Avoiding stroke

As we can see above, stroke or ‘Cerebrovascular diseases’ is the 3rd most common mode of death in the USA. Notwithstanding that heart disease and cancer are 3-4x more prevalent, the fact that 6.7% of fatalities are caused by stroke makes its avoidance even more compelling for people who have good diets, since it’s the next most likely to kill them.
You need to be careful taking statistics at face value as journalists do. You might want to consider how pertinent these statistics are to your life if you have lived a healthy life – unlike all those vile, fat Americans who can’t leave McDonalds without opening both doors. We therefore need to know to what extent these ailments are ‘bad diet related’, such that if we care about our longevity, we can focus on what’s really important, and not on what some disinterested, unhappy bureaucrat says. They haven’t got an analytical bone in their body. They will be among the first to die of heart disease…..thats karma if you ask me…..after wasting taxpayer dollars.
OK back to serious issues. Stroke is causes by a blood clot in the arteries that starves the brain of oxygen. Often strokes strike a person by surprise so its good to be aware of it, and even witnesses to a stroke can be proactive in helping their friends. Clearly there are several things that a stroke is going to cause:
1. Acute pain caused by the clot
2. Loss of brain function due to the deprivation of oxygen
Whilst onlookers can not be expected to feel the pain, they can observe symptoms like dizziness. The problem with clots is that they result in a build-up of pressure which can partially clear the clot. But without treatment the clot is likely to worsen the next time. So if the dizziness is simply attributed to ‘a bad egg’ or too much sun, a stroke victim could die without an opportunity for treatment. So to avoid death by stroke its useful if people know how to check for it. This might seem like a waste of time because its others whom will benefit – not us. All the more reason for spreading the news. A SIMPLE TEST for the onset of a stroke is to check for a Loss of bodily functioning. It may only be temporary if the clot partially clears, but its certain to clot again with greater severity if the patient does not receive treatment. The most telling sign of lost body function is lost awareness, so perform a simple 3-step test:
1. Smile Test: Ask the patient to Smile
2. Question: Ask the patient a simple question. Do they respond with clarity?
3. Energy levels: Ask the patient to raise both arms.
4. Tongue check: Ask test you can do is ask the patient to 'stick' out their tongue. If the tongue is 'crooked', or if it moves from one side or the other, this can also be an indication of a stroke.

If the patient has any difficulty with one of these tasks, call the emergency number if your country (‘000’ in the USA) and describe the symptoms to the dispatcher.

A neurologist can totally reverse the effects of a stroke if the patient is treated within 3 hours. He need not die and he need not experience any brain damage as a result of oxygen deprivation. Since a victim will likely be unsteady, its ideal if they can count of the support of peers.

Clearly too many people are dying because there is too little awareness of the ailments that kill us.
Dont be a statistic!

Our personal survival kit

None of us know exactly when we are going to die, but we actually have a good idea of what we are likely to die of. For westerners, or at least persons eating a western diet, and living a sedentary western life, the 15 most common causes of death in 2004 according to the CDC Division of Vital Statistics were:
1. Heart disease 28.5%
2. Malignant neoplasms (cancer) 22.8%
3. Cerebrovascular diseases (stroke) 6.7%
4. Chronic lower respiratory diseases 5.1%
5. Accidents (unintentional injuries) 4.4%
6. Diabetes mellitus (diabetes) 3%
7. Alzheimer’s disease 2.6%
8. Influenza and pneumonia 2.4%
9. Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome and nephrosis (kidney disease) 1.7%
10. Septicemia 1.4%
11. Intentional self-harm (suicide)
12. Chronic liver disease and cirrhosis
13. Essential (primary) hypertension and hypertensive renal disease (hypertension);
14. Parkinson’s disease;
15. Pneumonitis due to solids and liquids.

Interestingly most of these people are dying of illnesses that were caused by lifestyles that were relatively less sedentary than people are today. So might these statistics be considered normal for people whom have a more active life than normal? I actually think these statistics might be hiding something because they include people dying of age 110yo, when I think we would all like to have that choice. But aren’t we more concerned with what people are dying of ‘prematurely’? I’d like to know what people are dying of between 50-75yo, as anything over that strikes me as beyond my useful life.
It would seem incumbent upon all of us to learn how we can prevent these common causes of death, and better still helpful if we could get clear information as far as dietary advice on packaging and from health professionals, now and during schooling so good habits are adopted early. Of course some countries are already doing this…but it should be universal. Staying in the Philippines, it seems commonplace for people to eat fast food 2-3 times a day. The result is high blood cholesterol, diabetes, hypertension and likely premature death without change.
Next I will look at just one of these illnesses – stroke.