damage response in women but to a lesser extent in men. And even at the smallest level of new discovery -- the molecular and cellular level -- male and female dish cultures respond differently.
Is Estrogen the Answer to Stroke Prevention?
Since females carry the sex hormone estrogen researchers have long examined whether it protects the XY brain and thus shields it from stroke's injury and damage. Large scale and in-depth studies of animals have shown that there is a protective effect for animals, but results in human studies have been less conclusive.
In fact, in the U.S. government's largest study involving estrogen and cardiovascular disease, known as the Women's Health Initiative (WHI), researchers found a small detrimental risk of stroke among the women taking estrogen. Whether the risk was an anomaly due to the study parameters is not yet clear. In the meantime the effect of estrogen remains an unexplained variable in the effort to understand stroke.
A New Focus: Testosterone
Researchers have focused on the effect of estrogen for more than 15 years. With no apparent conclusion at hand, Hurn and her colleagues have shifted their investigative focus to the influence of testosterone, the primary male hormone, in stroke. According to Hurn, "We think this approach, coupled with examining brain stroke injury at the molecular and cellular level, is the best way to get at some of the underlying issues that have challenged us scientists for so long."
Conclusion
Despite the fact that men are more likely to suffer a stroke, they are not the only ones affected. The differences between male and female stroke may in fact put women at a greater disadvantages than men in terms of their health outcomes. "It is our hope that by bringing fresh approaches to existing studies we may be able to improve the chances of surviving a disease that strikes one individual every 45 seconds, and kills an individual every three minutes," says Hurn.
American Physiological Society (APS)
Stroke Current Events and Stroke News RSSMenopause-cardiology consensus statement on cardiovascular disease and on HRT
A menopause-cardiology consensus statement has called for direct action to prevent cardiovascular disease (CVD) in menopausal women. The statement also concludes that there is little evidence of increased CVD risk in taking HRT.
Fat around the middle increases the risk of dementia
Women who store fat on their waist in middle age are more than twice as likely to develop dementia when they get older, reveals a new study from the Sahlgrenska Academy.
New discovery about the formation of new brain cells
The generation of new nerve cells in the brain is regulated by a peptide known as C3a, which directly affects the stem cells' maturation into nerve cells and is also important for the migration of new nerve cells through the brain tissue, reveals new research from the Sahlgrenska Academy published in the journal Stem Cells.
Multiple health concerns surface as winter, vitamin D deficiences arrive
A string of recent discoveries about the multiple health benefits of vitamin D has renewed interest in this multi-purpose nutrient, increased awareness of the huge numbers of people who are deficient in it, spurred research and even led to an appreciation of it as "nature's antibiotic."
New understanding about mechanism for cell death after stroke leads to possible therapy
Scientists at the Brain Research Centre, a partnership of the University of British Columbia Faculty of Medicine and Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute, have uncovered new information about the mechanism by which brain cells die following a stroke, as well as a possible way to mitigate that damage.
Surgery not linked to memory problems in older patients
For years, it has been widely assumed that older adults may experience memory loss and other cognitive problems following surgery. But a new study from researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis questions those assumptions.
Pushing the brain to find new pathways
Until recently, scientists believed that, following a stroke, a patient had about six months to regain any lost function. After that, patients would be forced to compensate for the lost function by focusing on their remaining abilities.
Night Beat, Overtime and a Disrupted Sleep Pattern Can Harm Officers' Health
A police officer who works the night shift, typically from 8 p.m. to 4 a.m., already is at a disadvantage when it comes to getting a good "night's" sleep.
Vitamin B niacin offers no extra benefit to statin therapy in seniors already diagnosed with CAD
The routine prescription of extended-release niacin, a B vitamin (1,500 milligrams daily), in combination with traditional cholesterol-lowering therapy offers no extra benefit in correcting arterial narrowing and diminishing plaque buildup in seniors who already have coronary artery disease, a new vascular imaging study from Johns Hopkins experts shows.
The benefits of exercise
Physical exercise is one of the most effective methods of preventing disease. The current issue of Deutsches Arzteblatt International is devoted to this important topic.
More Stroke Current Events and Stroke News Articles
 |
Is This It by The Strokes With all the media hype that dogged the Strokes before the release of their debut album, it's rather apt that they chose the title Is This It. On the strength of just five songs released on two singles, the Strokes were being hailed as everything from the saviors of rock & roll to the Savior himself. Surely, few bands could live up to the impossibly high standards set for this young five-piece, but the band needn't have worried: Is This It is one of the most exciting and energetic debut albums to spring from New York's long-dormant club scene. In fact, the Strokes are a New York City band through and through; like the Velvet Underground, these are a bunch of uptown artsy types elegantly slumming downtown to the tried and tested themes of sex, drugs, and rock & roll. Their... |
 |
Room on Fire by The Strokes An acclaimed debut prompts one of two kinds of follow-ups: either the band strives to broaden their palate or they attempt to deepen the colors they splashed all over that heralded first effort. The Strokes' second outing falls in the latter camp. In the tradition of the Ramones' Leave Home and Oasis' (What's the Story) Morning Glory, the Strokes largely stay the course with their second full-length release, producing an album that won't cause the stir that its predecessor did, but has a sneaky appeal all its own. Thanks to the quintet's Lower East Side roots, Velvet Underground and Television references abound with these guys, but Boston new wavers the Cars, and in particular their hit-heavy second album, 1979's Candy-O, provide a more suitable point of reference for Room on Fire. As... |
 |
My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey by Ph.D., Jill Bolte Taylor (Author) The astonishing New York Times bestseller that chronicles how a brain scientist's own stroke led to enlightenment On December 10, 1996, Jill Bolte Taylor, a thirty-seven- year-old Harvard-trained brain scientist experienced a massive stroke in the left hemisphere of her brain. As she observed her mind deteriorate to the point that she could not walk, talk, read, write, or recall any of her life-all within four hours-Taylor alternated between the euphoria of the intuitive and kinesthetic right brain, in which she felt a sense of complete well-being and peace, and the logical, sequential left brain, which recognized she was having a stroke and enabled her to seek help before she was completely lost. It would take her eight years to fully recover. For Taylor, her stroke was a... |
 |
Is This It by The Strokes With all the media hype that dogged the Strokes before the release of their debut album, it's rather apt that they chose the title Is This It. On the strength of just five songs released on two singles, the Strokes were being hailed as everything from the saviors of rock & roll to the Savior himself. Surely, few bands could live up to the impossibly high standards set for this young five-piece, but the band needn't have worried: Is This It is one of the most exciting and energetic debut albums to spring from New York's long-dormant club scene. In fact, the Strokes are a New York City band through and through; like the Velvet Underground, these are a bunch of uptown artsy types elegantly slumming downtown to the tried and tested themes of sex, drugs, and rock & roll. Their... |
 |
First Impressions of Earth by The Strokes Their prospects dangerously over-inflated by pundits who often hailed their debut as nothing short of rock-messianic, New York City's Strokes got a lesson in cynical rock-press dynamics when their biz-troubled, if similarly toned, '03 follow-up was dutifully dismissed as the proverbial sophomore slump. A lesser band might have been chastened by the experience; this one responds with a third album that positively bristles with energetic challenges. Revolving around a loose concept that allows songwriter/frontman Julian Casablancas to adopt a viewpoint that's as detached as it is world-weary and bemused, it's a record that quickly trades the often precious production conceits of its forebears for a muscular confidence that's notable from the infectious, back-to-the-'80s opener "You Only... |
 |
Room on Fire by The Strokes The Second Opus from the Hybrid Rocking New Yorkers. |
 |
The Stroke Billy Squier (Primary Contributor) |
 |
Stronger After Stroke: Your Roadmap to Recovery by Peter G. Levine (Author) Billions of dollars are spent each year researching stroke rehabilitation and treatment techniques, but most are not well communicated to patients or caregivers. As a result, many stroke survivors are treated with outdated or ineffective therapies. Stronger After Stroke puts the power of recovery in the reader’s hands by providing easy instructions for reaching the highest possible level of healing. Written for stroke survivors, their caregivers, and their loved ones, the book presents a new approach that is startling in its simplicity: stroke survivors recover by using the same learning techniques that anyone uses to master anything. Basic concepts are covered, including repetition of task-specific movements, proper scheduling of practice, challenges at each stage of recovery, and... |
 |
First Impressions of Earth by The Strokes |
 |
Nasty Little Thoughts by Stroke 9 They may seem like the latest in an endless line of overnight sensations, but San Francisco foursome Stroke 9 have been playing together for over 10 years. They formed the group as a high-school senior project, and jammin' 'n' groovin' since their teens has given Stroke 9 the kind of musical chemistry many outfits only dream of. Theirs is a story similar to that of teen-sensation-turned-multiplatinum rock band Live, and appropriately, Stroke 9 worked with Live producer (and ex-Talking Heads keyboardist) Jerry Harrison on their debut album, Nasty Little Thoughts. An upbeat collection of strummy rockers and jangly ballads, the album combines the earnestness of a band like R.E.M. with the hook-laden songcraft of acts like the Connells and the Counting Crows. Luke Esterkyn's vocals are... |
| © 2009 BrightSurf.com |