Stroke of midnight
Ask a hundred women to name their greatest health worries, and few will mention stroke. But contrary to popular perception — that breast cancer, lung cancer, or high cholesterol are more of a concern — stroke is a leading cause of death among American women.
Stroke kills more than 50,000 women in this country every year. And although it’s a disease associated primarily with the elderly, a person of any age can have a stroke. In fact, about 25 percent of female stroke victims are younger than 65.
Stroke occurs when an obstruction of blood flow to the brain causes brain damage. The majority are ischemic strokes, caused by blood clots that become lodged in the narrow vessels of the head. About 20 percent of strokes are hemorrhagic and happen when a blood vessel bursts and bleeds into the brain. Both types of stroke cut off the flow of oxygen to the brain, where a few moments without oxygen is enough to cause brain cells to die. The resulting damage leaves many stroke survivors with Stroke of Women can’t afford to waste any more time before getting educated about stroke midnight disabilities that range from limb paralysis and confusion to difficulty swallowing, speaking, and caring for themselves.
Stroke strikes both sexes, but being a woman does affect stroke risk. The female hormone estrogen tends to keep younger women’s hearts healthy and their stroke risk low through menopause. But taking birth control pills actually increases the risk of stroke in young women who smoke and also have high blood pressure.
When a woman does have a stroke, the outcome tends to be dramatic. Women account for only 43 percent of strokes but more than 60 percent of stroke deaths. Social factors may be contributing to these grim statistics. “Women often ignore the warning signs. As caregivers, they tend to minimize what symptoms they may have because they’re busy taking care of other people,” says Nancy Battig, a nurse and clinical educator at Community Hospital. “If women have a little bit of weakness, slurred speech, or numbness in the face and it goes away, they often ignore it — and that’s part of the problem.”
These transient ischemic attacks, or TIAs, are caused by smaller blood clots that block vessels in the brain for only a few moments. These“ mini-strokes” can indicate that a more serious stroke is on the way.
Recognizing a stroke early can be critical to recovery. In fact, in the event of a stroke, a patient should be treated within 1 to 3 hours. Tissue plasminogen activator, or tPA, is a powerful drug used to break up or dissolve blood clots and significantly reduce the symptoms or effects of a stroke. This blood thinner, administered intravenously, can yield impressive results for some patients but is not appropriate for all, particularly those who were not treated for stroke within 3 hours of its onset.
And tPA is not a cure-all. It works only on strokes caused by blood clots, and it can cause bleeding in the brain, which is often fatal. Moreover, patients must be screened for certain additional medical problems before tPA can be administered. The good news, though, is that almost all strokes are preventable. The link between stroke and circulation means that exercising, eating right, and keeping an eye on the risk factors listed below can keep most people healthy. 