Brain Anatomy, Development, and Plasticity

Strokes are very interesting, I’ve never thought of them being a big problem until recently, where everyone I know even if by connection has had, or knows someone that has a had a stroke. There are two types of strokes the most common one being Ischemia, which is caused by a blood clot or any other form of barrier in an artery. The second and less common form is Hemorrhage, which is caused by a ruptured artery, much different than the Ischemia, and how it is handled. There are warning signs to recognize if someone has had a stroke, those signs are not hard to check according to this article.

The most interesting part I found about strokes is that much of the brains mechanisms can be saved via cautionary management. E.g. if someone has had a stroke you want to keep their core temperature low, it seems that cooling of the body keeps it from rapidly declining in harmful processes. Another thing that can be used is marijuana, but it’s shown to be more effective if taken before the stroke. Marijuana decreases the release of glutamate in the brain, and an overflow of glutamate causes cell loss, marijuana also releases anti-inflammatory chemicals that might help with swelling from everything going on, but like any other drug it has to be taken within a few hours of the stroke the sooner the better. There are other traditional medicines that can help with strokes, e.g. tissue plasminogen activator (tPA), this medication dissolves blood clots, so it would work with an Ischemia stroke while it might make Hemorrhaging worse, but not extensively. Another big help for recovering from a stroke is to start exercising what was damaged as soon a possible; it is kind of like rehabilitation for the brain. I hope you all find this as interesting and helpful as I did. Here is a video on how a stroke damages the brain.