Stroke is a signal
Andrey Dmitrievich, everyone knows the symptoms of a stroke that occur suddenly. What is a “silent” stroke? There is something insidious about this phrase.
Andrey Smolkin: A stroke in itself is insidious, because, indeed, it always occurs suddenly, it is always an acutely developing symptomatology, which in most cases is disabling. I often say: a stroke does not happen to one person, it happens to the whole family, whose life changes dramatically. Silent strokes are those risk factors that can manifest themselves in the form of acute cerebrovascular accident. You see, a stroke is a signal that says: something is wrong in the body. And if earlier this was somehow compensated for, now it is “said” by either severe or mild neurological symptoms, depending on the amount of damage to the brain substance.
What are the most common risk factors?
Andrey Smolkin: First of all, this is arterial hypertension, which a person often does not feel and therefore does not control the pressure, and as a result he may have a stroke. One of the leading causes of ischemic stroke and the so-called heart rhythm disturbance (atrial fibrillation). It happens that a person notices some interruptions, but does not attach any importance to them. Meanwhile, a neurological deficit develops (arms and legs do not work, speech is impaired). Moreover, cardiac arrhythmia could be affected by drug therapy, but, unfortunately, it is detected when neurological symptoms have already debuted.
Does a stroke always manifest itself clearly?
Andrey Smolkin: As a rule, yes. Classic symptoms: speech impairment, unilateral limb weakness, facial asymmetry, acute visual impairment, balance. At the same time, a stroke “does not hurt,” unlike, for example, a heart attack with its pain syndrome, which forces a person to seek medical help. And in case of a stroke, even if the function is impaired, say, the arm does not work, the person…
Decides: I’ll take a rest.
Andrey Smolkin: Exactly! Or the second option: lay down. Sometimes it comes to tragicomic cases. An elderly married couple, the husband stopped talking, is admitted to the hospital on the third day. I ask my wife: “Do you know the symptoms of a stroke?” – “Certainly!” – “Why didn’t they call an ambulance earlier as soon as the speech disappeared?” She answers: “I thought he was offended by me.”
Meanwhile, the most important thing when symptoms of a stroke appear is to call an ambulance as soon as possible, because we can carry out reperfusion therapy, that is, restore blood flow. And thereby minimize the neurological deficit, and even ensure that the person returns to normal everyday life. I’m not even talking about preventing death.
On the scales
If patients sometimes do not pay attention to the obvious symptoms of a stroke, then a “silent” one can definitely be missed. What to do to prevent this from happening?
Andrey Smolkin: Regularly undergo medical examination, within the framework of which a set of diagnostic measures is carried out to identify risk factors. This allows us to develop primary prevention tactics that minimize the risk of developing a vascular event. And the most banal, but very significant thing is to quit smoking, lose weight, and increase your physical activity. This is available to everyone! The main thing is to imagine a scale, where on one of the scales is our health, our functional activity, our ability to help relatives, and on the other – bad habits that can take away everything we have. I think the choice is obvious.
And then… We are now talking about the prevention of acute events. But the same risk factors can lead to chronic cerebrovascular accident. That is, say, constantly elevated blood pressure leads to small vessels spasming and leukoaraiosis developing. It can manifest itself as impaired memory, attention, dizziness, general weakness… That is, so far, thank God, in an acute episode with a severe neurological deficit, cerebral circulation disorder has not occurred, but this indicates that its precursors have appeared.
What is the insidiousness of “silence”? The fact is that it can be realized in an acute episode that will radically change a person’s life.
THERE ARE CONTRAINDICATIONS. SPECIALIST CONSULTATION IS REQUIRED.
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