How Fast Can Stroke Cause Brain Damage?

A stroke, sometimes also known as brain attack, occurs when there is an interruption of blood supply to any part of the brain because of blockage or burst in one of the blood vessels in the brain. If the brain cannot get blood and oxygen, the brain cells could die and permanent damage would be caused within a relatively short period.

Stroke is one of the top killer s in the developed countries. In Canada, stroke ranks the fourth leading cause of death, affecting as many as 50,000 people and killing 16,000 every year. Risk factors for stroke include alcoholism, diabetes, high cholesterol, overweight or obesity, physical inactivity, smoking and stress.

So how fast can stroke damage the brain?

Common public perception believes that all strokes can be medically treated within 3 hours, but scientists from the University of British Columbia in this Western Canadian city reported otherwise. Their study, which was funded by the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, found that stroke could cause brain damage within 3 minutes.

Generally, stroke can be categorized into 2 types: ischemic and hemorrhagic. Ischemic strokes are those caused by interruption of the blood supply, while hemorrhagic strokes are those that result from rupture of a blood vessel or an abnormal vascular structure.

About 80 percent of stroke patients suffer ischemic stroke, which can usually be treated by clot-busting medications, provided if they could be admitted to the hospital within 3 hours. In reality, not every stroke patient is a candidate for clot-busting drugs.

Based on the results obtained from animal experiments performed, the scientists declared that brain could be damaged within 3 minutes. Such 3-minute window does not give people sufficient time to even call for help.

Preventive measures, therefore, are urgently required to tackle structural changes that happen very early on. People just need to manage risk factors and change their lifestyle to prevent getting a stroke, instead of relying on treatment when stroke strikes them.

Let Your Baby Sleep Enough To Avoid Overweight!

Childhood overweight or obesity has been a hot topic among people. This is because the extra weight accumulated in the body of these youngsters may greatly increase their risk of become victims of heart disease, diabetes, hypertension (high blood pressure), stroke, and even cancer in their life later.

Many causes, for example, over-eating and physical inactivity, can actually help a person gain weight or become obese. Nevertheless, a recent study revealed that babies with insufficient sleep could become overweight too!

Published in the “Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine”, the findings from the so-called “Project Viva” study indicated that infants who sleep an average of less than 12 hours per day have doubled their risk of being overweight by the age of 3, compared to babies who get at least 12 hours of sleep per day

The adverse effect of shorter sleep duration was especially obvious among children who also watched at least 2 hours of television per day.

Previous research has already linked short sleep duration to obesity in older children, adolescents and adults, but the current study examined the relationship between the hours of sleep during infancy and weight in childhood.

The mothers of 915 infants who were involved in the study were asked at 6 months, 1 year, and 2 years how many hours their child slept in a 24-hour period, including naps. At the age of 3, 9 percent of children were overweight, which was defined as having a body mass index (BMI) for age and sex in the 95th percentile or greater.

After removing the influence of other variables like demographics, maternal characteristics, breast-feeding duration, and birth weight, the researchers found that infants who slept an average of less than 12 hours per day were almost twice as likely to be overweight.

Moreover, a much higher association between sleep duration of less than 12 hours per day and television viewing of more than 2 hours per day was also noted. Such combination significantly raises the chances of becoming overweight by nearly 6 times.

Based on the findings, the researchers suggested that childhood overweight prevention should target not only on the reduction in television viewing but also on making sure adequate sleep duration.

Who Are The Fattest People In the World?

Who are the fattest people in the world?

Don't know? Never mind, just read on to find out!

According to a new report by the Trust for America's Health, a non-profit health organisation, the obesity rates have swelled during the last year in 31 American states, with not one state reporting a lower obesity rate.

Two-thirds of American adults are obese or overweight, as revealed In their report titled "F as in Fat: How Obesity Policies are Failing in America".

The rate of adult obesity across the United States increases from 15 per cent between 1978 and 1980 to 32 per cent between 2003 and 2004. For the same period, childhood obesity increased more than three-fold. Some poorer southern states were also affected by the epidemic. For the first time, more than 30 per cent of residents in Mississippi are classified as obese.

The report also pointed out that approximately 25 million children are obese or overweight. It is sad to say that today's children are likely to be the first generation to live shorter, less healthy lives than their parents.

Overweight and obesity are risk factors that can lead to heart disease. Besides health issue, obesity epidemic can also have a negative impact on workforce productivity. When the workforce becomes less healthy and productive, the US economic competitiveness will start feeling the pain. Moreover, bigger portion of the revenue generated from businesses is diverted to obesity-related health care costs.

Health experts cited poor nutrition and physical inactivity as the key reasons for such epidemic. For example, Americans love watching TV programs over long hours and pop into their mouths with junk foods such as cookies, chips, french fries together with fizzy drinks and bears.

New York City has in fact made it mandatory for restaurants to provide detailed nutrition and calorie information to patrons with trans fats banned. It is known that trans fat helps raise so-called bad cholesterol levels and hence increases the risk of heart disease. Food manufacturers and restaurants used to add trans fats to increase the shelf life and flavour of foods.

To prevent from getting into obesity, it is important to have a healthy lifestyle starting from young: regular exercises and healthy diet. Sound simple but when it comes to reality, most people will find it hard to follow.

But do remember one thing, getting off the extra kilos on your body is definitely not an easy task. So it is better not to add the extra kilo from the beginning.