Strokes: The fast facts
The human body has always fascinated me. It had to, to survive medical school and a lifetime of learning how the body works and how to fix it.
One of the most amazing aspects of the body is the ability to heal itself. From the second you cut yourself, cascades of chemicals are released and an army of platelets and clotting factors try and seal your torn pipe that carries your blood.
We live in a constant balance of bleeding and clotting and when the pendulum swings too far in one direction we can be in trouble. Over time, the insides of our arteries can become clogged, restricting blood flow in the pipes and making our blood more likely to clot. An abnormal heart rhythm can send off a clot which can become lodged in our brain causing a blockage and what is termed as a stroke.
Currently, I amat an Emergency Medicine Conference in the US and the session on the management of a stroke is fascinating. ‘‘Time is Brain’’ is the key concept.
Once we have a stroke, every minute without blood supply means we lose 1.9 million nerve cells and 7.5 miles of brain fibres
A major stroke, in which a large portion of the brain dies, can cause death to 1.2 billion neurons, 4470 miles of fibre and ages us 36 years. So essentially, your ultrafast broadband between your ears goes back to oldfashioned dial-up.
and we age by more than three weeks. A major stroke, in which a large portion of the brain dies, can cause death to 1.2 billion neurons, 4470 miles of fibre and ages us 36 years. So essentially, your ultrafast broadband between your ears goes back to old-fashioned dial-up.
So, avoiding a stroke is key, but if you have one, getting medical help as soon as possible is essential. When I graduated from medical school if you had a stroke, being put in a ward and rehabilitation was your only option. Now we treat a stroke like it is a heart attack. Maybe we should rename the stoke as brain attack, because that’s what it is.
You can recognise a stroke using the word FAST.
F is for facial drooping, A is for arm weakness, S is for speech difficulties and T is for TIME. If you or the person you are with has these symptoms and signs, it is important to get to the Emergency Department as soon as possible by ambulance. The pipes in your brain can either burst (bleed) or block (clot).