Stroke Symptoms
| December 17, 2012 | Posted by admin under Stroke |
How can you recognize stroke symptoms and see the early signs of a miniature or a mild stroke before it actually happens?
A stroke is a brain attack. Like a heart attack, often a blood clot blocks the artery that takes oxygen rich blood to the brain. It also occurs if there’s a broken vessel, referred to as a “bleed” in the brain. When the blood vessel breaks, again, this interrupts the supply of blood and therefore oxygen to the brain. These two types of strokes cause the same types of problems so the stroke symptoms are often the same.
The damage from a stroke symtoms depends on the area of the brain affected and the amount of cells that died. Sometimes, strokes effects cause blindness, muscle weakness, lack of memory or can affect the area that controls the heart and other bodily function. Recognizing a stroke signs is extremely important to minimize the damage the stroke causes.
Early warning signs of a stroke help you to identify the symptoms of strokes and seek medical attention before too much permanent damage occurs. There are often stroke symptoms before the event, early warning symptoms and stroke signs that identify the problem at each step.
Types of Stroke and Cure
There are three main types of stroke. As mentioned earlier, they come from either a blockage or a bleed. An ischemic stroke is the most frequent type. It’s about 80 percent of all strokes. The ischemic stroke comes from a block, either a clot or plaque build-up in the brain.
Intracerebral hemorrhage, a bleed, occurs when arteries inside the brain rupture suddenly. The vessels release blood inside the brain and cause pressure on the brain in various areas. The pressure causes the damage to the brain.
The third type of stroke, a subarachnoid hemorrhage occurs similar to the intracerebral hemorrhage, except the blood fills the space outside the brain rather than on the interior. Again, the damage comes from the pressure on tissues.
Note that a heat stroke is not a regular stroke, and comes about for different reasons.
Early Warning Signs of a Stroke
Sometimes there are warning stroke symptoms of attack to the brain. These are TIAs or transient ischaemic attacks. These act like strokes do but the effects and the symptoms don’t last very long. Since a stroke comes from debris build up in the vessels and loose debris, the TIAs are often minor, may last minutes, seconds or as long as 24 hours but should send the patient to the doctor for further evaluation.
A TIA includes many of the same symptoms as a stroke; they simply don’t cause all the damage. You might feel dizzy for no reason, have difficulty speaking for just a few minutes or have a numb face, arm or leg. Some people have blurred vision, drastically lowered visual acuity, or partial vision for minutes or a day.
Maybe you’ll simply lose balance and fall or have a headache that’s severe and abrupt. Sometimes there’s confusion, difficulty swallowing or a short loss of consciousness that accompanies a TIA. Again, the part of the brain where the blood flow interrupts what determines the symptoms.
Occasionally the TIAs occur years before a full-blown stroke and if recognized as a potential problem, gives you time to change your potential for a stroke or at least delay a stroke for years.
What are stroke symptoms Before a Stroke
While TIAs can occur years before a stroke, often they may occur the same day as the stroke. A study looking at 2416 people that had ischemic strokes, found that 549 patients had TIAs right before the stroke.
While only 17 percent had them the day of the stroke and another 9 percent had them the day before, a whopping 43 percent that had TIAs had them within a 7-day window of the stroke. TIA damage isn’t permanent but they are good indicators that there’s a problem in your body. Just as a fluttering of lights indicates you need to examine your house wiring, TIAs are warning signs there’s a problem in your body.
Why Recognizing Stroke Signs is important
The National Stroke Association uses the term FAST to recognize a problem with a stroke. The F is for Face. Ask the person to smile. Is one side of the face drooping or crooked? See if the person can stick out their tongue and move it from side to side.The A stands for the word Arms. See if the person can lift both arms in the air. If the person has a problem with one arm, they may have had a stroke. If you know the victim well enough to recognize their handwriting, ask them to write their name and see if the signature is their normal.
The letter S in FAST stands for Speech. Is the speech slurred, are they able to speak? F=Face–ask the person to smile. If one side of the face appears crooked or drooping this person may be having a stroke.
The T in FAST isn’t a symptom but stands for Time. The minute you feel the person has these symptoms, call for help immediately.
How Long Do Stroke Symptoms Last?
TIAs don’t cause permanent damage so the symptoms may last for minutes or hours, while full-blown strokes require a longer healing time. If there’s damage to the brain, it often takes a time to teach other sections of the brain to take over the jobs of the cells that died. Most people see the majority of their improvement in the first six months following the stroke but improvement may continue for as long as two years after the stroke.
When do you See a Doctor?
If you’re by yourself, you can test your own symptoms for stroke.Is your walk off balance? Look in the mirror and see if your face droops on one side or listen to your speech to see if it’s slurred. Check your vision. Maybe it’s blurred or you only see part of an object. Do you have a headache and is it severe. These are all common symptoms and if you have them you need to seek medical help.
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