A 56-year-old woman died of a sudden cerebral infarction. The doctor sighed: one thing after a meal, or the 'curse'

One night last week, an ambulance roared in and brought in an unconscious female patient. A group of people in the emergency room shouted, "Doctor, doctor, help her, she is unresponsive"

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The patient is 56-year-old Aunt Li, who has just retired for less than a year. Her son is working in other places, and she is at home after retirement. I have nothing to do at ordinary times, I feel that life is rather boring, and I don’t dance square dances.

Half a year ago, I started playing cards in the mahjong room of the community. I played cards until the early morning almost every day, and occasionally played cards all night. Because Aunt Li has suffered from high blood pressure for 5 years, her husband and son advised her to play less cards, especially not to stay up late, but with little effect. She thinks that she is taking antihypertensive drugs every day, and her blood pressure will not be high, so she "keeps playing cards" as always.

On the night of the onset, Aunt Li started a new round of poker games after dinner. After playing for 2 hours, she felt a little dizzy. The boss of the mahjong room gave her a glass of milk. She felt better, so she continued " fighting". Unexpectedly, because of the problem of "touching cards" at the poker table, Aunt Li was very angry and had an argument with a poker player, and soon she blushed and had a thick neck. During the quarrel, she felt dizzy and fell to the ground with black eyes. Seeing this, the poker player quickly dialed 120 to call an ambulance and take her to the hospital.

When the patient arrived at the emergency room, he was unconscious, unresponsive, and had no movement in his limbs. The blood pressure was 180/105mmHg, and the heart rate was 104 beats/min. Immediately, a head CT was performed. After reading the film, the doctor diagnosed "acute massive cerebral infarction" and declared him critically ill.

massive cerebral infarction

It was only more than one hour since the patient became ill, and the doctor suggested intravenous thrombolysis, and the family members signed the agreement for thrombolysis. After thrombolytic therapy, the patient's condition did not improve significantly.

A re-examination of head CT 1 day later showed that the patient had cerebral herniation (a large area of ​​cerebral infarction is prone to exacerbation of this condition), shallow and slow breathing, and the breathing rate was also decreasing. Active dehydration, improved circulation, blood pressure reduction, oxygen inhalation and other treatments were given. On the third day of the onset, the patient finally suffered cardiac arrest and was declared dead.

Regarding the death of the patient, the doctor sighed: at this age, one should enjoy retirement life, how can one play poker every day.

Staying up late to play cards for a long time, anger and mood swings are the clear causes of cerebral infarction, and high blood pressure is a risk factor. The patient usually has high blood pressure, and usually does not pay attention to controlling it. Although he is taking medicine, he rarely measures his blood pressure, and it is not clear whether his blood pressure is controlled to the normal range. Moreover, playing cards for a long time and sitting for a long time will lead to poor blood circulation and slow down blood flow, which will easily form blood clots in the blood vessels. As a result, when she gets excited, her blood pressure soars and her heart rate speeds up, resulting in faster blood flow and impact on the walls of blood vessels. The force is significantly increased, causing the plaque or thrombus on the blood vessel wall to fall off, blocking the cerebral blood vessel and causing cerebral infarction.

Doctor's Advice: There are 5 signs in the body, which may indicate that a cerebral infarction is coming, please seek medical treatment as soon as possible

Symptom 1: Drooling

• Drooling is one of the common symptoms of cerebral infarction. It can occur during the day and night, and it is more obvious when sleeping at night. A lot of saliva can be found on the pillow and bed sheets the next day. The main manifestation is uncontrolled drooling, and it may even When awakened by choking, some people will also have crooked corners of the mouth and poor speech.
• This is because the cerebral blood supply is insufficient or blocked, which leads to the weakening of the control of the central nervous system of the brain to the activities of the throat muscles and tongue muscles, which makes the oral activities uncontrolled, so the situation of drooling occurs.
• Drooling may last for a few minutes or a few seconds, but it is easy to recur.

Sign two, yawning

• Generally, before the onset of cerebral infarction, risk factors such as high blood pressure, high blood fat, and staying up late often lead to insufficient blood supply to the brain, and the blood flow slows down, resulting in cerebral ischemia and hypoxia, and symptoms of continuous yawning and drowsiness will appear.
• Yawning is to supplement the oxygen needed by the brain through the expansion of the lungs, so yawning continues.

Symptom 3: Speech is vague

• Slurred speech and unclear speech are one of the typical symptoms of cerebral infarction. It is due to insufficient blood supply to the language center of the brain, which causes symptoms of neurological deficits. Loss of speech occurs.

Symptom 4: Numbness in hands and feet

• Numbness of hands and feet is also one of the more common symptoms of cerebral infarction patients. It is mainly manifested as numbness in one hand and foot, sometimes accompanied by numbness of the face, tongue, and lips. Most of this is caused by slowed blood flow and insufficient blood supply to the brain.

Symptom 5. Dizziness and headache

• Dizziness is a relatively common symptom in life, such as catching a cold, staying up late after being tired, fluctuating blood pressure, and elevated blood sugar may all cause dizziness.
• However, dizziness is also one of the symptoms of cerebral infarction. It is caused by the slowing down of blood flow, resulting in temporary insufficient blood supply to the brain, which may be accompanied by headache, blurred vision, tinnitus, etc. If you have high blood pressure and high blood fat, you should be more alert to cerebral infarction.

If you want to prevent cerebral infarction, please do three things well, maintain blood vessels, and prevent cerebral infarction!

1. Drink plenty of water

• When a person reaches middle age, the rate of water loss accelerates, which can easily lead to a slowdown in blood flow, which needs to be replenished in time.
• Water is the best thinner for blood. Drinking plenty of water can help the body eliminate toxins, promote blood circulation, and reduce atherosclerosis.
• Drinking more water can reduce weight. Studies have shown that water-induced thermogenesis may increase metabolic rate by 24~30%, which will burn more energy, reduce weight, and avoid chronic diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, and hyperlipidemia. Ultimately reduce the risk of cerebral infarction.
• The World Health Organization recommends that adults drink 8 glasses of water a day, about 2000ml is appropriate. Drinking water on an empty stomach in the morning is one of the best times to drink water.

Second, insist on exercising for half an hour every day

• Insist on exercising for half an hour every day. If you can’t reach it, you should exercise 5 days a week. Exercise can increase the speed of metabolism, promote blood circulation, speed up blood flow, reduce the chance of plaque and thrombosis in blood vessels, and thereby reduce cerebral infarction .
• Studies have shown that regular exercise can increase levels of HDL (good cholesterol) to counteract the atherosclerotic-promoting effects of LDL (bad cholesterol) and triglycerides.
• Exercise helps maintain a healthy weight. It is recommended to use the body mass index (BMI) as a reference to maintain a BMI<24. BMI=weight (kg)/height square (m2). For example: an adult weighs 65 kilograms (kg), height is 1.70 meters (m), BMI=65/(1.7*1.7)=22.5, which belongs to a healthy weight.
• It is recommended to focus on aerobic exercise, including jogging, brisk walking, swimming, cycling, and Tai Chi.

3. Adequate sleep

• A study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology followed 3,974 healthy adults for up to ten years. The results of the study showed that people who slept less than 6 hours per night had a 27% increased risk of atherosclerotic plaque formation than those who slept 7 to 9 hours per night.
• A Chinese study published in the journal Neurology in 2020 followed nearly 32,000 people with an average age of 62 for several years. The findings showed that those who slept >9 hours per night had a 23% higher risk of stroke than those who slept <8 hours per night.
• Doctor's advice: ensure 7-9 hours of sleep at night, half an hour of afternoon nap is appropriate, too much or too little sleep is not good.

Doctor's Note: Diet is also very important for the prevention of cerebral infarction. It is described in detail in my other article. You can go and read it, so I won't repeat it here.

epilogue

Although the mortality rate of cerebral infarction is not as high as that of myocardial infarction, the high degree of disability of cerebral infarction is even more terrifying. Many patients have said, "I am not afraid of death, but paralyzed, eating and drinking in bed."

In fact, you don’t have to worry too much, because research shows that 80% of cerebral infarctions can be prevented. Therefore, it is necessary to master the relevant knowledge about cerebral infarction. Actively control risk factors (three highs, heart disease, obesity, smoking and drinking, snoring, hyperhomocysteinemia), drink plenty of water, exercise more, eat more fruits and vegetables, ensure adequate sleep, emotional stability, regular physical examination, Rational use of drugs can greatly reduce the risk of cerebral infarction.