A recent study has many smokers in and around the St. Petersburg area wondering just how much they are willing to risk for the next puff on a cigarette. It has long been known that those who partake in heavy drinking, who fail to maintain a healthy physique, and those who light up regularly are at an increased risk of stroke.
However, many believe that they have gotten off easily when a stroke is deemed minor and they are released from the hospital. The truth, scientists are now saying, is that even the most minor stroke can cause permanent changes to cognitive function.
In tests on rats, it was discovered that blocking a single, tiny blood vessel was enough to cause notable differences in behavior. The outcome, a week after the manufactured stroke, was damage to an area of brain tissue comparable to what would be caused by dementia. In order to demonstrate the impact that the minor area of tissue damage could have, scientists clipped the whiskers of the rat, except one.
Each whisker having a tie to a particular area of the brain, just one remaining meant that the researchers were dealing with only a tiny spot of tissue. Causing a stroke in that area resulted in the aforementioned damage. A rat that would normally hop from one platform to another, judging the distance with the whisker, was no longer willing to make the jump – the whisker was useless.
Saint Petersburg sees too many stroke patients each year. Though the stroke might be ruled a minor occurrence, the damage that is done will be permanent and may be more significant than you realize. Are you willing to face lasting brain damage so you can continue to smoke?
If you believe your stroke was the result of a company’s negligence, speak to a personal injury attorney as soon as possible.