Harbin doctors discuss impacts of strokes
Stroke is the fifth leading cause of death in the U.S. and is a major cause of adult disability according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About 800,000 people in the United States have a stroke each year. On average one American dies from a stroke every four minutes the CDC website states.
Dr. Ken Howard, Family Medicine Physician with Harbin Clinic, describes strokes as the absence of blood flow to a specific area.
“It can happen in two ways, hemorrhagic stroke where the blood vessels actually ruptures,” Howard said. He explains it as leaking out like water hose. “It’s kind of like if you have a break in your water hose the water is not going to come out.”
The second is ischemic or embolic stroke. “Those are the kind where a piece of cholesterol breaks off through the neck or maybe a small piece of blood clot comes from the heart or from the lung then goes and blocks the blood vessel,” Howard said. “The end result is you don’t have any blood flow at that point of that injury,” he said.
Dr. Thomas Self, also a family medicine physician with Harbin said the first sign of a stroke is weakness. A person may also feel disoriented and numb on one side.
According to Howard, he doesn’t think strokes can be avoided.
“Some of them are based on the health of the blood vessel and we’ve had some people who have had aneurysms who are otherwise healthy and didn’t know that there were at risk for strokes,” Howard said.
Howard said there are some things that can be done to help reduce the risk of a stroke. “By far the most common thing we see is smoking,” he said.
Cutting down on smoking or stop smoking helps a lot, according to Howard.
“I usually tell people I’m not going to expect you to stop all at once. Only about 7 percent of people are successful when they do,” he said.
Increasing activity and knowing about family history also helps.
“Of course your risk is increased with diabetes and hypertension as well,” Howard said.
Self said controlling smoking, keeping cholesterol under control, dieting, losing weight and exercise help to reduce risk. “Those are probably the natural ways to prevent a stroke,” he said.
Self said he hasn’t treated a lot of stroke patients. “We try to practice prevention instead of waiting until they have a stroke,” Self said. “We try to look for signs leading up to a stoke to try and prevent them.”
According to Self, one way of detecting pending strokes is through the ultrasound of the contorted arteries to see if there is any blockage building up.
“If so we change the diet, make sure they are on the right medications to slow it down, then there is surgery to go in and actually clean the arteries out,” Self said.
Howard said recovery time after strokes depends on the severity
Some post stroke symptoms, according to Self, include paralysis on one side, arm, leg or both. “Sometimes it affects the speech and is probably the most common things,” he said.