Restless Leg Syndrome After Stroke: Causes, Symptoms and Treatment

Restless leg syndrome after stroke can lead to insomnia and affect your quality of life. Therefore, treatment is often desirable for many patients. But where do you start? You’re about to learn the causes, symptoms, and treatment for restless leg syndrome after stroke. Let’s dig in. What is Restless Leg Syndrome? The most classic symptom of restless leg syndrome after stroke is the overwhelming desire to move your legs, as the name implies. Restless leg syndrome (RLS), also known as Willis-Ekbom Disease, can cause unpleasant sensation in the legs coupled with an urge to move them. This may result in sleepless nights which snowball into...

Understanding Changes in Muscle Function After Stroke (and How to Recover)

There are several different ways that a stroke can affect the muscular system. In this article, you will learn some of the most common muscle function changes that can occur after stroke and why they happen. Then, we will cover some of the best ways to treat these changes. How Does a Stroke Affect the Muscular System? The brain controls both involuntary and voluntary muscular activity by sending neural messages to the muscles. These messages primarily originate in the motor cortex, which is found in the frontal lobe of the brain. The motor cortex transmits these signals to the spinal cord, where they can reach...

When Stroke Affects Speech: How to Overcome Aphasia or Apraxia of Speech

Has a stroke affected your speech? It could be a sign of aphasia or apraxia of speech. Both conditions can inhibit a stroke survivor’s speech and communication. To help you understand how to recover speech after stroke, this article will outline how stroke can affect speech. Then we will discuss available treatment options. Types of Speech Problems After Stroke When stroke affects speech, it’s often the result of a left hemisphere stroke. This is because the language center of the brain resides in the left hemisphere. There are two main areas of the brain associated with language: Broca’s area, which is associated with producing language, and Wernicke’s area,...

Post Stroke Symptoms Getting Worse? How to Get Back on Track

Are your post stroke symptoms getting worse?  Sometimes this is normal, and other times it’s not — so how can you tell if you’re on the right track? You’re about to find out! This post will illustrate what a normal regression looks like and how you can pull yourself out of a slump. Normal vs. Abnormal Worsening After Stroke It’s important to acknowledge that the stroke recovery process does not move in a straight line. Taking two steps forward and one step back is normal. In fact, taking two steps forward and four steps back sometimes is also normal. A good rule of thumb to determine if your regression...

Numbness After Stroke: How Long It Lasts & Steps for Recovery

Numbness after stroke is a common secondary effect that causes loss of sensation in some of the affected areas. It can be accompanied by other sensory issues such as tingling sensations and even hypersensitivity. For some people, post-stroke numbness goes away on its own through the phenomenon of spontaneous recovery. For those who still experience some degree of numbness, rehabilitation methods should be explored to help promote the return of sensation after stroke. Here’s everything you need to know about numbness after stroke, including the causes, treatments, and the recovery process. What Causes Numbness After Stroke? In order to understand numbness after stroke, you must first understand how a...