A stroke is a medical emergency, and it’s one of the leading causes of disability in the United States. According to the American Stroke Association, nearly 800,000 Americans have a stroke each year—one every 40 seconds. —and about 795 people die from strokes each day. You should visit an emergency room in Temple, TX, if you think you or someone else has a stroke.

What is a Stroke?

In general terms, strokes occur when blood flow to part of your brain stops or becomes severely diminished for an extended period—usually longer than five minutes—resulting in permanent loss of function or even death if not treated immediately.

Men are at higher risk of having strokes than women. However, both genders can experience many different types that require varying treatments and recovery times depending on how long they’ve been untreated, age, and overall health status level before onset occurs.

What Cause Stroke?

• High blood pressure
• High cholesterol
• Heart disease
• Diabetes
• Obesity
• Smoking
• Drug use

Family history of stroke, age, gender, ethnicity, poor diet, and physical inactivity can also increase your risk of stroke. But, you can still get a stroke even if you don’t have the risk factors.

What are the Types of Stroke?

There are two types of stroke, and they are; ischemic and hemorrhagic. However, you may also experience TIA (Transient Ischemic Attack).

• Ischemic stroke

Ischemic stroke accounts for about 87% of all strokes. The blood vessel carrying blood and nutrients to the brain becomes blocked by a clot or plaque (fatty tissue). The clot or plaque cuts off the blood supply to part of your brain, causing damage from lack of oxygen.

The ischemic strokes can further be classified into thrombotic and embolic. A clot forms in an artery in your neck or brain and blocks blood flow through the artery with a thrombotic stroke. Embolic strokes happen when a piece of plaque breaks off from elsewhere in your body and travels up into an artery leading to your brain.

• Hemorrhagic stroke

Hemorrhagic stroke is caused by a break in a blood vessel in your brain. The blood vessel can be damaged by many things, including an aneurysm, head injury, or high blood pressure. It’s crucial to get medical attention right away if you think you have symptoms of hemorrhagic stroke because it’s a medical emergency that requires immediate treatment.

Symptoms of hemorrhagic stroke include:

• Headache
• Nausea or vomiting
• Seizures (jerking movements) or unconsciousness due to low oxygen levels in the brain (cerebral hypoxia) from bleeding inside the skull cavity
• Double or blurred vision
• Transient Ischemic Attack

Transient ischemic attack, or TIA, is a temporary blockage of blood flow to the brain. They are often called mini-strokes because they have many of the same symptoms as a stroke but last less than an hour and generally don’t cause permanent damage.

However, if you experience a TIA, it’s important to visit the nearest ER immediately—even if you feel better within a few minutes—because these “warning” attacks forecast an increased risk of stroke, typically higher than people without TIAs have.

What are the Symptoms of Stroke?

The symptoms of stroke can be subtle, so it’s important to recognize them and seek emergency treatment if you notice:

• Sudden numbness on the face, arm, or leg on one side of the body
• confusion, trouble speaking or understanding
• Trouble seeing in one or both eyes
• Dizziness, loss of balance or coordination

How is Stroke Treated?

The treatment depends on the type of stroke you have and your needs. Depending on your condition, treatment may include:

• Surgery to remove the clot from your brain or restore blood flow to the affected area of your brain
• Medications like statins and beta-blockers
• Lifestyle adjustments like eating a healthy diet and exercising regularly, quitting smoking if you smoke, and reducing stress

When to Call the Doctor?

Seek immediate care if you have sudden vision problems, balance loss, dizziness or coordination loss, confusion, trouble speaking, and severe headache with no known cause.

Don’t try to drive yourself to the hospital, and don’t wait for symptoms to go away. You should also avoid trying to treat the problem yourself or waiting for it to get worse.

Take Action!

Early treatment can reduce the amount of damage to your brain caused by stroke by up to 80%.

Visit Express Emergency Room Temple for assistance and treatment to prevent complications.