Stroke equals disability
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A stroke is a “brain attack”
If you or a loved one has symptoms of a stroke, call 911
Stroke occurs in 780,000 people annually in the USA. The majority of these strokes are ischemic (blood flow is blocked to the brain) and the remainder are hemorrhagic strokes (bleeding in the brain).
If you have had a stroke, you are at a much higher risk for having a recurrent stroke. In fact, between 8-12% of stroke survivors have a second stroke within the first year.
There is good news though. The survival rate after a stroke has improved since 1994. This can be attributed to improvements in treatment with early arrivals to the emergency room and clot-busting drugs that open the blocked artery. These measures not only help to decrease death, they also help to decrease the disability caused by the stroke.
How can you prevent a stroke? The most important thing you can do is to control your risk factors. See the previous posting for the list of risk factors and additional resources.
