Women more prone to stroke than men: Experts
Though stroke problem is more common among women and each year more number of women suffer from sudden strokes than men, very few women are aware about this fact.
Though stroke problem is more common among women and each year more number of women suffer from sudden strokes than men, very few women are aware about this fact.
Considering this, World Stroke Organisation (WSO) has dedicated the theme- I am Woman: Stroke Affects Me- of World Stroke Day, October 29, to all women who have fought, survived and cared for their loved ones.
“Sudden weakness on one side of the bod; with or without facial weakness; numbness of one side; and inability to speak or slurring of speech or imbalance of body could be symptoms of the stroke,” say experts.
“In our society, we generally ignore such symptoms, especially among women, which is the reason mortality of stroke is found more among women,” said Dr Jeyaraj Pandian, board of director, WSO south east Asia, and professor and head of neurology and deputy director of Christian Medical College and Hospital.
Dr Pandian said, “There are some gender specific risk factors such as pregnancy and hormonal therapies, which proves strokes are common in women. Women are also more prone to stroke subtypes such as cerebral vein thrombosis and subarachnoid haemorrhage.”
“The burden of caregiving also falls predominantly on women,” he said, adding that more emphasis should be given on sensitising them about the problem.
Explaining the reasons of stroke in women, Dr Monika Singla, assistant professor, department of neurology, DMCH, said, “Though stroke problem can be hereditary or due to high blood pressure; high cholesterol; smoking; diabetes; overweight; sedentary lifestyle, your brain can die due to some other reasons too.”
Stressing on need of healthy lifestyle, Dr Singla said that women having thick waist and high triglyceride levels post-menopausal are five times more at risk of getting stroke than men.
“Women having migraine headaches are also 3-6 times more prone to stroke than those women who don’t have migraine,” added Singla.
“As per the study conducted by the CMCH, Ludhiana, the ratio of stroke among male and female is 60:40. The study had also revealed that Ludhiana had the highest percentage of stroke patient among youth as compared to other major cities,” said Singla, adding that as many as 151 people in every 1 lakh population suffer from stroke problem in Ludhiana and the mortality rate was 22%.
The patient can be saved if one reaches to the hospital in time- within 3 to 4.5 hours of acute ischemic stroke.
“The tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) injection is given to lyse the clot in a stroke patient,” informed Dr Singla.