Stroke symptoms

If you have stroke symptoms, look for emergency medical care without any delay. General stroke symptoms include sudden onset of numbness, or paralysis of the face, weakness, arm, or leg, typically on one side of the body. Other stroke symptoms include ttrouble seeing in one or both eyes such as dimness, blurring, loss of vision, or double vision. Confusion, trouble understanding and slurred or garbled speech are also stroke symptoms. Stroke symptoms differ and also include ttrouble walking, loss of balance or coordination, dizziness and severe headache.

As mentioned before stroke symptoms vary depending on whether the stroke is caused by bleeding or a clot. The location of blood clot or bleeding and the level of brain damage may also affect these symptoms. A symptom of an ischemic stroke which is caused by a clot blocking a blood vessel mostly occurs in the side of the body opposite from the side of the brain where the clot is made. For instance; stroke in the right side of the brain will affect the left side of the body. Symptoms of a hemorrhagic stroke that is caused by bleeding in the brain may be similar to those of an ischemic stroke but can be distinguished by symptoms that are related to higher pressure in the brain. They include severe headache, nausea and vomiting, neck stiffness, dizziness, seizures, irritability, confusion, and possibly unconsciousness.

Symptoms of a stroke may progress over minutes, hours, or days, often in a stepwise fashion. For example, mild weakness may progress to an inability to move the arm and leg on one side of the body. If a stroke takes place because of a large blood clot (ischemic stroke) or bleeding (hemorrhagic stroke), symptoms are visible suddenly, within glimpse of seconds. When an artery which is narrowed by atherosclerosis is blocked, stroke symptoms mostly develop over minutes to hours.