AUSTIN (KXAN) — Strokes are becoming more common in young people, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). It found the risk for people under the age of 65 has grown over the last decade.
Chief Medical Officer at the Centre for Neuro Skills Dr. Matt Ashley, who also sits on the board for the American Heart Association’s Austin chapter, spoke with KXAN’s Avery Travis and Will DuPree to discuss symptoms and prevention.
Read a transcription of the interview below or watch in the video player above. Some responses have been edited for clarity.
Avery Travis: Talk to us about why we’re seeing this trend of younger and younger people being affected by this.
Dr. Matt Ashley: So it’s not exactly clear what the cause of that is, but we do know that 10 to 15% of strokes will happen in someone younger than 45 years old. And the idea that stroke is something that only affects people as they age is inaccurate. Stroke can happen to anyone at any age, and it can happen for a variety of reasons. We know that lifestyle factors play a choice or play a role in some of that as people get older, but in younger people, it’s typically affiliated with something that’s really not related to lifestyle choices.
Will DuPree: Do you find that younger patients are aware of the risk that it could happen to them too?
Ashley: I think things like what we’re doing today are helping to raise that awareness. And that’s, that’s really great. I think people are learning more and more about the risk of stroke in the young. For most people, I think it probably comes as a bit of a shock and surprise.
Travis: We’ve been hearing these stories more and more. I think a lot of people were talking about recently, actor Jamie Foxx opened up about a medical condition of a brain bleed that led to a stroke. You know, something he’s talked a lot about publicly, has been his recovery process, and that it has been slow, but that he’s on the road to recovery. So talk about that, that there is opportunity for recovery, and kind of what that looks like for people.
Ashley: Absolutely. So unfortunately, stroke is something that happens very quickly and needs to be acted on very quickly initially, but the recovery process is quite long, and people who are in the rehabilitation space like I am are working with those patients and their families every day, trying to shepherd them through that process of recovery, help educate them about what that’s going to look like and the potential benefits of it, and the long term outcomes really can be significantly better than I think most people expect.
DuPree: To give people some sense about what maybe to look out for if they should be experiencing a stroke, or if someone they know is, what are the signs of that, that they should really pay attention to and focus on?
Ashley: Absolutely. So I think it’s everyone’s job to be aware of stroke and to be able to recognize the signs of it. We use an acronym for that. It’s BE FAST. The ‘B’ stands for balance difficulties. The ‘E’ stands for eyes so vision difficulties, blurry vision. The ‘F’ stands for facial weakness or facial drooping. The ‘A’ stands for arm or leg weakness. The ‘S’ stands for speech difficulties and the ‘T’ is for time. And time really is important in two different ways. One is it’s time to call 911, and act quickly. And the other is that it’s very important to note the time of onset of symptoms, because that’s an important, critical piece for medical providers as they intervene for stroke.
DuPree: So, that’s be fast.
Ashley: Be fast.
Travis: Good reminder. Yeah, an easy way for people at home to kind of drill that in and remember. Last thing here, talk to us briefly, if you can, quick things for prevention. If someone’s sitting at home and they say, I want to take one action today to try to prevent this.
Ashley: Yeah, so prevention of stroke really falls into general health prevention. Controlling blood pressure, controlling blood glucose if that’s an issue for you, controlling your cholesterol, being active, making healthy nutrition choices, which is hard in this world, but we can always do a little bit better.
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