If you have someone in your life who goes to the beauty shop and you want to save them from possibly devastating their life, READ THE ARTICLE at the link below! It explains how doctors are now seeing a correlation between some women who go to the beauty shop, have their necks cocked far back for washes and such and shortly after suffer a stroke.
"Beauty parlor stroke usually occur when customers sit in reclined positions with their heads and necks flexed backwards for a long period of time, according to Dr. Thomas Hemmen, of the University of California, San Diego. They are caused by tears in one or more of the four major arteries in the neck, which in turn cause blood clots to form. The clots then travel to the brain and trigger strokes."
Read the entire article NBC4.com, here: http://www.nbc4.com/stroke/12926674/detail.html
Now before you think I've gone off my rocker and joined the Internet newbie crowd of Chicken Littles who hear about old or bogus virus information and send out emails screaming READ THIS MESSAGE!!!!!!!!....consider this...
My mother was a vibrant 86 yr old. Sure, she had her share of medical problems and we worried about her, but she had her faculties and still handled all her own stuff as far as bills, medications and such, as she had her own living space in the house. On Friday, November 3rd, 2006, she went to the beauty parlor for the first time in a long time. She had been told that the cartilage around her carotid artery on the right side of her neck was very thin, which had been helping to cause pain in that side. They also mentioned some blockage in the carotid artery on that side. Had we known about the above information, we NEVER would have allowed her to go to the beauty shop! But we didn't know.
She went to her appointment on Friday as planned. She had a grandson's birthday party to attend the next day, Saturday, as well as her son-in-laws big birthday bash the following weekend. Mom hadn't been to the beauty parlor in a long time, so she had the works...color touch up, wash, cut, set, style. We had planned to pass her off to my nephew who was going to drive her up to his house to stay over night for the party the next day, but when I picked her up from the shop, she was complaining of a bad headache...a possible sign of a stroke...something else we didn't know about then!
So I changed the plans and took mom home to rest, take some Tylenol and allow her time to feel better. Greg drove her up to the party on Saturday. Mom assumed she would be coming home that night, as did I. But my sister convinced her to stay a bit longer and enjoy the weekend with them at the lake. Mom can't say no, so she stayed, even though she wasn't feeling all that well. She came home Monday complaining of still feeling bad and another headache from the long (1 hr+) drive home. She relaxed at home and went to bed. Tuesday morning, November 7th, I went up to see if she wanted to go with me to go vote...and she was talking like a Martian! She was having a stroke! And a week later...a heart attack that required surgery to insert a pacemaker!
Now we can't say for sure that it was having her neck bent back several times on Friday at the beauty shop that caused damage to her artery that eventually caused a clot to form, break away and cause her stroke...but if it was your mom, would you take that chance? Had we known this information before...there is no way I would have allowed her to go to that beauty shop. And trust me, she'll never see the inside of one again! Thankfully, she now agrees with that fact.
Mom is doing much better, but she's not the same woman she was on November 2nd! She still gets confused a lot and there are a lot of things that are just too hard for her to handle on her own anymore...like writing simple birthday cards to her grand kids. Most of them are mixed up. But we all understand and she's trying. I handle all her meds now and give them to her on a daily basis. Even answering the phone is a challenge, if it's not a close family member that she'll recognize right away.
So if you have an elderly person in your life whose future you care about...think twice before you send them off to have their hair done! If nothing else, warn the beautician not to wash her hair backward, but leaning forward. Maybe also wear a neck brace to help ensure that there won't be a lot of bending? Or better yet...maybe do what mom is now doing and go back to a hair style that is simple and doesn't require a beautician's touch. The family will understand! Trust me...a beautiful hairdo is not worth the pain and frustrations of suffering a stroke and aphasia!
Oh, and if you don't believe the one article above, see this link and the many articles on this "syndrome"... HERE.
Finally, if someone you love does suffer a stroke, you should also read this article to see how you can create a tool, one I used with mom, to start helping them work on getting their memory back: Create Flash Cards in Word
Note that you can click the envelope icon below to easily share this article with those you love! Please do share it! Hopefully, it'll save someone else from suffering a stroke.
