Prime Time Living 9.24.25 - Flipbook - Page 26
26
A Special Advertising Section of Baltimore Sun Media Group | Wednesday, September 24, 2025
TIAs
Continued from page 10
risk factors you should discuss with your
provider. Limit your alcohol consumption
and quit smoking. You may also want to
get screened for AFib – atrial fibrillation
– the most common type of abnormal
heartbeat.
In addition to those Dr. Zhang spoke of,
other modifiable risks are obesity, high fat
diet, stress, an embolism, usually in the
carotid artery, and plaques which lead to
impaired blood flow in the brain.
The Cleveland Clinic describes an
embolism as “a blockage in a blood vessel caused by a clot or other substance
that travels from elsewhere in the body.
Some blood vessels may be more likely
to have a blockage just because their size
and shape make it easier for things to
get stuck. A blockage may be more likely
to happen when blood vessels become
smaller, like where one artery branches
off another one, or where plaque buildup
(atherosclerosis) makes an artery narrow.
Emboli can happen in your brain, lungs,
kidneys or spleen, to name a few locations.”
The only real treatment is preventing a
future stroke. Consider a TIA as an alert
that you should take seriously. Some
people need treatment or medications to
improve blood flow and lower the risk of a
stroke, plus there are statins to lower your
cholesterol. Should you have a TIA, use it
as the early warning sign it is and discuss
your stroke risk with your physician.
The same but not…
Sometimes people think they had a
TIA, but it was really a stroke, as with
these two vignettes.
Chris Alexander’s father had three
TIAs, so she was aware of the family history and the possibility of having one herself. She leads an active, healthy life. She
runs, eats well, and takes care of herself.
Then she had a small stroke caused by a
meningioma and it was removed.
Meningiomas are the most common
type of primary brain tumor, accounting for approximately 30 percent of all
brain tumors. They grow slowly and
may exist for years before being detected. Sometimes doctors will discover a
meningioma incidentally on a magnetic
resonance imaging (MRI) scan of the
head or spinal cord, according to Johns
Hopkins Medicine.
Then, while Alexander was on vacation
in the Bahamas this past March, her hand
started tingling. The next day, her foot
and leg felt weird, and by the third day,
her face was tingly. She was afraid the
tumor had returned. The minute she got
home, she went to the hospital. Today,
she still suffers from minor symptoms, so
she sees her neurologist and cardiologist
regularly. Unlike TIAs, meningiomas are
more common in women than in men.
Marla thought she was having a prob-
Connection • Community • Columbia
Independent Living
Assisted Living
Memory Support
Comprehensive Nursing
&Community
Connections
Age-Well in a community that empowers
you to live life on your own terms.
CALL NOW TO LEARN MORE
410-992-1241 vantagepointresidences.org
Managed by
Life Care
Services®
lem with her vision, so she went to her
ophthalmologist. He took one look and
said, “No, you had a stroke,” and immediately called an ambulance and sent her
to the Emergency Department. After three
days and a battery of tests, she went
home. She, too, had a family history of
TIAs through her mother and her uncle.
Approximately 245,000 Americans
have a TIA each year and just under
800,000 have a stroke. A fourth of those
strokes are in people who have had one
previously.
Strokes and TIAs are similar. It makes
sense to know the signs of a stroke, a
heart attack, and a TIA, especially if you
have a family history. These can all be
life-threatening occurrences. Should a
TIA occur, treat it as a medical emergency
and get assessed for your risk of a stroke.
After all, it’s your life.
