• Trouble with walking. You may stumble or experience sudden dizziness, loss of balance or loss of coordination.
• Trouble with speaking and understanding. You may experience confusion. You may slur your words or have difficulty understanding speech.
• Paralysis or numbness of the face, arm or leg. You may develop sudden numbness, weakness or paralysis in your face, arm or leg, especially on one side of your body. Try to raise both your arms over your head at the same time. If one arm begins to fall, you may be having a stroke. Similarly, one side of your mouth may droop when you try to smile.
• Trouble with seeing in one or both eyes. You may suddenly have blurred or blackened vision in one or both eyes, or you may see double.
• Headache. A sudden, severe headache, which may be accompanied by vomiting, dizziness or altered consciousness, may indicate you're having a stroke.
Medical Alert for Stroke
When to see a doctor, Seek immediate medical attention if you notice any signs or symptoms of a stroke, even if they seem to fluctuate or disappear. Call 911 or your local emergency number right away. Every minute counts. Don't wait to see if symptoms go away. The longer a stroke goes untreated, the greater the potential for brain damage and disability. To maximize the effectiveness of evaluation and treatment, you'll need to be treated at a hospital within three hours after your first symptoms appeared. If you're with someone you suspect is having a stroke, watch the person carefully while waiting for emergency assistance.
Contributing Risks Stroke
Many factors can increase your risk of a stroke. A number of these factors can also increase your chances of having a heart attack. Stroke risk factors include:
Potentially treatable risk factors
• High blood pressure — risk of stroke begins to increase at blood pressure readings higher than 120/80 millimeters of mercury (mm Hg). Your doctor will help you decide on a target blood pressure based on your age, whether you have diabetes and other factors.
• Cigarette smoking or exposure to secondhand smoke.
• High cholesterol — a total cholesterol level above 200 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dL), or 5.2 millimoles per liter (mmol/L).
• Diabetes.
• Being overweight or obese.
• Physical inactivity.
• Obstructive sleep apnea (a sleep disorder in which the oxygen level intermittently drops during the night).
• Cardiovascular disease, including heart failure, heart defects, heart infection or abnormal heart rhythm.
• Use of some birth control pills or hormone therapies that include estrogen.
• Heavy or binge drinking.
• Use of illicit drugs such as cocaine and methamphetamines.
Other risk factors of Stroke
• Personal or family history of stroke, heart attack or TIA.
• Being age 55 or older.
• Race — African-Americans have higher risk of stroke than people of other races.
• Gender — Men have a higher risk of stroke than women. Women are usually older when they have strokes, and they are more likely to die of strokes than men.
Thanks for read our article about Signs and Symptoms of Stroke. Do you know the best food to prevent stroke?
