Stroke Awareness in USA - Report Example

STROKE AWARENESS IN US al Affiliation STROKE AWARENESS IN US Introduction Stroke is the malfunctioning of the body parts due to the insufficient supply of blood and oxygen to the brain cells. The cells are rendered dead and cannot function properly to maintain the normal body operations. The disease is prevalence among the American citizens and is believed to cause approximately 130,000 deaths annually. It is, therefore, a great concern to establish the signs, preventive and secure information regarding the disease to provide public awareness so that they develop measures to reduce its spread. Such is the objective of the paper to provide conclusive information regarding stroke among the patients. Signs and symptoms of stroke Many symptoms and signs have been developed by practitioners to show the occurrence of stroke. Patients with stroke do have trouble to speak and understanding. They confuse things while they speak, smear in words while talking and experiencing hardship to understand communication (Casolla, Bodenant, Girot,Cordonnier, Pruvo,Wiel, & Goldstein,2013). Paralysis of the leg, face or the arms can also be witnessed by individuals affected by stroke. For instance, when you try to raise one of your arms and one side falls suddenly, then the person is having a stroke (Wan, Zhao,Zhang, Deng, He & Ruan,2014). The same study also notes trouble in walking as a sign of stroke. Persons with stroke losses balance while walking and may fall at times. It is because the body parts are not well coordinated. Headache is another sign observed by Casolla and the colleagues in the study of (2013) as those persons with stroke may experience sudden pain that results into dizziness, unconsciousness and at times vomiting (Go, 2013).Poor vision is also another symptom where the person may experience the blurred vision with their eyes making them not t o see properly. Causes of Stroke Stroke in a person usually occurs due to the inefficiency in biological functions of the body. When there is inefficient or not enough blood that flows into the brain that reduces the amount of oxygen and nutrients. The inefficiency causes the brain cells to die leading to stroke (Fassbender, Balucan,Walter, Levine, Haass,& Grotta,2013).A stroke can as well occur due to the blockage or rupture of the blood artery usually known as the hemorrhagic stroke. The act leads to temporary flow of the blood to the brain cells that may result in a stroke. Risk factors that lead to a stroke Many reasons have been explained to risk individuals to develop stroke. They are observed to be in two broad categories that include lifestyle and medical. Lifestyle risk factors includes where a person is an obese, lack of physical exercises, drinking excess alcohol and use of illegal drugs as heroin and cocaine (Casolla, Bodenant, Girot,Cordonnier, Pruvo, Wiel, & Goldstein, 2013). The acts result in insufficient body functioning that affects blood distribution making a person be of high risks to develop stroke. Another risk factor is the medical factors. They include high blood pressure that affects blood flow to various parts of the body that finally affects the functioning of the brain cells. Go (2013), also notes that those persons with diabetes and do excessive drinking of alcohol as well can develop the stroke. Lack of enough sleep that interrupts the flow of oxygen and cardiovascular diseases are also observed to increased high rates of strokes (Go, 2013). Other scholars like Banerjee and the core of (2013) noted that the stroke may be due to family, old age, race, and gender. For instance, men are said to experience high number of strokes than women. Complications Development of stroke usually can result in temporary or permanent disability depending on how long oxygen is insufficiently supplied to the brain that can easily lead to many impacts to the body. Stroke may result in paralysis of any of the body parts. (Lackland, Roccella,Deutsch, Fornage,George,Howard & Towfighi2014 observed parts such as legs and arms may be permanently or temporary malfunction. The muscles of the mouth can be rendered ineffective that makes a person experience difficulty in eating. (Robinson,Reid,Haunton,Wilson, & Naylor, 2013) also noted that due to stroke, a person have hard times to think and understand, they may experience memory loss due to that effect. Those individuals with stroke usually develop depression that make them have hard times controlling their emotions. Other studies like Go (2013) showed that persons with stroke develop pains due to the affected body parts while also experiences pain, especially during the cold conditions. (Fassbender, Balucani,Walter,Levine, Haass, & Grotta, 2013 noted other impacts such as the change in behavior as those persons with strokes develop anti-social behavior and are repulsive on issues. Prevention Prevention can be described as ways, activities and methods that can be used to dissuade, spread and incidences of possible stroke to the population. It is done so that the current situation can be maintained while encouraging healthy behavior to deter stroke among the citizens. Divergent views have been proposed on how to reduce the prevalence of strokes among individuals. (Fassbender, Balucani,Walter, Levine,Haass,& Grotta,2013 showed that persons should engage in vigorous exercises more occasionally. It helps in the equitable distribution of blood supply into the body parts that in turns ensures that oxygen is sufficiently supplied to the brain for proper functioning of the brain cells. Wan and the core in their study of prevention of stroke (2014), also notes that exercise ensures to maintain a standard blood pressure levels in the body that reduces sudden shocks associated with heart failure and disturbances of blood flow. The blood flow to the brain is then ensured preventing the death of the brain cells. Excessive drinking of alcohol and use of illicit of drugs should also be minimized since they reduce the amount of blood and oxygen into the body that increases chances of stroke occurrence. (Ciccone, Valvassori, Nichelatti, Sgoifo, Ponzio,Sterzi, & Boccardi, 2013), encourages healthy eating that reduces the amount of cholesterols and obesity. High amounts of cholesterols and obesity make a person experiences heart failures that cause shocks to blood supply into the brain leading to stroke. Factors that leads to stroke in United States As per the data by the American Stroke association of 2014, risk factors that include high blood pressure, smoking and unhealthy eating are the leading causes of a stroke at 49%. Age contributes to about 35% of the stroke occurrence while other factors such gender and race only could be only be attributed to the remaining 16%. Rate of stroke occurrence in the United States compared to other diseases According to the America stroke association report of 2014, stroke is one of the causes of disability in the United States. The disease is ranked fifth after the heart attack, cancer, chronic infection and unintentional injuries. These comparisons can be represented by the chart below; Management of stroke in United States relative to China, Japan, and Canada A report from the center for disease control of 2014 showed that due to the high occurrence of stroke among the population, countries have increased their spending power on the stroke related matters. United States spends almost of $34 billion to control the diseases more than any of the four countries. China spends up to $25 billion while Canada spends an average of $20billion to control the disease. Japan is the lowest spender among the countries and only allocates $ 13 billion for stroke. Conclusion The rate of prevalence of stroke related matters in the United States is on the verge of overtaking other cardiovascular diseases. The disease can be attributed to unhealthy living and consumptions by the population. Actions such as physical exercise should be encouraged as they enable the body to be in good health conditions that will reduce the high-risk factors for the stroke. References Banerjee, A., Fauchier, L., Vourch, P., Andres, C. R., Taillandier, S., Halimi, J. M., & Lip, G. Y. (2013). Renal impairment and ischemic stroke risk assessment in patients with atrial fibrillation: the Loire Valley Atrial Fibrillation Project. Journal of the American College of Cardiology, 61(20), 2079-2087. Ciccone, A., Valvassori, L., Nichelatti, M., Sgoifo, A., Ponzio, M., Sterzi, R., & Boccardi, E. (2013). Endovascular treatment for acute ischemic stroke. New England Journal of Medicine, 368(10), 904-913. Casolla, B., Bodenant, M., Girot, M., Cordonnier, C., Pruvo, J. P., Wiel, E., ... & Goldstein, P. (2013). Intra-hospital delays in stroke patients treated with rt-PA: impact of preadmission notification. Journal of neurology, 260(2), 635-639. Fassbender, K., Balucani, C., Walter, S., Levine, S. R., Haass, A., & Grotta, J. (2013). Streamlining of prehospital stroke management: the golden hour. The Lancet Neurology, 12(6), 585-596. Lackland, D. T., Roccella, E. J., Deutsch, A. F., Fornage, M., George, M. G., Howard, G., ... & Towfighi, A. (2014). Factors influencing the decline in stroke mortality a statement from the american heart association/american stroke association. Stroke, 45(1), 315-353. Robinson, T. G., Reid, A., Haunton, V. J., Wilson, A., & Naylor, A. R. (2013). The face arm speech test: does it encourage rapid recognition of important stroke warning symptoms?. Emergency Medicine Journal, 30(6), 467-471. Singer, D. E., Chang, Y., Borowsky, L. H., Fang, M. C., Pomernacki, N. K., Udaltsova, N., ... & Go, A. S. (2013). A new risk scheme to predict ischemic stroke and other thromboembolism in atrial fibrillation: the ATRIA study stroke risk score. Journal of the American Heart Association, 2(3), e000250. Wan, L. H., Zhao, J., Zhang, X. P., Deng, S. F., Li, L., He, S. Z., & Ruan, H. F. (2014). Stroke prevention knowledge and prestroke health behaviors among hypertensive stroke patients in Mainland China. Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing, 29(2), E1-E9. Read More