Stroke-Treatment:
the faster the better

When stroke symptoms occur, it is not too late to prevent the stroke from happening. If you rush to a Stroke Center within four hours, the chances are that the occlusion of the blood vessel can be reopened and the brain damage can thereby be prevented.
After this acute therapy you need to by monitored in a specialized Stroke Unit to prevent complications and find the cause of the blood vessel occlusion. This usually takes a few days.
If the stroke was not prevented by vessel reopening, rehabilitation already needs to start at this point, initially focusing on getting you out of bed and on making sure that you can swallow safely. Rehabilitation efforts then intensify, the earlier the better.

Specialized rehabilitation hospitals like cereneo focus on this period. It is crucial to use the first months after a stroke to cure the deficit of movement, speech and/or cognition. The longer you wait with neurorehabilitation, the more difficult recovery becomes.

What does this mean?

True recovery can be best reached within the first few weeks after a stroke, but also at a later stage with a personalized inpatient rehabilitation addressing all deficit domains in several sessions a day. Recovery focuses on restoring lost body functions, such as movement or speech instead of compensating them with aids or turnarounds. An assessment usually shows which functions can be recovered, e.g. walking independently instead of using a wheelchair or rollator.

Learn more about inpatient rehabilitation at cereneo or request an offer.

At cereneo we support you at any stage of your recovery process.

The typical symptoms of a stroke are:

• Very severe, sudden headache,
• prolonged dizziness with gait instability.

Symptoms that usually occur only on one side include:

• face drooping,
• arm or leg weakness or inability to move at all,
• difficulty with walking,
• difficulty with speaking,
• numbness, tingling or paralysis,
• confusion and loss of orientation,
• trouble seeing, hearing, smelling or tasting.

Symptoms specific to women

In women, there are often other rather atypical symptoms that could be underestimated and not interpreted correctly. These symptoms are:

• sudden attacks of weakness or fainting
• shortness of breath,
• cramps,
• pain in limbs and joints.

If you suspect that someone had a stroke, it is crucial to act fast in getting medical assistance. Time is the decisive factor!

A stroke can affect anyone at any age. But the risk increases with age and is clearly driven by the individual lifestyle. Statistically, women have a higher risk of suffering a stroke than men, which is mainly due to the fact that women have a higher life expectancy.

What are the main risk factors for a stroke?

• High blood pressure,
•  cigarette smoking or second-hand smoke exposure,
• high cholesterol,
• diabetes,
• diets high in fat and salt,
• undetected heart rhythm disturbances,
• heavy alcohol consumption,
• lack of exercise,
• excessive stress.

Specific risk factors for women
Certain factors that can favour a stroke in women in particular include:

• Cardiac arrhythmias, such as atrial fibrillation, i.e. an irregular heartbeat,
• migraine with aura (headaches in which the pain phase is signaled by certain sensory disturbances (aura)),
• the use of hormone preparations such as the pill.

There is a lot that can be done to prevent a stroke and it is recommended that every person above 50 undergoes a stroke risk assessment as part of a regular health screening.

If you have a potential stroke risk, take a step-by-step approach to reduce your risk factors. Trying to change everything at once is an almost unmanageable challenge, can lead to frustration and is not often demotivating, ending up in not changing anything at all.

It’s much better to take it one after the other – a good start is changing your eating habits. If you would like to learn more about your stroke risk or how to get started in reducing your risk factors, you could request an offer for a stroke risk assessment or book an online consultation with one of our neurologists. In collaboration with CERENEO PREVENTION, we offer specific programmes for stroke risk reduction.

Useful tips for preventative measures

Something that everybody can do, is to improve the own diet. There is a lot of tasty and healthy food around! Changing your diet doesn’t mean being hungry with cravings all the time. This is often the result of excluding certain nutrients completely, such as carbohydrates. Here is what you can do:

• Substitute nutrient-poor carbohydrates containing high sugary levels such as chocolate, cakes, cookies and refined carbohydrates, such as white rice, white pasta, white bread and croissants with nutrient-rich, high fibre carbohydrates, such as wholegrain products, seeds, nuts, pulses, vegetables and fruits.
  Nutrient-rich carboydrates help to feel full for longer, have a positive effect on digestion and ensure a stable energy level.
• It is recommended to eat 30 different vegetables and fruits a week. That sounds a lot, also for a fruit and veggie freak!
  Our tip: Why not start with 10 in the first week and after 4 weeks you might arrive at 25, which is a great success!
• Take your time and don’t expect magical weight losses à la Hollywood – which is usually not very long lasting: For a change in diet that leads to a change in eating habits in the long run, you should give yourself 4-6 months.
• If you have a craving once in a while you can treat yourself to something or instead put on your sneakers and go for walk.

Sometimes it helps to seek professional advice on nutrition from a qualified nutritionist to get started.