Stroke is a “brain attack” that occurs when blood vessels leading to a specific part of the brain burst (hemorrhagic stroke) or become blocked (ischemic stroke). This cuts off the blood supply of nutrients and oxygen to that part of the brain, which creates a disastrous domino effect, causing brain cells to begin to die. Ischemic stroke is the most common type of stroke, accounting for about 70 percent to 80 percent of strokes.
 

Many factors contribute to an individual's predisposition to stroke. Uncontrollable factors include increasing age, gender, race and personal or family history of stroke. Factors that may be controlled include high blood pressure, diet, alcohol and drug use, exercise and smoking. Following are some of the things a physician may recommend you do to prevent a stroke both for you and a loved one:

• Control high blood pressure. Most people can control their high blood pressure through diet, weight loss, exercise, and medication, when needed.
• Quit smoking. Smoking injures blood vessels, hastens the hardening of arteries, raises blood pressure and puts extra strain on the heart. These combined effects double the chances of getting a stroke.
• Lower high cholesterol and lose excess weight, get enough exercise and moderate your drinking of alcohol. By moderate drinking, most authorities recommend taking in less than 1.5 ounces of hard liquor or five ounces of wine or 12 ounces of beer per day.

Be compliant with all prescribed medication. Taking medications as your physician prescribes helps them to be the most effective. If you have questions about your medications, talk to your physician or pharmacist. Never stop taking a medication because you or your loved one “is feeling better.” Some medications can have serious consequences if rapidly stopped.
 

Look for these stroke warning signs – and make sure that you act quickly if   any one of the following is experienced:

• Sudden numbness or weakness of the face, arm or leg, especially on one side of the body
• Sudden confusion or 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

Not all of these warning signs occur in every stroke. When symptoms of a stroke occur and then resolve on their own in a short period of time, a person has experienced a transient ischemic attack (TIA). Although TIAs usually go away within minutes, they should be regarded as very serious. TIAs are major warning signs of an impending stroke. The lag between a TIA and a major stroke may be hours, days or months. Half of all strokes that follow a TIA occur within the same year.
 

The sooner you seek medical attention, the better. New and emerging therapies show promise, but all must be started in the first few hours following symptom onset. Seeking urgent medical attention after experiencing a TIA may prevent a major stroke or reduce the severity of a stroke.

If you recognize stroke warning signs, call 911 for immediate transport to a hospital utilizing the most current acute stroke interventions.
 

Ischemic stroke, which involves a blockage of blood flow to a portion of the brain, can be treated in some patients during the first three hours of an attack, using thrombolytic drugs such as Tissue Plasminogen Activator (tPA), which destroys harmful blood clots. In addition, FDA-approved clinical trials are currently underway for neuroprotective drugs that have shown the ability to reduce the number of brain cells destroyed in a stroke.

Hemorrhagic stroke, which involves the bursting of a blood vessel in or near the brain, is treated using different therapies. Many such strokes are the result of an aneurysm (a bulging blood vessel) that has burst. In the past, many of these high-risk aneurysms were inoperable. Advances in neuroradiology now make treatment possible.