Stroke

Our physiotherapy team can provide a unique contribution to the management of people living with Stroke. Specialists in treating disabilities related to motor and sensory impairments.

They help restore physical functioning by evaluating and treating problems with movement, balance, and coordination.

A physiotherapy programme may include exercises to strengthen muscles, improve coordination, and regain range of motion; and constraint-induced therapy, in which an unaffected limb is immobilized, causing the person to use the affected limb to regain movement and function.  

Oxygen Therapy can lead to significant improvement in brain function in post stroke patients even at chronically late stages, helping neurons strengthen and build new connections in damaged regions.

Oxygen therapy works by improving blood flow to a stroke patient’s damaged brain tissues. The area of dead brain tissue resulting from a lack of blood supply is known as an infarct. The ability of a stroke victim to recover using hyperbaric oxygen depends on several factors: the infarct size and location and the condition of the penumbra (the area between dead tissues and the non-impacted brain). Severe brain infarctions cause swelling that also intensifies pressure on the remaining viable brain tissue.

Oxygen therapy floods blood plasma, lymph fluids and cerebrospinal fluid (the clear, watery that fills the brain and spine) with pure oxygen at higher-than-normal atmospheric pressures. The body receives 1,500 to 2,000 times the O2 concentration it would when a person breathes in normal room air.

This brings down brain swelling and provides crucial nutrients to oxygen-starved brain matter, muscle, and bone. In many cases, with a series of hyperbaric oxygen treatments, stroke victims’ function improves. Dormant cells in the penumbra become reactivated, and new capillaries also form in the area. These capillaries increase both blood flow and nutrients and carry away cellular waste.

Our physiotherapy team can teach you exercises that will improve your strength, flexibility and stamina. Gentle low-impact exercise, such as yoga, Pilates and Tai Chi can help maintain bone mass, improve balance, reduce stress, and increase strength. Getting regular exercise can also help control your weight, which is important to reducing the pain. 

Moving your body may be the last thing you feel like doing, but you have to believe that it really does help. It’s hard at first, but it does get easier.

Complementary approaches used together with conventional medicine are generally accepted as improving overall physical and mental wellbeing.

Acupuncture as a treatment for ischemic stroke promotes the growth and development of tissue in the central nervous system, regulates cerebral blood flow in the ischemic area, and improves long-term memory after a stroke.

Additionally, studies have found that acupuncture may have beneficial psychological effects on patients after they had a stroke, lowering the risk for depression.

Massage therapy is the manipulation of body tissues in order to enhance your health and well-being. Studies have that massage and herbal treatments can improve daily function, mood, sleep patterns, and pain in individuals who have suffered a stroke.

Massages can help by relieving pain and improving sleep and mood.