›› Strokes

A stroke is what happens to the brain when blood supply to part of the brain is interrupted or a blood vessel bursts. Depending on where the interruption is the stroke could affect you in different ways. Strokes could result in trouble with, walking talking, thinking or weakness in parts of the body.

Causes

Strokes can be caused by a few things;

• Fatty lumps in the artery wall are the primary causes of strokes
• Obstruction of blood vessels by blood clots from elsewhere in the body
• microangiopathy - a small artery disease

Stroke Warning Signs

• Sudden numbness or weakness
• Sudden confusion, trouble speaking or understanding things.
• Sudden trouble seeing in one or both eyes
• Sudden trouble walking, dizziness, loss of balance or coordination
• Sudden, severe headache with no known cause

If you or someone else has one or more of these signs, immediately call the emergency services. It is an emergency. Do not ignore these warning signs.

Treatments

• Drug Therapy
  • Clot busting drugs are used to dry dissolve the blood clot that is causing the stroke. These drugs must be given within 3hours of the stroke to be effective. Aspirin may also be given to thin the blood, however the benefits of aspirin to stroke victims are still being debated,
• Surgery
• Physical Therapy
• Occupational Therapy
• Speech Therapy

Factors that increase risk of having a stroke

• High blood pressure
• Smoking (Full list of smoking related diseases)
• Diabetes
• High cholesterol
• Heavy drinking
• Low fibre, high fat diet
• Little or no exercise exercise
• Use of birth control pills.

Related Links;

American Stroke Association