You may be at risk for stroke, and your risk increases as you age. It is also higher for men than for women. Still, a stroke can occur at almost any age, and members of both sexes are a risk. Here is an FAQ on strokes and how you can detect stroke risk in advance:

1. What is a stroke?

A. Stroke occurs when one of the blood vessels that feed oxygen-rich blood to the brain bursts or gets clogged, causing a disruption of blood flow to part of the brain. Stroke is the third leading cause of death in the U.S., resulting in 750,000 stroke victims per year. An estimated 75-85% of strokes that occurred last year could have been avoided with proper screening.

2. What warning signs are present before a stroke occurs?

A. The majority of stroke victims have no prior warning before the stroke occurs, and 97% of the adult population could not name a warning sign. While undergoing the proper screening could help people reduce stroke risk, people avoid stroke screening because they think it will be too costly, painful, or inconvenient. In fact, stroke screening is an inexpensive, non-invasive, non-radioactive procedure that can be found in most communities.

3. What are the risk factors?

A. Any adult could potentially suffer a stroke, but there are certain risk factors that signify a greater possibility of the occurrence of a stroke in the near future. Here are some of those risk factors:

a. Age: the chance of your having a stroke approximately doubles for each decade of life after the age of 55.
b. Gender: men are more likely to have a stroke, but women are more likely to die of a stroke.
c. Heredity: your stroke risk is greater if a grandparent or other family member has had a stroke. Also, blacks face a higher risk of having a stroke than do whites.
d. Prior Occurrence: if you have had a stroke previously, you face a much higher risk of having another stroke.
e. TIA: transient ischemic attacks, or TIA, are often known as warning strokes that produce stroke-like symptoms but with no lasting damage. They are strong predictors of strokes.

4. What is the impact?

A. The most serious impact of stroke is death. It is the third-largest cause of death in the United States (just behind heart disease and cancer). The biggest cost, however, is the loss of independence that 30% of the survivors of strokes experience. Stroke affects not only the victim him or herself, but those around them, as well. And, the monetary cost for survivors of stroke and those around them is also enormous. Each year, billions of dollars are spent on lost work, hospitalization, and the care of survivors in nursing homes.

5. Can stroke risk be detected?

A. In most cases, your doctor cannot tell you if you have stroke risk via a normal checkup because symptoms often are not present. And, the fact is that most insurance companies disallow doctors from ordering reimbursable preventive stroke screening. The good news is that preventive screening is available at very low cost. Doctors often ask their patients to invest $139-$200 to get screened by a preventive screening company which uses portable ultrasound units to measure stroke risk. Then, after getting their results back, the patient and the doctor can sit down and review their risk together. The key is to visit a reputable screening company that provides images back to you, in a week or less. Often time is of the essence in stroke risk testing.

If you believe you are at high risk for stroke, or if you would just rest easier knowing that you do not face high-risk conditions such as carotid artery disease, schedule a non-invasive, inexpensive and convenient ultrasound screening in your area.