World Stroke Day: Stroke symptoms you should never ignore

World Stroke Day underscores the serious nature and growing rates of stroke by raising awareness, prevention and treatment of the condition and also to show support for the survivors. Strokes are responsible for more deaths annually than those attributed to AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined yet it remains a silent epidemic leaving someone, somewhere to succumb to this ailment every six seconds.

So, how can you tell if your health is heading for the worse? Getting treatment fast is the priority when dealing with stroke because every second matters before the absence of oxygen damages your brain.

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These are the strokes symptoms you should never ignore:

When you start having difficulty reading or understanding speech: Facing the problem of speech is one of the most crucial symptoms. The left side of your brain is in control of language, so if you experience a stroke there, you could experience aphasia or a loss of ability to understand or express speech. It can affect how you speak, your ability to understand what others are saying and even loss the ability of reading or writing skills.

When your speech is garbled: Slurring of speeches might not seem like an alarming health condition but for people with a stroke history, it is. Dyspraxia can happen when you cannot control the muscles required to produce clear speech since the speech muscles may be too weak or paralysed, and you won’t be able to move them how you want, when you want.

You keep getting severe headache: One of the most alarming symptoms of stroke, getting very excruciating headaches. Serious headaches are most likely to happen in cases of haemorrhagic strokes, in which the brain bleeds into itself and hence should never be avoided.

You have trouble walking: Dizziness and a loss of coordination happens with people having stroke history but if you continue dealing with numbness or weakness in one leg, then it is time to give your doctor a visit. This can happen because of an alarming neurological symptom that deserves an immediate attention.

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Being unable to feel a limb or arm on one side of your body is also one of the most common signs of stroke. Having vision problems is also other symptoms that should be paid attention.