About 4,500,000 stroke survivors are alive today. Data from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute's Frammingham Heart Study, show that about 600,000 people suffer a new or recurrent stroke each year. About 500,000 of these are first attacks. In 1996 females accounted for 61.4 percent of stroke fatalities. Estimates are that stroke accounts for half of all patients hospitalized for acute neurological disease.
Stroke is a cardiovascular disease that affects the blood vessels supplying blood to the brain.
A stroke occurs when a blood vessel bringing oxygen and nutrients to the brain bursts or is clogged by a blood clot or some other particle. Because of this rupture, or blockage, part of the brain doesn't get the flow of blood it needs. Deprived of oxygen, nerve cells in the affected area of the brain can't function and die within minutes. When nerve cells can't function, the part of the body they controll can't function either. The devastating effects of stroke are often permanent because dead brain cells aren't replaced.