The Month Of May Serves As National Stroke Awareness Month
In last week’s article, I had the opportunity to highlight National Military Appreciation Month. One of the other national designations that I want to highlight for the month of May is National Stroke Awareness Month. This month works to help educate the public about the important stroke signs that people can identify and understand in their own lives. There are a number of simple warning signs that can help be an early warning indicator. These key indicators make a significant difference in the early diagnosis of various heart related illnesses.
There are many basic things that relate to heart health that people do not often realize. The American Heart Association is an advocacy organization that has helped to develop a program known as the F.A.S.T. program. F.A.S.T. is an acronym that stands for: Face dropping, Arm weakness, Speech difficulty, and Time to call 9-1-1. These are four simple signs that can be identified to help recognize these early warning signs. The American Heart Association’s joint website with the American Stroke Association provides a brief breakdown of these four identifiable symptoms/warning signs:
• Face Dropping – Does one side of the face droop or is it numb? Ask the person to smile. Is the person’s smile uneven?
• Arm Weakness – Is one arm weak or numb? Ask the Person to raise both arms. Does one arm drift downward?
• Speech Difficulty – Is speech slurred? Is the person unable to speak or hard to understand? Ask the person to repeat a simple sentence, like “The sky is blue.” Is the sentence repeated correctly?
• Time to call 9-1-1 – If someone shows any of these symptoms, even if the symptoms go away, call 9-1-1 and get the person to the hospital immediately. Check the time so you’ll know when the first symptoms appeared.
Additionally, their website states “Beyond F.A.S.T. – Other Symptoms You Should Know – Sudden numbness or weakness of the leg, sudden confusion or trouble understanding, sudden trouble seeing in one or both eyes, sudden trouble walking, dizziness, loss of balance or loss of coordination and/or sudden severe headache with no known cause.”
Those impacted by cardiovascular conditions are staggering and the healthcare impact is projected to exceed over $1 billion in direct and indirect healthcare costs by the year 2030.
The American Heart Association (AHA) is an organization that works to help bring leadership and resources to all levels of government. Whether it is the federal, state or local level, the AHA has identified ways of educating the public and by developing systems of care that work to help acute conditions that will result in helping to improve the patient’s outcomes. Many of these systems work to coordinate those impacted to help them recover while also improving the cost-effectiveness of their care. These systems of care generally are tailored by more localized methods such as certain regions of the nation and also individual states. A lot of the criteria they use is from localized data that they have collected and works to create a seamless transition from each stage of care. It is with these types of awareness and outreach that they hope will save lives. If you would like to learn more information about healthy tips on cardiovascular health you can visit American Heart Association and the American Stroke Association
If you have questions regarding any of the information mentioned in this article, please do not hesitate to call my Capitol or District Office. As always, my offices are available at any time to assist with questions, concerns or comments (Capitol Office, 512-463-0672; District Office, 361-949-4603).
– State Representative Todd Hunter, District 32
Rep. Hunter represents Nueces (Part) County. He can be contacted at todd.hunter@house.state.tx.us or at 512-463-0672.
