Stroke symptoms women should look out for

The University of Cincinnati helped pioneer the "FAST" acronym to identify symptoms of stroke, but symptoms of stroke can sometimes present themselves differently in women.

"Women more frequently have atypical, vague symptoms," Pooja Khatri, MD, professor, vice chair of research and division chief in the Department of Neurology and Rehabilitation Medicine at UC's College of Medicine and associate director of the UC Gardner Neuroscience Institute, told MSN and Huffington Post UK. "[Symptoms] might start with fatigue, confusion or maybe general weakness, as opposed to weakness on one side of the body.”

Khatri said sometimes these stroke symptoms can be so "subtle" that women brush them off, but unusually bad headaches, exhaustion, brain fog, nausea, difficulty walking and anything that comes on very suddenly should sound alarms. She recommended to take "any sudden symptom or loss in function that you can’t explain” seriously.

“The key is that it’s sudden,” she added.

Read the MSN article, originally published on Huffington Post UK.

Featured photo at top of brain scans. Photo courtesy of Joseph Broderick.