Diet for Stroke Patients



Stroke is a condition in which a muscle or a group of muscles becomes weak or paralyzed following a vascular accident in the brain. These accidents will take the shape of bleeding or else an ischemia. Once a set of nerves or part of the brain becomes dysfunctional, these dead cells would not recover or else will take a long time for recovery which will involve many months of re-training.

Among all the stroke victims, large percentage will also suffer from weakness and paralysis of the muscles in the throat. In such instances, one of the main concerns would be the inability to receive a proper nutrition through the mouth. Apart from the nutritional restrictions, such patients are more vulnerable in aspirating ingested food particles or fluids, developing respiratory infections or else in producing effective voice. Thus, with the possibility of such debilitation, one needs to identify the best route of meeting the nutritional needs and how and when to do the necessary changes to prevent under-nutrition or else dehydration.

Before initiating nutritional interventions, the stroke victim should be evaluated for his or her ability to swallow. In this regard, the dysphagia trained nurse or a speech therapist should usually assess a stroke patient and under their recommendations a dietitian will prescribe an appropriate diet. As the patient improves his or her condition, the nutrition should also adopt itself accordingly and frequent review of the nutritional requirement would be the way forward in managing such a patient.

Following are some of the useful tips in managing the nutritional aspect of a stroke patient according to the previously discussed assessments.

-Provide the patient with a high protein – high energy diet.

This can be given either as an oral feed in case the swallowing mechanisms are intact or else as an intravenous or an NG feed as well.

-Give enough fruits and vegetables to make it a balanced diet.

Fruits and vegetables will not only provide good nutritional value, but, will also provide high fibers to maintain easy passage of stools.

-Maintain adequate hydration.

Drinking enough water or else giving adequate fluids through an intra-venous line has to be continued throughout the recovery phase. It will promote adequate metabolic functioning as well as have additional effects such as thinning of mucus secretions in the lungs where it can be coughed-up easily.

-Cater to the demand or get the victim involved in dietary decision making

When a person with a stroke request certain foods or fluids, if it is not harmful for the existing disease conditions, it should be provided at all possible times as compliance and mental soundness will play a major part in the recovery process.

-Change the menu

Changing the menu from time to time will increase the compliance and will avoid food refusals and developing of a dislike towards the foods.

-Avoid acidic and spicy foods as much as possible

Due to the possibility of developing gastric ulcers, such foods are better avoided.