Age a big misconception about stroke
From Mayo Clinic News Network
While strokes happen more often to the elderly, people of any age can have a stroke.
It’s National Stroke Awareness Month and one of the biggest misconceptions about stroke is that it only happens to the elderly. While age is one of the risk factors and your chance for a stroke increases with age, anyone can have a stroke.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Every 40 seconds, someone in the United States has a stroke. A stroke, sometimes called a brain attack, occurs when a blockage stops the flow of blood to the brain or when a blood vessel in or around the brain bursts. Although many people think of stroke as a condition that affects only older adults, strokes can and do occur in people of all ages. In fact, nearly a quarter of all strokes occur in people younger than age 65. Each year, almost 800,000 strokes occur in the United States.