Why is stroke awareness month important to you?
4 May 2006
Stroke is a brain injury that occurs if the blood supply to the brain is compromised or blocked, or if a blood vessel in the brain is ruptured. Every year around 15 million people suffer a stroke worldwide. Stroke can affect anyone at anytime, including babies, children, young people and adults. People over 65 years are most vulnerable and women are at higher risk than men.Stroke robs people of their identity and independence and is the leading cause of adult disability in industrialised countries. If you or your loved ones have experienced stroke you will know that its consequences are life shattering.
Preventing stroke
AstraZeneca is committed to raising the profile of stroke and is working with stroke organisations in Europe (The Stroke Alliance For Europe [SAFE]), the UK [The Stroke Association] and the USA (National Stroke Alliance [ASA]) to make people aware of steps they can take to try to prevent stroke and to provide advice on what they need to do if it does happen. You can reduce your risk of stroke by keeping yourself healthy. This includes having regular blood pressure checks, stopping smoking, drinking in moderation, eating healthily, reducing salt intake and taking regular exercise.
Stroke and what to do
However if stroke does happen to you or a person you are with you’ll want to know how to recognise it and what to do. Stroke is the brain equivalent of a heart attack; it is a medical emergency and must be treated as such. Stroke symptoms are sudden and can include:
Common symptoms of stroke
- Sudden numbness or weakness of the face, arm or leg, especially on one side of the body
- Sudden confusion, trouble speaking or understanding
- Sudden trouble seeing in one or both eyes
- Sudden trouble walking, dizziness, loss of balance or coordination
- Sudden, severe headache with no known cause
If you notice any of these in others, use the Face-Arm-Speech Test (FAST) to establish whether a stroke has occurred. If it has, call the emergency line urgently. Don’t delay because the sooner the patient receives medical care, the better their chance of recovery.
Face-Arm-Speech Test (FAST)
Follow these 3 simple steps to help you check-out whether someone has had a stroke:
F Facial weakness: Can the person smile? Has their mouth or an eye dropped?
A Arm weakness: Can the person use both arms?
S Speech problems: Can the person speak clearly and understand what you say?
T Test these three signs.
If the answer is “YES” to any of these signs call the emergency line URGENTLY!
After stroke
Once in hospital, doctors should quickly undertake checks on the patient to see what medical treatment and care is needed. Currently there is not a wide choice of medicines that can be used to treat stroke and there is a great need for new treatments. Doctors believe that new stroke medicines that can lessen the long-term debilitating effects of stroke will provide great benefits for patients. AstraZeneca is working with doctors and nurses to research and develop new medicines for the prevention and treatment of acute ischemic stroke, the most common type of stroke caused by blockage of blood vessel rather than a burst.
Play your part in the fight against stroke
Although new stroke medicines may help to prevent stroke and improve life after stroke in the future, there is much that can be done today to help lessen the impact of stroke. By maintaining a healthy lifestyle, recognising the symptoms of stroke and getting urgent medical help for people who have suffered a stroke, we will all be playing our part in the fight against this debilitating disease.
