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You may be at risk for stroke, and your risk increases as you age. It is also higher for men than for women. Still, this serious health condition can occur at almost any age, and members of both sexes are a risk. Here is an FAQ on strokes and how you can detect stroke risk in advance:
1. What is a stroke?
A. Stroke occurs when one of the blood vessels that feed oxygen-rich blood to the brain bursts or gets clogged, causing a disruption of blood flow to part of the brain. It is the third leading cause of death in the US, resulting in 750,000 stroke victims per year. An estimated 75-85% of this condition that occurred last year could have been avoided with proper screening.
2. What warning signs are present before one occurs?
A. The majority of victims has no prior warning, and 97% of the adult population could not name a warning sign. While undergoing the proper screening could help people reduce their risk, people avoid screening because they think it will be too costly, painful, or inconvenient. In fact, screening is an inexpensive, non-invasive, non-radioactive procedure that can be found in most communities.
3. What are the risk factors?
A. Any adult could potentially suffer a stroke, but there are certain risk factors that signify a greater possibility of its occurrence in the near future. Here are some of those risk factors:
a. Age: the chance of your experiencing this condition approximately doubles for each decade of life after the age of 55.
b. Men are more likely to have one, but women are more likely to die of this condition
c. Heredity: your risk is greater if a grandparent or other family member has had one. Also, blacks face a higher risk than are whites.
d. Prior Occurrence: if you have had one previously, you face a much higher risk of having another.
e. TIA: transient ischemic attacks, or TIA, are often known as warning strokes that produce stroke-like symptoms but with no lasting damage. They are strong predictors of strokes.
4. What is the impact?
A. The most serious impact is death. It is the third-largest cause of death in the United States (just behind heart disease and cancer). The largest cost, however, is the loss of independence that 30% of survivors. Stroke affects not only the victim himself or herself, but those around them, as well. And, the monetary cost for survivors and those around them is also authentic. Each year, billions of dollars are spent on lost work, hospitalization, and the care of survivors in nursing homes.
5. Can the risk be detected?
A. In most cases, your doctor can not tell you if you have stroke risk via a normal checkup because symptoms often are not present. And, the fact is that most insurance companies disallow doctors from ordering reimbursable preventive stroke screening. The good news is that preventive screening is available at very low cost. Doctors often ask their patients to invest $ 139- $ 200 to get screened by a preventive screening company which uses portable ultrasound units to measure risk. Then, after getting their results back, the patient and the doctor can sit down and review their risk together. The key is to visit a reputable screening company that provides images back to you, in a week or less. Often time is of the essence in the case of screening.
If you believe you are at high risk for stroke, or if you would just rest easy knowing that you do not face high-risk conditions such as carotid artery disease, schedule a non-invasive, inexpensive and convenient ultrasound screening in your area.
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Source by Aimee Whitfill
