Perhaps like me, you recently received an email alert or read a Facebook post with four tests to determine if someone has had a stroke, including looking to see whether the patient’s tongue is crooked. I thought that seemed a bit funny and decided to see what the medical folks –including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) –had to say about what the average Jane or Joe should do about diagnosing a possible stroke. Here is what CDC officially says about stroke recognition:
The five most common signs and symptoms of stroke are:
• Sudden numbness or weakness of the face, arm, or leg.
• Sudden confusion or trouble speaking or understanding others.
• Sudden trouble seeing in one or both eyes.
• Sudden dizziness, trouble walking, or loss of balance or coordination.
• Sudden severe headache with no known cause.
If you or someone else experiences one or more signs or symptoms of stroke, call 9-1-1 immediately. Every minute counts!Signs of a stroke always come on suddenly. If your symptoms go away after a few minutes, you may have had a “mini-stroke,” also called a transient ischemic attack (TIA). TIAs do not cause permanent damage but can be a warning sign of a full stroke—you should still get help immediately.
So how do you know if it’s a stroke? You don’t –unless you are medical professional trained to diagnose a stroke. Time is of the essence, so don’t do your own examination; get the help of an expert fast.
Since I have a few relatives who have had strokes, I printed out the above list of common symptoms and taped to the inside of a kitchen cabinet (just in case).
Here are some other sobering stroke stats according to the CDC:
• Stroke is a leading cause of death in the United States, killing nearly 130,000 Americans each year—that’s 1 of every 18 deaths.
• A stroke, sometimes called a brain attack, occurs when a clot blocks the blood supply to the brain or when a blood vessel in the brain bursts.
• Someone in the United States has a stroke every 40 seconds. Every four minutes, someone dies of stroke.
• Every year, about 795,000 people in the United States have a stroke. About 610,000 of these are first or new strokes; 185,000 are recurrent strokes.
For more information: http://www.cdc.gov/stroke/signs_symptoms.htm
everywoman (almost) 
Hi there! Someone in my Facebook group shared this site
with us so I came to take a look. I’m definitely
enjoying the information. I’m bookmarking and will be tweeting this to my followers!
Outstanding blog and fantastic style and design.
Thank you for your comment and for sharing. Very encouraging to know someone came by to read. I tweet from: @everywomanalmos
No ” t” on the end!