Going back to work can protect your brain from further inflammation and decline.
Suffering from a stroke is scary. Someone in the United States has a stroke every 40 seconds, and according to the CDC, every 4 minutes a person dies from one. Are they all elderly patients? Surprisingly, no. When statistics were last recorded in 2009, 34% of people who were hospitalized for a stroke were less than 65 years old.
So, that’s the bad news. Here’s the good side. New research is showing that if you were employed before and after having your stroke, you’ll experience better long-term recovery.
A study presented by researchers from Tel-Aviv Sorasky Medical Center in Israel at the American Stroke Association’s recent annual International Stroke Conference detailed the work.
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It was found that people who were unemployed before having a stroke were more than 3 times more likely to develop cognitive decline in the two years following their stroke. Great.
This group was more likely to suffer from many complications. These included higher rates of depression, experience unhealthy brain changes, and have more brain inflammation than those who were employed.
In contrast, those who returned to working after their stroke had lower cognitive decline, and sharper overall thinking.
The study only involved patients who had suffered mild strokes and not severe ones. Nonetheless, it provides some hope.
As Ben Assayag, lead author said, “The message here is ‘keep on working.” And if the opportunity’s out there, why not?
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