This isn’t strictly a stroke-prevention post. It’s a dementia-prevention post. But Stroke‑Proof is ultimately about protecting the brain—and looking after your hearing and eyesight may be a more important part of that than most people realise. The 2024 Lancet Commission estimated that addressing 14 modifiable risk factors could potentially prevent or delay around 45% of dementia cases. Two of those factors involve our senses: 👂 Hearing loss in midlife was estimated to account for around 7% of dementia cases at population level. 👁️ Untreated vision loss in later life was estimated to account for around 2%. Why might our senses affect the health of our brain? Think about how much stimulation reaches your brain through your eyes and ears. Every conversation you follow, face you recognise, book you read and environment you navigate activates complex networks of brain cells. When hearing or vision deteriorates, several things may happen: • The brain receives less sensory stimulation. • It has to work harder to interpret incomplete information. • People may withdraw from conversations and social activities. • Reading, exercise, travel and other cognitively stimulating activities can become more difficult. • Reduced input may contribute to changes in the brain regions that process sensory information. It may therefore be partly a case of maintaining the connections that keep our brain circuits active—continuing to stimulate the wiring rather than gradually allowing those pathways to become less active. In the ACHIEVE randomised trial, treating hearing loss did not significantly slow cognitive decline across the entire study population. However, among participants already at higher risk of cognitive decline, a hearing intervention slowed cognitive decline by 48% over three years. For vision, one study of more than 3,000 older adults with cataracts found that cataract surgery was associated with a 29% lower risk of subsequently developing dementia. That cannot prove that the surgery caused the reduction, but it strengthens the case for taking treatable vision loss seriously.

Welcome to Week 2 of our series courtesy of Prof Chatterjee on diabetes and insulin resistance. You will find the post attached below. Please comment and let us know your thoughts below. Have a great week and keep doing all the great stuff that you are doing!

Hello everyone, Nik and I, together with the Stroke Prevention Team in our local stroke service have been developing a three-session Secondary Stroke Prevention Programme for stroke survivors and their families. Before we launch the pilot, we'd like to make sure we're focusing on what matters most to stroke survivors and their families. Please have a look at the programme outline. We'd love to hear any suggestions or advice that could help make the programme as useful and practical as possible for stroke survivors and their families. Secondary Stroke Prevention Programme (Pilot) Aim: To improve stroke survivors' knowledge, confidence and self-management skills to reduce the risk of recurrent stroke through education, behaviour change and ongoing peer support. Target audience - stroke survivors - Family members encouraged to attend - Format - Three weekly group sessions - 90 minutes each - Interactive, discussion-based sessions combining education with practical self-management strategies Session 1 Understanding My Stroke Objectives Participants will: - Understand what happened during their stroke - Understand why their stroke occurred - Recognise their own stroke risk factors - Begin reflecting on their personal recovery journey Topics · Welcome and programme overview · Brief introduction to what is stroke, types, How stroke affects the brain and causes symptoms, Recovery after stroke, Why another stroke can happen · Understanding personal risk factors- introduction to stroke risk factors · Personal stroke story and group discussion Session 2 Protecting My Brain Objectives Participants will: - Understand the main medical treatments that prevent another stroke - Gain confidence in monitoring important risk factors - Feel confident taking prescribed medications Topics - Antiplatelets and anticoagulants - Medication adherence, managing side effects and knowing when to seek advice - Blood pressure: understanding targets and home monitoring - Cholesterol and statin therapy - Atrial fibrillation and stroke prevention

A group of nine members from Merseyside Life After Stroke Group went to McLaren Leeds as guests of Gary Booth who runs Chequered Flag Motorsport. It was a great day and everyone enjoyed it. We were supposed to drive the simulator but unfortunately it was broken in the morning (before we arrived so we did not break it!😂).

Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending the Warrington Moving On Stroke Group for their Make May Purple dinner. And, as always, I came away genuinely motivated. Groups like this do something incredibly powerful. They bring people together after one of the most frightening and life-changing events imaginable. They offer friendship, confidence, humour, shared experience, encouragement, accountability, and hope. They help people feel less alone. I don't see it as a “nice to have”. But as a real part of health, so I looked at the research this morning: Poor social contact and stroke risk A 2024 systematic review and meta-analysis pulled together date from 19 studies, including more than 1.6 million people, and found that poor social relationships were associated with around a 30% higher risk of stroke. The same review also found that poor social relationships were associated with increased post-stroke mortality. Lim, M. H., et al. (2024). Poor social relationships and the risk of stroke and post-stroke mortality: a systematic review and meta-analysis. BMC Public Health, 24, 2287.Available at: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11373457/ There was another earlier major meta-analysis by Valtorta and colleagues, published in Heart in 2016, which found that loneliness and social isolation were associated with a 32% increased risk of stroke. In the same analysis, poor social relationships were also associated with a 29% increased risk of coronary heart disease. Valtorta, N. K., Kanaan, M., Gilbody, S., Ronzi, S. and Hanratty, B. (2016). Loneliness and social isolation as risk factors for coronary heart disease and stroke: systematic review and meta-analysis of longitudinal observational studies. Heart, 102(13), 1009–1016. Available at: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27091846/ There are several possible reasons for this. People who are socially connected are often more likely to stay active, eat better, attend appointments, take medication, notice changes in their health, and seek help earlier.