What is a stroke?

A stroke is the death of brain cells caused by a blood clot or a ruptured blood vessel in the brain.

Since the brain is the control center of the body, the death of those brain cells results in the loss of all the abilities that were controlled by that part of the brain.

A stroke in your brain’s speech center can knock out the ability to read, write, or even talk. A stroke in a coordination center can affect your walking or hand coordination. A stroke in the front part of the brain may change your personality.

Since the brain has two sides, a stroke can cripple one side of your body, while the other side remains perfectly normal.

If a stroke is caused by a large blood clot or serious bleeding in the brain, symptoms can occur within seconds.

However, if an artery is just narrow or partially blocked, stroke symptoms may develop over several hours, giving you and the Emergency Room team time to react and sometimes reverse the effects of the stroke.

Know the warning signs

If you have had a stroke, you are nine times more likely to have another. So you, your friends and your family need to know the warning signs of a stroke:

Numbness, weakness and paralysis of the face, arm or leg – especially on one side of the body
Blurred or double vision in one or both eyes
Confusion or trouble speaking
Trouble walking, dizziness or loss of balance or coordination
Severe headache with no known cause

Types of stroke

A strokes happens when a blood vessel in the brain ruptures or is blocked. In medical terms, strokes are either:

Hemorrhagic (hem-or-AH-jik) – cause by a ruptured artery

Ischemic (is-Kee-mik) – caused by a blocked artery

Ischemic strokes

Ischemic strokes are caused by blocked artery – are the most common.

There are two kinds:

Thrombotic (thrahm-BAH-tik) caused by a clot (or thrombus) in an artery inside the brain.
Embolic (em-BAH-lik) caused by fatty chips or blood clots that formed somewhere in the body (usually in the heart) then broke free and were carried in the bloodstream to the brain.

Understanding what kind of stroke you had may help you avoid having another. For example, if your stroke was caused by a hemorrhage you want to make sure to keep your blood pressure down.

If the stroke in your brain was caused by a clot that formed in your heart, your doctor will do tests for further examination.

TIAs – mini-strokes

A TIA, or Transient Ischemic Attack, is a mini-stroke – a temporary blood clot in the brain.

The symptoms are the same as a stroke, but TIAs last just a few minutes, and there is no permanent brain injury or disability. Nevertheless, do not ignore TIAs.

Report them immediately to your physician and care team. They signal that a major stroke may be coming within the next year.