Signs and Symtoms

Signs and Symptoms

The main symptoms of stroke can be remembered with the word FAST: Face-Arms-Speech-Time.

Face – the face may have dropped on one side, the person may not be able to smile or their mouth or eye may have dropped.

Arms – the person with suspected stroke may not be able to lift both arms and keep them there because of arm weakness or numbness in one arm.

Speech – their speech may be slurred or garbled, or the person may not be able to talk at all despite appearing to be awake.

 Why do strokes happen?

Like all organs, the brain needs the oxygen and nutrients provided by blood to function properly. If the supply of blood is restricted or stopped, brain cells begin to die. This can lead to brain injury, disability and possibly death.

There is also a related condition known as a transient ischaemic attack (TIA), where the supply of blood to the brain is temporarily interrupted, causing a 'mini-stroke' often lasting between 30 minutes and several hours. TIAs should be treated seriously as they are often a warning sign that you are at risk of having a full stroke in the near future.

Who is at risk?

In the UK, strokes are a major health problem. Every year, around 110,000 people have a stroke in England and it is the third largest cause of death, after heart disease and cancer. The brain injuries caused by strokes are a major cause of adult disability in the UK.

Older people are most at risk of having strokes, although they can happen at any age – including in children.

If you are South Asian, African or Caribbean, your risk of stroke is higher. This is partly because of a predisposition (a natural tendency) to developing high blood pressure (hypertension), which can lead to strokes.

Smoking, being overweight, lack of exercise and a poor diet are also risk factors for stroke, as are high cholesterol, atrial fibrillation and diabetes.

The Answers are in our Breath

The answers are in our breath
Many of us practice mindful breath when we are calm or meditating. But breath can often be the last thing we think of when we are scared or hurting.

Breath is the grounding life force. It has the power to bring us back into our bodies, and the power to take us back out. Breath is reassurance we are still alive, and therefore, "OK". In those moments of adversity our bodies contract, and our natural functions slow down and stagnate.

Want to be your own wizard? Next time you get some news you weren't quite prepared for, stop yourself before you let the wave of emotions be your guide. Center, breathe, calm yourself with kind reassuring words that you will indeed be ok, and that life is unfolding your perfect journey in ways you can't yet imagine.

Often all we really need to offer our loved ones is witness to their fears, the validity of being heard.

Remember, you are the force which can calm, console, and comfort. You are the source; all that is, all that was, all that will be. Breath it in.

Jill Bolte Taylor

Please view the following "youtube" Link - Jill Bolte (20 min)

One morning, a blood vessel in Jill Bolte Taylor's brain exploded. As a brain scientist, she realized she had a ringside seat to her own stroke. She watched as her brain functions shut down one by one: motion, speech, memory, self-awareness ...
Amazed to find herself alive, Taylor spent eight years recovering her ability to think, walk and talk. She has become a spokesperson for stroke recovery and for the possibility of coming back from brain injury stronger than before. In her case, although the stroke damaged the left side of her brain, her recovery unleashed a torrent of creative energy from her right.

Link - Jill Bolte

Myth vs Fact

1. MYTH: Strokes only happen to elderly people. Fact: “It’s true that as we get older, our risk for stroke goes up,” says Eric Bershad, MD, a neurointensivist with St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital and a vascular neurologist at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. However, there’s also an increasing number of strokes in people between the ages of 18 and 65, so to say that strokes only occur in the elderly is false. The increased risk for stroke in younger people is linked to the growing incidence of obesity and high blood pressure in this age group, Dr. Bershad says.

2. MYTH: Strokes are rare. Fact: Stroke statistics reveal that strokes are quite common. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 6 million Americans have had a stroke. “And stroke is currently the fourth leading cause of death in the U.S.,” Bershad says.

3. MYTH: A stroke takes place in the heart. Fact: “A stroke takes place in the brain,” Dr. Rybinnik explains. “The nervous cells in the brain, called neurons, require blood flow and the nutrients and oxygen in blood to survive and function. If the blood supply to the neurons in the brain is cut off either because of a blood clot or a disease of the blood vessels, those neurons die. That’s what a stroke is.”

4. MYTH: Strokes aren’t preventable. Fact: “The notion that strokes can’t be prevented is a giant myth,” Rybinnik says. “One of the biggest studies on stroke, called the International Stroke Study, examined risk factors and found that 90 percent of strokes can be attributed to vascular risk factors such as high blood pressure, diabetes, and obesity — and all of which are preventable to a large extent.”

5. MYTH: Strokes can’t be treated. Fact: The vast majority of strokes are ischemic, which are caused by a clot, and they can be treated. “If a person comes in within 4 and a half hours of the onset of stroke symptoms, we can give a clot-busting medication called tissue plasminogen activator that may prevent or possibly reverse damage that would’ve been done by the stroke,” Rybinnik says.

6. MYTH: The most common sign of a stroke is pain. Fact: “Only about 30 percent of people will have a headache with ischemic stroke, so pain isn’t a reliable symptom,” Bershad says. The most common symptoms of stroke include sudden onset of numbness or weakness on one side, double vision, confusion, lack of coordination, and trouble understanding what someone is saying.

7. MYTH: Strokes aren’t hereditary. Fact: “Strokes do run in families,” Rybinnik says. “The vascular risk factors for stroke, such as hypertension, diabetes, and obesity, all have a genetic component. And the more rare causes of stroke in younger people, such as cardiac tumors, clotting disorders, and abnormalities with blood vessels, can also be passed down from generation to generation.”

9. MYTH: Smoking doesn’t affect your chances of having a stroke. Fact: “Smoking is one of the biggest risk factors for stroke, especially in younger people,” Bershad says. “This is true for both ischemic and hemorrhagic strokes, as well as first-time and recurrent strokes.”

10. MYTH: Stroke recovery only happens in the first few months after a stroke. Fact: “While most of the healing takes place in the first few months, recovery can span up to two years,” Bershad says. “And some studies even suggest that people can benefit from physical therapy and other treatments a few years after a stroke originally took place.”

Type of Stroke

Ischemic stroke
Ischemic stroke accounts for about 87 percent of all cases

 Ischemic strokes occur as a result of an obstruction within a blood vessel supplying blood to the brain. The underlying condition for this type of obstruction is the development of fatty deposits lining the vessel walls. This condition is called atherosclerosis. These fatty deposits can cause two types of obstruction:

Cerebral thrombosis refers to a thrombus (blood clot) that develops at the clogged part of the vessel.

Cerebral embolism refers generally to a blood clot that forms at another location in the circulatory system, usually the heart and large arteries of the upper chest and neck. A portion of the blood clot breaks loose, enters the bloodstream and travels through the brain's blood vessels until it reaches vessels too small to let it pass. A second important cause of embolism is an irregular heartbeat, known as atrial fibrillation. It creates conditions where clots can form in the heart, dislodge and travel to the brain.

Silent cerebral infarction (SCI), or “silent stroke,” is a brain injury likely caused by a blood clot interrupting blood flow in the brain. It’s a risk factor for future strokes which could lead to progressive brain damage due to these strokes.

Hemorrhagic Stroke 
Hemorrhagic stroke accounts for about 13 percent of stroke cases

It results from a weakened vessel that ruptures and bleeds into the surrounding brain. The blood accumulates and compresses the surrounding brain tissue. The two types of hemorrhagic strokes are intracerebral (within the brain) hemorrhage or sub-arachnoid hemorrhage.


Hemorrhagic stroke occurs when a weakened blood vessel ruptures. Two types of weakened blood vessels usually cause hemorrhagic stroke: aneurysms and arteriovenous malformations (AVMs).

An aneurysm is a ballooning of a weakened region of a blood vessel. If left untreated, the aneurysm continues to weaken until it ruptures and bleeds into the brain

An arteriovenous malformation (AVM) is a cluster of abnormally formed blood vessels. Any one of these vessels can rupture, also causing bleeding into the brain