What is a stroke?

Well stroke is primarily a process that has to do with problems in the brain or spinal cord that arise from blood vessel issues, and specifically loss of blood flow to part of the brain or spinal cord. And that can happen in two fundamentally different ways. The first is that a blood clot can form in the blood vessel that plugs it off so that flow doesn't happen and therefore the part of the brain or spinal cord where the blood was going to go doesn't get blood and it starts not functioning properly. And if this goes on for more than minutes to hours, you can end up getting permanent damage to the tissue. The other form of stroke involves a blood vessel that breaks and bleeds. That blood creates a pool in the brain, and that can cause damage. Plus that blood was destined to go to some part of the brain, and it's obviously not going there if it's leaking out.