Migraines and Headaches - Women putting her hand on her head in bed grabbing a glass of water

Either experiencing one yourself or seeing a love one have a stroke, strokes can be a scary emergency for anyone. Time is one of the most important factors in stroke recovery, so it is vital to know how to recognize strokes, and what to do in an emergency.

The Brain

The brain is arguably your most important organ. It not only controls nearly everything that happens in the body, but it’s also the home to all of the memories, ideas, personality, and experiences that make someone who they are.

Every brain is made of about 100 billion cells that each rely on the constant circulation of blood. These cells are constantly working and need the nutrients and oxygen that blood delivers. When there is an interruption or reduction in that blood flow, as happens in a stroke, the cells struggle to work properly and die.

Some strokes can be fully recovered from, while others may result in moderate to severe damage. While there are lots of factors in how severe a stroke is, quickly getting emergency care is vital to save as much of the brain as possible.

Types of Strokes

All strokes involve a sudden lack of blood flow to parts of the brain, but they can be classified by what kind of injury ends up preventing blood flow:

  • Occlusive/Ischemic Strokes: The majority of strokes are caused by a blockage preventing blood flow to part of the brain. A clot or plaque could grow in the brain or travel from other parts of the body, but once it blocks an artery inside the brain, the parts of the brain past the block will start to get damaged from the lack of blood.
  • Hemorrhagic Strokes: When an artery in the brain breaks the blood spills outside of the vessels instead of to the rest of the brain cells. The lack of blood flow to parts of the brain cause damage this way, too.
  • Transient Ischemic Attacks (TIAs): Sometimes called “mini-strokes”, a TIA is when a clot blocks the blood flow in the brain temporarily, but blood flow returns on its own. These commonly have the symptoms of a stroke, but resolve after a few minutes to a few hours. These are still a medical emergency – they are often a warning of bigger strokes in the future.

Symptoms of Stroke

The most common and most reliable symptoms for any type of stroke are drooping on one side of the face, weakness or an inability to use one side of the body like the other, and slurred or jumbled speech. Many strokes could also involve vision changes (blurred or double vision), a severe headache, numbness and problems balancing.

FAST – Recognizing Strokes

The FAST acronym was designed by the Heart and Stroke Foundation to help people recognize strokes.

  • F – Face (is it drooping?)
  • A – Arms (can they raise both?)
  • S – Speech (is is jumbled or slurred?)
  • T – Time to call 9-1-1 if you see any of these signs.

Risks and Prevention

Strokes can happen to anyone, at any age. While there are some risk factors like genetics that people cannot avoid, many lifestyle choices come with an increased stroke risk. Reducing risk factors is an important way to prevent strokes. Eating healthy and staying active have a great effect on your health, while activities like excessive alcohol use, smoking, stress, maintaining an unhealthy weight, being inactive, or eating unhealthy all contribute to a higher risk for stroke.

There are many factors that could change the severity or type of stroke that someone experiences. The brain is a very complex organ, so injury to it depends highly many things out of our control like the type of stroke, where it happened, and how much damage happened. Prevention, reacting quickly, and getting emergency help right away are the best tools that we have to control, avoid, or lessen stroke damage.

For More Info on Strokes:

Heart and Stroke Foundation
http://www.heartandstroke.ca/stroke