Headache or?

When you get a headache, you probably take aspirin and try to shrug it off. But sometimes headaches are warning signs of something much more serious — a stroke, a condition that’s similar to a heart attack but affects the brain.  More than 795,000 people in the US suffer from a stroke every year, and of those, about 130,000 die from it. According to one survey, while 60% of people knew that severe headache with no known cause could signal stroke, only 38% of people could recognize all the major symptoms and knew to call 9-1-1 right away.

Unfortunately, knowing when your headache spells trouble can be difficult. There are generally two types of stroke

Type One: Ischemic (Blockage-Type Brain Attack) 

What it is: About 85% of strokes are ischemic, which occur when a blockage prevents a blood vessel from providing blood to the brain.

Headache symptoms: Most ischemic strokes don’t cause headaches. But some types, such as arterial dissections (blockage in an artery supplying the brain) and cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (blockage in veins draining blood from the brain), can produce a splitting headache. Sometimes people with headaches due to arterial dissections also have teary eyes on one side, as well as weakness or numbness on the side of their body opposite the headache,

People with headaches due to venous sinus thrombosis may also have blurry vision and/or seizures.  

 Type Two: Hemorrhagic (a.k.a. Bleeding-Type Brain Attack, or Brain Bleed):   There are two types of hemorrhagic strokes: subarachnoid and intracerebral.

An intracerebral hemorrhagic stroke, which accounts for around 12% of all brain attacks, occurs when a weakened blood vessel or aneurysm bursts, causing a brain bleed. Hypertension is the most common risk factor for an intracerebral hemorrhagic stroke.

A subarachnoid hemorrhagic stroke occurs when a bulge in a blood vessel (a.k.a aneurysm) within the covering layers of the brain ruptures, causing bleeding in the space surrounding the brain. While subarachnoid hemorrhagic strokes are less common, accounting for around 3% of all brain attacks, their results are often devastating. Janardhan says about 10% of people suffering from a brain bleed die immediately, and of the remaining 90% who make it to the ER, about half will die within 30 days.

Headache symptoms: An intracerebral hemorrhage, which most often occurs in people with high blood pressure or less frequently from an underlying vascular malformation (AVM), causes sudden, severe headaches. People with subarachnoid hemorrhagic strokes often complain of suddenly experiencing the worst headache of their lives. “I’ve had patients say that the headache associated with a ruptured brain aneurysm feels like something is erupting in their head and is a headache unlike anything they’ve ever experienced,”

Divorce

Boomers are not staying married and divorce is common amongst my age group. Not only is divorce bad for you financially, it also takes an emotional toll. Perhaps more than most of us think about. Ending a marriage can take more than an emotional toll. 

In a 2015 study, researchers found that divorced women were more likely to have a heart attack than married women; after two divorces, their risk nearly doubled. Men who had one divorce were just as likely to have a heart attack as married men, but their risk increased after two or more divorces.  One of the largest forms of stress is loss of a loved one or divorce or a major life event,. Over time, the release of stress hormones … can create injury to the wall of the blood vessel,” potentially causing a heart attack.

Winter Chores

As we get older, we have to take more care and be alert to things that may cause us harm. 

We are moving into Winter, it snowed this week end in part of Alberta, and we should be aware that colder temps, along with high winds, snow and rain, can increase your heart attack risk. 

That’s because your heart has to work overtime when you move from the warm indoors to the cold outside. 

For winter chores, be sure to bundle up in warm, light layers. And consider passing off hefty snow-shoveling duties to your teenage neighbor. 

Shoveling snow … is considered a fairly arduous physical activity. For someone who’s unfit, that can mean trouble for their heart.

If you do end up working outside, listen to your body and take plenty of breaks.  

Happy Thanksgiving Day to my friends in Canada

Thanksgiving Day in Canada has been a holiday on the second Monday of October since 1957. It is a chance for people to give thanks for a good harvest and other fortunes in the past year.

Thanksgiving Day in Canada is linked to the European tradition of harvest festivals.

Many people have a day off work on the second Monday of October. They often use the three-day Thanksgiving weekend to visit family or friends who live far away, or to receive them in their own homes. Many people also prepare a special meal to eat at some point during the long weekend. Traditionally, this included roast turkey and seasonal produce, such as pumpkin, corn ears and pecan nuts. Now, the meal may consist of other foods, particularly if the family is of non-European descent.

The Thanksgiving weekend is also a popular time to take a short autumn vacation. This may be the last chance in a while for some people to use cottages or holiday homes before winter sets in. Other popular activities include outdoor breaks to admire the spectacular colors of the Canadian autumn, hiking, and fishing. Fans of the teams in the Canadian Football League may spend part of the weekend watching the Thanksgiving Day Classic matches.

In the US  Thanksgiving is celebrated on November 24th this year, Thanksgiving Day has been an annual holiday in the United States since 1863. Not everyone sees Thanksgiving Day as a cause for celebration. Each year since 1970, a group of Native Americans and their supporters have staged a protest for a National Day of Mourning at Plymouth Rock in Plymouth, Massachusetts on Thanksgiving Day. American Indian Heritage Day is also observed at this time of the year.

There are claims that the first Thanksgiving Day was held in the city of El Paso, Texas in 1598. Another early event was held in 1619 in the Virginia Colony. Many people trace the origins of the modern Thanksgiving Day to the harvest celebration that the Pilgrims held in Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1621. 

However, their first true thanksgiving was in 1623, when they gave thanks for rain that ended a drought. These early thanksgivings took the form of a special church service, rather than a feast.

In the second half of the 1600s, thanksgivings after the harvest became more common and started to become annual events. However, it was celebrated on different days in different communities and in some places there were more than one thanksgiving each year. 

George Washington, the first president of the United States, proclaimed the first national Thanksgiving Day in 1789.