Being Fit First May Have Stroke Benefits
Milder attacks, easier recovery await the physically active

(HealthDay News) -- Stroke survivors who were physically active before the attack may have an easier recovery.

"Keeping fit will increase your chance of a life without stroke," Dr. Lars-Henrick Krarup, of Bispebjerg University Hospital in Copenhagen, Denmark, told HealthDay. And, if someone who's fit does have a stroke, "the chance is that it will be of milder severity, and you will make a better recovery," he said.

Krarup led a study of 265 stroke survivors that found that those who exercised the most before their stroke were 2.5 times more likely to have a less severe stroke than those who did the least amount of exercise. Exercisers also had a better chance of long-term recovery.

"The findings may have implications for future prevention campaigns, as people can be told of the beneficial effects of physical activity even if they get a stroke," Krarup said.

Dr. Norman M. Kaplan, a clinical professor in the division of hypertension at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, told HealthDay that "regular physical activity has repeatedly been proven to have multiple cardiovascular benefits that could reduce both the frequency and severity of strokes."

These benefits "include a lowering of blood pressure, improvement of vascular endothelial function and prevention of obesity," Kaplan said.

The Danish study, published in Neurology, provided "good evidence for these benefits and should further encourage all people to exercise to reduce the likelihood of strokes," he said.

Dr. Larry B. Goldstein, director of the Duke University Stroke Center, agreed.

"The importance of getting regular exercise is part of primary stroke prevention," along with not smoking, limiting alcohol intake, eating a healthful diet and maintaining a lean body, he told HealthDay.

"People who follow all of these healthy lifestyle habits have about an 80 percent reduction in the risk of stroke," Goldstein said. "There is nothing we do that is associated with an 80 percent reduction in the risk of stroke medically."

Each year in the United States, more than 700,000 people have a stroke, and about two-thirds survive and need rehabilitation, according to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.

Rehabilitation cannot reverse stroke-related brain damage, but it can improve long-term outcome by helping survivors relearn skills lost as a result of the damage, say institute experts. These skills include the ability to coordinate leg movements in order to walk or to carry out the steps involved in any complex activity. In addition, rehabilitation equips stroke survivors with new ways of doing things so they can work around or cope with permanent disabilities.

The aim of rehabilitation, the institute says, is to help survivors become as independent as possible and achieve a better quality of life.

On the Web

To learn more about stroke recovery and rehabilitation, visit the National Stroke Association.

SOURCES: HealthDay News ; Lars-Henrik Krarup, M.D., Bispebjerg University Hospital, Copenhagen, Denmark; Larry B. Goldstein, M.D., director, Duke University Stroke Center, Durham, N.C.; Norman M. Kaplan, M.D., clinical professor, division of hypertension, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas; Oct. 21, 2008, Neurology; U.S. National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (www.ninds.nih.gov)
Author: Robert Preidt
Publication date: Nov. 30, 2009
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