Special content provided by the Wisconsin Coverdell Stroke Program.
In Wisconsin, about 11,000 people have a stroke and 2,700 Wisconsinites die from a stroke each year. Nationally, someone died of a stroke an average of every three minutes and 17 seconds in 2020. Strokes can cause disability and can affect more than 795,000 people each year.
Strokes happen when blood supply to the brain is blocked or when a blood vessel in the brain bursts. This puts pressure on our brain cells, damages them, and can result in permanent changes to your brain or death.
That may sound scary. Strokes are serious, but the good news is that they can be prevented. And if you, or someone you know, experiences symptoms of a stroke, the faster you get to medical care, the better chance you have of recovering.
Things that increase one’s chances of a stroke, called risk factors, can be separated into things we can change to reduce our stroke risk, and things that we can’t change.
There are several important things you can do to reduce your chance of having a stroke: not using commercial tobacco, eating a healthy diet, controlling chronic diseases like high blood pressure and diabetes, getting physical activity, and managing your weight. Having a history of mini strokes also increases your risk of a stroke and can be reduced by controlling behaviors that lead to strokes.
There are also things we can’t change but are really important to talk to your doctor about, including your age (risk increases with age), sex (generally more females experience strokes than males), race (the risk of having a first stroke is nearly twice as high for Black adults as for white adults), and having a family history of stroke.
There are other non-medical factors that affect someone’s risk of stroke. Stroke differences among populations are often linked to trauma, poverty, racism, and systems of inequality. The conditions in the environments where people are born, live, learn, work, age, and play can also affect stroke risk in positive or negative ways. Most people don’t think of these factors affecting their health, but our bodies feel their effect over time.
Along with taking any actions you can to prevent your chance of experiencing stroke, it is critical to know how to recognize the signs and symptoms of a stroke. With each minute that a stroke goes untreated, the average person loses 1.9 million nerve cells, called neurons, in the brain. These neurons are what help us control everyday activities of our bodies and when damaged, may result in disability such as weakness or paralysis of limbs and difficulty gripping or holding things.
To know if someone may be experiencing symptoms of a stroke, remember the phrase: BE FAST. This acronym explains the six most common signs of a stroke:
Balance – sudden loss of coordination or balance
Eyes – sudden change in vision
Face – sudden weakness on one side of the face or facial droop
Arm – sudden arm or leg weakness or numbness
Speech – sudden slurred speech, trouble speaking, trouble understanding speech
Terrible Headache – sudden onset of a terrible headache
Calling 9-1-1 immediately if you or someone you know is experiencing stroke symptoms. Be sure to explain the symptoms. Emergency medical service (EMS) personnel and doctors and nurses are trained to recognize the signs and symptoms of stroke to get you or someone you love to care immediately.
For more information about preventing and responding to strokes, visit the Wisconsin Coverdell Stroke Program webpage, where you can find information for yourself and resources that will help you share these important messages with friends, families, and your entire community.
The Wisconsin Coverdell Stroke Program is based in the Wisconsin Department of Health Services Division of Public Health. For more information about the program, visit the Wisconsin Department of Health Services at www.dhs.wisconsin.gov/coverdell.
