Each year, almost 800 thousand people in the U.S. will suffer a stroke.

Among those people is avid disc golfer Kevin Moss.

Moss suffered a stroke while playing disc gold, and had to relearn how to walk, and swallow.

“A lot of patients that are recovering from stroke do have what we call ‘oral phase impairments’ in swallowing, and that their tongue is weak,” Brittany Krekeler, a speech language pathologist with the University of Cincinnati said.

Krekeler is leading a trial for the tongueometer — an at home tongue endurance device — that she says may help.

The device has a pressurized bulb that connects to a patient's smartphone, giving them realtime feedback about how hard they are pressing the bulb with their tongue.

 Patients complete exercises three times a day for eight weeks to build up endurance. Krekeler stresses this is only a piece of the rehab puzzle. 

Along with oral rehab and surgery, Moss believes the device helped him get rid of his feeding tube.

“I eat anything and everything now,” Moss said.

The National Institutes of Health awarded Krekeler a $660,000 grant to start a larger study with the tongueometer. While the trial is focused on stroke patients, there is potential this therapy could be used for other people who have trouble swallowing, such as survivors of head and neck cancers and Parkinson's disease.

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