Inability to identify stroke is a problem in Health care.

Lack of stroke awareness puts victims at risk .
(I thought this article was interesting, lack of awareness Could be causing problems for the chiropractic profession.)
Polly Curtis, health correspondent
Friday February 3, 2006
The Guardian
Only one in five people can properly identify the symptoms of a stroke, leaving many people vulnerable to the longer term damage of delayed treatment, a survey revealed today.
Forty per cent of people would not call an ambulance if they or someone they knew suffered facial, arm or leg weakness or speech problems, the key indicators of a stroke, the NOP survey of 1,000 adults for the Stroke Association revealed. Twenty-two per cent could not identify any symptom.
The Stroke Association estimates that the condition costs the UK £7bn a year in rehabilitation and losses due to disability.
A stroke occurs when blood is cut off from a region of the brain starving it of oxygen. Oxygen deprivation kills brain cells, and treatment in the immediate moments and hours after a stroke can help reduce long-term damage.
When asked what they would do if they suspected a friend or relative was suffering a stroke, 33% said they would advise them to have a lie down, and 12% would wait to see if symptoms worsened before taking further action.
Sixty-seven thousand people in the UK die every year as a result of stroke: if 22% of people fail to recognise the symptoms of stroke, and 45% fail to act quickly enough, some 25,000 people a year could be dying needlessly, the association said.
Joe Korner, director of communications at the Stroke Association, said: "These survey results show that much, much more investment is needed to raise awareness of stroke symptoms. As a charity we simply don’t have the funds to do more than scratch the surface in terms of raising awareness campaigns.
He said that people should use the face, arm, speech test (FAST): when someone is experiencing facial weakness, with an inability to smile or a drooped mouth or eye, or their arms become so weak they cannot raise them above their head, or their speech is unusually slurred, an ambulance is required immediately.

Richard Lanigan
Richard Lanigan

Richard Lanigan DC.BSc (Chiro) MSc( Health Promotion) was born in North London 1957 of Irish Parents and was educated in Ireland. Originally trained as a PE teacher, he moved to Denmark 1979, where a serious knee injury got him interested in rehabilitation and training methods. Richard founded Denmarks premier fitness centre "Sweat Shop" in 1982 and travelled all over the world to find how best to prepare athletes for competition. In 1984 he became fitness and rehab consultant to the Danish national badminton teams, handball teams and many football club sides. This approach to optimal performance is normal in 2010, however back in the early 80s it was very revolutionary, when stretching was limited to putting on your socks and knee injuries were immobilised for months in plaster.
Richard developed rehabilitation and fitness programmes for many of Denmark’s top athletes including Kirsten Larsten and Ib Frederickson, all England singles badminton champions in late 80s. "Team Denmark" hired him and his facilities to help prepare many of Denmarks athletes for the LA and Seoul Olympics. In 1990 he worked with Anya Anderson, Olympic gold medallist and voted worlds best female handball player at the Atlanta Olympics.
Richard advised Copenhagen’s main teaching (Rigs) Hospital on starting their rehab facility in 1984. In the same year he started working with Denmarks leading chiropractor; Ole Wessung DC, who demonstrated the effectiveness of Chiropractic in improving athletic performance, so impressed was Richard that in 1990 he moved back to England to study chiropractic at Anglo European College of Chiropractic and was student president for two years between 1993-1995.

Richard was awarded a fellowship by the College of Chiropractors in 2008, however in January 2009 Richard chose to stop using the title chiropractor in the UK because the British regulatory body for chiropractic (The GCC) had not maintained international standards of chiropractic education in the UK and including prescribing medicines in the chiropractic scope of practice, a fig leaf for incompetent UK chiropractors to hide behind. Richard has another clinic in Dublin and is a member of the Chiropractic Association of Ireland and the European Chiropractic Union.
Richard has four children Eloise aged 3, Molly and Isabelle aged five and the eldest Frederik aged twenty one is pursuing a career as a professional tennis player and has represented Norway in the Davis Cup in 2006 & 2007. None of Richards children have ever taken any medicine, www.vaccination.co.uk they eat healthy food, take lots of exercise and have their spines checked every month, www.familychiropractic.co.uk
Richard has had much experience working in the Cuban health service where Doctors are keen to incorporate drug free interventions (acupuncture and chiropractic) and prevention in their health care programmes www.henryreevebrigade.org

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