Young Women’s Chances of Suffering a Stroke

Did you know that more women die of stroke than from Aids or breast cancer combined? Stroke is the second leading cause of women’s death in the entire world. The misconception is that the public thinks that stroke is an old lady’s affliction. Many young women and especially those on birth control pills or going through pregnancy suffer strokes.
Unfortunately emergency rooms are too slow in diagnosing stroke in women preferring rather to check for drug intake or bacteria before discovering the real reason for weakness in an arm or leg. Once a CT scan is administered and they see the truth the doctors then question the women about their use of birth control pills and smoking.
It may be true that women are atypical in their symptoms and therefore it may be more difficult to diagnose them than men. Dr. Steven J. Kittner, director of the Maryland Stroke Center and Goddess Fund Medical Advisory Board member, has done extensive work with young women and stroke. Young women are not thought of as being a high risk for stroke. The Goddess Fund is dedicated to the education of health care professionals and also disseminates information needed for stroke prevention and treatment.
Another problem is that some stroke organizations don’t sufficiently explain the risks of birth control pills as a potential cause of stroke. Smoking and taking birth control pills is especially dangerous. The combination increases the risk of stroke 22% more than the average person. Some doctors, though, have stopped prescribing certain birth control pills to those that smoke.
According to WHO, the Women’s Health Organization, those that use ”the pill” are 3 times more likely to suffer an ischemic stroke than non users. WHO also found that oral contraceptive users over the age of 35 had a greater risk of getting a hemorrhagic stroke compared to non users.
Most frustrating is the slow and difficult process of rehabilitation. Exercises to improve fine muscle coordination and other skills are arduous. Luckily there are modern physical therapy products and solutions that can greatly improve movement ability for stroke victims young or old. One such set of tools is the TUTOR system. The newly developed HANDTUTOR and its sister devices (ARMTUTOR, LEGTUTOR, 3DTUTOR) have become a key system in neuromuscular rehabilitation for stroke victims as well as for those recovering from brain and spinal injuries,Parkinson’s, MS, CP and other limb disabling limitations.
These innovative devices implement an impairment based program with augmented motion feedback that encourages motor learning through intensive active exercises and movement practice. The HANDTUTOR, ARMTUTOR, LEGTUTOR and 3DTUTOR consist of wearable glove and braces that detect limb movement showing the patient how much active or assisted active movement they are actually doing. The software uses special rehabilitation games to set a new target for this movement in terms of the patient’s ability to move their limb. The devices then measure the limb movement and give feedback on the success of the patient in trying to gain this new objective. In this way the patient is given feedback that allows him to understand which effort is more successful. The TUTOR system provides exercises that are challenging and motivating and allows for repetitive and intensive exercise practice. The TUTOR system is now part of the rehabilitation solution of leading U.S. German, Italian, French, UK and other foreign hospitals. See WWW.HANDTUTOR.COM for more information.