Cardiac Arrest at Home? Chill Out !

  Therapeutic hypothermia (TH) by reducing body core temperature to 36 degrees C has been shown to improve outcomes after witnessed out-of-hospital cardiac arrest from ventricular fibrillation.

Cochrane Database Syst Rev2016;2:CD004128

  BUT in a recent study TH was NOT found to be beneficial in comatose patients that suffered a cardiac arrest in the hospital.

JAMA 2016 Oct 4;316:1375

Exercise to Reduce Nerve Pain

  Aerobic exercise may reverse some of the effects neuropathy in patients with type 2 diabetes. Studies have shown an increase in epidermal nerve fiber density in diabetics WITH and WITHOUT neuropathy.
Ann Clin Trans Nurol.2014 Oct;1(10):844-849
Pain Med Vol 16, Issue 8 Aug 2015 pp 1482-1489

Bad Sleep Equals Increased Risk of Stroke

  Sleep-disordered breathing (SDB ex. obstructive sleep apnea) has been found to be an independent risk factor for stroke. SBD and sleep-wake disturbances (SWD) increase the risk of stroke AND may impair neuroplasticity and recovery of function AFTER a stroke.
  Sleep studies should be completed in patients with stroke or warning signs of stroke in the form of TIA's.
Neurology August 3 2016

Get Fat Late in Life to Decrease Amyloid in your Brain IF YOU'RE NOT A APOE4 CARRIER

  From the Harvard aging brain study, greater amyloid deposits in brain were seen in individuals with LOW BMI (thin folks). However, those that were APOE4 carriers (increased risk with each APOE4 mutation you carry), NORMAL BMI (normal weight) was associated with greater amyloid burden in brains.
  Amyloid at high levels is toxic to our brains.
Journal of Alzheimer's Disease June 18 2016

Decrease Risk of Alzheimer's with Frequent Sauna Bathing

  2,000 men from Finland in a 20 year follow-up as a part of the Kuopio Ischemic Heart Disease Risk Factor Study (KIHD) that took a sauna 4-7 times per week were found to have a 66% decreased risk of dementia than those that took a sauna once a week.
Age Aging. 2016 Dec 7

Dr Prusinski Featured in ROAD & TRACK Magazine

  For this article, Dr. Christopher Prusinski was interviewed by Max Prince regarding concussion from the perspective of a Neurologist and race car driver and instructor.
Road&Track May 2017 Vol 68, No. 8 pp. 98-99

Autism Able to be Predicted in Infants

  1 in 68 children have been diagnosed with autism in the US. The risk increases to 1 in 5 for those children that have an affected sibling.
  Researchers at UNC Chapel Hill used MRI to evaluate the brains of high risk infants (those with a sibling with ASD). Overall brain volume, surface area and thickness of the cerebral cortex in select areas were measured. They discovered an overgrowth of cortical surface area in infants later diagnosed with autism. Using an algorithm they developed researchers were able to predict with near certainty which infants would later go on to develop autism by age 2. Further, cortical thickness was found to remain unchanged but the surface area of the brain increased at a higher rate than normal between 6 and 12 months of age. This expansion is believed to be due to an increase in neural progenitor cells (immature pre-neurons). Additionally, only the social symptoms of autism were found to be a consequence of these brain changes not the repetitive behaviors.
   The study is important in that the earlier we begin behavioral therapy in autism the greater the chance of limiting its adverse consequences.
Nature 542, 348-351 (16 Feb 2017)