If you know someone who is at risk for a stroke you will want to make sure that you understand exactly what a stroke is.

It is very important that you recognize all of the warning signs of a stroke.

You will see that many of the symptoms will occur quickly so you will want to call 999 in the UK [or 911 if you're US based] or get your loved one to the hospital as quickly as possible. Even thought some of the people who have the symptoms are not just having a stroke. It is important to recognize all of the symptoms, but you should also try to act quickly so that you can minimize the damage.

Symptoms of a stroke
1. You will want to get immediate attention if there is a sudden numbness in the face, arm and leg. It can occur on both sides of the body or it may just be one side. It all depends what affects the brain. There are times when the body is only affected on one side of the body.

2. You will also notice that the person will struggle with their speech and may have difficulty understanding others.

3. Also, you will see things like confusion, dizziness, tiredness, and loss of coordination as a sign too.

You will want to get emergency care immediately so that your friend can have a better chance of getting through without damage.

That’s what it is very important that you take the time to write down all valuable information and leave it next to a phone.

Make sure you have all the numbers that you could possibly ever need to help you for emergency problems.

You may also want to carry a cell phone with the same information in your pocket, purse, or wallet for any occasion that you might be out and need to get emergency help.

Every stroke will and should be treated as an emergency. It is very important you think about getting help as if you new someone was taking a heart attack.

You will also find that timing is very important. Early treatment can help you save your friend’s life.

You will want to make sure that get treated within three hours of showing signs. You will be given medications to dissolve blood clots and you will also find that your doctor or the hospital will try to do all that they can to minimize the damage.

Time for recovery
After a stroke you will need to give the person some time for rehabilitation. They may need to take several months off and lean the basics all over again. Most people are unable to do things like walking, talking, or even associating with those that they love. Sometimes it is best that you spend as much time with a person who has had a stroke so that they know that they loved and make a good recovery.

The news
Scientists have grown a piece of heart muscle — and then watched it beat — by using stem cells from a mouse embryo.
This is a big step toward repairing damage from heart attacks .
Dr. Kenneth Chien and his team from the Harvard and Massachusetts General Hospital researchers said “We’re making a heart part and (eventually) we’re going to put the part in”.
Lots of work remains before trying that experiment in people but regenerating damaged heart muscle is a holy grail in cardiac care.

Why is this important?
Doctors today have lots of treatments to prevent a heart attack. But once it strikes, there’s no way to restore the heart muscle it kills. Gradually the weakened heart quits pumping properly, leading to deadly heart failure .
Hence the focus on embryonic stem cells, master cells that can give rise to any tissue in the body. Until now, scientists haven’t known how to turn master cells into producing pure cardiac muscle .

Previous attempts were a failure
Up to now, researchers have tried injecting heart attack survivors with mixes of different kinds of stem cells, next-generation types like those found in bone marrow. The idea was that perhaps once those cells were inside a damaged heart, ones capable of growing cardiac muscle would receive a “get to work” signal and take root. But that was not successful.
The new research , published in Friday’s edition of the journal Science, is a more targeted approach.

How did they do it
The team genetically engineered mice so that certain cells in the embryos’ developing hearts would light either fluorescent red or green. As they watched the embryos grow, an overlapping of colors signaled developing heart muscle. When the team plucked out those cells, they were pure ventricle generators, which is not enough.
Next the team cultivated the stem cells and a thin strip of mouse heart muscle grew on the top of the cell. What happened next is that the muscle started to beat by itself. The best thing about this is “This looks like the kind of work a normal heart tissue strip would do,” said Dr Chien “We went from embryonic stem cells to an organ.”

Is it portable to humans?
Yes because what the team has done is to use a mice stem cell that is present in both human and mouse embryos.

What’s next
This was not a fully developed piece of heart muscle but only a thin strip.
To be usable, it would have to be thicker, more three-dimensional, for more beating strength. It also needs a nourishing blood supply. So a next big challenge is pinpoint which one of those master heart stem cells can grow into blood vessels.

Opportunities
The experiment offers a possible new opportunity for cell therapy.
The team will now develop two approaches. Either they can try and develop cells outside of a body to a full heart and them implement that in a human body or they can try to inject the cells onto the heart once a muscle has developed and see if that helps.