Health experts on Saturday agreed that stroke is the second leading cause of death and long term disability. Around 15 million people suffer from stroke every year; among those one-third die and one-third become permanently disable, said Dr Shaneela Malik from Michigan on Saturday while speaking at a seminar organised by Shifa International Hospital.
The event held to mark World Stroke Day. Dr Shaneela Malik, who is the Vascular Neurology MD at the Henry Ford Health System in Michigan, USA, was the guest speaker at the session called “One in six people worldwide will have a stroke in their lifetime – it could be you!” The theme was selected by World Stroke Organisation (WSO) to educate and raise the awareness among the general public about stroke.
A large number of doctors, medical students and people belonging to different segments of society attended the seminar. Dr Malik gave a presentation on “How to decrease stroke risk?” She described the risk factors involving stroke and how to reduce them. She said that hypertension (high blood pressure), diabetes, high cholesterol, smoking, orally chewing tobacco and heart diseases were the leading causes of stroke.
“Patients with hypertension have 8 times greater chance of having a stroke,” she added. She informed the audience that speech difficulties, ataxia (difficulty walking), facial weakness, vertigo (room spinning around you), double vision and numbness on the face/arm/leg and extremity weakness were a few symptoms of this deadly neurological disorder.
“There is no pain associated with stroke,” Dr. Malik said adding that after every 40 seconds, someone in the world was having a stroke. “Every 4 minutes someone is dying from a stroke and if you have stress, habit of high salt intake and family history, then you are indeed at risk”, she warned.
While revealing about epidemiology in Pakistan, she said the hemorrhagic stroke is higher in Pakistan relative to western countries (21-31% vs 10-15%). Sixty percent stroke in Pakistan affect patients above 60 years of age. In order to prevent the disease and manage it, she advised, the senior citizens should get the blood pressure checked on a regular basis (at least 3 to 4 times a year if not already diagnosed).
“They should take their medications regularly, eat a low-salt diet, adopt healthy dietary habits and indulging in physical activity or exercise on regular basis,” she further said. She said the ideal blood pressure among adults should be 120/80 and that stroke can be prevented, treated and managed with proper care. Earlier, SIH Dr Maimoona Siddiqui also gave an introduction to the ailment and the seminar.
Later SIH President and Chief Executive Officer Dr Manzoor H Qazi presented a souvenir to Dr Shaneela Malik. SIH Consultant Neurologist Dr Arsalan Ahmad thanked the audience for their participation in the seminar.
