(Montreal) Stroke patients seem to maximize their chances of optimal recovery if they are physically active after their stroke, suggests a study of some 1,500 patients in 35 Swedish hospitals.
More concretely, the researchers found that four hours of physical activity per week doubled the chances of a good recovery six months after the stroke.
The primary purpose of the study was to measure the level of physical activity of patients after their stroke. The subjects were therefore grouped according to their level of physical activity after their stroke.
It was only later that the researchers decided to check whether one level of physical activity was associated with better recovery than another, said Dr. Gregory Jacquin, a neurologist specializing in stroke at the CHUM.
“And indeed, unsurprisingly, people who do more physical activity following the stroke have a better long-term outcome,” he summarized.
The authors of the study pointed out in a press release that “physical activity positively reprograms both the brain and the body after a stroke”. Physical activity, they point out, improves the body’s recovery at the cellular level, increases muscle strength, improves well-being, and reduces the risk of falls, depression and cardiovascular disease.
The group of physically active patients is quite different from the other, noted Dr. Jacquin: the patients who make it up are younger; they have fewer long-term consequences of their stroke; they have fewer cognitive problems; they have fewer medical comorbidities such as coronary heart disease, hypertension and diabetes; and they take less medication.
“They are generally in better shape, probably even basic before the stroke,” said Dr. Jacquin. They were people who were physically a little more fit, so it’s not surprising in the end to see that it’s this group that stands out. »
The benefits of physical activity observed after the stroke could therefore stem from the fact that the patients were already more physically active, and therefore in better shape, at the time of their accident. We can’t know for sure, since the Swedish researchers didn’t check the level of physical activity before the stroke, “but I think it’s a conclusion that is quite adequate,” said the Dr Jacquin.
Similarly, one could also assume that patients who remained sedentary after their stroke, and whose outcome was less favorable, were probably also sedentary before being struck down by the disease.
“It is reasonable to think, following these results, that having a higher level of physical activity thereafter will lead to a better outcome, repeated the specialist. That, I think, is quite adequate. »
However, we should not conclude that patients who were sedentary before their stroke have nothing to gain by being physically active afterwards, quite the contrary: as is the case with many other health problems, such as heart disease or cancer, it’s never too late to do well, experts say.
But motivating stroke patients to move a little more is a “daily struggle”, admitted Dr. Jacquin, especially since the disease may be accompanied by depressive symptoms.
The challenge for caregivers, he said, is determining the right “dose” of physical activity for the patient, since previous studies have shown that too much physical activity after stroke can have deleterious effects.
The findings of the Swedish study were published by the medical journal JAMA Network Open.