Limiting Stroke Damage with Magnesium sulfate

[papau]

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Source: American Stroke Assn: Warning signs of a stroke

If you notice one or more of these symptoms in yourself or someone you are with, call 911 immediately or get to a hospital right away:

• Sudden weakness or numbness of the face, arm or leg, especially on one side of the body (the most common sign of stroke).

• Sudden confusion; trouble speaking or understanding.

• Sudden trouble seeing with one or both eyes.

• Sudden trouble walking; loss of balance or coordination.

• Sudden, severe headache with no known cause.

http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-he-stroke28mar28.story

Can we limit stroke damage?
Because every second counts, patients in a novel study will be treated before they reach the hospital.
By Melissa Healy
Times Staff Writer

March 28, 2005

Stroke patients throughout Los Angeles County who dial 911 are becoming part of a first-of-its-kind study designed to determine whether a low-cost, common mineral can protect the brain from damage.

Los Angeles County paramedics in mid-January started screening patients for participation in the planned three-year study, which would allow emergency personnel to administer a specially prescribed solution to patients being transported to any hospital in the county for further treatment. The study is expected to involve nearly 1,300 people before it concludes.

The treatment under study is called "Fast-Mag," named for magnesium sulfate. Researchers believe this mineral might slow the chemical process that can kill 12 million brain cells per minute during an untreated stroke, leading to long-term disability and death. They aim to test whether a rapid increase in a stroke victim's magnesium sulfate level — delivered within two hours of the appearance of symptoms — can reduce the often-devastating effects of such a "brain attack," during which the blood supply to the brain is partially cut off.

Magnesium sulfate is found in most leafy green vegetables and is naturally present in healthy humans. But the experimental Fast-Mag treatment would quickly double a patient's normal blood level of the mineral and would keep it at that elevated level for roughly 24 hours. Used for 75 years in the treatment of preeclampsia, a complication of pregnancy, the dose of magnesium sulfate under study has been shown to be extremely safe. Its most common — and severest — side effect, suffered by 5% to 10% of patients, is a sudden flush of warmth to the cheeks. <snip>

[NorthernSpy]

1. great stuff, epsom salts...

Magnesium tablets can also reduce some kinds of high blood pressure (such as occurs in preeclampsia), and hospitals use intravenous magnesium sulphate solutions to help prevent respiratory failure in people who've suffered a severe asthmatic attack.

[MockSwede]

2. Bell Peppers

Great for causing bell pepper blossoms to better set fruit and increase yield per bush, too. Also 1/2 book of matches thrown in the hole before settling the plant roots.