Doctors have discovered that many of the half-million persons who suffer strokes each year had warning signals weeks or months beforehand. The signals are called mini strokes. If you learn to recognize them and know what action to take, you could avoid a major stroke or save a loved one from one.
The word stroke means a sudden, powerful event, such as the rupture or obstruction (as by a clot) of an artery in the brain. On the other hand, mini strokes, also called TIAs (transient ischemic attacks), may last from as little as a few seconds to as long as several hours. No permanent brain damage occurs, and the clotting can actually dissolve by itself when blood flow is restored. The TIAs start unexpectedly and consist of a variety of temporary symptoms. These may include any one, or several, of the following: temporary blindness or blurring of vision; numbness or paralysis of one side of the body, the face, or an arm or leg; slurring of speech or inability to speak at all; dizziness, fainting, or a feeling of disorientation, and failure to recognize familiar persons and objects.
TIAs can occur when individuals are awake and active. Its easy to confuse them with an ordinary dizzy spell and to ignore them because they pass so rapidly. But if you or anyone you know experiences one or more of these symptoms, you should suspect a mini stroke. This is especially true if you or the individual has a history of high blood pressure, heart disease, previous stroke, or is over the age of sixty-five. However, although older individuals are far more likely to be victims, young persons and even children sometimes suffer strokes, too.
