THE MEDICINE CABINET
By Jean Sutherland
mexico4us@yahoo.com

      It happens quickly. First there’s a sudden loss of vision in one eye. You find yourself unable to speak, you feel weak, or maybe experience numbness or tingling in the face or limbs. Perhaps it’ll make its presence felt with a severe headache, accompanied by dizziness and a sensation of faintness. Whatever the symptoms, chances are anyone encountering any of the above are in the midst of having a stroke.
      But it’s not all doom and gloom. In the past 30 years, deaths from stroke have fallen by 50 per cent, a dramatic drop credited to improvements in treatment and increased awareness of preventative techniques.
      A stroke could more aptly be referred to as a “brain attack.”
The hallmark of a stroke is that it happens instantly. While an awareness of strokes has been with us for centuries, it wasn’t until more recent times that physicians developed an understanding of the condition.
      They were aware of hemorrhages in the brain through autopsy 120 years ago, and they were aware of ischemic strokes at the turn of the century.
We’ve learned about blood clots in the brain far more recently, in the 1940s, and we’ve learned how to prevent strokes in 1970s and 1980s. And
the 1990s? We’re really learning how to treat strokes.
      Time is of the essence. Today, the Heart and Stroke Foundation, along with specialists in the cardiovascular field, have adopted a motto they hope will help instill in the public a sense of the urgency necessary to successfully treat a stroke. One of the expressions used is “time is brain.” A stroke is interrupted blood flow, and the brain’s a greedy organ requiring a lot of energy. Problem is, it doesn’t have any reserve. Therefore you lose consciousness within a second or two, and brain damage can occur within minutes, four or five at most, if the flow isn’t returned. If it’s just partial, a clot that goes to part of the brain, it takes about an hour to an hour and a half before you start to get damage. But that damage continues to evolve.
      One of the worst-case scenarios for stroke victims is when a transient ischemic attack, or mini-stroke, occurs. This happens when a blood clot lodges in the brain momentarily, then breaks up. During a TIA, the regular symptoms of a stroke will be experienced for periods of between 15 minutes and an hour before passing. Trouble is, if the clot doesn’t clear, the ischemia becomes extremely damaging and valuable time is lost.
      That’s why people need to get to a hospital immediately. It’s people experiencing a TIA who can be treated most successfully if they arrive
within an hour, but good results can also occur with treatment when a patient gets help within three hours. Generally, these are the people
who recognize the symptoms, and who consequently stand the best chance of surviving with limited brain damage.
      Failure to receive treatment within these crucial first hours causes the left side of the brain to basically wither and die. While young people
can recover wellCthe other side of brain takes on some of its functionC the older we get the harder it is for the brain to adapt. As a result, a
damaged left side of the brain may leave a patient unable to speak and paralyzed.
      The key to reducing the likelihood of such devastating ocurrences rests not just with the speed with which patients are treated but greater awareness of stroke through education and understanding will prove a life saver, if not a brain saver.