National Stroke Awareness Month is here to improve public knowledge with the hope of preventing stroke or responding quickly enough to help with quick recovery. National Stroke Awareness Month is an important time to get involved with different activities and plans that can help improve public awareness and education, including some of these:

Learn Stroke Signs and Symptoms

One of the most important ways to participate in National Stroke Awareness Month is the process of educating individuals about the ways to spot the possibility of a stroke in a family member, coworker or friend. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), there are a number of different signs that a person may be having a stroke, including these: 

• Sudden numbness or weakness on one side of the face, arm or leg
• Sudden difficulty seeing, in one or both eyes, possibly accompanied by headache
• Sudden confusion that might include trouble speaking or difficulty understanding speech
• Sudden difficulty with walking including loss of balance, dizziness or loss of coordination

To help people remember the signs and symptoms, people can use the acronym F.A.S.T., which stands for Face (drooping), Arm (weakness), Speech (slurred), Time. In this case, the Time represents the idea of calling 999 immediately if any of these signs are observed.