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Strokes.
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seriously than they seem to now.
.... There are basically two kinds of stroke. The most common form (roughly 80 percent of all strokes) is called an ischemic stroke and happens when a blood vessel to a part of the brain becomes suddenly plugged with a blood clot (ischemic tissues are those starved of oxygen).
.... The remaining 20 percent of strokes are called hemorrhagic strokes and are due to a burst blood vessel (a hemorrhage) in the brain. Because it’s usually much more difficult to plug a leaking blood vessel (especially one that’s incredibly hard to get at because it’s buried in the brain) than it is to dissolve a clot, overall, hemorrhagic strokes tend to have worse outcomes than ischemic strokes (a hemorrhagic stroke, for example, is what felled Ariel Sharon), although any form of stroke can lead to severe debility and death.
.... Why can strokes be so debilitating? Because we don’t yet know how to re-grow brain tissue, so when some of your brain dies in a stroke, everything that that part of the brain governs dies with it. Thus, you might, for example, lose the use of the limbs on one side of your body. Or you might lose the ability to talk properly or to understand speech. Or you might end up with dementia. Or in the worst cases, of course, you might die.
.... So, now that I’ve scared the pants off you (even those of you not wearing pants), you might be wondering |
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.... In a world in which every illness, medical condition, misbehaviour, health failing, symptom, inappropriate thought, tic and twinge ends up with its own week, month, or year dedicated to a greater awareness of that “problem” (often also backed up, of course, by an extensive fund-raising campaign to help you understand and remember what this “problem” does to the thousands similarly-afflicted), June happens to be Stroke Awareness Month, so even for a five foot six, aging, balding white guy who has absolutely no imagination and who can’t jump even two inches – vertically or laterally - it was a pretty easy slam dunk to dedicate this month’s column to - sleep apnea.
.... Just kidding!
.... In fact, this column is about the very worthy subject of strokes, which despite the wonderful education efforts of the folks at the Canadian Heart and Stroke Foundation, still remains the |
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3rd leading cause of death in Canada, and just as bad, a condition that is woefully under-estimated by many of the people most at risk for getting a stroke.
.... So, let’s do our bit for greater stroke awareness, and the best place to start is, as usual, with definitions and anatomy. A stroke means that the blood supply (and it’s content of vital, life-sustaining oxygen) has been cut off to a part of the brain, much like what happens in a heart attack when blood and oxygen are cut off to parts of the heart.
.... In fact, because strokes and heart attacks are nearly equivalent in so many key aspects, lots of brain experts have taken to referring to strokes as “brain attacks”, which may also, of course, have the very important consequence that the public will take the threat of strokes and especially mini-strokes (see below) more |
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WHERE PEOPLE COME
FIRST
