1st day questions

Newcomer introductions, personal anecdotes, caregiver issues, lab results, and n=1 experimentation.
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healing
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1st day questions

Post by healing »

1st day today. Here. How to clear up vascular lesions in brain? How to prevent disintegration and improve cardiovascular health?
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RAJ64
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Re: 1st day questions

Post by RAJ64 »

healing wrote:1st day today. Here. How to clear up vascular lesions in brain? How to prevent disintegration and improve cardiovascular health?
Hello healing and welcome to the ApoE4.info community! I am happy to support you in finding a few answers to your questions while we wait for those with further experience in these areas to weigh in.

If you could share a little more about yourself or the person for whom you ask these questions, the topic could be narrowed down a bit which would be helpful. For example, are you or someone you know a carrier of the ApoE4 gene? That information would help guide the person replying to your questions. It isn't required that you know your ApoE4 status to be a member here, but sharing some information does help others know how best to type a reply to your questions.

The Primer is a good place to start learning more about the brain and how to support both brain and cardiovascular health. It was written by a physician who is a carrier of the ApoE4 gene. It is written in terms that are easier for non-medical people to understand. You can access it here: Primer

Here is a link to information on improving brain and cardiovascular health: Simple Preventive Steps

A forum can be a confusing place to find information on a specific topic. Using the Search function helps you find previous conversations or threads on topics that interest you. We encourage people to post to previous topics, even if they haven't been active for a while. It gets conversations going and often promotes new ways of looking at an issue.

In addition, you can search for a specific thread topic by clicking on the magnifying glass icon in the upper right corner of the menu bar at the top of the page. How To Search the ApoE4 Site

You will also find a lot of information in the Wiki section of the site. It's like an encyclopedia on topics related to ApoE4. You can search this area of the website by typing a word you are interested in learning more about into the search bar on the top right of your screen and then hitting "enter". You will see the word "Search" and a magnifying glass in the area where you can type a word. Here is the main page for the Wiki: Wiki Main Page

To give you an example of a Wiki search, I typed in the word "cardiovascular" and got this information for you: Cardiovascular

Again, welcome healing and please feel free to continue your conversation so we can get to know you and support you on your wellness journey. :)

Warmly,
Rachel
RAJ64, BSN, RN
Functional Medicine Certified Health Coach
With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts. ~ Eleanor Roosevelt
NF52
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Re: 1st day questions

Post by NF52 »

healing wrote:1st day today. Here. How to clear up vascular lesions in brain? How to prevent disintegration and improve cardiovascular health?
Welcome, "healing:,

What a lovely name you have chosen! While you may be feeling somewhat overwhelmed by a new diagnosis for you or someone close to you, it sounds like you are also open to viewing life as always giving us option to be healing ourselves, both physically and emotionally in the midst of uncertainty.

Your questions are ones that don't offer quick answers, yet it's safe to say that researchers and people like us now realize that we almost always have ways to support our cardiovascular health. I'm not a medical practitioner, but I assume that a neurologist or other medical provider did some imaging studies (maybe an MRI or a CT scan) and identified one or more type of signs of vascular (blood vessel) issues in your brain.

Some brain lesions are seen in people who never show symptoms or have any cognitive impairment. The effect of a vascular lesion depends on its size and location in the brain, and to what extent it interferes with connections among areas of the brain.

If your doctor didn't explain where your vascular lesions are, and what they affect, you can certainly ask to have an appointment to discuss that, and possibly bring a relative or friend along to take notes. (My husband has learned that I am not shy about asking doctors to explain more about what is going on. The best doctors like to make sure their patients understand what the diagnosis is and how they can be proactive about it.)

Having worked for many years with children who had experienced traumatic brain injuries and their families, I have learned to "never say never' when it comes to the brain's ability to heal and a person's ability to develop workarounds for issues. (As an example, I sometimes confuse people who look alike. So when teaching students, I found it helped just to explain up front "I have some facial amnesia, so if I call you by the wrong name for the first few weeks, it doesn't mean I don't know who you are." Kids loved to see it in action! I think it's something I inherited from my dad; we all have glitches in our brains--some of us were just born with them!)

Speech pathologists and occupational therapists are often skilled in developing plans to help people regain or revise skills affected by vascular brain injury. You can usually get a referral from your primary care doctor, the neurologist or the local Brain Injury Association and these services are often covered by Medicare.

Just as importantly, you may want to make an appointment with a cardiologist who specializes in working with people with vascular brain injuries, who can do additional testing of your heart. Again, I'm not a doctor, but as a parent of an adult child who was born with a serious heart defect, and the daughter of a father who found out his heart risk too late, I am a big believer in starting with good information on the condition of your cardiac and vascular health. The good news: cardiologists have lots of ways to diagnose how your blood vessels and heart are doing that are not invasive or painful!

For most of us, improving our cardiac health comes down to things we can work on: healthy diet, exercise (possibly under supervision of a personal trainer or a cardiac rehab class if your doctor suggests that), control of blood pressure, and sometimes some medications.

Healing, your brain is not going to "disintegrate"! it's made up of an extraordinary amount of neurons and connections with built-in back-ups. The fact that you found our site means your brain is problem-solving really well! On behalf of everyone who has been glad to find this site, let me assure you that we hope this first day here will be the first of many!
4/4 and still an optimist!
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