Montana farmer-stockman., 1956-09-15
Your Health
Stroke
By Dr.. ]. S. PENNEPACKER, MD.
Montana Medical association

the most feared and least understood
is the stroke, also called apOplexy or,
in modern medical Technology, the
cerebral vascular accident And COM
mon it is, and becoming more so, as
more of us evade or conquer the ill
nesses which killed our ancestors at
age 80 or 40, and reach 60, 20 or 80,
in what we think is robust health.
But man is only as old as his arteries,
the intricate network of elastic pipe,
which carries blood, laden with oxygen
and nutrients, to every organ and tissue
in the body. The stroke is disease of
the blood vessels which nourish the
brain and may occur in one of three
ways.
Arteries Burst
In the normal process of aging all
arteries tend to gradually harden, and
their walls to become stiff and brittle.
The brittle wall of a hardened artery
may burst, causing the blood to leak
out and cutting off the flow of blood to
the brain beyond this point, much as
a burst water main will cause cessation
of water service in the part of the city
which it serves. This is called cerebral
hemorrhage, cerebral being term for
''of the brain,'' and hemorrhage, of
course, meaning bleeding"
A stroke can also occur because some
little irregularity in the thickened wall
of the vessel has allowed the collection
and formation Of a clot, which plugs up
the artery and blocks its channel This
is called a cerebral thrombosis, throm-
bosis being medical word for clot.
On rare occasions, in people with
heart or blood vessel disease elsewhere,
a clot may break loose, floating through
the circulation, until it lodges in one
of the small vessels of the brain. This
is referred to as cerebral emboliSm,
since an emboluS is floating clot.
Brain Damage
No matter which of these three things
occur, the result of the stroke is the
same. A certain area of the brain has
its circulation interrupted, and is I'M
able to function. Since the brain is
composed of hundreds of different CEN
tiers or groups of cells which control
various bodily functions and activities,
the effect of stroke will depend on
which part of the brain is damaged. 1t
will also depend on how large an area
of the brain is disturbed. In a larger
stroke, there is quite frequently I'M
consciousness, for anything from a
few minutes to many days after the
disease starts. If the stroke is large
enough the person may even die or re-
main unconscious for many months.
Smaller strokes may result only in a
momentary dizzy spell, a slight loss
of memory or some other almost in
significant symptom. In the larger
strokes there is almost always some
disturbance in the use of an arm or
leg, and occasionally some disturbance
of speech, memory or emotions.
1t is a common belief that there is
little or ne treatment for strokes. There
is also widespread notion that a
stroke is usually fatal, and another that
strokes occur in threes, with the third
one causing death These are all fall
lacies. Most stroke patients survive,
there is no regular pattern in the oc-
currence of the disease, and some prog
ress toward effective treatment is be-
ing made. And since there are many
survivors from apoplexy, treatment is
important.