What’s the life in your head like?
For stroke survivors or, indeed, anyone fascinated by the workings of the human brain I recommend listening to the recent BBC Radio 4 programme The Life in My Head – click on the link to go there. This programme is about stroke and recovery from stroke, and about the wonder that is the human brain. The programme is presented by Robert McCrum, whose book My Year Off I found inspirational once I’d regained the ability to read and concentrate back in 2004/5. If you are short of time, I recommend at least listening to the second episode which describes his experience of undergoing a couple of weeks of intensive physiotherapy twenty years after his stroke.
There really is life after stroke. The practical application of the most recent research and what it reveals about neuroplasticity – the ability of the brain to relearn skills and master new ones – is something that must urgently find its way into standard NHS treatment of stroke survivors.
Listen for yourself!
