Encyclopedia Britannica defines Stroke as sudden impairment of brain function resulting either from a substantial reduction in blood flow to some part of the brain or from intracranial bleeding. The human brain as powerful as it is controls the vital organs in the human body. The ability to move body parts and respond to sensations are all caused by the brain function.
Stroke is a major cause of death in the world. In Africa, most people die of stroke due to the insufficiency of facilities to treat the disease whenever it is reported to the hospital. First aid facilities are not common and ambulances which have to pick victims are usually late at arrival to offer first aid. In the United States of America, 795,000 people suffer from stroke each year and 7,000,000 people have survived a stroke in the US.
Whiles efforts are being made by the Western world to bring their statistics on stroke under control, in Africa, stroke kills a lot of people and after 40 seconds someone suffers from a stroke. The little some of us can do is to raise awareness and provide education about the illness. This article sought to shed more lights on the types of stroke.
There are four most common ways by which the brain can get infected and bring about a stroke. The first type is termed as HEMORRHAGIC STROKE. What causes this kind of stroke? The haemorrhages stroke occurs when the blood vessel in the brain burst and blood starts to bleed into the brain causing damage in that area of the brain. Victims reflect symptoms referring to the area infected. If the burst occurs in the part of the brain responsible for a particular movement, a paralysis is seen in the related area. For example, if it affects the brains area of walking, the victim becomes paralyzed.
When the stroke affects a body part in charge of sensation, there will be less sensation in this area. For example, Speech, when the stroke affects the brains area of speech, speaking becomes a problem. People with long-standing blood pressure damage the vessels of their brain causing a bleed after a long time.
Another type of stroke is the ISCHEMIC stroke. How does this type of stroke also come about? The Ischemic stroke occurs as a result of blood not being able to reach some parts of the brain. As we all know, all the organs in the human body need energy, oxygen, water etc. These energies are being transferred to the brain as a result of blood circulating in the brain. Also, the body needs blood to cleanse the body and wash waste away.
The inability of blood to reach a region of the brain causes its reflective side to weaken. It’s like a motto, without fuel reaching the engine, the motto won’t be able to move but remain stable. Likewise, is the human body, when blood is unable to reach the part of the brain responsible for arm movement, the human arm won’t be able to make a move than to remain still.
The third type of stroke is the Mini- stroke or TRANSIENT ISCHEMIC ATTACK. What is the transient ischemic attack? The synonym for transient is brevity or briefness, meaning this type of stroke is short-lived unlike the ischemic and haemorrhages stroke. The mini-stroke comes about when there is a clot in the vessels of the brain, this clot, usually small causes a blockage, making it difficult for blood to reach a portion of the brain. But this type of stroke is short-lived, usually not more than an hour since the blood moves to the area of the clot and dissolves the destructive material.
Story By Prince Ghalley.
