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February 16th, 2010
10:00 AM ET
Dr. Gupta: Preventing a second stroke
Nearly 800,000 Americans will have a stroke this year. And of those, 1 in 12 will have another stroke soon after.
So how do you protect yourself? We paged our Dr. Sanjay Gupta for some answers. He joined us on Tuesday's American Morning.
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Hi Dr.
I was wondering ...why don't doctors tel you about the "non-typical" signs and symptoms of stroke and heart attack in women?
My mom had a stroke and she didn't display any of the "normal" symptoms of either a stroke nor a heart attack. She had a mini-stroke the day before and was talking "baby-talk" ..a half an hour later- she didn't remember doing so...the next day – she just "didn't feel right" and had "flu -like symptoms" ...that night she went into a coma and died three days later.
Most of the women I know who have experienced a stroke or heart attack have not been taken seriously be their ER docs and primary care docs and they were sent home with the flu...only to either have a full blown stroke or die hours later. I thik women do not have the typical symptoms and just feel "yucky"...and when they relay this info to the docs- they are not treated in the same manner that the men are, and they end up suffering 10 times more.
Could you please make it a priority to tell women all the signs and symptoms of a stroke or heart attack, as most women are on the pill, and many many women experience strokes because of birth control pills.
PS I know that there is a direct correlation between heart problems and migraines....could you look further into that research and let the women know about that condition?
Thanks-
Calie