Stroke is the interruption of blood supply to the brain that is usually caused by ruptured blood vessel or by a blood clot. This interruption prevents the blood from supplying the brain of much needed oxygen and nutrients that leads to damage of the brain tissue. Individuals afflicted by this disease end up partially disabled depending on which part of the brain was damaged.
Risk Factors
The most important modifiable risk factors for stroke are high blood pressure or hypertension and atrial fibrillation. Other modifiable factors include high cholesterol levels, diabetes, drug abuse, cigarette smoking (both active and passive), heavy alcohol consumption, unhealthy diet, obesity and lack of physical activity.
Atrial fibrillation (AF or A-fib) is an abnormal rhythm of the heart. This happens when the two upper chamber’s contraction is not coordination thus causes interruption of the blood supply to the brain. Patients with A-fib have a 5% risk of getting stroke. High blood pressure, however, accounts for 35-50% or stroke risk. These two medical conditions as well as diabetes are not quite preventable but there are home remedies for high blood pressure.
High cholesterol levels, obesity and an unhealthy diet are the most common cause of stroke for those who don’t have A-fib or hypertension. Too high cholesterol level, especially ‘bad cholesterol’, can cause the build up of plaque in the arteries and narrows the blood flow which eventually clogs them up. Obesity and an unhealthy diet also causes high blood cholesterol so management of all three can lower down the chances of getting stroke. This is why doctors recommend having a daily intake of omega-3 supplements like krill oil or fish oil.
Just like the latter factors, drug abuse, cigarette smoking and heavy alcohol consumption are also decision-based risk factors that may lead to stroke.
Symptoms
Symptoms of stroke typically start all of a sudden, usually in a matter of second or minutes. The larger the area of the brain that’s damage due to lack of oxygen, the more functions are to be lost. So understanding the symptoms can help in reducing the aftereffects of stroke once it strikes a person, especially if one is unaware of his/her underlying conditions.
Loss of consciousness, headache and vomiting occurs more often in hemorrhagic stroke or the formation of blood within the brain or outside the brain but within the skull vault. These symptoms appears because of the increase pressure in the brain from the leaking blood.
Other types of stroke present the sudden face weakness and numbness, abnormal speech and arm drift (like when asked to raise both arms, one arm drifts downward involuntarily). The absence of these three symptoms reduces the likelihood of stroke but it’s still advised to go to an emergency hospital.