Stroke Awareness & Recovery by AbilityPath

09/04/2026

A common sweetener used in products such as chewing gum, toothpaste, jam, yoghurts and ice-cream has been linked to an increased risk of strokes, heart attacks and death.

Xylitol is a sugar alcohol present in some natural foods in very low amounts. It is also added – often in amounts 1,000 times higher – to artificially sweeten foods, beverages and oral care products.

In the largest study of its kind, researchers found high blood levels of xylitol were associated with an increased risk of major adverse cardiovascular events. The findings were presented in Munich at the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) annual congress, the world’s largest heart conference.


https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/aug/28/sweetener-xylitol-used-in-chewing-gum-and-jam-linked-to-strokes-and-heart-attacks-study

09/02/2026

The current shingles vaccine appears to significantly lower the risk of heart attack and stroke, according to scientists who say it could help prevent thousands of deaths each year.

The research, based on records of 70,000 people in the US, found that those who had received Shingrix had a 12% lower risk of a cardiovascular diagnosis in the following three and a half years. If confirmed, this benefit would be comparable to taking a daily blood pressure-lowering medication, the scientists said.



https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/aug/26/shingles-vaccine-lower-risk-heart-attack-stroke-study

08/31/2026

Stroke is now the fourth leading cause of death in the U.S. and a leading cause of serious, long-term disability, according to the American Heart Association's 2026 Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics. Nearly 800,000 people in the U.S. have a stroke every year.

New guidelines from the American Stroke Association, a division of the American Heart Association, are reshaping what recovery should look like for these people. The 2026 Guideline for Adult Stroke Rehabilitation and Recovery replaces guidance from 2016, taking a far more holistic view of what healing after a stroke requires.

Here are the biggest takeaways from the updated guidelines.

1. Rehab should start within 48 hours
2. Recovery is about more than the body
3. Recovery requires a team of caregivers
4. Recovery has no fixed endpoint

A stroke changes your life in an instant—how you walk, talk, think, and connect with the people around you. Recovery from a stroke often stretches on for months or even years.

If your or someone you love is recovering from a stroke, remember that rehab should start early, mental health should be treated alongside physical health, and caregivers need support too.

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A reminder mental health matters just as much as physical health.

08/28/2026

Frequently eating processed red meats has been linked to a higher risk of stroke. These foods can raise blood pressure, impair blood vessels and harden arteries. Reduce stroke risk by following the DASH diet, moving often and knowing your numbers.

Processed red meat, like bacon, deli meats, hot dogs and sausages, can increase stroke risk thanks to their sodium, preservatives and saturated fat.

08/26/2026

Ischemic stroke remains a leading cause of death and long-term disability worldwide, with recurrent cerebrovascular events contributing substantially to cumulative neurologic injury, functional decline, and health care burden. Although major advances in acute stroke management have significantly improved survival, secondary prevention following an index ischemic stroke continues to represent a critical challenge in contemporary cerebrovascular care.

Of the more than 800,000 strokes in the US every year, 1 in 4 are recurrent events.1 The risk for recurrent stroke varies widely across patient populations and stroke phenotypes, ranging from 10% to 15% within 12 months among patients with advanced microvascular disease or large artery atherosclerosis.

This risk persists despite advances in risk factor modification and the widespread availability of evidence-based guidelines and online resources, highlighting gaps between recommended care and real-world implementation. Barriers including health care access, treatment adherence, economic burden, patient engagement, and uncertainty in individualized risk assessment continue to limit the effectiveness of secondary prevention strategies.

Closing the gap between clinical evidence and real-world implementation remains essential to reducing recurrent stroke burden and improving functional outcomes among stroke survivors.

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Secondary stroke prevention faces barriers like fragmented care, driving the need for precision medicine and novel targeted therapies.

08/24/2026

Here are 7 ways you can reduce your stroke risk:

1. Pick up your walking pace. People who walk slowly have a 64 percent increased risk of stroke compared with those who move briskly, according to a study published this year in Stroke.

2. Improve your grip strength. People with a weaker grip may be more likely to have a stroke, according to a 2026 report in the journal Stroke.

3. Trim your middle. If your waist circumference and waist-to-hip ratio are elevated, your stroke risk may be too.

4. Floss your teeth. Gum disease is strongly linked to elevated stroke risk.

5. Do you snore? Get checked for sleep apnea. Sleep apnea can lower oxygen levels and raise blood pressure, each of which leads to a higher risk of stroke.

6. Treat migraines. A study published this year in Neurology Open Access finds that people 45 and older who had migraines that included visual or sensory changes as the migraine started had a 73 percent increased risk of stroke over those with no migraine history.

7. Ask your doc about A-fib. Shortness of breath, a pounding heart and chest pain are all symptoms of atrial fibrillation, or A-fib, a leading cause of stroke.

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These simple but surprising tricks will help you improve your overall health — and avoid a brain attack

08/21/2026

A stroke survivor hopes that her story inspires others to live in the moment and discover their purpose.

A stroke survivor hopes that her story inspires others to live in the moment and discover their purpose.

08/19/2026

While most people who experience a stroke are 65 or older, up to 10% of strokes occur in people younger than 45. Stephanie Ost, who is 40, is one of those people. Two years ago, she had a stroke that left her paralyzed on the left side of her body. She was 38 years old. "I never would have thought this would happen to me,"

According to a 2023 scientific study published in Cureus, up to 60% of stroke survivors are left permanently disabled. This is because of dead brain cells that don't regenerate, which causes the brain to no longer be able to communicate with the rest of the body properly. But a groundbreaking new treatment, vagal nerve stimulation, is showing promise in overcoming this.

Ost was one of the first people in the U.S. to receive the treatment, which involved getting a vagal nerve stimulator implanted in her chest, with wires tunneling under the skin to electrodes on the left side of her neck near the vagus nerve.

Vivistim is an FDA-approved implantable device that helps stroke survivors by stimulating neurogenesis (the biological process by which new neurons are formed in the brain) through stimulating the vagal nerve. This is called vagal nerve stimulation.

Ost underwent surgery and received the device on July 23, 2025, and she says she's definitely noticed a change in her recovery. "Since I've received the implant, I've regained a lot of skills I lost. I can hold my purse, put away groceries, move my arms and bend my wrists. I couldn't do any of that after my stroke," she says.

Stephanie Ost’s left side was paralyzed—and this device was a game-changer.

08/17/2026

Biological age is a measure of how old your body actually acts based on cellular and metabolic markers. According to research, the gap between your biological age and your chronological age (the number of candles on your cake) may have real implications for your brain health.

Researchers can estimate biological age using blood biomarkers like cholesterol, blood sugar, and inflammatory markers. When your biological age is younger than your chronological age, it suggests your body is aging more slowly than expected. When it's older, the opposite may be true.

Lower stroke risk for improvers: People who improved their biological age gap (meaning their biological age got younger relative to their chronological age) were 23% less likely to have a stroke.

Higher stroke risk for those aging faster: Participants whose biological age was older than their chronological age had a 41% higher risk of stroke.

Less brain damage: For every standard deviation of improvement in biological age gap, participants had 13% lower volume of white matter damage, a type of brain injury often linked to cognitive decline.

Your biological age isn't fixed, and that's good news for your brain health

08/14/2026

A four-year-old was hospitalized for two months after suffering a stroke — which was likely triggered by chickenpox she’d picked up months before.

Olivia Elliot, now 5, woke up vomiting and complaining of a headache in June 2025 but her mother, Rebecca, 31, initially thought she had just picked up a bug, but when Olivia could't grip her mother's hand, she was rushed to the hospital.

Doctors discovered severe inflammation in one of the main arteries supplying her neck, which specialists believe had been triggered by the chickenpox virus she contracted in Christmas 2024.

Olivia temporarily lost movement down the left side of her body, her speech became slurred and one side of her face drooped. She spent almost eight weeks in hospital before beginning the long road to recovery.

“Life is so busy and things are so easily skipped by. Strokes can happen at any age, at any time." Olivia's mother, Rebecca said

“In the first two weeks that she was in the hospital, we met two families who’s children had had strokes. One little boy was on his second. This is something that happens to people."

Olivia Elliot, now 5, woke up vomiting and complaining of a headache in June 2025.