S11E1: Neuroplasticity explained

0:00 Hello my beautiful survivors, how are you? Welcome to stroke Surviving the Oz. This is Karina, your host and creator. This is more than a place where we talk stroke, but this is a space where we focus on moving forward. We focus on emotional and psychological healing after stroke because we know that there's much more than our inability to walk straight that is being affected.

0:29 So in here, we try to adapt and work on our mindset one day at a time. As for me, I survived the brain stem dissection, A coma, and Loughlin syndrome. I was 25 years old. That was many moons ago. That was 28 years ago. So I learned a lot. And in the podcast, I share everything I have learned to make my life that much easier as a stroke survivor.

0:59 Grab a pen and paper because the paint is of ink is better than the best memory. Come and join me here as we are recording today's episode 1 of Season 11. What is neuroplasticity? Aha, we hear that word a lot. Well, neuroplasticity is the brain's ability to grow, to rewire, to sort of reorganize and reboot itself.

1:30 And we're going to go in depth with that topic today. I think that when we address, you're going to better understand why it takes a bit of time after stroke to regain some of your strength. And when I talk about strength, I'm not just talking about physical strength, but I am talking about your mental resilience, your capability of handling your emotions. Now I'm nowhere near a neurologist. All I am is a 52 year old girl that had a stroke that lurked a shit load over the years.

2:16 And the number one thing that I did learn is about neuroplasticity. I remember when I woke up from coma and life started happening in my beautiful room M at my hospital. The neurologist would tell my husband at the time, don't worry, the brain is going to figure it out and make new pathways on how to do things.

2:51 Now keep in mind, 28 years ago it was not as clear that it was not as black and white and as defined as it is today. For some reason, Google was not popular and did not quite exist, or it was at its beginnings and people were just not looking at it. And we were relying a lot on doctors, just like many of you. And it can be intimidating.

3:24 I won't lie. It's many, many years after did I get into figuring out what it meant for neuroplasticity to happen, never mind how to make it happen. So our brain is wired all our lives from childhood, our brain is wired to do things in a specific way. And the older we get, we become creatures of habit.

4:01 If we do it this. How many times guys, have you heard other people say I have been doing it like this forever, whatever it may be. OK, well, that is not pertinent when we have a stroke. When we have a stroke, things are different, things happen differently, we heal differently and we have to change the way that we used to do things.

4:31 And I'm finding that many stroke survivors have a hard time adapting because of that creature of habit that they have been forever. I also know that you probably heard the expression all roads lead to Rome. That means there's not just one way to get to 1 place. What happens when we are using AGPS and there's construction?

5:07 The GPS is going to reroute, Yes. Rerouting, rerouting, rerouting, right? Well, I don't know if we hear that anymore because GPS are pretty quiet I find. But anyways, you get the gist of this. So think of neuroplasticity as Agps rerouting. That would be the easiest way for me to paint a visual, to create a visual in your mind.

5:41 Now all depends where your stroke happened, right? In which area of the brain? Well, the area that has been affected by the stroke is a big black hole. It is not a time warp. It is not a wormhole. It is just a big black hole. Well, when you survive a stroke, instead of the arrows, instead of the neurons, instead of the pathways going One Direction, there's a big black hole there.

6:26 They can't go there. They got to find another way. They got to go around. So now I told you what neuropathways are, right? But neuroplasticity is what happens when the neural, when the pathways are moving around and they're finding new directions, new ways to do things. So a quick reminder, neuropathy, sorry, neuroplasticity is the act of doing, of reorganizing, of reshaping your life neural pathways.

7:09 Let's think of it as the GPS, as direction, as new ways to do things. OK, now neuroplasticity is highly driven by lifestyle habits. We know that it's also influenced by the environment and by the age of a person. Now, that being said, as adults, it remains highly probable that change happens when the brain is properly stimulated. That's why after strong deaths, many people think that life is over, that their body is the way that they are, and that's just the way it's going to be until they die. And here we have the proof that that's not the case when properly stimulated.

8:02 That means it's important to go to your therapies, PTOT, speech therapy, because we know that speech is a muscle, heart is a muscle. That's why it's important to do cardio and walking, not just to reinforce your legs, but to reinforce your heart. All of that can be done. So neuroplasticity, from my understanding, offers a lot of hope. OK, for all of you out there that are maybe a little bit discouraged, well, here's proof that there's hope out there. I hope that you enjoyed today's show, today's episode. Please comment on any platform that you are listening to your podcast.

8:47 Also, you can comment on Facebook, on Messenger. Send me a private message and tell me what you are going through and what maybe has been influenced. What has changed? What neural pathways have you changed? What new habits have you done to make your life that much easier? Not only are you going to be telling me, but you're going to be telling other people as well.

9:16 That being said, this is what I have for you today. I hope you enjoyed and make sure that you like, follow, subscribe, that you also subscribe on YouTube. It's free, and if it's free, it's for me. Make sure you also share the podcast with the world. That way they know that this movement of stroke survivors is not going anywhere. We are only supporting each other even more. Know that the podcast is top 4 worldwide in the category of stroke survivors.

9:49 It is also the number one featured podcast in the US for stroke survivors and also is in the list of the most influential podcast for stroke survivors. Guys who are going good hands when you are here. I love you immensely and I'll talk to you soon.