Recovery After Stroke

At sixty-five, Tom Ballo's stroke gave no warning at all — and eighteen months later, he says he's had exactly one bad day. Tom Ballo is a retired telecoms litigator of 32 years who suffered a massive hemorrhagic stroke at 65 with no warning signs — found by his five-year-old granddaughter. In this episode, he opens up about what recovery has actually looked like eighteen months on, including what's gotten easier and what hasn't. → What a stroke with zero warning signs actually feels like  → Why some symptoms, like spasticity, can get worse over time, not better → How self-actualisation and a stable sense of identity shape recovery → Adjusting to a new role at home when independence changes → What it means when a survivor says they've had "one bad day"

She survived a stroke at 34, but three years later, a new fear moved in: seizures she sometimes can't feel coming. Jonathan and Letitia Hritz join Bill to share what's happened since Letitia's ischemic stroke at 34 the diagnosis doctors almost missed on New Year's Day, the promise Jonathan made at her bedside, and the wave of new-onset seizures that's reshaped their family since January 2026. Letitia is now a licensed practical nurse, still fighting to finish the RN degree her stroke  

There's a question underneath "I just want to be who I was" - and it isn't about the past. Jaemin Frazer is a coach with nearly two decades and 16,000 hours of practice behind him, and the founder of The Insecurity Project. He works with high performers on the thing almost nobody prepares for: what happens when your ordered world falls apart, and you look inside for resources you never built. In this conversation, he and Bill take that work directly into stroke recovery - why confidence disappears, what it costs you physically, and why the confusion you're feeling right now is not the tragedy.

Someone asked me whether citicoline actually helps the brain recover after injury. So I read the major clinical trials — including the big ones that found no benefit at all. Here's the honest picture, not the marketing version. WHAT YOU'LL LEARN • How citicoline is thought to support neuron cell membrane repair after injury  • What the ICTUS trial (2,298 patients) and COBRIT trial (1,213 patients) actually found for acute stroke and TBI • Why a 12-month post-stroke cognition trial found a genuinely different result • The dosing gap between clinical trials and most over-the-counter supplements • What questions to bring to your doctor before considering it

Someone in this community asked a version of a question I hear often: Is there any real research behind supplements for healing the brain after a bleed? I went looking, and one common kitchen spice compound kept showing up: curcumin, from turmeric.

You can do everything right in rehab and still hit a wall, and the reason may have nothing to do with your rehab. Dr. Robert Hedaya returns for his third conversation on Recovery After Stroke. He is Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Georgetown University Medical Center, a pioneer of functional medicine psychiatry, and founder of the Whole Psychiatry and Brain Recovery Center in New Jersey. In this episode, he explains three exposures that physically interrupt the brain's ability to rebuild: mercury, mold, and Lyme. He walks through what each one does at the cellular level, how to test for it, and which one to deal with first.

Ben Sautter spent decades living a double life: a respected city supervisor by day, involved in drug trafficking and reckless behaviour he felt no guilt over by night. In 2017, a carotid artery stroke changed that. In this episode, Ben opens up about the hidden "Hyde" side of himself, the marriage that nearly ended, and how writing his memoir finally helped him understand who he really is.

What happens when the person legally responsible for your medical decisions is your teenage daughter, thousands of kilometres from home? Kylie Ralston was 56, living and working in Bulgaria, when a haemorrhagic stroke put her in an induced coma for four days. With no next of kin in the country but her 19-year-old daughter, and a public hospital system offering almost no rehabilitation, Kylie's recovery became a fight fought by the people around her. Her childhood friend Nicole Nott, an occupational therapist, dropped everything and flew from Australia to intervene.

Documentary Watch Link: https://youtu.be/I5SEhR6X7lo What happens when a one-percenter biker who built his entire identity on physical strength loses half his body and picks up a camera instead? Shayne DeMarce is a Canadian stroke survivor and member of a one-percenter motorcycle club. A low-speed crash on a group ride triggered a bilateral carotid artery dissection and a stroke that left him paralyzed on his left side. After a year in the hospital and inpatient rehab, he taught himself filmmaking from scratch and produced a documentary about his recovery, which he's now screened for fellow stroke survivors in the very facilities where he was once a patient.

What if the fatigue you're blaming on your stroke is actually coming from a gland in your neck? Dr. Robert Hedaya, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Georgetown University Medical Center and a pioneer of functional medicine psychiatry, returns to the podcast to unpack the hormonal side of stroke recovery. Bill shares how a baseball-sized thyroid nodule went undetected for 18 months after his own brain surgery, discovered by accident on an unrelated chest X-ray, and Dr. Hedaya explains why standard thyroid testing so often misses what's actually going on.

What does it take to raise two teenagers alone while learning to walk again from scratch? Jeff Manuel was working two jobs and raising his son and daughter on his own when a stroke at 52 left him unable to move his left arm or leg. Four years later, he's rebuilding independence one small win at a time - from a long-term care facility, through a co-parenting relationship with his ex-wife that's grown stronger since the stroke. This episode covers what that rebuild actually looks like, day to day.  

What do you do when rehab ends but your brother still can't be understood - and nobody offers you a single tool to help? Robert Schmidtbauer is a care partner from Tomahawk, Wisconsin. His younger brother lives with ataxia, and a stroke six years ago made his speech so unclear that strangers understand only 60–70% of what he says. After years of being the "go-between," Robert used AI to build Larry's Speakeasy, a simple $9 aphasia communication app that types or taps and speaks out loud.

A doctor ran a reflex test and told the patient they would never walk again. That same day, a physical therapist walked in, and the patient walked 70 feet. Dr. Kory Langwell is a Doctor of Physical Therapy with over 15 years of experience helping stroke survivors recover at home and online. In this episode, we break down what physical therapists know about walking after stroke that most doctors don't, including why the therapy gap after hospital discharge stalls so many survivors, what the "plateau" label really means, and how to keep making progress years or even decades post-stroke.

What if falling after a stroke wasn't something you just had to accept? Associate Professor Kate Scrivener is a stroke rehabilitation researcher at Macquarie University whose work is rewriting what we know about falls, walking, and long-term recovery. In this episode, Bill and Kate revisit her HiWalk study, a high-dose walking program showing real results for chronic stroke survivors, and dive into her new systematic review on exercise-based falls prevention published in 2026.  

Someone asked me recently whether there are natural compounds that can actively support brain healing, not just manage symptoms, but work on the recovery side of the equation. The answer, according to multiple clinical trials, might surprise you.

When a stroke hits one person, the whole family absorbs the impact, and in this episode, for the first time, the whole family tells that story together. Kathy Cunningham spent her career in healthcare, caring for others with skill and dedication. When stroke entered her life and her household, she was forced to become the patient. Her sons, Sean and Paul Monahan, join her in this episode to share what that transition looked like from the other side.

Most stroke survivors are told to exercise, but almost no one explains how adding oxygen can multiply what that exercise does for your brain. In this episode, Bill speaks with Brad Pitzele, a recovering engineer who battled significant health challenges before discovering Exercise With Oxygen Therapy (EWOT). After conventional medicine ran out of answers, EWOT became the turning point in his recovery, and he went on to make affordable EWOT systems accessible so others would not have to spend $60,000 on hyperbaric oxygen to chase the same benefit. Together, they unpack the science of oxygenating blood plasma, reopening inflamed capillaries, and re-energising the mitochondria that stroke leaves running on empty.  

Plastics found inside carotid artery plaque. A 4.53x higher risk of stroke, heart attack, or death. Here's what the landmark 2024 NEJM study means for your brain and what you can do about it. WHAT YOU'LL LEARN: • What the 2024 Marfella et al. NEJM study actually found inside human carotid artery plaque • Why 58% of surgical patients had detectable polyethylene, PVC, or polystyrene in their arteries • How microplastics trigger vascular inflammation and what IL-18 and TNF-alpha have to do with it • Why there is currently no clinical screening for this, and what that means for stroke survivors • 3 evidence-informed steps you can take today to reduce your exposure

François Couillard is the CEO of Optometry Canada the national body representing every optometrist in the country. When he had a stroke, his symptoms were dismissed at the ER. He walked home alone in the middle of the night. He woke up the next morning having lost the right visual field in both eyes permanently. What followed was a masterclass in adaptation: riding 100km on his bike one week post-stroke, navigating a fatigue nobody could see, and returning to lead a national health organisation all while living with a blind spot his brain works overtime to hide. François talks openly about stroke symptoms dismissed, the link between his life's work and the stroke that changed it, and what recovery really looks like when the damage is invisible.  

In this episode, Bill Gasiamis speaks with Greg Graham, an AVM (Arteriovenous Malformation) stroke survivor who lost nearly everything: his health, his independence, and the life he had built. Greg shares the raw reality of spending six weeks alone in recovery, navigating profound loss, and eventually finding a path to rebuild on completely new terms.

Can GABA supplements actually improve sleep after a stroke or brain injury? This evidence-based review explores six clinical studies, the blood-brain barrier debate, and the gut-brain connection to help you understand whether GABA has a legitimate role in neurological recovery and restorative sleep.

Dr. Robert Hedaya is a psychiatrist, functional medicine practitioner, and founder of the Whole Psychiatry and Brain Recovery Center. In this episode, he explains how QEEG brain mapping combined with transcranial laser therapy (photobiomodulation) is helping stroke survivors recover lost functions, including speech, cognition, and facial recognition in ways conventional neurology rarely offers.

New Griffith university etanercept trial results offer hope that healing after stroke is possible even years later. Watch the full breakdown here.

"My brain is finally back." Five years after two strokes during heart surgery, Cecy Galvan's story will redefine what recovery looks like.

CoQ10 is one of the most researched supplements for brain health — and also one of the most misrepresented. This video walks through the peer-reviewed evidence: the mechanism, the human clinical trial data, and the honest limitations. It's designed to give you what you need for an informed conversation with your doctor, not a reason to buy a supplement.

Stroke in young adults is rising. Dr. Guilherme Dabus explains thrombectomy, BEFAST, and why calling 911 fast can restore full brain function.

Bill Gasiamis sits down with Jack Clifford to explore EECP therapy, a TGA-approved cardiac treatment that may stimulate the growth of new blood vessels. Together, they examine the emerging research on angiogenesis, arteriogenesis, and whether this off-label approach holds promise for stroke survivors seeking to improve blood flow to the brain.

Bill Gasiamis examines near infrared light therapy after stroke - including the real biological mechanism, what peer-reviewed research says, and why consumer devices may not match clinical trial results.

She self-diagnosed her own stroke while driving with her daughter. Four years on, she's still discovering what recovery really means.

Maggie Whittum had a brainstem stroke at 33. Eleven years later, she's making a film about what recovery really looks like. This is that story.