A stroke is a major life-threatening medical condition that occurs when the blood flow to a portion of the brain is cut off. Strokes are life-threatening emergencies that require immediate attention.
CDC says that more than 795,000 individuals in the US have a stroke every year. Nearly 610,000 of these are first-time or new strokes.
Experts fear that there will be an increase in cases involving young people. What to look out for?
Many young individuals ignore major health issues as a matter of concern for the distant future.
In fact, it has been shown that many younger people are getting strokes at a higher rate than most healthcare professionals realize. Dr. Michelle Leppert and Dr. Sharon Poisson of the University of Colorado School of Medicine dug more into this fact.
Their findings surprised them both, revealing that women were 44 percent more likely than men to suffer ischemic strokes in aged 35 and younger.
Dr. Poisson outlined the primary signs and symptoms of a stroke, which include:
- Sudden change in balance
- Sudden change in vision
- Droopiness on one side of the face
- Sudden weakness
- Sudden change in speech.
When both arms are raised and one falls down involuntarily, Dr Poisson notes that this may suggest early stroke warnings.
“The number-one thing is understanding that stroke can happen at any age,” she added.
“Sometimes when young people have stroke-like symptoms, nobody thinks, ‘This could be a stroke.’
“They’ll try to sleep it off, and not recognise that, ‘This is an emergency, and I need to get to the emergency room so I can get treatment for a stroke.’
“Stroke can happen to anybody and knowing the symptoms of stroke is really critical.
“We know things like high blood pressure, diabetes, smoking, and high cholesterol are risk factors for stroke and can contribute to stroke even in young people.
“Preventing those risk factors is really critical for everybody.”
Silent strokes, according to the American Heart Association (AHA), are strokes that go unnoticed.
It explains: “They occur when a blood vessel blockage in the brain causes cells to die, but no warning signs or symptoms are obvious.”
The AHA says that experts estimate that 10 silent strokes occur for every stroke with detectable symptoms.
Image Credit: Getty
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