What is a stroke?

Stroke is a very common disease in our lives. This disease mainly occurs in some middle-aged and elderly people. Because their physical functions are gradually declining, their immune mechanism may be reduced. Some friends still don’t know what a stroke is because they have never understood it. It is necessary to have some understanding of the disease. Today I will talk to you about what stroke is.

The scary thing about stroke is that it can cause paralysis of the patient's limbs, which has a great impact on normal life. Some patients may also be affected in their language ability. We should know more about such diseases so that we can better prevent them.

Stroke is also called cerebral infarction. There are two types of stroke: ischemic stroke and hemorrhagic stroke. Stroke is a general term for acute cerebrovascular disease in traditional Chinese medicine. It is a type of disease with sudden fainting, unconsciousness, accompanied by crooked mouth, slurred speech and hemiplegia as the main symptoms. Due to the high incidence, mortality, disability, recurrence and complications of this disease, the medical community lists it as one of the three major diseases that threaten human health, along with coronary heart disease and cancer. The importance of stroke prevention has attracted the attention of the medical community at home and abroad, and medical scientists are exploring stroke prevention measures from various aspects.

"Zhong" means to hit, and also means to be hit by arrows and stones; "feng" is easy to move and change, and also like a sudden storm. The ancients linked the symptoms of such diseases with the natural phenomena they observed, and named the diseases metaphorically, and thus stroke got its name.

Stroke poses a great threat to human health and life, brings great pain to patients, and places a heavy burden on families and society. Therefore, it is imperative to fully recognize the severity of stroke, improve the level of treatment and prevention of stroke, and reduce the incidence, disability and mortality of stroke.

Type of disease

Ischemic stroke

It accounts for approximately 80% of all strokes. It refers to the softening and necrosis of local brain tissue due to blood circulation disorders, ischemia and hypoxia. It is mainly caused by atherosclerosis and thrombosis in the arteries supplying blood to the brain, which causes narrowing or even occlusion of the lumen, leading to focal acute cerebral ischemia. It can also be caused by abnormal objects (solid, liquid, gas) entering the cerebral arteries or the neck arteries supplying cerebral blood circulation through the blood circulation, causing blood flow blockage or a sudden decrease in blood flow, resulting in softening and necrosis of brain tissue in the corresponding area. The former is called arteriosclerotic thrombotic cerebral infarction, and the latter is called cerebral embolism.

Hemorrhagic stroke

Hemorrhagic stroke is divided into two subtypes: intracranial hemorrhage (ICH) and subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH). The amount of bleeding determines the severity of the stroke. The mortality rate of hemorrhagic stroke is much higher than that of ischemic stroke.

Hemorrhagic stroke is related to a sudden increase in blood pressure. Under long-term hypertension, the hardened small arteries in the brain are impacted by high-pressure blood flow, causing many tiny aneurysms. The blood vessel walls there are very weak. If the blood pressure suddenly rises (such as exerting force or being emotional), they are prone to rupture and bleed. In addition, the hardened arteries lose their elasticity and have poor ability to close and stop bleeding, so cerebral hemorrhage occurs, most commonly in the deep brain (internal capsule hemorrhage), followed by pons hemorrhage, cerebellar hemorrhage, etc.

The above is an introduction to what stroke is. I believe that after reading it, you will have a better understanding of stroke. In fact, stroke can be prevented very well in life. What stroke needs is timely treatment, because only in this way can the treatment effect be better.