By Penelope A. Domogo, MD
Stroke” occurs when the blood supply to the brain is interrupted or greatly reduced such that the brain doesn’t get enough oxygen and nutrients and water causing the brain cells to die. When the brain cells die, then body functions are affected, of course. The affected body functions will depend on what part of the brain did the stroke occur. It could only be the left side or right side of the body that is weakened or paralyzed, or only the speech is affected, etc. Stroke is also called a “brain attack”. If the blood supply interruption occurs in the heart, then it is called a heart attack. Our heart has its blood supply system also.
Before we proceed, let us just briefly review how our body works. Our body is a complex extraordinary machine that is kept alive by the blood flowing in our blood vessels. Ever since we were given life while still in the womb of our mother, our heart and lungs and liver and all our body parts started to function day and night, every minute, every second. Imagine this, our heart beats about 80 times per minute, non-stop, all our life. That is 115,200 beats in 24 hours or one day. Our lungs breathes about 15 times a minute, non-stop, all our life. That is 21,600 times a day. Multiply that by your age and you will really thank your heart and lungs for being so faithful. These rates are slower when we are asleep and relaxed. It is faster in babies and very young children. It is faster when we are angry or excited. We can hold our breath for some minutes only but we cannot voluntarily stop our heart from beating.
Only our lungs can take in air from the environment and only our mouth and stomach can take in food and water. Food, water and air are the basic elements for our survival. So our Creator designed a distribution system to distribute these basic supplies from the lungs and intestines. He designed the blood vessels that reach every cell of our body (except the hair and nails) and the heart as the major pumping station. Observe that even if you very slightly cut your skin or your lips, it will bleed, because there are teeny weeny blood vessels there. Do you know that our heart also has its electrical system that is fully automatic? This ensures that there is blood flowing all over our body all the time. This means that there’s food and water and air in every part of our body every minute, every second, of our life. So when this blood supply is cut off, then that part of our body that does not get the supply dies. In general, we cannot survive longer than 5 minutes without oxygen. Some people have survived for longer than 5 minutes but we don’t recommend that you experiment.
How is blood supply in the brain cut off? It’s just like our piped water distribution system- water stops flowing to where it should go when the pipes are clogged or the pipes leak or burst from too much pressure. Thus there are two kinds of stroke – ischemic or hemmorhagic.
Ischemic stroke is when a blood vessel in the brain is clogged. What causes the clogging? Again, let us think of our water pipes and sewage pipes. Accumulated debris will clog those pipes. The same happens in our brain blood vessels. Debris will clog our blood vessels. And think of the smallness of our blood vessels in the brain – even if your brain is big, still your blood vessels there are tiny. Try looking at the blood vessels in pig brain. We have a similar basic structural design. So it would take a little debris to clog those tiny blood vessels. This debris that clogs the blood vessel is also called an embolus (plural is “emboli”). Before we go to that, researchers have found out that these emboli or debris are made up of fat, protein particles, calcium fragments, blood elements, etc. Now, how did that debris go to your brain? Your answer is as good as mine. That debris came from your food and drink through your mouth, worked its way from your intestines to your blood system. And because there is so much sugar and fat in your blood that makes your blood sticky, it will stick this debris in the walls of your blood vessels. You are lucky if the debris gets stuck in one blood vessel in your arm but apparently, it is more likely to get stuck in the brain or heart vessels.
Hemorrhagic stroke is when a blood vessel in the brain leaks or bursts spilling blood to the brain matter. Again, just like our pipe water system, the blood vessel will burst if there’s too much pressure. So this can happen in people with high blood pressure. Our blood vessels are elastic but after a long time of withstanding high blood pressure and overstretched for so long, what happens? They can thin out and bulge and this is called an aneurysm. With sustained high blood pressure, this can rupture and cause hemorrhage in the brain. But the blood vessel can just burst from too much pressure or if it is fragile. Since the brain is an enclosed non-expandable space, this blood leak can be fatal if massive. It is also fatal if it occurs in a critical part of the brain that controls our breathing. High blood sugar also makes the blood vessels fragile thus we can see how detrimental to our health is too much sugar. Take note that alcohol is also sugar. Smoking also damages the blood vessels through the toxic chemicals that are in those cigarettes.
Stroke, then, is not really the disease. Put simply, stroke is a complication of years of abuse of our body. It does not happen in a day or a week or even a month of excessive eating or drinking or smoking. It is the result of years of accumulated excesses and toxins. It is a result of the poor choices that we made daily for years, including the choices our mothers made when they conceived us and the choices our caregivers made when we were dependent on them. Take note of that, mothers and parents and caregivers. Thus, in these modern times, we see a lot of strokes and all the other suffering that are prevalent today.
The good news is that it is never too late to make healthier happier choices. Just having your blood pressure or your blood sugar or blood cholesterol checked up is not enough. Because even these diseased conditions are the result of years of poor choices. If your blood pressure and your blood sugar and your blood cholesterol are okay today, this is not a reason to indulge in excessive foods. Just because a child is a child can he or she eat anything. Keep your food choices as natural as you can so that your blood is not sticky and your heart and blood vessels are robust. A lot of stroke patients recover their functions faster with change of lifestyle – food and physical activities. And of course, the will to live and a supportive environment is necessary, not only for stroke patients but for all of us.**
“You created every part of me; you put me together in my mother’s womb.” Psalms 139:13
