YOUR HEALTH: Saving brain cells 8 to 9 days after stroke

NEW ORLEANS, La. (Ivanhoe Newswire) – Before you finish this story, three people in the United States will suffer a stroke. If it doesn’t kill you, it may cause severe disability. Now, new medical research is giving patients hope that the damage done by strokes doesn’t have to be permanent.

Twenty-five-year-old Quincy Taylor was experiencing severe headaches for a whole week, but chalked it up to stress, until the worse happened.

“It was the worst pain that I’ve experienced, so far, in my life,” he said.

Taylor was having a stroke.

“The blood flow to a specific area of the brain will diminish all a sudden due to a blockade of a key artery,” said Dr. Nicolas Bazan at the LSU Health Neuroscience Center.

The clot busting drug, TPA, was a game changer 30 years ago for treating ischemic strokes. It had to be administered within four hours of a stroke. The extend trial found TPA may be helpful up to 10 hours afterwards, and Dr. Bazan is working on ways to save brains up to eight and nine days after a stroke.

“Perhaps there are experimental treatments that we can try to protect that area and then be able to restore function of that area,” said Dr. Bazan.

By pinpointing which cells in the brain are involved in post-stroke response, Dr. Bazan believes neuro-protective molecules his team discovered could save brain cells. As for Taylor, quick treatment has him moving forward, taking recovery one step at a time.

Dr. Bazan believes that finding new ways to save brain cells will help patients recover faster, with less long-term disability.

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