Stroke

STROKE


Stroke, also known as cerebrovascular accident (CVA), involves damage to the brain because of impaired blood supply and causes a sudden, no convulsive malfunction of the brain. In the United States, stroke is the third-ranking cause of death after heart disease and cancer, and about one-fourth of the neurologic patients in nursing homes are stroke victims. The death rate, however, has declined by nearly 50 percent since the late 1960s; in the early 1990s about 150,000 Americans of the 450,000 each year who suffered a new stroke died as a result. Among the reasons for the decline are earlier detection and treatment of hypertension, better diets (less meat and dairy products and more vitamins), and more exercise.
Stroke victims are generally elderly people with degeneration of blood vessels, but children and young adults also can have a stroke. Some stroke risk factors cannot be changed, such as increasing age, gender (more men have strokes), race (more African-Americans hav...