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Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Doctor's advice for stroke

Many people with hypertension and high cholesterol levels here are not meticulous in taking medicines regularly and not following medical advice which doubly increase their chances of suffering brain strokes. This was stated by doctors on World Stroke Day today.

The city hospitals receive a significant number of patients suffering from brain strokes very frequently. While some patients recover after surgeries, many become paralysed for life.

World Stroke Day is observed across the world to educate people on the causes of brain stoke and ways to prevent it.

World Stroke Day is part of World Stroke Campaign of the World Stroke Organisation.

“People in the Northeast, including the city, are more prone to brain strokes than people in rest of the country. This is because the quantity of salt intake is more among people here. Moreover, people here are not used to fatty high-protein diet. With changing lifestyle, the intake of high-calorie diet has increased resulting in hypertension and high cholesterol levels leading to strokes,” the head of the GMCH’s medicine department, Prasanta Bhattacharya, said.

“But the problem here is that many people suffering from hypertension do not get optimum treatment as they skip medication which have to be taken regularly. Another major problem is they do not cut down on intake of sodium chloride or common salt,” Bhattacharya said.

A person suffers brain strokes when there is disruption of oxygen-rich blood to the brain because of rupture in blood vessels. As such, the affected area may be damaged, resulting in partial paralysis of the limbs on one side of the body. In critical cases, brain haemorrhage can result in permanent damage to the brain and even death of the patient.

Apart from this, certain congenital brain diseases also occur because of inflammation of the blood vessels.

While patients suffering from strokes recover after timely medication and surgery, many remain paralysed for life. Apart from taking a healthy diet, every person should engage in physical exercise for a duration of 150 minutes spread across a week. The chances of recovery in young people are definitely more than in aged patients. Besides, a patient may suffer from strokes several times during his lifetime,” Bhattacharya said.

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