Lifestyle changes and misconceptions to prevent stroke

In some specialized units, stroke in people under 50 years old currently accounts for 20 - 30%. Many mistakes cause stroke victims to lose the golden opportunity for treatment, and the consequences are extremely serious, even fatal. Among them, a common mistake is cupping when having a stroke.

The number of young people having strokes is increasing.

Doctor Pham Van Cuong, Department of Neurovascular Intervention, Military Hospital 108 ( Hanoi ), said: "Many people still think that stroke is a disease of the elderly over 60 years old, but in fact, recently the number of young people hospitalized for stroke has been increasing. In our department, the number of patients under 50 years old accounts for about 20 - 30%, there is a patient as young as 12 years old who was hospitalized for stroke due to cerebral vascular malformation".

Early emergency care when there are suspected stroke symptoms will help patients avoid long-term consequences.

PHOTO: THUY ANH

According to Dr. Cuong, stroke patients often have the following symptoms: numbness in limbs, paralysis of limbs or half of the body, facial deviation, difficulty speaking, dizziness, headache... Because of these symptoms, many people think the patient has a cold and give them cupping and scraping. However, scraping is ineffective when suffering from a stroke. It only wastes precious treatment time.

In addition, other common mistakes are: inserting needles into the stroke victim's fingertips; arbitrarily using traditional medicine; waiting for the patient to stabilize before taking them to the hospital.

Dr. Cuong especially noted the false propaganda in stroke treatment: "The most common mistake is that macrobiotics can cure strokes and that practicing a certain style of exercise can treat strokes."

In fact, there was a patient who was given medication to avoid the risk of a stroke. However, because of following a training school, this patient stopped taking the medication. Only about 1 week after stopping the medication, the patient had a stroke again and had to be hospitalized.

In addition, many people with mild strokes (with dizziness, headache or numbness in limbs, fatigue) delay going to the hospital to wait for the condition to heal on its own, but most of the cases then become severe or very severe, losing the opportunity for treatment during the golden hour.

Lifestyle changes to prevent stroke

According to Dr. Cuong, with stroke, especially in young people, there are a number of common causes, the first of which is due to abnormalities in the brain's blood vessels, vascular malformations that can rupture causing cerebral hemorrhage, or cerebral vascular occlusion causing infarction in patients with progressive cerebral vascular stenosis.

The second cause is cardiovascular problems. This cause was rare in the past but is now more common, due to arrhythmias or heart valve disease... forming blood clots in the heart and moving to the brain causing blockages and strokes.

The third cause that is very alarming today is due to bad habits in daily life such as: smoking, drinking alcohol, frequently using fast food..., thereby causing early lipid metabolism disorders, high blood pressure, obesity.

"We once admitted a 40-year-old male patient, the owner of a food chain, to the hospital with hemiplegia due to small blood vessel damage. Based on his medical history, he smoked two packs of cigarettes and drank nearly one liter of alcohol every day. When he was admitted to the hospital, he was in a late condition (he had it the night before and was admitted the next day) so he was only treated with internal medicine. Luckily, the patient was young so he responded well to rehabilitation and did not have to be in a wheelchair for the rest of his life," Dr. Cuong informed.

The fourth cause is rarer and can occur in women who use birth control pills for a long time, have had abortions, or have given birth... leading to an increased risk of blood clotting and causing cerebral venous occlusion.

There are two main groups of causes for stroke: The first is the unchangeable risk factors including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, blood pressure, metabolic disorders. The second is the group that can be changed, related to lifestyle, such as smoking, drinking alcohol, eating too much fat, fast food, staying up late, and being lazy. This group is very common among young people, and needs to be changed to prevent stroke in particular and other diseases in general.

Doctor Pham Van Cuong

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/thay-doi-loi-song-va-cac-quan-niem-sai-lam-de-phong-dot-quy-185251001184414608.htm