Stroke is the third leading cause of death in the United States and is a common cause of adult disability such as paralysis or speech difficulty. Recovering from a stroke can take months if not years. The good news is that the majority of strokes are treatable and recovery is high if you know how to spot the symptoms.

Overview

A stroke, sometimes referred to as a brain attack, is a medical emergency that occurs when the blood supply to part of your brain is drastically reduced or interrupted. This happens when a blood vessel in the brain bursts or is blocked. When the brain cells stop receiving oxygen and nutrients from the blood, they begin to die. This is when brain damage begins to occur and it takes only a matter of minutes to happen.

Swift treatment is crucial to avoid severe brain damage and other serious complications. Some complications of a stroke can include speech, memory, and movement impairment.

Types of Stroke

A stroke is caused when the flow of blood to your brain is disrupted. There are two primary types of strokes that can cause this to happen.

The most common is called an ischemic stroke, which occurs when there is a blockage or narrowing in an artery leading to your brain. Ischemic strokes account for about 90 percent of all stroke attacks.

The other type of stroke is called a hemorrhagic stroke. This type of stroke means that a weakened vessel in your brain has ruptured or leaked. Such a rupture can occur for several reasons, including high blood pressure or bulges in your brain’s blood vessels that have burst.

People can also have a “mini stroke,” called a transient ischemic attack (TIA). These episodes are usually short is duration (less than 5 minutes), feel like a stroke, and are caused by a temporary clot. Doctors consider them warning strokes and these episodes should be taken very seriously.

A person’s risk factors for having a stroke are generally divided into two categories: those the patient can control and those he or she cannot.

Uncontrollable risk factors include:

• Age: Being over 55 increases your risk. The odds for having a stroke approximately double for each decade of life after the age of 55.
• Race: Being African-American, Asian, Pacific Islander, or Hispanic increases your risk.
• Family history of stroke / prior stroke, TIA, or heart attack: If someone in your family has had any type of stroke, your risk increases. You are also at a heightened risk if you’ve already had a stroke, TIA, or heart attack.
• Gender: Men are more likely to have strokes then women; however, strokes as a side effect of certain medications such as oral contraceptives are a risk for women, and more women die of strokes than men.

Controllable risk factors that you should work with your doctor to improve include:

• High blood pressure: It is crucial to control high blood pressure, which is also known as hypertension, since it is a leading cause of stroke.
• High cholesterol: Keeping your cholesterol in check is important in your efforts to prevent stroke.
• Tobacco use: The nicotine and carbon monoxide in cigarette smoke is very damaging to the cardiovascular system and heightens your risk for stroke. Women who use oral contraceptives and also smoke tobacco are at especially high risk of stroke.
• Carotid Artery Disease: Carotid arteries, the veins that supply your head and neck with blood, that have been narrowed by plaque deposits due to atherosclerosis can become blocked by a blood clot, resulting in a stroke.
• Diabetes: People with diabetes are at an increased risk for stroke, even if the diabetes is under control. If, in addition to being diabetic, someone is also overweight and has high blood pressure or high cholesterol, the risk is even higher.
• Atrial fibrillation: People with this heart rhythm disorder are at an increased risk for stroke because there is a greater chance for blood clots to form in the heart, enter the blood stream, and reach the brain.
• Obesity / Lack of exercise / Poor diet: Eating an unhealthy diet can contribute to being overweight, as well as having high cholesterol and high blood pressure. Not exercising can also contribute to a person being overweight and not keeping their cholesterol and blood pressure in check. To avoid a stroke, maintain a healthy weight, get regular exercise, and eat a balanced diet.

If you are experiencing any of the following symptoms and think you might be having a stroke, it’s crucial that you seek immediate medical care at a hospital. The faster you get professional help, the more likely your chances are for a full recovery. Every minute makes a difference. Watch for these telltale signs of a stroke:

• Sudden weakness, tingling, numbness, or paralysis of the face, arm or leg - especially on just one side
• Sudden sense of confusion or difficulty putting words together
• Difficulty seeing
• Sudden sense of dizziness or lack of coordination
• Headache that comes on suddenly and is more severe or feels different that past headaches

Once you recognize that you are having a stroke, the next step is swift diagnosis and intervention; this increases your chances for a full and complete recovery. At the hospital, you will undergo a physical and neurological exam. Lab work including blood and urine tests will be performed, as well as brain imaging.

An MRI is often used to help doctors locate which area of your brain suffered damage from the stroke. Testing might also include a CAT scan, which provides a 3-D image of the brain, its vessels, and the blood flow. Your doctor may wish to perform an arteriogram or cerebral angiogram, which is a specialized x-ray that is taken of the brain’s arteries after they have been injected with a dye. This test is especially helpful if others haven’t revealed the cause of the stroke.

Once it has been determined through testing whether or not you are having a hemorrhagic or ischemic stroke, doctors can then begin an appropriate course of treatment. If you are suffering from a hemorrhagic stroke, the initial goals are to control bleeding, minimize pressure in the brain, and stabilize blood pressure. Once you are stable, surgery might be necessary to correct any blood vessel abnormalities.

If you have been diagnosed with an ischemic stroke, initial treatment will focus on restoring blood flow to the brain. If it has been caught within three hours of the onset of symptoms, you may be given a tissue plasminogen activator (t-PA) medication, which dissolves blood clots and increases someone’s recovery chances. Surgery such as angioplasty, which can widen any plaque-lined arteries that lead to the brain, is sometimes recommended.

For either type of stroke, once stabilized, the focus of treatment will then turn to rehabilitation and prevention.

Conclusion

The best way to prevent stroke is to take charge of the risk factors you are able to control; this can make a huge impact. If you do think that you are experiencing the symptoms of a stroke, waste no time in getting to the hospital; seeking help immediately is crucial for a positive outcome.