Dartmouth Stroke Support Club

On this page are several facts about diagnosing suspected stroke, and about self-treatment for a heart attack if you are alone.

Before getting into stroke details, correct diet can help you avoid stroke, and Jennifer Hamm, nutritionist, says that reading and understanding labels on food is step one in the maintaining your diet program. In her words:

1. Always check the serving (portion) size first. Nutrition tables are based on serving size, so the calories listed in any table assume the helping you have will not exceed the serving size shown in that food's nutrition table; if you eat double the tabled serving size, your calorie intake is doubled. Being overweight is NOT a condition for avoiding stroke.

2. When counting calories, remember that a snack should
be in the 100 - 200 calorie range, while only for a meal should you be consiering 400 - 600 calories

3. Use the percent daily value listed on the in your nutrition table (%DV), and decide what nutrients you want most.
Keep your percentage LOW (5% or less) for Total fats, saturated fats, and salt (listed as sodium) Avoid trans fats entirely.
For fibre and vitamins aim higher (10 - 15 %)

What is a Stroke? A stroke occurs when a blood clot travels to the brain , interrupting flow of oxygen-carrying blood to some part of the brain, resulting in damage to the nerve cells at that part. Those oxygen-deprived nerve cells may be damaged or die, and the sections of the body those cells did control, stop functioning.
The same loss of function can result from a rupture and/or bleeding from any vessel supplying oxygen in the brain.

WARNING SIGNS OF STROKE:

If you or anyone else you know ever experiences any of the above, get medical attention immediately. Your quick action ( CALL 911 & DESCRIBE THE CONDITION) could help avoid a stroke, and there is a window of only THREE HOURS during which a clot-busting drug can be effective.

Remember STR for quick clues to stroke symptoms!

What to do if you have a heart attack when alone ...

With no one around to help, a heart attack could be fatal, but the Rochester General Hospital's publication "Health Care" has an answer, copied below. Please note and remember.

It's called COUGH CPR

Suppose you start experiencing severe pain in your chest that starts spreading out into your arm and your jaw ? These are classical symptoms of a heart attack...but what can you do alone ?
Without help, a person whose heart is not beating properly and who begins to feel faint has only about 10 seconds before losing consciousness.
Your only self-help recourse is to COUGH, REPEATEDLY & VERY VIGOROUSLY. Take time to call 911, then continue coughing. Take a deep breath before each cough. Make each cough stretched out and deep, as if you were trying to bring up sputum from deep inside your chest.
The breath-and-cough sequence must be repeated about every two seconds without let up, until help arrives, or until you feel the heart beating normally again.
The deep breathing gets oxygen into the lungs, and the coughing squeezes the heart to keep the blood circulating. This squeezing pressure also helps the heart regain normal rhythm.
This procedure can give the heart attack victim some chance of survival until help arrives.