00:00It's Stroke Awareness Day on Guardian Talks with Timitayo Olumofir.
00:04This year's theme says, Raising Awareness, Preventing Strokes, and Saving Lives.
00:08It reminds us of the importance of early symptoms and also acting fast.
00:13To shed more insight on this topic of discourse is Dr. Anirka Peter.
00:18He will be joining us shortly. Stick around.
00:20Welcome to Guardian Talks, Dr. Anirka Peters. It's a pleasure to have you.
00:34First thing first, can you define what stroke is and how does it occur?
00:38A stroke like any other emergency as a medical emergency that occurs when blood supply to the brain
00:48is either reduced or completely cut off, leading to brain damage.
00:56You know, you need blood to stay alive and every cell, every organ, every system needs blood.
01:04And, you know, the brain cannot survive along without oxygen and nutrients.
01:10So when the blood supply is reduced or completely cut off from the brain, it's a medical emergency.
01:18And that will lead to brain damage by stroke.
01:22What are the most commonly early warning signs people should actually watch out for?
01:27The warning signs actually has to do with the risk factors.
01:32We should not even wait for the warning signs.
01:35People should just handle the risk factors.
01:37Don't even get yourself to wait.
01:39Because most times, there may be no warning.
01:44It will just go.
01:45So your best bet is to ensure that you identify the risk factors and you deal with it.
01:56And these risk factors will include certain diseases that have taken epidemic proportion now,
02:08non-communicable diseases, like hypertension.
02:11You realize recently, by the virtue of my position as the chairman of my general medical association,
02:19I do a lot of medical outreaching.
02:21And when we go for those outreaches, the percentage of people with hypertension is alarming.
02:27It's a bell that the whole country has to begin to do something drastic about it.
02:36Because most adults, maybe because of the hardship in the economy and a lot of stress in the economy,
02:45because of the economic realities, where especially most workers cannot even pay their rents anymore
02:52with the amount of money they are being paid, and other drivers of stress that have really made blood pressure of the population
03:01to really be on the high side.
03:04And the other things would be diabetes.
03:08Wow.
03:08So, I mean, once your blood sugar is not doing well, you are a candidate for stroke.
03:17Wow.
03:18And then also, that is high blood sugar.
03:21And then, in our society, also, we have a lot of people living with sickle cell anemia.
03:27So, children with sickle cell anemia, they have a higher percentage or higher risk for developing stroke.
03:44And also, people who are obese, you need to begin to do exercise to cut down your weight
03:51because it increases the risk, increases the chances for stroke.
04:05And then, of course, sedentary life.
04:07You're sitting in one place, you go to AC office, from AC office, you don't move around.
04:13Your job makes you just sit down.
04:15So, I mean, sitting can lead to stasis, and stasis can lead to a blockade of blood vessel anywhere in the body,
04:22and the brain is usually one of the points that is really dangerous.
04:29And then, excessive...
04:30Can also lead to...
04:31And then, yeah, can also lead to, yes, and also, of course, smoking.
04:38So, these are...
04:39And then, if you have inherent heart disease,
04:42that means your blood cannot...
04:46Especially the one we call atrial fibrillation.
04:50It means that your blood cannot form the way it should.
04:54And so, most of the stasis...
04:56And when the stasis, blood clots will form in the heart.
05:01And then, once in a while, they will leave the heart and enter into the circulation.
05:08And when they reach tiny vessels, especially in the brain, they can no more move.
05:13And they get stuck there.
05:16And once they get stuck, remember, the blood cannot move again.
05:19And so, all the parts above where the blood clot is will, of course, be damaged due to the blockade.
05:29Recently, I saw a video of where a guy was speaking about the fact that his face was twitching.
05:35I can't remember if it was to the left or to the right.
05:38So, is there a difference between spasm and stroke?
05:42Well, for stroke, usually, the people come down with weakness of some muscles.
05:51Depending on the side of the brain that is involved, you know that there's a crossover of fibers in the brain.
06:03So, if you have a right-sided brain stroke, it means in the body it's going to differentially affect the left side of the body.
06:14Because there's somewhere in the body that the nerves will cross over.
06:17So, the person will now have weakness of those muscles in that side, this time around in the left.
06:25And because the muscles in the left are weak, the muscles in the right, remember, are still normal.
06:33They will pull that muscle to one side.
06:37The weak muscle is no more able to maintain balance.
06:40So, you see the person's face will have to move, pull away.
06:48So, that's why you have...
06:50And then, of course, depending on where it is, you can also have twitching.
06:57You can also have weakness of the limbs.
07:02And so, these are all signs that there's stroke.
07:07Right.
07:07All right.
07:08Lastly, to wrap this up, how can regular checkups and awareness campaigns help in preventing strokes?
07:15Regular checkups is really mandatory for people, for early diagnosis and for people above age of 40.
07:27I mean, before 40, you can do it once in a while.
07:31But once you are 40, it's mandatory that you must pick up your blood, you must do your blood pressure checks, you must do your blood tests, you must do factors.
07:48These risk factors will be picked up early.
07:50And those early diagnoses will lead to early detection and will prevent a stroke.
07:57Because the most important thing is to prevent...
08:01Don't wait for the signs.
08:03Before the signs comes, it's too late.
08:06It's too late.
08:07And you may not survive the first one.
08:12Right.
08:12I mean, some people don't even survive the first stroke, so they don't even want to have it.
08:16Because it now depends on where either the vessel is blocked or where the vessel ruptures.
08:23Because at times, for instance, in hypertension, the vessel may just rupture.
08:28That is still stroke.
08:30That means blood cannot pass again.
08:32All the blood will be bleeding.
08:33And the person will come out with signs of intracranial pressure, where you have vomiting and headache and other signs.
08:45So really, and then for some people, it will just be a blockade.
08:49So these are different two types of strokes.
08:52And then the campaign is so important.
08:55So that people, some people, the community campaigns, public awareness campaigns, like what you're doing now on radio, on the community, during medical outreaches, will really tell people about these risk factors.
09:14Because many people feel, in our society, feel that when they have a stroke, a spiritual attack, somebody just falls down and cannot work again.
09:22Somebody that was really very well slumped and cannot talk again, start talking, and people feel a spiritual attack.
09:33People have to know that those attacks can be diagnosed in the hospital, as I always tell people during outreaches, that we can actually catch the witch and those spiritual forces in the hospital, as I always say it.
09:48Yeah.
09:49Yeah.
09:49Thank you for your insightful conversation, Dr. Anir Khan-Peter.
09:54It's a pleasure having you to have a great day.
09:58Pleasure.
09:59Always mine.
10:00That was an insightful conversation with Dr. Anir Khan-Peter.
10:03Remember, early detection can save lives.
10:06I am Timmy Taiyuk, Olumofey.
10:08Keep watching Guardian Talks.
10:10rrr Jax
10:26interview
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