Health Information - Stroke is a disease caused by insufficient
blood flow to the brain so that cognitive function becomes impaired. Not smooth
blood flow to the brain can be due to blockage or rupture of blood vessels.
Stroke sufferers need special care and therapy, including post-stroke, one of
which is by exercising. What are the options for post-stroke exercise?
Benefits of Post-Stroke Exercise for Stroke Recovery
Drugs to cure cognitive disorders in
stroke patients have not yet been found.
Medical experts strongly recommend for
stroke sufferers who are being treated or are recovering to do certain sports.
Exercise, based on research, is claimed to be effective in helping patients
recover motor and cognitive abilities, such as thinking, remembering, and
focusing.
At the 2017 American Stroke Association's
International Stroke Conference, a number of researchers revealed that stroke
patients who had recovered but had impaired cognitive function managed to
restore their cognitive abilities after routinely exercising after a stroke for
3 months. This is because these exercises are able to change cells that were
previously passive back to being active.
Types of Post-Stroke Exercises that Stroke Patients Must Do
According to the American Heart
Association, there are a number of types of exercise that serve to improve cardiovascular
health, mobility, muscle strength, body flexibility, cognitive health, and
quality of life for stroke patients. Here are the types of post-stroke exercise
that you need to know.
1. Walking
Recovering physical and cognitive
conditions after a stroke can be done in an easy and inexpensive way, namely by
walking. Walking is considered effective in restoring mobility, physique, and
quality of life of someone who has just been free from this deadly disease.
A study in Jamaica involving 128 stroke
patients proved that walking exercise with regular intensity for 3 weeks was
able to restore motor, cognitive abilities, as well as improve other quality of
life, such as endurance, stable blood pressure, to reduce excess fat in the
body. .
In practicing this post-stroke exercise, a
stroke patient cannot do it alone. Support from family and relatives is needed
so that when undergoing therapy, there are no accidents that can make things
worse. This is because in the initial phase of therapy, the patient's ability
to move is not fully maximized.
2. Cycling
Cycling can also be an alternative for
post-stroke recovery. Just like walking, the benefits of cycling for stroke is
to help restore mobility, physical, cognitive, and quality of life. Routine
cycling, especially in the morning, will speed up the healing process of stroke
patients. In addition, cycling also provides a number of other benefits,
including heart health and burning calories.
3. Swim
Swimming is a post-stroke exercise that is
also worth practicing to restore the sufferer's physical and cognitive
condition. Swimming also tends to be more suitable for those who have just
recovered from a stroke and have not been able to move their limbs properly.
This is because swimming is done in water so there is buoyancy that makes the
body feel lighter and easier to move.
The benefits of swimming for stroke is to
heal the nerves that are disturbed due to stroke, by providing stimulation of
sensory cells in the brain, also strengthening muscles. In addition, swimming
has a number of other benefits for stroke patients, such as:
· Streamlining blood
circulation
· Increase oxygen
intake to the brain
· Body relaxation
· Restore motor
skills
Just like walking, stroke patients must
get assistance when doing this swimming sport.
4. Stretch Your Hands
Post-stroke exercise is indeed mild,
considering that the condition of stroke patients who have just recovered is
also not one hundred percent physically or mentally fit. Well, one of the light
exercises but has great benefits for stroke recovery is stretching your arms.
Joel Stein, Director of Medical Services
at New York Presbyterian Hospital, USA, said hand stretching therapy is not a
form of alternative medicine to cure stroke, but instead becomes a basic
exercise that patients must do to recover their physical condition.
When performing this movement, the patient
(with the supervision of the therapist) will be asked to move the hand in a
circular motion 3 times a day. Then, the patient should stretch the hand
muscles to the point of discomfort for 1 minute.
5. tiptoe
The result of a stroke is the disruption
of the process of sending messages from the ears, eyes, and other body parts.
The effect, the balance of the body can not run normally. In order to restore
the balance of the body, one way that can be done is by doing sports movements,
namely on tiptoe.
Standing on tiptoe is an ideal exercise
movement to train the body's balance. Practice this post-stroke exercise every
day accompanied by a therapist or closest family.
6. Gymnastics Stroke
After a stroke recovers, a person may
still experience a number of symptoms such as difficulty standing, walking,
slurred speech, stiff muscles (spasms), unfocused and slow thinking. All of
these things can be reduced in degree, or even eliminated altogether by doing
stroke exercise therapy, one of which is stroke exercise.
Stroke exercise is a type of exercise that
is designed to help stroke patients recover their body condition after being
declared recovered from a stroke. This exercise is effective in restoring the
balance of the body, as well as smoothing the movement of the limbs that
experience spasms.
However, this therapy does not fully
guarantee the patient can recover completely from post-stroke disorders. There
are some cases where the post-stroke symptoms will still be suffered by the
patient. If so, the benefits of stroke exercise here are more to the patient's
psychological recovery, where by doing exercise together, the patient feels
calmer because he is not alone and is more motivated to continue living.
Other Benefits of Post-Stroke Exercise that are Rarely Known
Not only does it help relieve post-stroke
effects, the types of exercise above also have a number of other health
benefits, including:
· Stabilize blood
pressure
· Control cholesterol
levels
· Control body
weight to stay ideal
· Avoid depression
That's the information about post-stroke
exercise and its benefits in restoring the body functions of stroke patients.
Although these exercises are mild and can be done anytime and anywhere, you
should first consult this with the doctor concerned.