Stroke symptoms

With increasing cardiovascular disease, the risk of stroke is also on the rise. Various risk factors such as age, smoking or high blood pressure favor this. Although strokes occur more frequently in older people, they can also occur in young adults or children. The following text describes how strokes occur, how they are recognized and the importance of prevention. Comprehensive information on this topic can be found on this page: Stroke

Symptoms

The symptoms depend on the affected area in the brain. The severity of the disease also depends on the damage.

  • Common symptoms are paralysis, which first becomes flaccid and then spastic.

    This can affect individual extremities or an entire half of the body. The patient loses control over the paralyzed limb.

  • Paresthesias such as tingling or numbness are typical for a stroke.
  • It can also lead to balance and coordination disorders.
  • In any case, the sensory perception can deteriorate.
  • Other symptoms are often difficulties in speaking. The patient is either unable to pronounce imaginary words because the vocal apparatus is inadequate or there are problems in the thinking process. In this case the patient cannot remember the words and therefore speaks without meaning and confusing. Therefore, it is important in therapy to recognize the type of speech disorder, because it must be treated differently.
  • Forgetfulness can also be added to the problems of thinking.
  • In any case, vision may be limited and there is also a risk of blindness.

Indications

As already described, a stroke is an undersupply of an area of the brain. This can have massive consequences for the patient and can also endanger life. The longer the area of the brain is not supplied with blood, the more cells die in the brain.

For this reason it is important to know and interpret the first signs. If the first signs become apparent in a person, the emergency doctor should be contacted immediately and as soon as possible. Three typical signs of a stroke can be named, which can also be tested on site.

In addition to these conspicuous symptoms, however, milder signs can also be the harbinger of a stroke. These include translational ischemic attacks (TIA) such as The tricky thing about these attacks is that patients may not take it seriously and do not go to a doctor. These temporary restrictions are caused by a thrombus in the brain, which, however, does not completely close the vessel but migrates to other areas of the brain.

This increases the risk of stroke, which must be treated immediately. Therefore, it is very important to see a doctor at any sign of a stroke.

  • Temporary visual impairment
  • Paralysis symptoms, which disappears after a few hours
  1. The first symptom is a washed-out language or problems with speech formation.

    This can be tested to see if the person can repeat a sentence. It is not the speaking itself that is relevant, but the repetition of a given sentence.

  2. Furthermore, paralysis of one half of the face can occur. Here the person should simply show his teeth.

    If the corner of the mouth does not stand out, it is a sign of facial paralysis.

  3. The third test checks for paralysis of the extremities. To do this, the person should stretch out both arms to the front and make sure that the palms of the hands are pointing upwards. If one arm falls down, this indicates a lack of strength and paralysis in the arms.