Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another episode of Couple O' Nukes. As always, I'm your host, Mr. Whiskey, and when it comes to medical incidents, and today we'll be focusing specifically on strokes, but any medical incident that leaves you in the hospital or in recovery for, you know, We always think that's the hardest and most challenging part.You know, living in a hospital. The food isn't the best food you've had in your life, unfortunately. You know, sometimes you don't get along with the nurses. And we've had episodes on the Healthcare provider side and the importance of communication and being friendly and patient and forgiving. But, you know, on top of that environment and getting out of there, you know, everyone's so desperate to get out of the hospital thinking it's the most challenging part, we fail to realize that sometimes the worst part is actually getting back home.You're home now, but you don't have nurses tending on you, you don't have the, equipment sometimes and you go back home thinking everything's gonna suddenly become normal and then you still have your health issues. So we're here today to talk about how can we set up our home? How can our caregivers set things up for us to have the best possible recovery, especially after a stroke, you know, things are going to be different.So people don't realize there's so much we can do at home, especially with our mental health and our mindsets. To help get us ready to get back to as close to normal living as we can how we can recover at home Creating an environment both physically and mentally to further that and we are here with a man who has helped so many families Do just that and he also wrote a book which we will get into that is a perfect guide for that.Dr Kenneth monaghan Recording with us all the way from ireland And so, uh, it's great to have you I thought it was also early morning, but it's evening time for you now, I believe, correct? Yeah, it's, uh, it's 3 p. m., or it's between 2 and 3 p. m. Um, but like a lot of people today, we were up early listening to the results of the elections.So, I live, I live, um, in the northwest part of Ireland. Um, and I, uh, work as a lecturer in a university in Dublin. in a town about 40 minutes drive away from me. And my background is that I, I qualified as a physical therapist or a physiotherapist here in Ireland, um, about 32 years ago. And I've had two careers really because the first 16 years of my life I would have specialized in sports medicine, so musculoskeletal injuries and I would have worked with semi professional teams and I would have treated people for bad necks and backs and shoulders and all of those things.And then in the last 16 years, since I moved to the Northwest, since I got married, I have specialized in therapies that help people with neurology problems and especially stroke patients to recover and mostly to be able to recover remotely in their, in their own homes or, you know, remote from therapists.I run a research group called the Neuroplasticity Research Group, and we've raised about 2 million in the last few years to run projects. Um, and I really enjoy that, but, uh, I think the, the noble. Why I'm on your show today is because over the last, I suppose, 20 years, when I spoke to stroke patients and their caregivers, um, an awful lot of them, in fact, the majority of them would have said that at a time, like you said a minute ago, when.When it should be good, it should be good news that you're going home and you should be looking forward to going home. The opposite is actually true. Um, these people have a black cloud sitting over their heads because there's a lot of myths that are out there and there are a lot of beliefs about The home not being a great place to recover from and also our caregivers probably are a little bit paralyzed because they don't have the, you know, the direction and the confidence to kind of help people in their own homes.So that's something that I'm hugely passionate about. Yeah, and in our I'm not sure how recent it is. A couple of weeks ago at this point, but a couple of weeks ago, we recorded with Zarina Prashay, creator of Xochitl, which creates, uh, games to help connect generations, and she's a caregiver, and we talked about the importance of setting up whoever you're taking care of, whether that's a family member, a friend, or whoever it may be, not just to survive, but to thrive, to have some semblance of life again, where they are You know, using their brain and happy and able to be as independent as possible, you know, sometimes they're going to lose some of their independency, but setting them up to do as much as they can on their own is so important.And you mentioned neuroplasticity, which is becoming such a big word over the past few years. We've seen it really, you know, come mainstream and a lot of people are talking about it, whether it's rewiring the brain, the brain or, you know, People are taking neurology courses and everything, but I just want to side pivot to the university that you work at and you lecture.Is it related to this subject or is it an entirely different subject? It is, well, we don't have specific physical therapy courses. At the moment, but we're developing those courses and I work in courses that are called health science courses. So they're like stepping stone courses for people in our education system.Um, when, when high school, high school, uh, students are 18 years of age over here, they do a final examination, which we, which we call the leaving certificate. And. If you want to get into a particular program, so an undergraduate program, you have to choose which is your favorite and you make a list of five or ten courses.And each of the courses has points that have to be achieved to get into them. So there's a huge kind of points race that happens. And in Ireland, Physical therapy courses or physiotherapy courses require you to get quite high points. I'm sure it's the same in America. Um, so if a student, you know, if my son Vertoxic didn't get into, um, some of the bigger universities in Dublin and Cork and Galway and places, then they need to find another avenue.And the courses that I lecture on are called health science courses and they, uh, students can do a couple of years, um, in those courses where they do modules that teach them all different health science subjects. And they can kind of decide do they still want to do physical therapy or do they want to do occupational therapy or speech and language therapy.And then they can go and transfer into, uh, some of the bigger universities after that. So that's, you know, so it's like a stepping stone course. Uh, but at the same time, our, we have a lot of clinical research, so one of, one of the strands is my own research group. So over the last probably seven or eight years, I've had probably almost six PhD students that have graduated and um, a number of master's students and, and all of their projects were very much based on, you know, innovative therapies that can help the brain.Um, you mentioned a minute ago on neuroplasticity and. I suppose technically neuroplasticity means that your brain changes at any moment in time. And people, you see the problem is that, and especially for stroke patients, they don't realize this or they hear the myths that, you know, if it gets to about six months after you've had a stroke, that your chances of recovery are gone at that point.And of course, that's completely untrue. It's rubbish in fact, because your brain is changing itself every moment in time. So your brain is changing as you're listening to me talking, and my brain likewise is changing, creating new brain cells, changing its function very slightly based on everything that takes place.And actually just for your listeners, If they're interested in neuroplasticity, well, there's a real guru in the world over in America, and he's a man called Norman Doidge. So that's Norman, D O I D G E. And he has written two incredible books. The first one he wrote was called The Brain That Changes Itself.And that is a fantastic book for anybody that needs hope and inspiration and, you know, wants to look at some of the innovative things that are being created. And that That, when I read that book, that really was the template, I'd say, and the starting point for me developing a lot of the research projects because we based a lot of them on some of the things that he was doing there.Okay. Yeah, it's really, really good. But for stroke patients, so the first message, I suppose, uh, for people listening, um, and for caregivers is, uh, your stroke Patient and your loved one needs to understand that your brain has the ability to recover any time after a stroke. It's not within a defined period of time.It's with any time at all. But of course you have to kind of use techniques. You have to have yourself motivated and very positive. And there's a lot of things around that that help you. Um, but that one thing has to be understood. And if your stroke person doesn't do that, know that, then you as a caregiver, it's one of those brilliant talents that you, you possess, you can explain that to him in a very easy to understand way.Yeah, so ladies and gentlemen, if you want to change your brain and improve it, you should subscribe to my show so you get every episode, but yeah, it's like, uh, but no, I agree. You know, I think people get caught up in this. I can't change. And scientifically, I mean, it's just proven that your brain does change, you know, and, uh, and it could change for the worst if you neglect it, you know, just like any part of your health, you can let it deteriorate.And it's so important that you continue to pursue. You know, knowledge and education and trying new things to help your brain grow. But, you know, you were talking about education and health science and all of that. What got you initially into sports medicine and helping people recover? You know, was that something you were always passionate about or what made that career choice for you?I Initially, the sports thing was natural because I played sports when I was younger and I would have, you know, had injuries and I probably saw myself being treated and thought that that might be a nice career. I mean, I like working with people as well and I always did and it's very rewarding to help people to recover, you know, whether it's sports injuries or whether it's neurology.Probably about. Around that time that I started to really become interested in neurology, um, and after I had moved to where I live now, I'd been asked to come and see, um, a, a, a physician. Uh, here we call them a general, general practitioner or GP, but in America it's a physician, um, who had just returned home after having a stroke himself.And it was, it's, you know, you talk sometimes about things that are fated for you. So I was I was moved down to the Northwest. I was between jobs and I had this huge interest. Um, I'd heard about a therapy called Myrrh Therapy, which had really sparked some interest in me, in me. And then I was being asked to go and see Frank.So Dr. Frank McCurtain was the man's name. And when I went to see him, He was just typical of of so many patients I've seen over the last 15 years. He had just returned home from hospital. He was completely frustrated because he had ideas in his head about maybe how his therapy could be going or what he might do to kind of help him recover, but nobody would give him the permission to really you know, do or make decisions on, on that, they were keeping him, they were afraid that he would do harm, of course.So to be able to go in there, uh, number one, and say to him, look at Frank, you're going to get a better recovery if you become very active in, in terms of deciding what therapies work for you and what don't. At this point, I would say to your listeners that every person who's had a stroke looks for the golden ticket therapy that's going to get them better.Isn't that right? And you see, when we look, when we look on the internet, and we see sometimes miracle cure people, you know, if you go on the internet, you'll find people who recover very quickly and miraculously after a stroke. And usually they'll be promoting, or the companies will be promoting, the therapies that they've used.But what we have to realize, um, And in, in psychology, they call this survivorship bias. But what we have to realize is that behind that miracle cure, there's probably another thousand stroke patients who have a very slow and gradual recovery. And that's actually the normal thing. And of course, if you're sitting at home and you, you know, and you see this miraculous patient and you compare yourself, well then you're going to think that you're doing really poorly, isn't that right?Um, when actually you just need somebody to explain to you that look, don't be, don't be focusing on what those people are using because there isn't a golden ticket therapy at all. But what there are, Is there are 30 or more, um, established therapies that are safe to use and have some evidence that they could be beneficial for you after stroke and possibly be used in your own home.If you can manage it and if you can have help to do this, try out as many of these things. Now in my, in my book, I suggest, you know, Five or six to start with, um, because they're very easy to use in your own home and they're cost effective and they're also very innovative. But when I worked with Dr. Frank that I'm mentioning, I had a chance to use, um, the likes of mirror therapy.I had a chance to use the likes of cross education of strengthening, which is an interesting therapy and sensory substitution. And those are the three things that our research lab would have, have worked on. And I saw, I suppose. First of all, there was a need, you know, Frank's wife, Maureen, who's the most, the nicest person in the world, but she wanted to help in any way she could, but she just needed guidance.She needed just to be told, yeah, you do this, do that, do the other thing. And also, he needed to have the license to be able to kind of choose what he wanted to do. And also, I saw that Very simple cost effective therapies could be used very effectively in somebody's own home and your home actually has huge, huge advantages for people that are very much underestimated and one of those, um, not to go on, but one of those things which is very important to tell people.people who are listening, is that when we're in our homes, and I have a good friend, he's Professor Ian Robertson, he's um, um, a psychologist in Trinity College Dublin, um, and Ian has written a book called The Winner Effect, and in it he tells us how when we're in our own homes, our bodies release substantially more testosterone, which is that rebuilding hormone, that Kind of strengthens our brain and strengthens our bodies, but we never realize it and it's because we're, you know, the sights and the sounds and the smells and the familiarity and sometimes just even friends and neighbors coming into us.Those things make an awful lot of difference. And that's just one of the huge benefits. that a person gets when they're in their own home, but they don't realise it. So, I suppose when I saw and worked with Dr. Frank McCurtain, and actually, coincidentally, I dedicate my book to Frank, because really that was the starting point for me.That was, that was really the action from Lightsmirror's action. And, and from there on, that's when I started to rebuild, or to build that research group. And, I suppose, always, you know, it culminated in the book being, being written over the last 12 months. Yeah, so in the book title there you had the word mirror and you mentioned earlier mirror therapy.I mean for those of us I'm sure there's plenty of us who have never heard of that or we've heard of it And we didn't know that's what it's called. Can you tell us a little bit about that? Is this something specifically for stroke survivors, or is this something that applies to a lot more patient types?Yes, it's um, so you're right to ask that question because mirror therapy itself. So what mirror therapy is, Mr. Whiskey, is imagine that you have your two hands. So if you have your two hands on a desk in front of you at this moment in time, imagine, imagine you take a mirror and you stand it vertical, but you turn it sideways.Okay. And it's so it's between the two hands. And if the reflective side is faced, so imagine actually that you're, you've had a stroke, God forbid, and your left hand is, is not able to move or your left fingers are not able to move. When you put the mirror between your two hands, have the reflective side facing your actual good hand and have the non reflective side facing The hand that can't move.And what you do is, if you tilt your head very slightly, so move your body very slightly, so that you can see the reflection in the mirror, and you can see the reflection of your good hand, after a few, after a very short period of time, even a few seconds, your brain is going to start to think that that reflection is your actual left hand that can't move.I mean, you're kind of fooling and tricking the brain. But actually what's happening is that, uh, the visual information you get from looking at that left hand or the reflection moving, um, it goes, it sends that visual information up to your brain and it desensitizes it and it kind of creates new pathways and helps to assist with neuroplasticity.So it's a very simple therapy and where this really was started off was not for stroke at all, but it was for a thing called phantom limb pain. So Lukas, you've, you're You've been in the Navy yourself, so I'm sure you've come across accidents where people possibly lose limbs or fingers or. For sure. And, and if you lose a limb, um, you're going, there's going to be almost 100 percent chance you're going to suffer from a thing called phantom limb pain.So again, if you're, if you lost your left hand in an accident, um, your brain, It struggles. It's, it's kind of struggling to figure out where's all that information that normally goes up to the brain every millisecond. It's suddenly all gone and your brain really struggles. And what happens is it manifests itself as a pain.And also, you know, the person visualized, they think they actually have a limb there. So this amazing. Um, Indian researcher back in the early 90s, he figured out that if you covered that limb, you know, you covered the arm that didn't have the hand with the mirror in the same way that I just described for the stroke patient, um, and moved, the good hand, um, and look at the image in the mirror.Um, he figured that it would desensitize the brain and that's exactly what happened. And it was like a miraculous miracle cure for those people. So what's happened over the last 20, I suppose 15 or 20 years is People, you know, we, we, we thought, well, this could have very, um, practical applications for a stroke patient because they have the same type of, um, deficits and our lab has been advancing a lot of the therapy about that.Um, but to say to your listeners that, you know, I'm not here going to say to you that mirror therapy is the, is the absolute therapy that will get every patient. Of course it's not, but at the same time, um, last week was, was World Stroke Day and of course I was, I was, talking on a number of radio shows in Ireland and we had a stroke survivor with us that had used myotherapy and he hadn't used it until at least six months after his stroke where he had lost ability of his hand and fingers to move exactly like I described and within three or four treatments he had started to regain movement and within eight or nine weeks he had 90 percent of his function back.So that was a very good example but just to show you, I mean some people get extraordinary. benefit from these things. And some people, again, you know, maybe smaller benefits. Yeah, exactly. Um, but it's a, it's an interesting therapy. And the thing is, you can buy a mirror, a simple mirror for 10 or 15 and you can put it on your table and prop it up there.If you go on Amazon, you can buy, there are specific mirror boxes that companies have produced. They cost a little bit more, some of them are 40 or 50. But again, it's a therapy that's very worth exploring and trying because some people love it. And instantly love doing it, they find it, they're easily motivated to keep doing it.And others perhaps the opposite. Yeah, interesting. That is probably one of the most interesting recovery methods I've heard of. It's almost a placebo effect, and you know it's not. Your left hand, but your brain just, you know, sees it. So that's, that's pretty interesting. I think part of it is you got to believe, be like, that's my left hand.You know, you got to do some talking to yourself for sure. But it's so interesting to think how you could just forcibly rewire your brain to say my left hand does work. You know, it's like, but, but it's, it's That's a whole conversation on its own, the connection between the mind and the body and what you can tell it and what you can't, uh, right, because you can't, it's just, it's something scientists still study every day is the, the connection between our conscious and our body and, you know, I can't just think, all right, brain, I want you to start growing muscles on my arms cause, uh, you know, that, that would be helpful, but it's definitely interesting.And, and we've seen cases where people. Yeah. Have have really forced themselves to have dreams about working out and and they they monitored and saw the muscles flaring up About what they were thinking about so that the connection between the mind body is so powerful So do you think that you could use a mirror just just to help further that right because we can think all we want My left hand can work, but you know seeing is really believing in some cases.And so that's It's such an interesting thing, and to think it was originally to just pretend that you still had a hand, uh, is definitely a very interesting case. And I want to talk a little bit about, or go ahead. Oh, sorry. I was going to say to you that, you know, what you've mentioned there about the word placebo is, is really, um, really good.relevant to what we're talking about. And every, there's a placebo to everything that we do and everything that we use. So, the question is, is there more than just a placebo to therapies? And I suppose all of the things like MIR therapy have been proven to be, because in our, in our trials, we would, we would use a, what, a placebo MIR, where we would tilt the, the, the, the image, you know, tilt the mirror in a way that the person definitely couldn't have availed of the image, but they don't realise we're doing it.And when you compare that, people get, you know, definite benefits. Um, can I tell you a very quick story because you just mentioned something there about the brain and the body, um, connection. And this is a fascinating story and it's, um, There's a, there's a very famous psychologist in Stanford University called Alia Crum, Professor Alia Crum, and she has a favorite milkshake.Do you have a favorite milkshake, Mr. Whiskey? I like all of them, to be honest. You know, it's hard. I mean, the go to, I guess, would be Oh, I like, I like the mint Oreo ones because then I feel healthy, uh, because it's minty and fresh, so I'm like, I'm brushing my teeth with the milkshake. So my favorite has to be the mint Oreo because it's refreshing and it, it's my placebo effect that I'm being healthy, so.Alright, okay. Well, look it, Ali Akram had a favorite milkshake as well. And what she did with her favorite milkshake is she, uh, she had a group of students and she created a specially designed milkshake for them. And she told them that it was very high in calories, so high that they wouldn't need another meal for the rest of the day.And then a couple of days later, she, made a specially designed milkshake for them and she told them that it was very low in calories. So low, in fact, they probably would need two or three meals for the rest of the day. And as you can imagine, and I see you smiling, you realize that it was the same milkshake.Yeah. What they were measuring was, they were measuring how much of a hunger hormone called ghrelin was produced in their bodies for the rest of the day after they had what they thought was a high or low calorie and can you imagine what happened? In the people, in the group, the group that thought they were having a high calorie milkshake, they produced only one third of the amount of hunger hormone in their bodies for the rest of the day compared to the other group.And that fact is extraordinary and it's extraordinary for this reason that the only plausible explanation for that is that our brains create, they created, their brains created something physiologically based on what they thought. Isn't that right? So when they thought it was a high calorie, they produced very little hunger hormone and vice versa.And you see, this is the nub of the starting point for most people when they come home or they want to repair themselves after, you know, after an injury, is that If you know that milkshake story and you know how important your brain is and you know that your brain acts like a pharmacy, then you know then that it's very important to have a very positive beliefs in your mind that you, you can get better or that you can repair yourself.Because if you do, your body, your brain will release, you know, chemicals, growth. Growth factors, hormones, to create a positive kind of an environment in your body that allows regrowth and rebuild And the opposite is also true when you have a very negative mindset Um, the opposite happens your body and your brain creates negative chemicals hormones and growth factors and For anybody who disbelieves this, there's an extraordinary book called The Expectation Effect by a man called David Robson.And I assure you that if you, have you heard of it? I haven't, but you know, throughout this whole episode what I've been thinking about is expectations, you know, and how important they play in a role. From even before you get home, just when you're leaving the hospital, the, the expectations and the power of negative thoughts and positive thoughts.And just, you know, If, if you go into this mirror therapy, just thinking this is stupid, it's not gonna work, uh, you're really gonna program yourself to say, you know, not believe in it, and belief is so important for, for this to work, you know, just like with the milkshake, if you, if you had doubted it and been like, no, I don't, I doubt this is, is many calories.Who knows how the effect would have been. So I've just been thinking about expectations because they've done experiments before where they'll give you like, um, Dr. Pepper soda, but in a Coca Cola cup, and you'll be like, this is Coca Cola. This tastes like Coca Cola. And so it's interesting how, you know, if you don't know something, and people you know, tell you X, Y, Z.You'll, you'll, you'll believe it. Or if you, if things are set up to make you believe something that's not, then you'll actually experience whatever it's not. You know, we've seen it where they gave patients, I think, I think it originally stemmed from, if I'm not mistaken, they were just giving patients a medicine, a pill, and it was actually just a sugar capsule, and then the patient said, I'm, I'm healed.I'm healed, you know, so it's interesting, that's how it can be, you know. Uh, you're correct, it is, and the expectation effect book by David Robson is full of science to back up everything we've said, and just as importantly, the opposite is true. So when you believe negative things are going to happen to you, uh, there's a very interesting story not to, not to take you, take you away or sidetrack, but there's a, there's an unbelievable story or chapter in that book that talks about a man who was diagnosed with um, throat cancer.And he was, you know, this maybe September he was told that he'd be very lucky to survive until after Christmas. As it turned out, he did survive until after Christmas. But when they did an autopsy on him, they found that he had been misdiagnosed and he didn't have throat cancer at all. Um, there was something on his liver, something small, but it shouldn't have been the cause to, to, um, to, to make him die.And I suppose that's the opposite. You know, if you, if you have a negative belief, that man believed that he was going to die, so I suppose his body prepared itself. And you see, when you, when you hear that, then if you go back a couple of hundred years now, where, you know, in tribes, and you know, there were medicine people, people with whale bones, and you know, if they pointed it at you, Mr.Whiskey, and you did something bad in the tribe, and pointed it at, and the culture there was that now you were finished, uh, that's That makes a lot more sense now, doesn't it? Um, and I think what we're finding, what I, what I've seen in, in my 30 years as a therapist is that I think there's a lot more emerging of the kind of, you know, Oriental medicine, you know, Eastern medicine and Western medicine coming together.We're, we're kind of taking the whole person and we're realizing that the brain is, is, is really, really important. And your brain has beliefs and belief systems that are subconscious and that they only come out really when we're, when we're making choices in life. And sometimes, sometimes it's very hard for us to realize that is not, is not the way things are.Um, I was saying to my students there one of the days, just as an example of this, um, I said to them, Think back to the last time, or the first time you bought a car from a garage. And, um, think, imagine yourself driving out the gate of the garage and imagine that it's a blue Toyota car. Well, as you're driving down the road, um, Immediately, you spot another blue Toyota, and it's like, oh, there's another blue Toyota, and then two miles further down, it's like, oh, another blue Toyota, and then suddenly there's a blue Toyota in a car park, and you see blue Toyotas because your brain has been primed and kind of ready to look for them.Whereas, and the question is, Were there blue Toyotas passing you for the few weeks before you got your car? Of course there were, but we, we weren't alerted to it. And you see, our beliefs is a bit like that. Um, our beliefs really only become kind of alerted and primed when we have to make choices in life.Um, so that thing of priming the brain, I'm not sure if you've ever heard of that before. Uh, you know, where we kind of make suggestions to people, but subconsciously they don't realize it. Actually, you know, There was a very good, simple experiment done about this, um, a number of years ago with students as well, where two groups of students, one were taken into a cinema and they were showing, they were shown images of older people and oldness, if we put it like that.And then the other group were put into, um, a cinema and they were shown pictures of youth and young people and youngness. And what they were measuring in the experiment was, how fast did the people walk? from the cinema afterwards. How did, how fast did they walk down the corridor? And what they found was that the students who'd been subjective to images for 20 minutes on oldness, they walked substantially slower.That's insane. Because, it is insane. It's because they had been primed, you see. Their brains was primed. And you see, we, We will be doing this, I think, in the future. We'll be priming people's brains. We'll be, you know, and you mentioned the placebo effect, but I think, I think, I think for years placebo effect was a little bit of a dirty word, if we could say that, you know, if something was a placebo effect, people didn't like that.It was kind of like it was false. Yes, exactly. But people have to realize there's a placebo effect in addition to the true effect of medicines and things. all the time happening. And we could harness that if, let's say your doctor gave you a medicine for, you know, blood pressure, um, next week, and if he said or she said to you, Mr.Whiskey, before you take this tablet, I'm insisting that you watch a video that I've prepared where I tell you exactly about that tablet and I explain to you why it will work for you and it improves your understanding of it. And you have to do that. Okay. before you start taking the tablet or before you do your therapy.And you see what will happen then is you'll be primed, you'll be really thinking this tablet is going to work for me very well. Yes, sure. And you'll get more benefit when you take the tablet. It's kind of like, and I think that's what could happen in the future. And it's probably the way medicine and healthcare will probably go is that we'll formally use That's kind of how commercials work right now.I mean, right, like I'll use Ozempic for an example. Again, not promoting, not against necessarily, but You see all these commercials of people are living happy, happy lives and doing great on Ozempic. So you might buy the medicine and My experience the results just because you saw in the commercial you saw all right after I take Ozempic I'm gonna move faster do this and that and like you said with that movie example You might start moving faster just because you saw the people in the commercial doing it You were primed already and I think what's was interesting Also, is we've seen a lot of cases where people actually just died from heartbreak, uh, especially with couples who were together for a long time or family, we've seen it where someone passes away and then shortly after the other person just passes away almost mysteriously and I, I wonder if it has to do with, you know, you're saying to yourself, I can't live without them and you keep saying that I can't live without them and your body just shuts down because they don't have that other part.So it's definitely interesting case study, but Oh, I think so. I think it's, I think it's, it's exactly that. Um, it's again, your brain, if your brain is a pharmacy, it creates chemicals, you know, it creates things physiologically in your body. Um, so that makes an awful lot of sense. Actually, one of the things there you said, which is very interesting, is that, I mean, everything in life is marketing.So everything is marketed to you to kind of make you want to buy it or to kind of say, you know, to have it. And it's, it's, it's why medicines don't work so well in Africa and places that don't have TV and things. So, you know, in Ireland, ibuprofen, um, the kind of marketed drug is a thing called Nurofen. Is there Nurofen in, in America?Anyway, I'm not sure. Anyway, an ibuprofen is an anti inflammatory tablet and Nurofen is one of the companies that sell it and that's the well known, so it's the tablet. And of course, um, When I see Neurofen, immediately my mind thinks to the advertisement that's on television where there's a little red dot that goes up to the brain, which is supposed to, uh, animate and tell me that Neurofen is going to treat my problem.But when you go to Africa where they don't have TVs, Neurofen doesn't work so well because people haven't got that. placebo or that additional kind of marketed information to kind of promote the product. And it's probably why generic medicines are struggling to kind of take hold on the market as well.Um, I'm sure your listeners are familiar with generic medicines. So basically, when a pharmacy or when a pharmaceutical company creates a new medicine, because it takes an awful lot of money, uh, you know, billions of dollars to create a new medicine, uh, they're allowed to have a patent on it for so many years so that they get a chance to get recovered their costs and, you know, only for, only for the government does that, then companies, pharmaceutical companies, it wouldn't be worth their while to, to create new medicines.But once the patent runs out after maybe 20 years, then all the other companies can make that medicine if they want. Right. And it's exactly the same medicine, but it's just called something different. And you see, It's very difficult to get a person who's been on an established branded medicine to suddenly take a different medicine because, if it's called a different name.And you can explain it to them, you can say to them, this is exactly the same. We're just so superstitious too. You know, people are, are naturally superstitious. They're like, no, I, I have to take this medicine. This is the only one that works for me. Or, you know, this brand, that people get so, Caught up on brands rather than advertise, uh, rather than the actual medicine itself.Like you're saying, it could be the same exact medicine, but they're like, no, if it's not, even just like, if it's not CVS brand or it's not, you know, if I didn't get it from Walmart, whatever it may be, people get so caught up on the, you know, the brand and it could be the same exact ingredients, same exact instructions to take and everything.So people are superstitious and people love just. Having a personal connection with something, you know, it is, um, I see my mom is very exactly like this She's been asked to take generic medicine by her doctors and she always refuses because it's not the real thing And the problem for healthcare systems is it costs them billions of dollars because it's gonna cost extra money to buy the branded good Yeah compared to the generic one.So that's um That's a, that's a, that's a problem in health care a little bit, you know. Um, but yeah, you're right, all of this, all of this stuff about the brain and how your brain works and is, is very important that people kind of realize this. And what's probably changed over the last, uh, 10 years or so is that the technology that we have for looking and investigating about what's happening in the brain.So the functional MRI scanners that they use, they've become much better. So you can kind of, you can prove that. You know, your brain is changing at any moment in time, whereas probably 30 years ago, you didn't have the opportunity to do that. Um, so, you know, the technology is, is kind of proving that, you know, all of these things are taking place, you know.Well, and you and, You and I had a chat for a while before we recorded here, and we were talking about alcohol and, you know, using it as a way to cope with social anxiety and that. And I think we see a lot of, you know, advertisements and commercials and even movies and shows promoting in mainstream media and on social media.You know, it's not a party till you smoke some pot, you know, or till you have, you know, whatever it is, whether it's weed or alcohol. We see this a lot of, you know, priming that. Oh, if you have this, it's going to make you more confident and, and, and, you know, better at talking and this and that. So I think that when it comes to alcohol, it really becomes a thing where you think to yourself, Hey, I'm not cool until I drink.Or you're like, if I don't drink, I think that's part of what plays into how addiction forms. You know, you get this, you create this, you know, thought that you need alcohol to be this person or to do that, or to do this. And then you. You start really believing that belief to the point that your body needs it physically in order to give that output that you want.But what I think is interesting, Ken, is, you know, we talked about this mirror therapy, and I want to, you know, digitalize it. Uh, if I had the money and resources to do so, what I would do is I would create a virtual reality program where stroke survivors could put on this VR headset, and the It would make a virtual left arm that's kind of with where their arm is in moving and kind of convince them in an even more Immersive way than a mirror that they're moving and using their left arm.I think virtual technology can be leveraged to speed up stroke recovery Uh, if anyone takes my idea, I I do want a percentage of it. I just I can't make that I don't own vr technology, but I think you know because I think the mirror therapy I mean is effective We've seen it work Uh, but if we take the two dimensional to the three dimensional, I think it's, it'll be even more effective.Um, and maybe not, maybe it won't be, but I think only time will tell. I think that's an interesting way to look at it. Yeah, well look at, first of all, , you're a very innovative, innovative guy because your idea is actually up and running. It's, uh, there are companies that are doing that. And actually I had a research student, um, a few years ago, and we were doing exactly that project.We were using virtual reality to create, um, we had a software developer that created a. package where when the headset went on, um, the person could see what looked like their left hand, you know, the damaged hand moving. Um, now, and so the, the principle or the concept of what you're saying sounds pretty brilliant.However, can I just say one thing? And again, your listeners, might find this useful is that we always need to be careful. And I got caught out at this, um, at an early stage with Dr. Frank McCurtain, uh, the physician I talked about. Um, sometimes the therapies that you think people would absolutely love, like that, Uh, they don't like so much.And where I saw this was, um, so I treated Frank 15 or 16 years ago when, uh, the Wii, you know, the Wii game where you kind of hold the controller and you can play the game. Yeah. And there was a balance board with that, or there was a board that you could stand on. And when you moved your weights, uh, both ways, you can control a ball.And it was like golf. You can control putting a ball in the hole or something like this on television. And when I saw that, I thought to myself, That is the thing that Frank needs because he, you know, he was struggling to put the correct weight on his legs. And by coincidence, his neighbor, um, his neighbor's daughter had one of them.And this is 15 or 16 years ago in rural Ireland where we didn't have all the technology at the time. So it was a very coincidental and we arranged to bring it down and to his house. And, um, I was so thrilled. I was so excited 'cause I was thinking, this is gonna be brilliant. And when Frank stood on top of it, oh my God, he hated it with a passion.He absolutely was like, get that thing out here, throw. He would've thrown it out the window. So, so some , when I say to you that people need to try different therapies, I, I suppose that's one of the reasons is that. There's no, people get a sense and you see also after a stroke, people will have cognitive problems that sometimes can be a little bit difficult to sense.Uh, so the thinking process that would make a person motivated or that would understand a therapy very well and that would want, that would, that would lean, leads to them using it very well. Sometimes that doesn't work so well. So I would say people should try all of these different technologies um, if they're available.Um, and you will get a sense, you know, and I see this with a lot of the patients I work with, you get a sense for the things that actually your gut feeling is they work well. And here's, here's the important thing is that Stroke recovery is going to be slow and gradual and it's going to require you to do exercises over weeks and months, which is a very unique condition.So, it's motivating people, which is really the key thing that we need to do. Yeah. And I'm going to have to tell you another story, Mr. Whiskey, I hope you don't mind. Yeah, that's fine. Because, and this is all about, you know, how you motivate people. Um, Uh, one thing, one way that we motivate people, so if I wanted you to keep doing therapies for a long time, one, one very good way to motivate you is to prove to you that you are making progress.Isn't that right? Yeah, for sure. And sometimes that is really, really difficult in a stroke population because Uh, for any patient at home, you know, that's, that's recovering, you know, from an arm that sore or whatever, it's very, if you make very slow progress, it's very hard for you to see that because it happens so slowly.Um, I liken it to, you know, our kids, uh, we have an almost an 18 year old and a 15 year old in our house, but when they were younger and when they were, you know, growing, We used to take the measurements on the wall, isn't that right? I don't know if you ever did that in your own home. And then every month you'd take another measurement and you'd see that they had gotten a little bit taller.But if you didn't take those measurements, you would struggle to see them getting tall. And it's the same thing in recovery. If I can, if I have lost power in my arm and I can move my arm only a small bit up, and then next week I can move it just a little bit further, which is progress. But if you can't see that or if you can't measure it, um, then.it's very hard to motivate people, but if, if a person, if they can prove that they've made progress by a few degrees, um, that is very motivational and, and one of the chapters in my book talks about some very simple measurements that can be taken. And in fact, even, you know, the use of videos, or use of your smartphone to actually record somebody walking, you know, down the corridor and then do that a week later or two weeks later.Even though a lot of stroke patients, people don't like, um, that because it kind of makes them feel very self conscious. But I would, I would encourage, um, you know, a caregiver or a kind of family member to try and persuade them to let you do that. Because I've seen a number of, quite a number of patients that I work with and You know, we record them walking down their corridor or their hallway in their house.And a week later, when you record the same thing and show them the comparison, they can, they can actually see a very slight difference in their ability to walk. It becomes less bum, bum, you know, it becomes more fluid. And you want to see the smiles on their faces when they see that, or if they see a movement of an arm and then compare it a week or two later.And you can see the progress. It's, it's, it's a brilliant, brilliant tool. But there's another very important thing about motivation, and I have to tell you this story. Mr. Whiskey, did you ever play with Lego? Yes, yes, all the time. Good, and I'm sure most of your listeners have. But there's another brilliant, um, psychologist called Dan O'Reilly, um, that's spelt A R I E L L Y, and Dan is a psychologist in Duke University, I think it's in North Carolina.Yeah, I recognize his name. Yes, and he has written a brilliant book called, he has a number of books, but one of them is called Predictably Irrational, which is a great name for a book. Um, but he does this brilliant experiment with a little Lego set, and what he's trying to, so it's a Lego set that that a person would probably take 10 or 15 minutes to make.And what he wants to find out is, if he gives that set to you, Mr. Whiskey, and he says, and he pays you to make the set, and if it takes you 10 or 15 minutes, and when you've the first set made, and you bring it back to him, He gives you a second set, but this time he pays you a little bit less. So if he paid you 10 for the first one, he pays you 9.50 for the second one. And then if you do a third one, he pays you 9. 00 and 8. 50 and 8. 00. And what he wants to find out is how long will you keep doing and making those sets before you, um, decide that it's not worth your while, which is a very interesting question to ask. But of course, there's a twist to the experiment.So. When one group of people bring the first Lego set up to Dan, he looks at it, he looks at you and he smiles and he goes and he recognizes that you've done a good job and he writes down in his book that you've done it and he encourages you, he says well done Mr. Whiskey, you did a great job here, you can easily do more of these.He acknowledges that you know, you've done a good job, and he praises you. He's saying, you did a really good job. And more importantly, he takes the piece and he puts it on a shelf up behind him, so that when you're doing your next one, you can see it. And if you're doing the third one, you can see the first two, and so you've kind of got a record to look at.Now in the other group of people that were doing this, when they brought their piece up to Dan, he looked at it, and then he looked at them, but absolutely nothing. No smile, no body language, no writing in a book about it, no encouragement, no, um, acknowledgement, no praise. In fact, what he did was, instead of putting it on a shelf, he broke it up in front of them, and he put it into the Lego bin underneath the table, right?So he gave them the next set and paid them the same as, as the other group. And of course, as you can imagine, your group that got all the, you know, the praise, the encourage, so we, I call it REAP, it's, um, so if you recognize that somebody, um, is doing good work, if you encourage them, E for encouragement, if you, A, you acknowledge, and P, you praise, if you do that to somebody about their work, they did almost twice as many.twice as many because they got that feedback and that record. And you see why I'm saying this is that in stroke rehabilitation this principle or concept holds exactly the same. So if a caregiver or family member is working with a stroke survivor and you know they're keeping a record of all the exercises they do and you know you say look at this, this week you're doing 10 times, next week you're doing 15, you know you have a record to look back on are you even a copy that you can say, look at all the exercise you've done over the last six weeks.If you encourage and you say, look at, you're doing a great job. You're, I realize it's very tough for you to do these things. I know you're struggling, but you're really doing well. And you praise people. If you do those things, people will keep going and they get, they get better motivation to keep going longer.And the thing is, these are very simple things to do. All you're really doing is giving a pat on the back and formally just recording what people are doing. And, you know, to be honest with you, Mr. Whiskey, most people. most people who are in employment, probably their managers and their leaders and their bosses probably should listen to that experiment because it, it holds true, isn't it, when we get praise.100 percent Yeah. Yeah. And a lot of times that doesn't happen in life. Um, and sometimes the further up the lather you go, sometimes people think you don't need praise at all. And I would disagree. I would say that you, you need just as much praise no matter what level you're at and helps people. Anyway, so interesting just in terms of motivation.No, I agree. I think, uh, a lot of stroke survivors are going to have a lot of self doubt. And, you know, they're not going to be able to see the results because What they're trying to see is full recovery, you know, that miraculous case or whatever, you know, they want to see that fast progress So I think if they don't see fast progress, they just see no progress at all So to show them something I think is great to fight that self doubt and another thing too I think with the stroke survivors is that if they're trying multiple different forms of recovery or therapy it's important to keep a kind of refreshing mindset each time you go into something new because I think a lot of them get caught up in this cycle of Uh, the last thing that didn't work, so this isn't gonna work.And you already go into it thinking it's not gonna work, where you need to say, alright, this is something new. You know, I, I can't base it off of the other methods that didn't work. But I think a lot of times in life we get so caught up with frustration that, um, the more things we try, The less effective the next one is because we're going into it with such a this isn't gonna work kind of mindset.But yeah, so as far as your book, I know we've talked about, we've really addressed the caregivers, but is your book something the stroke survivors should read as well to kind of advocate for their own health? And I mean, sometimes we might be recovering an environment where the people around us aren't as interested in our health.You know, maybe they feel burdened or they're busy and they don't want to do this research. Is this something our stroke survivors should read and say? Hey, I want to try this or I want to try that. Would you say this is a resource for them just as much as the caregivers and their family members? Yeah.The book was written in a very easy to understand way. So it was written for kind of non professionals, but there's 140 footnotes of science that backs it up if people want to look it up. Um, of course, if, if, if, you know, lots of people have strokes and they're well capable of reading, um, information and they're, they really want to find out.And of course, if they're able to do that, they can. then definitely, um, read, you know, read about why neuroplasticity happens all the time and why your home is a brilliant place to do your rehab and why your, your caregiver can have special talents that really makes them very good to help you, of course.And Actually one thing that I just wanted to say that when I was writing it, I was a little bit conscious as well, that a lot of stroke patients sometimes have cognitive issues or they have visual problems sometimes that Right, uh, stops them from being able to, um, read the book. So what I created, um, what I created at the, at the end of every chapter was in addition to obviously a takeaway message that, um, the person can look and, you know, they can, they can.Uh, summarize the main things. I don't know if you can see it in here, if you've seen it in the book, if I've sent it to you, but on, you see, there's a kind of a brain picture there. Right. Is that a QR code in it? Yes. So it's a QR code where what I've done is I have a YouTube channel, The More Than Yourself, and I've recorded videos that, that summarize the main, um, stories and the main, um, concepts from each chapter.And I actually, where I, so if a person can't read the book, they can just scan the QR codes and they can, they can listen to summaries, me describing, you know, some of the concepts and some of the stories. And I saw that this was very useful for some patients that have had, over the last while. I know another person will be saying, well, why don't you just do an audio version of the book?And maybe we will at some stage. But actually sometimes just describing the things in an easy to understand way is almost like a little summary of it as well. So a lot of people have come back and said to me, they find that that's very useful, you know. And I think that's what's happening as well. A lot of newspapers now, don't they, if they report interviews and things, they give a QR code where they can go online and you can actually see the interview taking place and things.Yeah. Um, so you're right. So the book is, look at it, it's written for caregivers and stroke survivors, if the person is capable of, you know, actually taking information from it. But if they're not, then I suppose you're reliant on on your family member or your loved one to kind of read it and kind of understand, you know, and it's written so that you can kind of understand and be able to explain things in a very simplified way.And I think that's what has to happen, you see. And you see, that's the problem with care, you know, a lot of caregivers, family members. They, they have this paralysis because they're not really sure what's the right information and the wrong information to tell people and they're not really sure, you know, what would be good therapies and things to do.Um, and they're not really sure, you know, if they're going to cause somebody to have another stroke by doing things. So they're more inclined to do nothing than to take a chance on doing stuff. So. That, you know, that's really, that was the really, the point of writing the book was that it's to kind of, you come home and you don't have that menu or that guidance, so this is that guidance.It's, it's that information and I would suggest people, you know, maybe if they know they're going to be discharged home in one or two weeks, that's probably the time to start maybe a little bit of information, you know, yeah. get the brain primed, you know, start off by really reassuring them that neuroplasticity takes place at any time and, and, and can happen.Uh, going home has to be seen as a positive move, not a, not a negative one. Right. Just because you're leaving that rehabilitation center, um, and you don't have big fancy equipment in your own home, uh, that does not mean that you can't make a recovery. Um, and. I've given five or six therapies that, you know, are very easy to do.Uh, we discussed myrrh therapy a minute ago, but actually there's a very, one other very interesting therapy, which has huge potential, is a very simple thing, Mr. Whiskey. It's called cross education of strengthening and very simply put, it's, um, imagine you went to the gym yourself, um, for six weeks and you just strengthened the right side of your body.Now, you'd never, you'd never do that in practice because. People strengthen both sides, isn't that right? Right, right. But actually, if you did, and you measured the right side of your body after six weeks, it would be very, very strong, as you can imagine. But amazingly, if you measure the left side of your body, it can be anywhere up to 40 percent stronger, even though you haven't done anything.And the reason for that is that Unbeknownst to us, our, the electricity or the neural activity in our brain, it crosses across to the other side when we're doing unilateral movements. So, the other side is actually getting stimulated even though you don't realize it. And as you can imagine, that would have a brilliant benefit or potentially could be very useful for somebody who can't move one side of their body.Wow. And you see in our research group and in our neuroplasticity research group, what, what we've been specializing in is kind of combining therapies. So in my book, I suggest how people can use therapies individually, but actually, In our group, we've developed technology and medical devices that incorporate, say, mirror therapy and strengthening at the same time, so people can kind of double up the therapies.And maybe potentially down the line, we have some patents on some of these devices. Maybe those will become wholesale use for some people. But at the same time, you can buy a piece of resistance band for five or ten dollars and you can attach it to a door in a very specific way and you can actually do exercises that can be hugely beneficial as well.So all of these things can be done at home and that was really what I wanted people to know is that, you know, you can do therapy at home. You can kind of try things. You can have the flexibility in your own home to do therapy when it suits you, according to your fatigue and your tiredness and all the things that happen.And sometimes that isn't allowed when you're in a traditional rehabilitation centre. Because a lot of times the therapies are, are timed and you go at a certain time. And sometimes when you wake up after a stroke, you know, in the morning, you might get Just be really, really, really tired and fatigued that day.So the ability to have flexibility around your timetables and the ability to do as much therapy as you want and as you can motivate yourself to do, that's really what all of the stroke associations are advocating nowadays. They're saying that look at the people who make the best recoveries are the ones that kind of adhere to that you know, the 10, 000 hours principle where, you know, if you want to be an expert in something and you do 10, 000 hours, you can get there.So I kind of, I liken to that by saying, look at 10, 000 repetitions is, is kind of like the concept. If you can kind of push yourself to do lots and lots and lots of repetitive exercises of therapies that you decide will work. Work well for you, then you give yourself the best chance of a recovery regardless of what length of time it is since a stroke.Um, and that's really what you're trying as a family member or a loved one. You're trying to kinda really incorporate that and, and, and convince your stroke person that that's what's happening. And sometimes if you have a book or you have a, a piece of information and you can show it to them, it's, it's, it's a good validation that that takes place, you know?Yeah, I think the most important thing ladies and gentlemen take away from this episode is it's one of hope and kind of like We've said in other episodes. We live in a day in an age where there is so much information out there Now, be careful, because there's a lot of false information out there. Like we said earlier, there's are myths, uh, misleading information.But we live in a day and age where there's so much information out there. And in fact, it is probably the best time to have a stroke if you're going to have one. I hope that none of you listening ever have a stroke. But I say that in the sense that there are more recovery methods. Especially at home in a, you know, effective but, you know, cheap methods, uh, more than ever before.So, you should be hopeful in the sense that there is so much out there for you to try. And that includes Ken's book, so we'll have that in the description below. It's, uh, Ultimate Guide to Stroke Recovery for at Home. So whether you're, uh, A stroke survivor or a caregiver, or you're just someone who wants to be prepared and learn more information, definitely be sure to check that out.We're going to have that in the description below with his website, which has a ton of useful information on it as well. But, Ken, before we close off this episode, I have to ask you a question that's been bothering me from the beginning, which was, Ken, what is your favorite milkshake? You know, I didn't want to interrupt your story, but you asked me and I wanted to ask back, but you started talking about the, you know, the super calorie milkshakes, and I didn't want to interrupt you, but it's been bothering me this whole time, like, Does, do they have milkshakes in Ireland?I have to know. Oh, they do. Do they have non, sorry, do they have non alcoholic milkshakes in Ireland is the better question. Yes, they do. Um, so for, look, it would be something with strawberries, pineapples, um, mangoes, um. Probably some sort of yogurt and something like that would be my favorite I'd say. I'm not a mint, I'm not a mint chocolate.Yeah. It's more of a smoothie. You got all pieces of fruit in there and yogurt and everything. That sounds, I thought mine was healthy. I thought mine being mint was healthy, but you, uh, you got me beat in that category. Um, yeah, I think that'd be the flavor it would be. Um, Look, thank you very much for, for giving me the opportunity.I wonder just before I finish, would it be very sensible for your listeners if I just very quickly ran through the, you know, the alert signs for people, you know, that to be on the lookout in case somebody would actually have a stroke. Would that be important? Um, because world stroke. day was, um, last week.So the timing of this, um, podcast is actually very good because World Stroke Day was last week. Um, so for your, your listeners, the acronym is BEFAST. So B E F A S T. So B, so if these things ever happen to you all of a sudden, um, so B stands for, you know, that your balance becomes affected or you become disoriented or, you know, maybe you have a very, very, very severe headache that, somebody might describe as the worst headache they've ever had in their lives.E stands for eyes. So if your vision was affected in one or both eyes, all of a sudden, you know, that, that's a kind of a bit of a warning sign. F is for your face. So that, you know, your, if your face, one side of your face kind of starts to droop or sag, or you find that, you know, there's a weakness or drooling that happens there.A stands for your arms. So And a weakness in one of your arms that happens all of a sudden. So if you try to, you know, lift your two arms, you find that you just couldn't lift one of them. That, that is something that is concerning. S would stand for speech. Speech, so that your speech becomes slurred, you know, and you kind of, you cannot, you know, Talking correctly, and then T actually stands for time.If, if you notice one or more of those things happening to you, and all of a sudden, very quickly, then T, it's time that you should dial 911 and, and check those things out. Because even, hopefully, nothing like that is happening, it's probably best to err on the side of caution for that. Is that okay? Yeah, I appreciate that.I do want everyone to know I'm half Irish, by the way, so I'm not just dogging on Ireland, I am half Irish, you know, I wasn't born there, I haven't been there, but uh, I just want to say, yeah, but uh, You'll have to come over sometime, I think, that's what you'll have to do. It's on my list, I've had a I recently recorded with, uh, Tom Equals and his, uh, book.He wrote a Vietnam book about, uh, horsemanship was, uh, a lot of it took place in Ireland and I was like, I gotta go visit sometime, you know, I, I've got some ancestral roots over there and I, I think I should definitely go check it out. It's on my list, um, Italy and Ireland. I'm half Italian, half Irish. So got to go hit both of those, uh, very different cultures in, in some aspects, but, um, I'll, I'll go.I don't know if it'll be better to drink in Ireland and then, you know, chill out with wine in Italy or maybe set up myself with some wine in Italy and then go crazy in Ireland. I was, I was saying to you, um, just before we started the podcast that I actually worked in America. I worked in Florida, um, close to Fort Lauderdale area for four years when I was a young physical therapist.Fort Lickerdale. That's what we call it in the Navy, Fort Lickerdale. Um, and that was a fantastic experience where I came across some of the best therapists I've ever met in my life, I have to say, and, um, I definitely, I would have worked in rehabilitation centres, um, and that was, that, you know, that probably was a big help to me as well, you know, kind of, the more things you see, so when you talk about going to Ireland and Italy and things, uh, the more things you experience make you a better, you know, better, um, you know, person.analyzer of information and become more strategic in your thinking and all of that thing. So, yeah, definitely come. And if you're coming to Ireland, you have to let me know. Is that all right? And we'll, we'll try and meet you. But it might be coffee if it's me. I'm afraid I'm not a drinker anymore. We're going to have to get milkshakes.I think we're going to have to get milkshakes and do a little photo shoot and be like, yeah. I think so. You're drinking a smoothie at that point, Ken. I hate to call you out, but I mean, if what you described was not a milkshake, it's not a milkshake. Not by American standards.Okay, look, come here. Thank you very much. It's been fantastic. Oh, yeah. No, this has been a great episode. I really appreciate our conversation. I think we touched upon so much more than just, you know, strokes, but also just health in general. And so if you're not a stroke survivor or caregiver, I think some of the things we talked about are universal when it comes to your mindset really affects your body.I think the neuroplasticity is so important to know that your brain is ever changing. It's never too late to learn something new or to try and fix something that's going on with you. And I think as we mentioned earlier, Uh, you know, both as a caregiver and as a patient, uh, with yourself, you need to be patient, forgiving, and you know, you need to understand that recovery takes time and that it's the small victories that really matter and add up.So Dr. Kenneth Monaghan, I really appreciate you coming on the show and I look forward to connecting with you in the future. But thank you once again. Oh, you're very welcome. It's been an absolute pleasure. Thank you.
