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Neurology
Stroke: The Warning Signs and Why Every Minute Counts
Face drooping, arm weakness, speech trouble — any one of them, appearing suddenly, is a stroke until proven otherwise. Call 1122 and note the time.
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Migraine
Also known as Migraine headache
Migraine is a neurological condition causing attacks of headache that are typically one-sided and throbbing, often with nausea and a strong dislike of light and sound. It is not simply a severe headache — the attack has a recognisable pattern.
In Neurology
A migraine attack usually builds over minutes to hours rather than arriving instantly, and it tends to be worsened by ordinary movement — climbing stairs, bending over — which is one of the features that separates it from a tension headache. Nausea, vomiting, and an intolerance of light and noise are part of the condition rather than reactions to the pain.
Aura, and why it matters
Roughly a third of people get an aura: visual disturbance such as zigzag lines or a blind spot, sometimes tingling spreading up an arm, developing over five to twenty minutes and then fading. An aura that begins abruptly and at full intensity, or that leaves weakness behind, is not behaving like a migraine aura and needs assessment for a instead.
Attacks are commonly triggered by missed meals, disturbed sleep, dehydration, alcohol or hormonal changes, and identifying a personal pattern is often more useful than any general list. Treatment separates into settling an attack and — where attacks are frequent — reducing how often they come.
Where this comes up
Neurology
Migraine: Why It Happens and What Helps
Migraine is a neurological condition, not a bad headache. What sets an attack off, what stops one, and which headaches need a scan rather than a tablet.
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Heavy Periods (Heavy Menstrual Bleeding)
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Related terms
- StrokeCerebrovascular accident, CVAA stroke is a sudden loss of blood supply to part of the brain, either from a blocked artery or a bleed. It is an emergency — treatment works only within a few hours of the first symptom.
- SymptomA symptom is something a patient notices and reports — pain, nausea, tiredness. It differs from a sign, which is something a doctor can observe or measure.
- NSAIDNon-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug, Anti-inflammatory painkillerNSAIDs are painkillers that also reduce inflammation and fever — ibuprofen, diclofenac, naproxen and aspirin among them. They work well but carry real risks to the stomach, the kidneys and the heart.
- AntipyreticFever medicine, Bukhar ki dawaAn antipyretic is a medicine that brings a fever down, paracetamol being the commonest. It treats the discomfort of a fever rather than whatever is causing it, and a fever coming down is not evidence that the illness has been cured.
- VertigoVertigo is the false sensation that you or your surroundings are spinning or moving. It is a specific symptom of the balance system, not a general word for dizziness or light-headedness.