Stroke Awareness: These 4 Letters Can Help You Save Lives
Fortunately, there is something we can do to help. Using the acronym "FAST," we can easily remember the warning signs of a stroke. The sooner a person is treated for a stroke, the better the outcome, which is why identifying that a stroke is happening can save lives. Read on to learn more about what FAST means.
Signs of a stroke
General signs of a stroke include:
Numbness in the face, arm or leg, particularly on one side of your body
Difficulty speaking or understanding others
Sudden confusion and mental fogginess
Sudden vision issues in one or both eyes
Sudden dizziness, incoordination and trouble walking
Sudden migraine headache
Signs of a stroke tend to look the same in men and women but signs can be less intense in women and often are overlooked. In addition to the signs listed above, women may also feel the following symptoms before stroke:
Fatigue
Headaches
Mind fogginess and memory issues
Nausea and vomiting
Remember FAST to help identify a stroke
This is where the acronym FAST comes in. It's a helpful resource to help recognize if someone is having a stroke and what you should do.
F: Face drooping
One side of the face is drooping and unable to function as normal.
A: Arm weakness
One arm suddenly feels numb or weak and cannot be raised simultaneously with the other.
S: Speech difficulty
Someone is blurring their speech, speaking incoherently or unable to repeat phrases.
T: Time to call 911
If you or someone is experiencing one or more of these symptoms, especially on one side of the body, call 911 immediately. Quick medical care is vital in preventing serious long-term harm or disability.
Note that the acronym was "BEFAST" for balance problems, eyesight problems, face muscle drooping, arm numbness, speech difficulties and time to call for help. However, a 2024 randomized pilot trial found that people had higher retention and ability to recall stroke symptoms, either partially or fully, with FAST.
Possible causes of a stroke
While there are risk factors of stroke that can't be changed, like family history or gender, some are preventable.
Below is a list of possible stroke risk factors that can be managed:
Diabetes
Drug use
Excessive alcohol consumption
Heart disease
High blood pressure
Obesity
Smoking
For more advice on managing heart health, here are nine tips to help lower your risk of heart disease and what to do if someone is experiencing a heart attack.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Bloomberg
a minute ago
- Bloomberg
C3.ai CEO Tom Siebel to Seek Successor Due to Health Concerns
Software company Inc. is looking for a new chief executive officer after Tom Siebel said he intends to step aside due to health concerns. 'After being diagnosed with an autoimmune disease in early 2025, I have experienced significant visual impairment,' Siebel said in a statement Thursday. He will remain executive chairman once the company's board appoints a successor, he added.
WIRED
a minute ago
- WIRED
An Inventor Is Injecting Bleach Into Cancerous Tumors—and Wants to Bring the Treatment to the US
Xuewu Liu, a Chinese inventor who has no medical training or credentials of any kind, is charging cancer patients $20,000 for access to an AI-driven but entirely unproven treatment that includes injecting a highly concentrated dose of chlorine dioxide, a toxic bleach solution, directly into cancerous tumors. One patient tells WIRED her tumor has grown faster since the procedure and that she suspects it may have caused her cancer to spread—a claim Liu disputes—while experts allege his marketing of the treatment has likely put him on the wrong side of US regulations. Nonetheless, while Liu currently only offers the treatment informally in China and at a German clinic, he is now working with a Texas-based former pharmaceutical executive to bring his treatment to America. They believe that the appointment of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as health secretary will help 'open doors' to get the untested treatment—in which at least one clinic in California appears to have interest—approved in the US. Kennedy's Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement is embracing alternative medicines and the idea of giving patients the freedom to try unproven treatments. While the health secretary did not respond to a request for comment about Liu's treatment, he did mention chlorine dioxide when questioned about President Donald Trump's Operation Warp Speed during his Senate confirmation hearing in February, and the Food and Drug Administration recently removed a warning about substance from its website. The agency says the removal was part of a routine process of archiving old pages on its site, but it has had the effect of emboldening the bleacher community. 'Without the FDA's heavy-handed warnings, it's likely my therapy would have been accepted for trials years earlier, with institutional partnerships and investor support,' Liu tells WIRED. He says he wrote to Kennedy earlier this year urging him to conduct more research on chlorine dioxide. 'This quiet removal won't immediately change everything, but it opens a door. If mainstream media reports on this shift, I believe it will unlock a new wave of serious [chlorine dioxide] research.' For decades, pseudoscience grifters have peddled chlorine dioxide solutions—sold under a variety of names, such as Miracle Mineral Solution—and despite warnings and prosecutions, have continued to claim the toxic substance is a 'cure' for everything from HIV to Covid-19 to autism. There is no credible evidence to back up any of these claims, which critics have long labeled as nothing more than a grift. The treatments typically involve drinking liquid chlorine dioxide on a regular basis, using solutions with concentrations of chlorine dioxide of around 3,000 parts per million (ppm), which is diluted further in water. Liu's treatment, however, involves a much higher concentration of chlorine dioxide—injections of several milliliters of 20,000ppm—and, rather than drinking it, patients have it injected directly into their tumors. Liu claims he has injected himself with the solution over 50 times and suffered no side effects. 'This personal data point encouraged me to continue research,' he says.
Bloomberg
a minute ago
- Bloomberg
Stock Movers: Alphabet, Las Vegas Sands, UnitedHealth
On this episode of Stock Movers: - Alphabet (GOOGL) shares rise after the company said demand for artificial intelligence products boosted quarterly sales, and now requires an extreme increase in capital spending — heightening pressure on the company to justify the cost of keeping up in the AI race. - Las Vegas Sands (LVS) shares climb after the casino and resorts operator reported adjusted earnings per share for the second quarter that beat the average analyst estimate. Analysts attribute the beat to a solid performance in Singapore offsetting weakness in Macau. - UnitedHealth (UNH) shares fall. UnitedHealth is responding to criminal and civil requests from the US Department of Justice about its Medicare practices, the company said, and has "full confidence" in its practices.
