A stroke is a medical emergency in which the blood supply to part of the brain is seriously reduced or interrupted, cutting the brain tissue off from receiving oxygen and vital nutrients. Once cut off from oxygen and nutrients, brain cells can begin to die within minutes. To reduce brain damage and other negative side effects from a stroke, early action and prompt treatment are crucial.
Along with an ischemic stroke and a hemorrhagic stroke, there is another stroke-like condition called a transient ischemic attack, commonly referred to as a mini-stroke. During a transient ischemic attack, blood flow to the brain is blocked for a fairly short amount of time, typically no longer than five minutes. Because blood flow is not blocked for an extended amount of time, the damage done to the brain by a transient ischemic attack is limited.
Although a stroke is a very serious medical event, it is not uncommon. In fact, someone in America suffers from a stroke every 40 seconds. Without proper medical attention and treatment, a stroke can be fatal or cause permanent damage to the body's ability to function regularly.
Depending on how long the blood flow to the brain was impaired and which part of the brain was most affected, the long-term effects of a stroke may include temporary or permanent disabilities. Here are some of the most common post-stroke complications:
Raising awareness about what a stroke is and how to recognize one can help people respond quicker to mitigate the effects of a stroke. Whenever someone suddenly has difficulty speaking, a drooping face or arm weakness, it is imperative to seek medical assistance.
A stroke can have a major impact on the survivor's ability to communicate clearly, especially if the stroke affected the left hemisphere of the brain where the language center resides. The exact communication problems a stroke survivor has will depend on which part of the brain the stroke impacted and how large of an area was damaged. The three main ways having a stroke can affect speech include aphasia, dysarthria and dyspraxia:
Aphasia is the most common language disorder a stroke causes. In general, aphasia can affect how someone speaks, their ability to understand what is being said as well as their reading or writing skills. Mild aphasia affects only one form of communication, such as speaking, while more severe aphasia can impact several modes of communication at once.
Because having a stroke is the most common cause of aphasia, stroke-related aphasia is a well-researched topic. The effects of aphasia may be temporary or long-term, which means the proper treatment may alleviate the symptoms and clear up communication. Medical professionals have developed multiple approaches to reduce the effects of stroke-related aphasia.
After a stroke, a person may suffer from dysarthria, which can inhibit communication by causing weakness in the muscles used to speak. Dysarthria can affect the muscles used to move the mouth, lips, tongue or the muscles that help regulate breathing while speaking. For these reasons, those with dysarthria may sound different or less clear than before. Unlike aphasia, dysarthria does not affect the ability to understand others or find the right words to say.
Similar to dysarthria, dyspraxia affects the movement and coordination of muscles. While the muscles used to produce the voice may be fully functional in a patient with dyspraxia, they might not be able to move those muscles in the correct order or sequence to make the necessary sounds for consistently clear speech. In this way, dyspraxia makes correct pronunciation difficult.
High blood pressure. Your doctor may call it hypertension. It's the biggest cause of strokes. If your blood pressure is typically 140/90 or higher, your doctor will discuss treatments with you.
Tobacco. Smoking or chewing it raises your odds of a stroke. Nicotine makes your blood pressure go up. Cigarette smoke causes a fatty buildup in your main neck artery. It also thickens your blood and makes it more likely to clot. Even secondhand smoke can affect you.
Heart disease. This condition includes defective heart valves as well as atrial fibrillation, or irregular heartbeat, which causes a quarter of all strokes among the very elderly. You can also have clogged arteries from fatty deposits.
Diabetes. People who have it often have high blood pressure and are more likely to be overweight. Both raise the chance of a stroke. Diabetes damages your blood vessels, which makes a stroke more likely. If you have a stroke when your blood sugar levels are high, the injury to your brain is greater.
Weight and exercise. Your chances of a stroke may go up if you're overweight. You can lower your odds by working out every day. Take a brisk 30-minute walk, or do muscle-strengthening exercises like pushups and working with weights.
Medications. Some medicines can raise your chances of stroke. For instance, blood-thinning drugs, which doctors suggest to prevent blood clots, can sometimes make a stroke more likely through bleeding. Studies have linked hormone therapy, used for menopause symptoms like hot flashes, with a higher risk of strokes. And low-dose estrogen in birth control pills may also make your odds go up.
Sudden severe headache with no known cause is a stroke sign in men and women.
During a stroke, every minute counts! Fast treatment can lessen the brain damage that stroke can cause.
By knowing the signs and symptoms of stroke, you can take quick action and perhaps save a life—maybe even your own.
Acting F.A.S.T. can help stroke patients get the treatments they desperately need. The stroke treatments that work best are available only if the stroke is recognized and diagnosed within 3 hours of the first symptoms. Stroke patients may not be eligible for these if they don’t arrive at the hospital in time.
If you think someone may be having a stroke, act F.A.S.T. and do the following simple test:
F—Face: Ask the person to smile. Does one side of the face droop?
A—Arms: Ask the person to raise both arms. Does one arm drift downward?
S—Speech: Ask the person to repeat a simple phrase. Is the speech slurred or strange?
T—Time: If you see any of these signs, call Hospital right away.
Note the time when any symptoms first appear. This information helps health care providers determine the best treatment for each person. Do not drive to the hospital or let someone else drive you. Call an ambulance so that medical personnel can begin life-saving treatment on the way to the emergency room.
At Sanwal Rehabilitation House, we follow the below mentioned Procedure:
In speech therapy, speech-language pathologists assess, diagnose and treat disorders regarding speech, voice, language, cognitive-communication, the ability to swallow and other related issues. Through working with the patient and their caregiving team, a speech-language pathologist comes up with an individualized treatment plan tailored to the patient's needs. This plan will be geared toward helping the patient achieve the highest level of communication and language function possible.
For people with aphasia, speech and language therapy aims to:
Aphasia is an acquired communication disorder that impairs a person’s ability to process language, but does not affect intelligence. Aphasia impairs the ability to speak and understand others, and most people with aphasia experience difficulty reading and writing. The diagnosis of aphasia does NOT imply a person has a mental illness or impairment in intelligence. .
The most common cause of aphasia is stroke (about 25-40% of stroke survivors acquire aphasia). It can also result from head injury, brain tumor or other neurological causes..
Aphasia affects about two million Americans and is more common than Parkinson’s Disease, cerebral palsy or muscular dystrophy. Nearly 180,000 Americans acquire the disorder each year. However, most people have never heard of it.
Apraxia is another motor speech condition. It’s similar to dysarthria because both involve problems with muscle tone or motor planning (the plan and act of moving muscle). In apraxia, people have normal muscle function but have difficulty making voluntary movements like speaking. There’s a problem getting the message from the brain to the muscles that tells the muscles to move.
While aphasia is most common among older people, it can occur in people of all ages, races, nationalities and gender.
Yes, but many people with aphasia also have weakness or paralysis of their right leg and right arm. When a person acquires aphasia it is usually due to damage on the left side of the brain, which controls movements on the right side of the body.
Sometimes. Since most jobs require speech and language skills, aphasia can make some types of work difficult. Individuals with mild or even moderate aphasia are sometimes able to work, but they may have to change jobs.
NO. A person with aphasia may have difficulty retrieving words and names, but the person’s intelligence is basically intact. Aphasia is not like Alzheimer’s disease; for people with aphasia it is the ability to access ideas and thoughts through language – not the ideas and thoughts themselves- that is disrupted. But because people with aphasia have difficulty communicating, others often mistakenly assume they are mentally ill or have mental retardation..
No.There are many types of aphasia. Some people have difficulty speaking while others may struggle to follow a conversation. In some people, aphasia is fairly mild and you might not notice it right away. In other cases, it can be very severe, affecting speaking, writing, reading, and listening. While specific symptoms can vary greatly, what all people with aphasia have in common are difficulties in communicating..
The type of dysarthria depends on the part of the nervous system affected:..
Researchers don’t know exactly how common dysarthria is. It is more common in people who have certain neurological conditions, such as:
