Natural Health Care

Archive for the ‘Cardiovascular Diseases’ Category

The most important risk factors in stroke are hypertension, heart disease, diabetes and cigarette smoking. Other factors include high alcohol intake, high blood cholesterol, illicit drugs and genetic or congenital conditions, particularly vascular abnormalities. People with more than one risk factor have what is known as an “amplification of risk”. This means that multiple risk factors increase their destructive effects and create a greater overall risk than the simple cumulative effect of individual risk factors.

Hypertension

Of all risk factors that contribute to stroke, the most powerful is hypertension or high blood pressure. People with hypertension are at increased risk of stroke that is four to six times higher risk than those without hypertension. A third of the adult U.S. population, approximately 50 million people (including 40 to 70 percent of those who now have more than 65 years of age) suffer high blood pressure. 40 to 90 percent of people who have strokes, high blood pressure have to occur before the stroke. Read the rest of this entry »

Who is at risk of suffering a stroke?

Some people are subjected to an increased risk of stroke than others. Among the risk factors are impossible to change the age, gender, race / ethnicity, and a history of stroke in the family. However, other risk factors for stroke, such as high blood pressure or cigarette use may be changed or controlled by the person subjected to that risk.

Non-modifiable risk factors

It’s a myth that stroke occurs only in adults. In fact, stroke occurs in all age groups, from fetuses still in the womb to the people of 100 years. It is true, however, that older people have a higher risk of suffering a stroke than the general population and the risk of stroke increases with age. For each decade after age 55, the risk of stroke doubles, and two-thirds of all strokes occur in people over 65 years.

People over 65 also have a seven times greater risk of dying from a stroke than the general population. And the incidence of stroke is increasing proportionately with the increase in elderly population. When children born in the baby boom years to become over 65 years of age, stroke and other diseases typical of aging, take on even greater significance in the field of health. Read the rest of this entry »

Health professionals also use various diagnostic imaging technique for evaluating patients with symptoms of stroke. The imaging procedure most widely used is the computed tomography (CT). Also known as CAT scan or CT scan, it creates a series of cross-sectional images of the head and brain. Because it is immediately available at all times in most major hospitals and produces images quickly, CT is the preferred technique for the diagnosis of acute stroke.

Computed tomography also has unique diagnostic benefits. Quickly dismisses bleeding may occasionally show a tumor that may present symptoms similar to a stroke or may even show evidence of early infarction. Heart attacks usually occur in a CT scan about 6 to 8 hours after onset of stroke symptoms.

If the stroke is caused by hemorrhage, a CT scan may show evidence of bleeding in the brain almost immediately after onset of symptoms of stroke. Read the rest of this entry »

How do you recognize a stroke?

Symptoms of stroke appear suddenly. Try to detect these symptoms and be prepared to act quickly to help yourself or help someone with whom you are:

- No Sudden numbness or weakness in the face, arm or leg, especially on one side of the body.
- Sudden confusion or trouble speaking or understanding what is spoken.
- Sudden trouble seeing in one or both eyes.
- Sudden trouble walking, dizziness or loss of balance or coordination.
- Sudden severe headache with no known cause.

If you suspect someone you know is experiencing any of these symptoms suggestive of a stroke, do not wait. Read the rest of this entry »

Transient Ischemic Attacks

A TIA, sometimes called a “mini-stroke”, begins exactly like a stroke but then resolves leaving no noticeable symptoms or deficits. The occurrence of a TIA is a warning that the person is under risk of stroke more severe and debilitating.

Of the approximately 50,000 Americans who have a TIA each year, one third, approximately, will suffer an acute stroke sometime in the future. The addition of other risk factors increases a person’s risk of suffering a recurrent stroke. Read the rest of this entry »

In a healthy brain that works, neurons do not come into direct contact with blood. The vital oxygen and nutrients that neurons need the blood to the neurons through the thin walls of brain capillaries. The glia (nervous system cells that support and protect neurons) form a blood-brain barrier or blood-brain – a complex plot that surrounds blood vessels and capillaries and controls which elements of the blood can pass through the neurons .

When you break an artery in the brain, the blood passes to surrounding tissue and upsets not only the blood supply but the delicate chemical balance neurons require to operate. In this type of stroke called hemorrhagic stroke. These hemorrhagic strokes account for approximately 20 percent of all strokes. Bleeding occurs in several ways. A common cause is a bleeding aneurysm, a weak or thin spot in an artery wall. Over time, these weak spots expand or balloon-like swelling under high blood pressure. The thin walls of these aneurysms balloon may rupture and spill blood in the space surrounding brain cells. Read the rest of this entry »

An ischemic stroke occurs when an artery that supplies blood to the brain becomes blocked, suddenly decreasing or stopping the flow of blood and, over time, causing a stroke in the brain. Approximately 80 percent of all strokes are ischemic. Blood clots are the most common cause of artery blockage and stroke.

The coagulation process is necessary and beneficial throughout the body because it stops the bleeding and to repair damaged areas of arteries or veins. However, when blood clots form in the wrong place within an artery, causing a devastating injury by interfering with the normal flow of blood. Clotting problems become more common as people get older.

Blood clots can cause ischemia and infarction in two ways. A clot that forms part of the body outside the brain can travel through blood vessels and trapped in a brain artery. This free clot is called an embolus and often forms in the heart. A stroke caused by an embolus is called an embolic stroke. The second kind of ischemic stroke, called a thrombotic stroke, is caused by thrombosis. Thrombosis is the formation of a blood clot in an artery in the brain that remains fixed to the artery wall until it grows large enough to block blood flow to the brain. Read the rest of this entry »

A stroke occurs when blood supply to part of the brain is suddenly interrupted or when a blood vessel in the brain bursts, spilling blood into the spaces surrounding brain cells. Likewise it is said that a person suffering a loss of blood flow to the heart has a heart attack, can say that a person with a loss of blood flow to the brain or sudden bleeding in the brain has a “brain attack” or suffer a stroke.

Brain cells die when they no longer receive oxygen and nutrients from the blood or when damaged by sudden bleeding in the brain and around it. Ischemia is the term used to describe the loss of oxygen and nutrients to brain cells when there is adequate blood flow. Ischemia ultimately leads to infarction, the death of brain cells that are eventually replaced by a fluid-filled cavity in the injured brain. Read the rest of this entry »

More than 2,400 years, the father of medicine, Hippocrates, recognized and described stroke as “sudden onset of paralysis.” Until recently, modern medicine has had very little to this condition, but the world of medicine concerned with stroke is changing and being developed every day new and better therapies. Today, some people who suffer a stroke can leave the same without disability or disabilities with few, if treated promptly. Physicians today can offer patients who suffer a stroke and their families which so far has been very difficult to offer: hope.

In ancient times stroke was called apoplexy *, a term that physicians applied to anyone suddenly struck by paralysis. Because many conditions can lead to sudden paralysis, the term apoplexy did not indicate specific diagnosis or cause. Doctors knew very little about the cause of stroke and the only established therapy was to feed and care for the patient until it ran its course. Read the rest of this entry »