Stroke warning signs to watch out for

Every year, strokes claim many victims. What is a stroke? It is a blockage or rupture of a blood vessel in the brain due to a blood clot. When this happens, the cells are no longer getting irrigated and supplied with oxygen. They then begin to decline. This has serious consequences on the body and requires prompt treatment. While strokes can seem to occur with no warning, it may be that some symptoms appear about a month before. Here are the ones to watch out for.

1. Weakness or numbness of the body

It happens in the face, arms and legs. Usually, it only affects the right or left side of the body because the stroke itself only affects one hemisphere of the brain. One of the signs that can ring the alarm is if your smile suddenly seems weaker on one side of the mouth, that or a numbness in the arm.

2. Fainting

The other alarming factors can be dizziness, fainting and even black outs. Thankfully, fainting is alarming enough to push most people to seek medical advice.

3. Vision

It may happen that before a stroke, you get vision issues out of the blue. You vision may grow fuzzy, you may feel dazzled or even lose sight of colours or be struck with blindness.

4. Headaches

Sometimes very severe and unexpected headaches can strike. They can be so intense that they engender vomiting.

5. Loss of coordination

Just before a stroke, you may suddenly feel dizzy, and that you cannot move as you're used to. It can affect the whole body, or just one specific part of it. There may also be difficulty speaking or finding one's words.

6. Being out of breath

If you notice that you are out of breath during a regular activity, which has never caused you any pain, it may be cause for concern. Or it might just be a consequence of lockdown inactivity.

What this comes down to, is that if you have the slightest doubt about your state of health, do not hesitate to contact a health professional. Sometimes you body can send you subtle, but meaningful signals.