STROKE is usually an age-related disease. Unfortunate, but true, a reflection of the many things that start going wrong as the numbers add up in the column of life marked “age”. Otherwise called a brain attack, strokes are often devastating and leave the victim with considerable disability and handicap.
It is perhaps the third most common cause of death in Malaysia. However, it is the leading cause of disability in most countries. The economic burden of stroke is large. In the United States, the cost of stroke is US$2bil (RM7.6bil) per year. In that country alone, there are 500,000 new strokes per year.