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Asked by Sharmin_the BEST to Chris, Hayley, Jimi, Maddison, Omur on 15 Mar 2016.
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Jimi Wills answered on 15 Mar 2016:
Stroke is a circulatory disease caused by a blockage in the blood vessels that feed the brain.
The blockage can be for different reasons:
1) a blood clot – these form if blood is moving too slowly, e.g. you have poor circulation and you sit down for too long you can get a blood clot in your leg (usually deep-vein thrombosis) which can travel elsewhere in the body and block vessels, including in the brain.
2) cholesterol – high cholesterol builds up as plaques in your blood vessels, and these can become detatch and float around in the blood and block other vessels. Sometime the plaques actually occur in the vessels feeding the brain
3) blood vessel damage – chemicals, injuries or high blood pressure can damage the vessels that can then collapse and be blocked, or they can rupture and leak so the blood doesn’t reach it’s destination
there are probably other reasons.
Note that the same things can happen in the heart resulting in a heart attack.
Prevention:
One of the chemicals that causes damage, and plaque formation, and bad circulation is nicotine. Avoiding nicotine is a good way to avoid a stroke. Even e-cigarettes still contain nicotine and so are still a health risk.
Obesity is also a risk for clotting, blood pressure, etc. Keeping to a healthy weight can help.
If you know you have bad circulation and you’re going to be sat for a long time you can wear flight-socks, which appliy pressure to the legs to help the blood empty properly so clots don’t form.
Get your cholesterol checked (if you’re over 40 or have a family with high cholesterol) and take steps to lower your blood cholesterol, e.g. lower your intake of animal fats and raise your intake of vegetable oils. There are pills that that reduce cholesterol levels if it’s really that bad.
Get you blood pressure checked… and if it’s too high or too low do something about it. Your doctor might give you pills, or tell you to take more exercise, which can help normalise you blood pressure and relieve stress.
Do yoga.
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Maddison Coke answered on 15 Mar 2016:
Take warfarin (after it has been prescribed to you by a doctor). It is used as rat poison so you have to be really careful but the way it kills rats is by thinning their blood so much that they cannot function. Thinning the blood also reduces the chance of blood clots forming and so it can help avoid a stroke. There are obviously loads of lifestyle choices you can also make to reduce your chances of a stroke. Eat your greens and do lots of exercise!!!
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Hayley Moulding answered on 15 Mar 2016:
We can do lots and lots of things to try and stop stoke. We can live a very healthy lifestyle and we can do exercise to keep us healthy. Sometimes though, strokes can still happen. We sometimes need drugs which will thin our blood to reduce the risk of a stroke too.
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Omur Tastan answered on 16 Mar 2016:
A stroke is when the blood vessels which carry oxygen to your brain are clogged. If the same happens to your heart you can have a heart attack. heart attacks sometimes have early symptoms you can watch out for and go to the doctor before you have the heart attack. They can put devices in your blood vessels, to prevent further blockage etc…
However strokes a bit harder to guess and prevent. My grandfather had one, and my grandma could tell he was having a stroke so called for an ambulance. He had some brain damage, like he couldn’t use his left arm all that well for a while. But later we found out the reason for the stroke was a growing brain tumor and that took him away from us.
Sorry for the sad story. My grandfather meant a lot to me and I miss him…To avoid all that, we all must have a healthy diet, exercise and hope for the best. 🙂
Comments
Sharmin_the BEST commented on :
Thanks for answering my question with a lot of deatail!!
Omur commented on :
Thanks for asking this question! 🙂