Longview medical professionals share stroke prevention tips

LONGVIEW – Our news partner KETK reports that this May, Christus Good Shepherd Medical Center is recognizing National Stroke Awareness month by bringing attention to the risk factors and prevention methods that are associated with the disease.

According to local medical professionals a stroke is defined as a disruption of blood flow due to the blockage of an artery most commonly caused by a blood clot. Joe Bowers, the stroke medical director at Christus Good Shepherd Medical Center, said that about 85% of strokes are labeled as ischemic strokes and the remaining 15% are considered hemorrhagic strokes.

Bowers described how damaging a stroke could be to the brain. “For every minute that you’re having a stroke you’re losing millions of brain cells. That varies depending on the size of the stroke and what part. The longer you go, the more the brain is being affected,” said Bowers. “Within the first few hours there’s this window where those brain cells are kind of stunned but they’re salvageable. After the first few hours those brain cells typically don’t recover. So the quicker we can intervene, the more likely we can salvage more brain tissue that hasn’t been permanently injured.

Bowers also reassured that there are multiple ways to address an active stroke to aid in having a functional recovery. “Luckily over the past 20 to 30 years there’s been a lot of advancements in stroke care, and so when people come in, especially if they come in quickly for their stroke symptoms, there’s a lot of things we can do minimize the damage,” said Bowers.

Stroke risk factors are grouped by uncontrollable and controllable variables such as the genetics versus diet. Christus Good Shepherd Medical Center professionals lists high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol, and heart conditions as common risk factors. Other risk factors that correspond to the lifestyle of an individual include smoking, excessive alcohol intake, and obesity.

A key to minimizing the possibility of a stroke is proper management of controllable variables. The stroke program manger for Christus Good Shepherd Medical Center, Katie Jones, suggested that individuals become familiar with their personal risk factors through regular visits with their primary care physician. She also advised that people know the signs and symptoms of a stoke and be aware of when to call for medical help if an individual is displaying symptoms of the disease.

Jones shared a popular way to remember the signs and symptoms, “We use a an acronym called BFAST. BFAST is given to us to use for stroke awareness for symptoms by the American Heart Association.” “Balance, unsteadiness with their gait and ability to walk, acute onset, new vision changes, any facial droop, speech difficulties. Either not able to get your words out or the words coming out are not what is intended to come out. Then any extremity weakness. That could be the arm, the leg, or both extremities. Either one, and that’s usually on one side of the body or the other, ” said Jones.

An important message Bowers and Jones both expressed was the importance of acknowledging and quickly reacting to the signs or symptoms of a stoke which could be life saving for someone experiencing this medical emergency.