A stroke is a serious, life-threatening medical condition that occurs when the blood supply to part of the brain is cut off.
Strokes are a medical emergency and urgent treatment is essential because the sooner a person receives treatment for a stroke, the less damage is likely to happen.
If you suspect that you or someone else is having a stroke, phone 999 immediately and ask for an ambulance.
The main symptoms of stroke can be remembered with the word FAST: Face-Arms-Speech-Time.
If the supply of blood is restricted or stopped, brain cells begin to die. This can lead to brain injury, disability and possibly death.
There are two main causes of strokes:
There is also a related condition known as a transient ischaemic attack (TIA) , where the supply of blood to the brain is temporarily interrupted, causing a "mini-stroke" often lasting between 30 minutes and several hours. TIAs should be treated seriously as they are often a warning sign that you are at risk of having a full stroke in the near future.
Every year, around 110,000 people have a stroke in England and it is the third largest cause of death, after heart disease and cancer .The brain injuries caused by strokes are a major cause of adult disability in the UK.
Older people are most at risk of having strokes, although they can happen at any age including in children.
If you are south Asian, African or Caribbean, your risk of stroke is higher. This is partly because of a predisposition (a natural tendency) to developing high blood pressure (hypertension) , which can lead to strokes.
Smoking, being overweight, lack of exercise and a poor diet are also risk factors for stroke, as are high cholesterol , atrial fibrillation and diabetes .
Treatment depends on the type of stroke you have, including which part of the brain was affected and what caused it.
Most often, strokes are treated with medication. This generally includes medicines to prevent and remove blood clots, reduce blood pressure and reduce cholesterol levels.
In some cases, surgery may be required to treat brain swelling and reduce the risk of further bleeding in cases of haemorrhagic strokes.
These services help the person recovering from a stroke to learn or relearn the skills necessary for independent daily living at home. This is written for people with care and support needs,as well as their carers and relatives.
You can significantly reduce your risk of having a stroke through a healthy lifestyle, such as eating a healthy diet , taking regular exercise , drinking alcohol in moderation and not smoking .
Lowering high blood pressure and cholesterol levels with medication also lowers the risk of stroke substantially, as does taking anticoagulant medication if you have an irregular heartbeat due to a condition called atrial fibrillation.
If you have had a stroke or TIA in the past, these measures are particularly important because your risk of having another stroke in the future is greatly increased.
Strokes occur suddenly and all at once; they pose a very serious threat to a patient’s life. This condition requires immediate medical attention.
A stroke is a very severe condition. Immediate medical attention is necessary; the medical staff usually conducts a series of examinations and medical procedures to offer first aid.
Due to another disease or condition, a blood vessel in a certain area of the brain may rupture (break) and cause the blood to spread to the surrounding tissue and damage it.
At the onset of a stroke, a few main symptoms should be notices, which are easy to remember by using the acronym F.A.S.T. (Face, Arms, Speech, Time).
A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when a portion of the heart is deprived of oxygen due to blockage of a coronary artery. A stroke is a medical condition medical condition that occurs when the blood supply to part of the brain is cut off.
A person’s emotional state is an important factor in the function and development of their daily activities. Anxiety, depression and stress are conditions which compromise and affect a person’s daily life.
Risk factors for stroke, that are worth mentioning include: Atherosclerosis (Depositing of lipids in the lumen of blood vessels in the form of plaques), High blood pressure, Lack of physical activity, Obesity, Continuous consumption of alcohol, Smoking, etc.
It could occur that prior to a patient experiencing a stroke, they may experience warning signs. A few days or weeks in advance they may experience light symptoms such as unusual headaches, a light lip distortion, numbness in the arm or leg, vertigo, brief loss of vision, difficulties articulating, amnesia, etc.
There are different types of Stroke, they include: brain stroke of the ischemic type, brain stroke due to hemorrhage (cerebral hemorrhage) and hemorrhages due to the rupture of blood vessels or due to vascular malformation, etc.
A stroke due to a hemorrhage occurs more rarely than a cerebral ischemia. The major cause for this type of stroke is arterial hypertension.
The causes of Transitory Ischemia include: a blood clot, the narrowing of blood vessels in the brain, diabetes, high cholesterol levels.
Hypertensive encephalopathy is an acute syndrome during which severe hypertension is accompanied by headaches, nausea and vomiting, confusion, convulsions, stupor (somnolence) and coma, and other transitory neurological symptoms.
Shortly after the patient arrives at the hospital, physicians look for the typical symptoms of a stroke. These symptoms involve; Symptoms evident in the face, its retraction to one side (the face seems to droop on one side), problems with the limbs, (usually arms), hands and legs are numb or cannot be moved, etc.
A Stroke can be Ischemic or Hemorrhagic. Since these two types of stroke develop via different mechanisms, the treatment is accordingly different. Important for the treatment of strokes is preventing the disease a long time in advance.
A stroke is a serious and life-threatening medical condition that occurs when the blood supply to part of the brain is cut off. Strokes are a medical emergency and urgent treatment is essential because the sooner a person receives treatment for a stroke, the less damage is likely to happen.
A stroke is a severe condition and a serious threat, which requires immediate medical intervention. This disease is a major cause for invalidity and mortality in the world. Strokes are ranked third in the world in regards to mortality.
If you suspect that you or someone else is having a stroke, phone 999 immediately and ask for an ambulance. Even if the symptoms of a stroke disappear while you are waiting for the ambulance to arrive, you or the person having the stroke should still go to hospital for an assessment.
There are two main types of stroke - ischaemic strokes and haemorrhagic strokes - which affect the brain in different ways and can have different causes. Ischaemic strokes are the most common type of stroke.
Strokes are usually diagnosed by carrying out physical tests and studying images of the brain produced during a scan. Even if the physical symptoms of a stroke are obvious, brainscans should also be carried out to determine: if the stroke has been caused by a blocked artery (ischaemic stroke) or burst blood vessel (haemorrhagic stroke), which part of the brain has been affected, how severe the stroke is.
Effective treatment of stroke can prevent long-term disability and save lives. If your blood pressure is too high, you may be offered medicines to lower it. Medicines that are commonly used include: thiazide diuretics, angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors, calcium channel blockers, beta-blockers, alpha-blockers. Some ischaemic strokes are caused by narrowing of an artery in the neck called the carotid artery, which carries blood to the brain. The narrowing, known as carotid stenosis, is caused by a build-up of fatty plaques.
Two of the mostcommon psychological problems that can affect people after a stroke are: Depression many people experience intense bouts of crying and feel hopeless and withdrawn from social activities, anxiety where people experience general feelings of fear and anxiety, sometimes punctuated by intense, uncontrolled feelings of anxiety (anxiety attacks). The injury to the brain caused by a stroke can lead to widespread and long-lasting problems.
The best way to prevent a stroke is to eat a healthy diet, exercise regularly, and avoid smoking and excessive consumption of alcohol. Ensuring a balance in your diet is important. If you have not fully recovered from your stroke, you may find that you will have become particularly sensitive to alcohol and even the recommended safe limits as above for the general population may be too much for you.
Jim Whyte was forced to give up work after having a stroke, but he's proved that there is life after a stroke. Jim had high blood pressure and was diabetic, which are both risk factors for stroke. However, he had never smoked and, due to his diabetes, was already following the healthy diet recommended for stroke survivors.
Having a stroke on the first day of his summer holiday was the last thing Stephen Harnet expected, especially as he was a healthy 32-year-old at the time. It turned out that the stroke was due to a condition I was born with called AVM (arteriovenous malformation), which is a tangle of abnormal blood vessels (arteries and veins), and can affect the brain and lead to a stroke. Before the stroke I was a technical manager working 12-hour days, seven days a week.
David Diston had a major stroke that left him paralysed down his right side and unable to speak. Now he has made a near total recovery, and has even run a marathon. He woke up in an assessment ward at Swindons Princess Margaret Hospital. He had no feeling or movement down his right side, and he couldn't speak. After a few days, he was moved to a specialist stroke unit where the doctors explained that he would have to learn to speak, write and walk again from scratch.
Manjit Bains was just 26 when he had a stroke. Determination, support from his family and friends and rehabilitation helped him get his life. "This hasn't been a solo journey. I've had a lot of support, including psychologists and counselling. After intensive care I was nursed on a medical ward at the hospital where I had been working."
Before June/ 17/ 2000, Jane Stokes CBE was a successful lawyer with a 25-year career in the civil service. She says her lifestyle may have raised her risk of a stroke. As a smoker, she had developed a two-pack-a-day habit. She drank moderately and neglected her fitness when her career began to take over. Recovery is a long process.