National Stroke Awareness Month: Stroke Risk Factors and Symptoms
May 15, 2007 by Lillie
May is National Stroke Awareness Month. Last week I shared my personal experiences with stroke, linked below in the Related Posts list. I hope these experiences help bring awareness to the effects of stroke on the individuals affected. However, it’s important for people to know some basic information about stroke.
You can learn about the risk factors for stroke and even answer a few questions to determine your own stroke risk at the National Stroke Association. Some risk factors – such as age or racial background – are outside your control. You can control, or at least reduce the risk, of others – such as blood pressure, cholesterol, and weight. The association provides Stroke Prevention Guidelines to help you reduce your risk of stroke.
Even if your own risk for stroke is low, you should be able to recognize the symptoms of stroke. Recognizing that your mother or grandfather or neighbor or coworker is having a stroke could save their life. According to the National Stroke Association:
- Every 45 seconds in the United States someone experiences a stroke.
- Each year more than 750,000 people in the U.S. experience a stroke.
- Stroke is the third leading cause of death in the United States and leading cause of adult disability.
- Stroke is a medical emergency; Stroke is a â”Brain Attack.”
- Stroke is treatable within 3 hours of symptom onset.
If you see someone showing stroke symptoms, please don’t hesitate because you’re not sure they’re in danger. It’s far better that they make an unneeded trip to the emergency room than that they die because of delay in treatment!
I was blessed to make the recovery I have even though the chiropractor’s delay and covering up my condition meant I didn’t get to the hospital for several hours. Not everyone who has a delay in treatment is so lucky!
The symptoms of stroke that require observers to ACT F.A.S.T. are:
Face – ask the person to smile; if one side of the face droops, call EMS.
Arms – ask the person to raise both arms; if one arms drifts downward, call EMS.
Speech – ask the person to repeat a simple sentence; if speech is slurred or the person has difficulty repeating the sentence correctly, call EMS.
Time – if the person shows any of the above symptoms, call 9-1-1 immediately. Brain cells are dying!
Because of my personal experience, I want to point out one little-recognized risk factor for stroke: chiropractic neck manipulation. When I had my stroke in 1992, the first article about this had just been published in a neurology journal. That study cited 18 known cases of stroke caused by chiropractic neck manipulation. Today a search at Entrez, the medical library of the National Institutes of Health, turns up 56 articles on chiropractic neck manipulation and stroke. The actual risk is not known; various sources estimate anywhere from 1 in 400,000 neck manipulations to 1 in 5.8 million manipulations.
The May 2007 issue of the popular lifestyle magazine Self has an article warning of this danger and telling the stories of several young women who have experienced such strokes. One woman’s story really hit home with me – when she complained to the chiropractor that something was wrong, he said her body was releasing toxins. Those were the same words my chiropractor used to explain my condition after my stroke!
Updated 7/23/07: The complete article mentioned above is now online at MSNBC.com: Deadly twist at the chiropractor.
If one person is saved from a stroke … if one person gets treatment on time because of my words … if one person becomes more aware of the risk factors, symptoms, and dangers of stroke, my posts on this subject will be worthwhile.
Related Posts:
National Stroke Awareness Month: My Stroke – the Beginning
National Stroke Awareness Month: My Stroke – The Next Three Days
National Stroke Awareness Month: My Stroke – the Aftermath
Updated 6/1/07: This is a QA Exchange Solution
[tags]stroke, National Stroke Awareness Month[/tags]
Hi Lillie,
That’s right! – even if one person is saved from a stroke by this post, you had done a good work and that person will definitely thank you so much!
Thank you for all these posts.
Take care
May Our Lord Guide You Always
Thank you, Sam. I had a little concern that I have been focusing too much on stroke rather than writing in recent posts. But one of the purposes of my blog is to write about causes important to me, and Stroke Awareness Month gave me an opportunity to share important information that could save a life.
I had no idea about the relationship to Chiropractic Neck adjustments, that’s very interesting. I’m familiar with the rest as I’ve had some experience with it. Keep up the good work and thank you.
Ron,
The risk of chiropractic neck adjustments isn’t well-known, so I thought it important to mention.
Thanks for the comment.
That was an informative post. I never would have known how to tell if someone is having a stroke. I think that personal finance and an emergency medicine class should be mandatory in the general education requirements at Universities. Things like this, CPR, and other basic easy to learn things would be great for the general population to know.
You’re so right, Dave. Basic emergency medicine classes would save lives and personal finance classes would save people from financial disasters.
I have heard and read of these claims before that associate a Chiropractors Neck Manipulations with the patient then having a stroke, personally I think the person would have had the stroke anyway and no I don’t believe everything that I read.
But the warning signs of a stroke are indeed important and people do need to understand them because the 1st 3 hours after a stroke and if you recognize the signs, you can completely recover, if you fail to recognize those signs, then its a totally different story with completely different results, one of the best things anyone can do to help prevent heart attacks as well as strokes is to talk to your family doctor about low dose asperin therapy of 81 mg per day, this can save your live during a heart attack or a stroke.
I think strokes are also hereditary, at least that is the conclusion my family doctor leads me to, I am overweight, but then these days who isn’t, I suffer from high blood pressure that is currently being controlled by Hydrochlorothiazide, but I am getting to the point that is not even doing that good of a job, but no one in my family on either side has ever suffered from a stroke either, but it still remains in the back of my mind because I have seen and known to many who have both died as well as survived a 1st stroke.
I have been going to a Chiropractor for well over 20 years, but he doesn’t do the neck manipulations that I have read about, he does a very none painful movement from one side to the next and if my neck doesn’t pop, then he doesn’t pursue it either, but I would not stop going or even think about it because I know how I feel when I do go for the regular adjustments to how I feel if I don’t.
I hope you are doing well .
I know there are many factors that lead to a stroke. My friend had two at the age of 58 from the combination of poor diet, smoking, and a family history of strokes.
His family history should have been a big flashing warning sign. Unfortunately, it took something drastic.
Many – perhaps most – people seem to think “it won’t happen to me” even when they have risk factors.
I think strokes are also hereditary, at least that is the conclusion my family doctor leads me to, I am overweight, but then these days who isn’t, I suffer from high blood pressure that is currently being controlled by Hydrochlorothiazide, but I am getting to the point that is not even doing that good of a job, but no one in my family on either side has ever suffered from a stroke either, but it still remains in the back of my mind because I have seen and known to many who have both died as well as survived a 1st stroke.
efile,
Yes, strokes can be hereditary. There are many causes and all can’t be prevented. However, it is wise to control all the risk factors possible.
My personal experience relate to stroke -
My mum had a stroke.She was a smoker.Her basic diet was just chocolate.Loved sugar.
My next door neighbor had a stroke and died.She liked grease – sausages,eggs.Everything that clogs up the arteries.Stress was a factor too.She was overweight.Loved sugar.
My grandmother had several strokes,she liked grease too,and was a smoker.Loved sugar.
Ryan,
I don’t recall hearing anything about sugar having anything to do with strokes, though I know cholesterol (which can be related to eating lots of fat) and smoking certainly do. With the history in your family, I hope you have better eating habits and don’t smoke.
[...] Learn more about stroke from the National Stroke Association. You will find information about risk factors, prevention, and recovery on the organization’s Web site as well as in National Stroke Awareness Month: Stroke Risk Factors and Symptoms [...]
I remember my experience with strokes. It was my grandfather back in 1981. He was a heavy drinker and smoker, but he was such a lively character. He was working on building a garage with my dad, and he told me to get him a beer, and that we wasnt feeling well. I was only six at the time, so getting my grandad a beer made me feel so proud. Later that day he went home and said he was feeling really bad, and his speech became slurred and then he was rushed into hospital, that is the last time my granddad was able to speak.
It was a big shock, and but over the years it was like he will still my grandad, but now he was in a wheelchair, and couldn’t move his left side, his personality was still there.
I think recognizing the signs is vital.
Neil,
Your comment that he was still your granddad is so important. When I was in the emergency room right after the stroke and couldn’t communicate, I got so upset (though I had no way of showing it) because the staff was treating me as “the stroke” instead of as Lillie, the patient.
Thank you for this informative article, this is all information that everyone should be aware of. Strokes run in my family, and I have witnessed my Grandfather fall victim to multiple strokes over the past 5 years that completely changed him and his personality. It is a terrible thing, and being aware of these risk factors and symptoms is commonly overlooked but extremely important not only for your own health, but the health and well being of your family and loved ones. My Grandfather and Grandmother both ignored the signs of stroke in my Grandfather until it was too late, and that not only drastically effected his life, but everyone else’s life in our family as well. The scary thing about strokes are they can happen without anyone knowing they happened, so the importance of knowing the signs of stroke cannot be stressed enough. Thank you for this very insightful post.
Melinda,
I hope I can help raise awareness so others don’t go through what your grandparents did. No one likes to think something serious is happening, so it’s easy to ignore symptoms if you don’t know how serious they can be.
[...] For the rest of the story, read My Stroke: The Beginning. That post links to two others continuing the story of my stroke. Through the years I have written a number of posts on stroke, including risk factors and symptoms. [...]
Thank you for your input, Breezie. When I had my stroke, there was little known about strokes caused by chiropractic manipulation, but it’s well-documented now. In my case, I collapsed into a stroke the instant my neck was twisted, and I had no predisposing conditions for stroke.
I’m not sure that everyone who has a stroke that is recognized in the first three hours will totally recover. I understand it depends on how severe the stroke is, the patient’s health status, and whether or not other strokes occur. But the person is much more likely to recover … and certainly much more apt to live.
Talking to your doctor about a low-dose aspirin regimen is a good idea. This can be helpful to many people, but everyone does need to talk to their doctor before beginning any new regimen, no matter how much it’s touted by others.
Family history of stroke is a risk factor, and some racial groups are at higher risk than others. Obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and smoking are among the many risk factors.
I’d been going to the chiropractor for many years and never had any pain with the adjustments, either. And that was the only treatment that could control my migraine headaches. Ironically, after the stroke, my migraines disappeared. I haven’t had a severe migraine since the day I had the stroke – I guess that final chiropractic treatment cured my migraines forever.