Chapter 13: One Foot in Front of the Other

THE TAKEAWAY

1.       Moderate-intensity walking is the ideal exercise for reducing chronic illness in your body. Avoid large-scale endurance activity as it can potentially damage your cardiovascular system.

2.       Try different strategies to motivate your stroke survivor to walk. Examples include listening to music, radio, or audiobooks. We seem to remember more when we listen as we walk, which can be a benefit.

3.       Recent research informs us that regular walking benefits the brain of a stroke survivor by

·       stimulating them for action,

·       increasing blood flow to important areas of the body,

·       developing the hippocampus (the part of the brain that supports learning and memory),

·       flooding the brain with brain-derived neurotrophic factor and thus increasing brain volume (neuroplasticity),

·       improving activity and control in the visual and auditory areas of the brain, allowing improved benefit from mirror therapy and sensory substitution, and

·       improving the ratio of good fats to bad fats in the body.

4.       Our brains were developed to allow us to move. If we don’t, we are diminishing the need for our brains to recover. Let’s get walking.

5.       Aim to start with two minutes and gradually build to 30 minutes four to five times a week. Keep a record of the number of steps taken, and compare weekly numbers to know you are making progress. Every step taken is enhancing neuroplasticity.