Cerebral apoplexy, commonly known as “stroke", is an acute cerebrovascular disease, which is a group of diseases caused by brain tissue damage due to the sudden rupture of blood vessels in the brain or the blockage of blood vessels that stop blood from flowing into the brain. It is usually divided into two categories: ischemic and hemorrhagic. Cerebral apoplexy has the characteristics of high incidence, high disability rate, high mortality rate, high recurrence rate and high economic burden, which is a killer that threats human health.
According to the newly released 2020 China Cerebral apoplexy Report, there were 3.94 million new cerebral apoplexies and 2.19 million deaths from cerebral apoplexy in China in 2019 alone, and China is facing the biggest challenge of cerebral apoplexy in the world.
On October 29, on the occasion of the 17th World Stroke Day, Dai Wenxin, Executive Director of the Geriatric Multidisciplinary Diagnosis and Treatment Center of Hainan Chengmei Hospital, popularized stroke-related health knowledge online to enhance public health awareness and prevent stroke to be a sudden “shock” of people.
Cerebral apoplexy is closely related to bad lifestyle habits
In life, the tragedy caused by sudden stroke that is unable to be treated in time is not rare. So, what are the main risk factors for stroke? Dai Wenxin introduced that the risk factors of stroke are divided into two categories: one is uncontrollable risk factors, including age, race and genetic factors, and the other is controllable risk factors, including "six highs and one liver" (i.e. hypertension, hyperlipidemia (dyslipidemia), hyperglycemia, hyperuricemia (gout), hyperinsulinemia (insulin resistance), high body weight (obesity) and fatty liver), atrial fibrillation, and poor lifestyle habits (smoking, alcoholism, lack of exercise, unhealthy diet and psychology, etc.).
The core of "six highs and one liver" is "insulin resistance", and insulin resistance is derived from obesity. Obesity has become the culprit of "six high and one liver". When it comes to obesity, its all about bad habits, junk food, and fizzy drinks. For carbonated drinks, merchants launched zero sugar, zero fat, zero card, zero alcohol drinks, at first, it seems to be produced for the sake of peoples health, but people do not know that in order to achieve the corresponding taste of cola, Sprite, fruit, alcohol, etc., these drinks need to be added with additives, which may cause weight increasing, and even cause "six high and one liver", damage the body, and increase the risk of cerebral apoplexy.
In recent years, the trend of younger cerebral apoplexy patients is increasingly obvious. Dai Wenxin said that cerebral apoplexy is closely related to diet, rest and bad living habits. Nowadays, the pace of life is getting faster and faster, fast food and fried food are very popular, long-term sitting, lack of exercise, work pressure and other unhealthy lifestyles will lead to hypertension, diabetes, hyperlipidemia and so on. To prevent cerebral apoplexy and reduce its incidence, it is essential to maintain good lifestyle management.
A life begins from the parents falling in love to the mothers conception, so in addition to the factors beyond the parents genetic control, the parents lifestyle is crucial to the health of their children. With the improvement of economic and educational level, people pay more and more attention to good living habits before and after pregnancy. However, it is worth noting that with the improvement of living standards, there have been some misunderstandings in pregnant womens nutrition, such as the use of pregnant womens nutrition and health products. According to the theory of "the Developmental Origin of Health and Disease", a variety of chronic diseases in adulthood, such as diabetes, hypertension, and tumors, are related to fetal development. If a person is stunted in the foetus, the risk of chronic diseases in his/her adulthood would be greatly increased.
In recent years, more and more evidence has revealed that the environment in early life, through epigenetics, has a potential role in chronic diseases that occur later in life. There are two growth periods in fetal development: slow growth period and fast growth period. The slow growth period is divided into two stages: the first stage is from pregnancy to the twelfth week of pregnancy. The second stage is 13-14 weeks of pregnancy. Among them, the first stage of fetal growth is the slowest, but also the critical period of organ formation, this period is closely related to the health after birth, rapid growth in this period can lead to occurrence of chronic diseases such as three high and asthma in adolescence, and will also shorten the survival period. Adequate nutrition and a healthy lifestyle during this period will reduce the burden of chronic disease in adulthood. However, many health care products and nutrition products will accelerate growing speed of the fetus during slow growth period. For the future health of the child, pregnant mothers must avoid being fooled by the so-called nutrition and health experts and using nutrition and health products unscientifically and unreasonably.
Dai Wenxin suggested that people under the age of 35 should also strengthen the monitoring of blood pressure, blood sugar, weight and so on. For people with a family history of cerebrovascular disease, more attention should be paid to the measurement of blood pressure and glycosylated hemoglobin. High-risk groups over 40 years old should add the content of cerebrovascular imaging in routine physical examination. Women over 40 years old need to pay attention to changes in blood lipids before and after menopause. For patients with cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease, he recommended monitoring blood sugar every 3-6 months and paying attention to the management of controllable factors to better reduce the incidence.
How to quickly identify the occurrence of cerebral apoplexy?
"For cerebral apoplexy patients, time is life.” Dai Wenxin said that it is very important to quickly identify the symptoms of cerebral apoplexy and send patients to the hospital in a timely manner.
In 2022, the Chinese Stroke Society released the "BE FAST Mantra" for identifying early symptoms of stroke. "B" means balance, loss of balance or coordination, sudden difficulty walking; "E" means eyes, sudden changes in vision, difficulty seeing things; "F” means the face, the face is asymmetrical, the mouth is crooked; "A” means arms with sudden weakness or numbness, usually on one side of the body; "S" means speech, speaking vaguely, or not being able to understand someone elses speech; "T” refers to the time. When the symptoms above appear, it indicates that a stroke may occur, and you should call 120 for help immediately.
Dai Wenxin reminded that once the above symptoms appear, it is necessary to be highly alert to the occurrence of stroke, and call 120 as soon as possible to send them to the doctor in time. At the same time, in the process of waiting, do not move the patient, let alone give the patient random medication.
Dai Wenxin introduced that the treatment of stroke patients should be as immediate as racing against time. For ischemic stroke, the best rescue time is within 3 hours, 4.5 hours is the effective rescue limit of stroke, within this range of thrombolysis treatment, 42% of patients can recover work and self-care ability, if more than 4.5 hours, especially after 6 hours, the patients nerve cells will die, resulting in irreversible nerve function damage. For hemorrhagic stroke, time is life, the earlier the treatment, the higher the success rate of treatment.
Dai Wenxin said that the earlier the detection, the earlier the treatment, the better the effect. Patients that could be sent to the hospital immediately after the onset of illness and receive standardized treatment could have more chance of recovery and improvement of quality of life.
Preventive treatment of disease, prevention is very important
Stroke is a serious threat to human life and health. Once the cell body of the brain nerve cells dies, it cannot be regenerated any more. Therefore, the treatment of stroke after occuring has been a difficult problem in the medical community, and the best way to deal with stroke is preventive treatment and prevent it before it occurs. Once it happens, we should save the body of dying or non-dying brain cells as much as possible.
Dai Wenxin said that to prevent stroke, it is necessary to minimize the risk factors of stroke as much as possible, correct unhealthy lifestyle, regularly screen stroke risk factors, and achieve early prevention, early diagnosis and early treatment.
In terms of living habits, Dai Wenxin stressed that we should eliminate high salt, high fat, high sugar, greasy diet in daily diet, eliminate smoking and excessive drinking, and increase physical exercise. In addition, we should maintain a reasonable dietary structure and healthy cooking methods, keep a good psychological state, avoid too much pressure, and control the "six high and one liver".
We need to manage the following ten points specificly: first, the diet should be light and appropriate, 50 and sixty percent full is appropriate; Second, increase physical activity moderately ; Third, overcome bad habits, quit smoking and limit alcohol; Fourth, prevent overwork, excessive force and other actions, prevent sharp position changes, avoid suddenly getting up or sitting down; Fifth, prevent constipation; Sixth, pay attention to climate change and adjust our lifestyle accordingly. Seventh, ensure adequate water drinking every day; Eighth, avoid long vision, limit TV, computer, mobile phone use time; Ninth, keep emotional stability; Tenth, regular physical examination.
Dai Wenxin introduced
Dai Wenxin
Chief Physician
He specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of respiratory diseases, cardiovascular diseases, sleep medicine and geriatric diseases; the application of general medicine in chronic diseases; and has accumulated extensive experience in the fields of bronchoscopic treatment, stem cell therapy and biomedical engineering. At present, he is developing new technologies and projects such as far-infrared treatment of thyroid nodules, breast nodules, gastrointestinal polyps and other chronic diseases, integrated tumor treatment and functional medicine. He has developed tumor vaccines and tumor antioxidants.
Member of Hainan Medical Association of Cardiovascular Rehabilitation
Reviewing expert for several foreign medical journals
Outstanding young job achiever in Hainan Province
Job achiever of National Health Department
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