What is Stroke?
Stroke is a "brain attack," which occurs when the blood supply to the brain is interrupted. This type of stroke caused by the blockage of blood vessel in the brain or neck is called an ischemic stroke and is the most frequent cause of stroke (1✔ ✔Trusted Source
What Is a Stroke?
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A Stroke is an Emergency!
Stroke is a medical emergency in which every minute counts. The longer the blood flow is cut off to the brain, the greater the damage.
Stroke injures the brain. A bystander may not realize that someone is suffering from a stroke attack. Stroke victims have the best chance of recovery if someone recognizes the signs and acts quickly.
First Aid: If you suspect a person has had a stroke, use the FAST (Face-Arm-Speech-Time) guide:
- F – Facial weakness: The person is unable to smile and their eye and/or mouth is droopy
- A – Arm weakness: The person is only able to raise one arm
- S – Speech problems: The person is unable to speak clearly or cannot understand the spoken word
- T – Time is of the essence: Call medical emergency help if you suspect the person has had a stroke (2✔ ✔Trusted Source
Learn first aid for someone who may be having a stroke
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Key Facts on Stroke
Statistics on Stroke
- Stroke is the fifth leading cause of death among Americans (3✔ ✔Trusted Source
About Stroke
Go to source). - Each year, around 795,000 people in the US have strokes, and approximately 137,000 people die (4✔ ✔Trusted Source
Stroke Facts
Go to source). - In India, around 1.5 million people suffer from strokes each year with 3,000 to 4,000 strokes occurring every day (5✔ ✔Trusted Source
Stroke in India: A systematic review of the incidence, prevalence, and case fatality
Go to source). - Ischemic strokes account for about 87% of all strokes. Hemorrhagic strokes (caused by a weakened blood vessel leak) account only for around 13% of all strokes (6✔ ✔Trusted Source
Types of Stroke
Go to source). - Strokes are one of the leading causes of serious long-term disability and in India around 5 (7✔ ✔Trusted Source
Stroke, Cerebrovascular accident
Go to source). - Strokes cost United States around USD $34 billion each year (8✔ ✔Trusted Source
Clinical and Economic Burden of Stroke Among Young, Midlife, and Older Adults in the United States, 2002-2017
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Occurrence and Symptoms of Stroke
- The risk of stroke can increase with age, but they also occur to anyone at any age (9✔ ✔Trusted Source
What is a stroke?
Go to source). - Being aware of signs and symptoms of strokes can help save someone’s life. Chances of survival and extent of damage are heavily dependent on the time taken for the person to get treatment.
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Causes of Stroke
- High blood pressure, high cholesterol, obesity and diabetes are considered to be some of the leading causes of stroke (10✔ ✔Trusted Source
Know Your Risk for Stroke
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Mortality Rate on Strokes
- Strokes can cause more deaths in the country than malaria, tuberculosis and HIV combined (11✔ ✔Trusted Source
WHO reveals leading causes of death and disability worldwide: 2000-2019
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