A Folic Acid a day...
Keeps the Stroke Away…
Folic acid is a vitamin found naturally in green vegetables, fruits, poultry, meats, and grains. Asparagus, Spinach and Brussels are particularly rich in Folic Acid. Folic acid is a key constituent of prenatal vitamins. It is well known that folic acid is protective against neural tube defects in the growing fetus when given to pregnant women. Folic acid supplementation lowers elevated homocysteine levels, considered an important risk factor for vascular disease. It has also been found to be helpful in curbing depression and mild cognitive impairment or memory problems. , More excitingly a recent study has shown Folic Acid may be protective against strokes.
Strokes or brain attacks commonly lead to brain damage, paralysis and loss of neurologic functions contributing to significant morbidity and mortality and are the second leading cause of death and disability in the world. Till date Folic Acid had not been considered for stroke prevention. In a large Chinese study with over 20,000 participants, strokes and other cardiovascular diseases were found to be reduced with daily folic acid intake of at least 800 micrograms. Those on Folic acid had an approximately 21% lower risk of stroke than those not on folic acid. The China Stroke PrimaryPrevention Trial or CSPPT was recently published in the Journal of American Medical Association JAMA and provides evidence that daily Folic Acid may be a helpful addition to the regular medications used in the elderly and those at risk for stroke such as those with high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol levels, or those who are obese or have history of smoking.
Other tips to reduce stroke would include taking a baby aspirin on a daily basis, considering healthy physical activity, weight loss, and curbing risk factors such as diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, atrial fibrillation, smoking and obesity. Atrial fibrillation is strongly associated with strokes and is serious condition that necessitates life long anticoagulation. For more information on stroke please read more…
WALK AWAY YOUR HYPERTENSION
The American Heart Association has recently revised their recommendations on exercise. Previously 20 min of exercise three times a week was felt to be adequate for meeting requirements of healthy activity however more recent research suggests 30 minutes of moderate exercise 5 days a week is the right approach. This helps lower blood pressures and helps decrease the risk of stroke and heart attacks.
Please read on for tips on healthy activity. Click Here
Epilepsy Surgery:
Seizures occur in upto 10% of the population. Epilepsy or recurrent unprovoked seizures occur in 1%. Of the newly diagnosed epilepsy patients 30-35% will be refractory to medications either single or in combination. For these individuals epilepsy surgery may be an option.
This consists of inpatient admission for long term Video EEG monitoring in an epilepsy monitoring unit (EMU) for capturing 4-6 seizures on video and EEG recording and assessing if this arising from a single area of the brain ( focal) or from initial simultaneous whole brain involvement (generalized ). If focal in onset then epilepsy resective surgery may be an option. Otherwise vagal nerve stimulation may be considered in the appropriate setting. If respective surgery is an option the chances of cure are quite high and can be as high as an 80% chance of cure in temporal lobe epilepsy and upto 50% chance of cure in extra temporal or non temporal lobe epilepsy. If you or anyone you know has refractory seizures or epilepsy then referral to an epileptologist or an epilepsy center may be life changing.
CT SCANS AND THE RISK OF CANCER
There is a rising concern that CT scans may be associated with radiation-induced cancer. The amount of radiation associated with a routine CT scan is usually low at 2-10mS (millisieverts). Sieverts is an international unit for measuring different kinds of radiation. Radiation associated with CT scans are usually x-rays and often times equivalent to over a 200 conventional xrays. Read More...
Read more- Dr. Chhavi Gupta