Stroke! What is it? What would it look like? What are the risk factors?
Story 1: Imagine you are watering a garden, and the water pressure is perfect. The garden is getting the nutrients it needs to grow and blossom.
Story 2: Imagine now that you are watering your garden, but now the water pressure is very bad. Now the garden isn’t growing or blossoming because it doesn’t have the nutrients it needs.
Story 3: Imagine now that you are watering your garden, but now you have too much water (high pressure) killing the garden. Therefore, the garden is also not growing and blossoming.
Meaning of Story 1: The garden is your brain, and the water is the blood traveling through your vessels to your brain, which carries the nutrients. Therefore, if you have a good blood supply to your brain, your brain will be functioning well.
Meaning of Story 2: The garden is your brain, and you can see here that there is less water (blood with nutrients) going to your garden (brain). Therefore, parts of the garden will not grow well and blossom and may die. This is called an ‘ischaemic stroke’ whereby less blood and nutrients are going to a part of the brain through the vessels. This is the most common type of stroke occurring in about 80% of people who have a stroke.
Meaning of Story 3: The garden is your brain, and you can see here that the water pressure (the blood pressure) in the garden (brain) is too high. Therefore, it is causing damage to that part of the garden (brain) and could kill some of that part of the garden (brain). This is called an ‘haemorrhagic stroke’ and occurs in about 15-20% of people who have stroke.
What would it look like? Think of the above stories of not having enough water going to the garden or having too much water going to the garden, which both harms and can kill some of the brain. Therefore, depending on what part of the brain is harmed, will depend on what a stroke may look like. Some of the more common symptoms are: • Weakness of one side of the body. • Speaking issues, like slurring of the speech. • Vision loss. • Losing consciousness. • Dizziness and falls.
However, stroke can present in many different ways, so if unsure please ring your doctor or health service provider (e.g., ambulance) if needed.
What are the risk factors? There are many risk factors that can increase the risk of having a stroke. Below are some of the common things: • High blood pressure. • Smoking and other drugs. • High cholesterol. • Diabetes. • Previous heart issues.
Please talk to you doctor for more information about stroke. Make a booking today to discuss with Kambu Health.
CALL KAMBU IPSWICH CLINIC - PH: 3810 3000
CALL KAMBU LAIDLEY CLINIIC - PH: 5465 3541
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