The association encourages African Americans to sign a
pledge to make a commitment to reduce their stroke risk. Once signing
the stroke pledge, they may become Power To End Stroke ambassadors who
help spread the messages about stroke.Power To
End Stroke tools include brochures, a risk assessment quiz, Family
Reunion Toolkit, Power Sunday Church Toolkit and Healthy Soul Food
Recipes cookbook.
The Family Reunion Toolkit helps spread stroke
awareness to family members, while the Power Sunday Church Toolkit
focuses more on members of the community. The 46 Healthy Soul Food
Recipes Cookbook contains healthy variations to traditional soul
food recipes.
“African Americans are at a particularly higher risk
for stroke because of their increased risk for hypertension, high
cholesterol and diabetes,” said Emil Matarese, M.D., clinical
neurologist at St. Mary’s Medical Center in Langhorne, Pa.
and Power To End Stroke spokesperson.
“Through the Power To End Stroke campaign, we are
teaching people how to reduce these and other stroke risks. We are also
teaching our population how to recognize five simple signs of stroke and
to understand that getting to the hospital immediately can potentially
reduce the pain, suffering and disability from stroke.” The five simple
signs of stroke are:
- Sudden numbness or weakness of the face, arm or
leg, especially on one side of the body.
- Sudden confusion, trouble speaking or
understanding.
- Sudden trouble seeing in one or both eyes.
- Sudden trouble walking, dizziness, loss of
balance or coordination.
- Sudden, severe headache with no known cause.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s message of freedom was
reiterated through the words of his daughter, the late Yolanda King: “We
will only be truly free when we reach down to the inner depths of our
own being and sign with the pen and ink of assertive selfhood, our own
emancipation proclamation. No civil rights, no voting rights, no equal
rights, no immigration rights are worth fighting for if we are dying
from heart disease and stroke,” she said while serving as a Power To End
Stroke ambassador shortly after her mother, the late Coretta Scott King,
suffered a stroke.
Call the American Stroke Association at 1-888-4-STROKE
or visit www.strokeassociation.org/power to:
- Take the stroke pledge to begin the journey to
reduce stroke risk.
- Receive free information about African Americans
and stroke.
- Find out how to reduce stroke in the community
through the Power To End Stroke campaign.
Bristol-Myers Squibb/Sanofi Pharmaceuticals
Partnership is the national sponsor of Power To End Stroke.
About the American Stroke Association
The goal of the American
Stroke Association, a division of the American Heart
Association, is to reduce disability and death from stroke through
research, education and advocacy. In its 2005-06 fiscal year, the
association invested nearly $157 million to fight stroke.
