Silent Strokes, One Of Our Most Hidden Diseases

Every year, more than 500,000 U.S. citizens are diagnosed by their doctors as having had a stroke. This makes strokes one of the leading health problems in the country. But even though many major strokes are diagnosed, there are a huge number of silent strokes that are occurring as well.

A lot of of these mini-strokes remain undiagnosed because people are unaware that it’s happened. We often think of strokes as a dramatic event that instantly causes symptoms like paralysis, inability to speak, and so on. Many so called silent strokes, however, do not trigger such symptoms.

A great deal of the time, the first clue that a person may have had a silent or mini-stroke occurs as they’re taking medical tests for some seemingly unrelated symptoms. A recent study revealed that up to as many as 10% of people with an average age of 62 had evidence of a min-stroke according to their MRI brain scan.

One of the more distressing trendlines of the previous decade, is that the sheer amounts of incidences of these mini-strokes seem to be occurring at younger and younger ages. And, that’s probably to be anticipated as some of the major diseases such as diabetes and high blood pressure are occurring in young adults at earlier ages as well. The very disconcerting point about the ever rising number of silent strokes, however, is that many people are having them and don’t even realize it because they have no symptoms.

As a matter of fact, in many cases the sole proof that a silent or mini-stroke has even occurred is the results of the MRI brain scan. And such brain scans are not a part of most people’s annual checkup.

The truly sad part about this state of affairs is that many strokes are preventable simply by following sensible health guidelines on how to lower high blood pressure naturally.

Melissa Chow is a freelance writer who writes articles relating to the best natural cures for high blood pressure, and how to control high blood pressure. Please visit her site for more info.

Disclaimer: Any medical information published on this website is not intended as a substitute for informed medical advice and you should not take any action before consulting with a health care professional.