Identifying A Stroke

The human brain, impressive in its complexity and power, is still largely a mystery to modern science. With more than 10 million cells of nerve, it is home to everything we know and feel, the generator of all physical action and response. However, unlike other cells in the body, damaged brain cells are not good times to repair itself. And they can be easily damaged - by infection, injury or deprivation of oxygen. If part of the brain of oxygenated blood to pass more than a few minutes, the affected cells will pack permanently - the body has suffered a stroke.

Signs of stroke vary widely, depending on the part of the brain has been damaged, but the symptoms are a sudden loss of speech or movement of dizziness, blurred vision, confusion and unconsciousness. They may last only a few hours: this is called a transient ischemic attack (TIA). If symptoms do not disappear, it is a stroke scale.

There are two types of stroke. The most common is an ischemic stroke, caused by a blood clot that blocks a blood vessel or artery in the brain. The other, less common, is a hemorrhagic stroke, caused when a blood vessel in the brain ruptures and spills blood into surrounding tissues. There are several ways that the flow of blood to the brain can be slowed or stopped. Sometimes a clot (thrombus) forms, blocking the flow of oxygenated blood. Or a blood clot (embolism) which was elsewhere in the body is released and ends on a blocked artery in the brain. In other cases, bursts of blood through the wall of a small artery in the brain (hemorrhage), the building of a clot.

Fortunately, our brain cells are linked among themselves and that healthy cells can often take over the running of the damaged cells so that we know that something has gone wrong. Half of stroke survivors return to full health, but much depends on how much damage was done to the brain, as well as the intended follow.

Causes
A cerebral infarction occurs as a result of a blocked artery. The arteries are blocked for years and this product slowing of blood flow to the brain.
Cerebral hemorrhages usually occur as a result of low arterial aneurysms in the brain rupture. Hypertension causes arteries low in most cases.

Risk factors for brain diseases

Some stroke risk factors are hereditary. Others are based on natural processes. Still others stem from a person's life and diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, obesity, smoking, alcoholism, head injury, cerebral vascular accident (stroke), etc.

• Age - The chances of having a stroke approximately doubles for each decade of life after age 55. Although stroke is common among elderly


• Heredity (family history) and race - risk is higher if a parent, grandparent, brother or sister has had a stroke. Afro-Americans have a much higher risk of death from a stroke because blacks have a higher risk of hypertension, diabetes and obesity.


• Sex (gender) - Brain stroke is more common in men than in women. In most age groups, more men than women will have a stroke in a given year. However, more than half of total stroke deaths occur in women. At all ages, more women than men die of stroke. The use of the contraceptive pill and pregnancy pose stroke risk in women.


• Prior stroke, TIA or heart attack - The risk of stroke for someone who has already had a number one is that of a person who does not. Transient ischemic attacks (TIAs) are "warning shots" that produ.