Young Adults Not Aware of Stroke Symptoms

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Jan 13, 2016 07:40 AM EST

Symptoms like sudden arm weakness, facial drooping, and speech problems are signals to seek medical help. However, these stroke symptoms may not be recognized readily by young adults.

According to WHSV.com, scientists have found people with ages 45 and younger that are probably going to delay their trip to the ER for treatment. Their study reveals that younger patients are not aware of the urgency of the stroke symptoms. This is what they have found out as revealed by the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center (RMH), which means that strokes are ascending higher that causes death.

"I think what happens in the younger-age range, you have the feeling that you're invincible and truly you are not invincible. So 45 and younger, typically about 10 percent of strokes are in that age range," Janet Marshman, the stroke coordinator at Sentara RMH, said.

WHSV.com also says that health authorities conclude that younger generations may merely be over-confident and may be underestimating their risk for a stroke. They said that it is very important to be aware of the symptoms and signs of strokes so that timely treatment can be done, which can save lives.

WebMD also notes that the timely or immediate treatment of stroke is significantly crucial. It is ideal that people with ischemic strokes must receive medical care within three hours so that they are given the best chance of restoring their blood flow to the brain, and thus to minimize or reverse stroke damage.

In relation to this matter, as reported by WebMD, the survey shows that three fourth of young American adults would delay going to the hospital even though they had the stroke symptoms. There were 1,000 correspondents nationwide.

Those younger than 45 years old, one third have said that they would probably go to the hospital upon having the symptoms like difficulty in seeing or speaking and numbness. However, 73 percent have said that they might just wait to see if they feel better. This finding shows that there is a problem with this matter and that younger people must be educated regarding the symptoms and to convince them that this situation is urgent, especially that the numbers of this case have gone up since mid 1990s.

"There is a very limited window in which to start treatment because the brain is very sensitive to a lack of blood flow or to bleeding, and the longer patients wait, the more devastating the consequences," David Liebeskind, a doctor at RMH and director of outpatient neurovascular and stroke programs, said.

The authors of the study, according to WebMD, said that to be able to know what to do when symptoms of stroke are experienced, they should remember the acronym "FAST" that means "Face drooping," "Arm weakness," Speech difficulty," and "Time to call 911."

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