Psychology
Stress and the body: how 'tension' affects your health
Stress hormones raise blood pressure and blood sugar in minutes. Kept switched on for months, 'tension' strains the heart, sleep, gut and immunity.
27 Sept 20268 min read
Stroke
Also known as Cerebrovascular accident, CVA, Brain attack
A 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.
In Neurology
Brain tissue deprived of blood begins to die within minutes. Around 85% of strokes are ischaemic, caused by a clot blocking an artery — often from in the neck arteries, or a clot thrown from the heart in an such as atrial fibrillation. The remainder are haemorrhagic, caused by a vessel bursting, most commonly on a background of long-standing .
The two look identical from outside and are treated in opposite ways — one needs the clot broken down or removed, the other needs bleeding controlled — which is why an urgent comes before any treatment. That scan is the reason nothing, including aspirin, should be given at home on the assumption of a clot.
A warning that is easy to dismiss
A transient ischaemic attack produces the same symptoms and then resolves completely, often within an hour. It is not a lesser event; it is a warning that a full stroke may follow within days, and it needs urgent assessment even though the person now feels entirely well.
Sudden with unsteadiness, sudden severe headache unlike any before, or sudden loss of vision can all be strokes. Symptoms that build gradually over minutes with visual zigzags are more typical of aura — but a first episode, or any episode leaving weakness, is assessed as a stroke until proven otherwise.
Where this comes up
Psychology
When the mind causes physical symptoms: psychosomatic and functional symptoms
Pain, dizziness or even seizures can come from how the nervous system is working rather than from damage. The symptoms are real, and they can be treated.
27 Sept 20268 min read
Nutrition & Lifestyle
Quitting Tobacco: Cigarettes, Naswar, Paan and Gutka
Smokeless tobacco is not the safe option. What naswar, paan, gutka and shisha actually do, what happens when you stop, and a method for stopping that works.
30 Aug 202611 min read
General Medicine
The Annual Health Check: What Is Worth Testing
A useful yearly check is six or seven cheap tests, not a fifty-test package. What to ask for at each age, what to skip, and how to read the report.
30 Aug 202610 min read
Related terms
- AtherosclerosisHardening of the arteries, Arterial plaqueAtherosclerosis is the build-up of fatty, fibrous plaque inside artery walls, which stiffens them and narrows the channel blood flows through. It develops silently over decades and is the process behind most heart attacks and strokes.
- HypertensionHigh blood pressure, Blood pressure ka marzHypertension is blood pressure that stays high enough, over repeated proper measurements, to damage the arteries over time. It almost never causes symptoms, which is why it is found by measuring rather than by feeling unwell.
- ArrhythmiaDysrhythmia, Irregular heartbeatAn arrhythmia is a heartbeat that is too fast, too slow or irregular because the heart's electrical signalling has gone wrong. Some are harmless and lifelong, others raise the risk of stroke or are immediately dangerous.
- CT scanComputed tomography, CAT scanA CT scan uses X-rays taken from many angles and reassembled by computer into cross-sectional images of the body. It is fast and detailed, which makes it the scan of choice in emergencies, and it delivers a meaningfully higher radiation dose than a plain X-ray.
- MRIMagnetic resonance imagingAn MRI scan uses a strong magnetic field and radio waves to build detailed images of soft tissue. It involves no X-rays and no radiation.
- MigraineMigraine headacheMigraine 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.
- 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.
- StatinHMG-CoA reductase inhibitor, AtorvastatinStatins are medicines that lower cholesterol by reducing how much the liver makes. They are taken to lower the long-term risk of heart attack and stroke, not to treat a symptom.