Arm yourself with knowledge to identify and avoid strokes

Imagine you’re getting ready for a day at the mall with your mother when she tells you she’s feeling a bit dizzy and has a headache; you notice she’s flushed and having a hard time walking.

She tells you she’s fine, but from the look on her face, you know something’s wrong. She says she just needs to sit down for a while, but then she starts slurring her words.

Would you know if she was having a stroke? Would you know what to do?

In Hawaii more than 3,000 men and women experience strokes each year, and more than 600 will die from it. Nationwide it is the fourth leading cause of death.

A stroke occurs when blood flow to the brain is blocked by a clot or a rupture of an artery to the brain. When blood stops carrying essential oxygen to the brain, your brain cells can die within just a few minutes. A stroke can affect the entire body, resulting in paralysis, cognitive deficiencies, speech problems, emotional difficulties, difficulty completing daily tasks and pain.

And, ultimately, it can be fatal.

There are two types of strokes:

» Ischemic strokes, which occur when blood to the brain is cut off but there is no internal bleeding.

» Hemorrhagic strokes, which occur when there is bleeding in the brain caused by a blood vessel rupturing.

The signs and symptoms of a stroke include:

» Slurring or trouble speaking.

» Sudden numbness or weakness in the face, arms or legs.

» Sudden trouble seeing in one or both eyes.

» Sudden onset of dizziness or trouble walking.

» Sudden severe head­ache with no known cause.

A transient ischemic attack, or TIA, is similar to a stroke, but there is usually no injury to the brain. Blood flow to the brain is cut off temporarily, and strokelike symptoms occur. A TIA may be an early warning sign of a stroke.

A stroke is a medical emergency. If you or someone you know experiences the symptoms of stroke, seek medical attention immediately. Appropriate treatment must occur within three to four hours and may include administering a clot-busting medication known as tPA. Not all patients should be given tPA (a doctor will make that determination). If there is bleeding in the brain, a patient will not be treated with tPA.

The American Heart Association recently recognized Kaiser Permanente for its commitment to — and success in — implementing higher standards of stroke care and prevention according to nationally accepted guidelines that are a part of Kaiser’s Get with the Guidelines Stroke Program.

The program puts the focus on patients, offering smoking-cessation support, blood pressure management, diabetes care and cholesterol guidelines to manage their health. Doctors, specialists, nurses, dietitians and other medical staff work together to prevent strokes and provide expert care when they do.

They say an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Take control of your health and reduce your chances of having a stroke by lowering your blood pressure and cholesterol, controlling diabetes, quitting smoking, eating healthful foods low in fat and salts, and exercising.

Throughout the U.S. every year, about 795,000 people will experience a stroke. Even when not fatal, the results of a stroke can be devastating. But the good news is that it is preventable.

And it doesn’t take expensive medicine to reduce the risk of a stroke — just a willingness to know the risks, be prepared for what to do in an emergency, and adjust your lifestyle. In the end, the results far outweigh the costs.

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Dr. Sharin Sakurai Burton is a neurologist with Kaiser Permanente Hawaii and chief of the Department of Neurosciences at Moanalua Medical Center, which was recently awarded the American Heart Association’s Silver Stroke Plus Award. “Health Scene” features information and advice from Hawaii health care professionals.