Stroke: symptoms, causes, risk factors, and everything else Pinoys should know about it

Stroke was the second top cause of death among Filipinos in 2017, according to the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.

And according to Dr. Jennifer Justice Manzano, a neurology-stroke specialist from ManilaMed Medical Center Manila, one out of four people in the world will experience a stroke in their lifetime.

The good news is, strokes can be treated — but it must be done immediately.

Time spells death or severe disability for stroke victims, with every minute that a patient spends without stroke intervention shaves off 1.8 days of his or her life, according to Manzano.

"Each minute that you wait before a patient's stroke intervention shaves off 1.8 days of that patient's life. Go to the ER of a stroke-ready hospital," said ManilaMed neurology-stroke specialist Dr. Jennifer Justice Manzano at a press briefing at The Pearl Hotel Manila.@gmanews pic.twitter.com/gZF7j3B5YH

— Angelica Y. Yang (@angelicayyang) November 19, 2019

Manzano gave the lowdown on what Pinoys should know about stroke and how they should treat it.

"A stroke occurs when blood supply to the brain is affected. The brain is very sensitive to interruptions in blood flow because the brain is highly reliant on oxygen. Without oxygen, brain cells easily get damaged," said Manzano.

RELATED: Key facts about strokes 

Filipinos usually experience stroke because of hypertension, or high blood pressure, according to her observations.

"There are other risk factors: high cholesterol levels, uncontrolled blood glucose, smoking, and a sedentary lifestyle," she said.

A stroke normally manifests itself through facial drooping or crooked smiling, difficulty in raising arms, and slurred or gibberish speech.

When one of these symptoms are observed, she recommended that the stroke patient must be taken to the emergency room of a stroke-ready hospital.

"You don't go to the doctors' clinics, you don't go to the outpatient. You don't observe. You go to the emergency room (ER) of a stroke-ready hospital. Because a stroke-ready hospital would be equipped to respond to the emergency," Manzano said, underscoring that ManilaMed was a stroke-ready hospital.

Stroke-ready hospitals have ER triage officers who won't ask stroke patients to queue anymore. These types of hospitals also have on-hand medicine for stroke patients, which would be administered to them within thirty minutes to one hour by the time they reach the ER.

Manzano added that stroke-ready hospitals also have personnel who are trained to respond to the emergency, and offer rehabilitation services to help stroke patients achieve 'functional independence'.

She suggested some ways that Pinoys can do to prevent getting a stroke: "Know the risk factors, consult doctors, get 30 minutes of moderately-intense daily exercise, eat a low-salt diet, decrease sugar intake and quit smoking." — LA, GMA News