Black statistics about strokes in Macedonia, from which the younger population suffers more and more, that is, over 15% of this disease is "prescribed" to patients over 18 years old.

Unhealthy lifestyles, as well as post-covid complications, are among the reasons that lead to strokes, say doctors.

During the pandemic, more than 100.000 new stroke patients per 5.000 citizens were registered in just one year - a worrying number.

"Most of the strokes in the younger population we call strokes, where the cause of the stroke has not been discovered, they are called cryptogenic strokes. But here, most of those patients have a heart anomaly, which can be the cause of a stroke, and another category includes conditions related to the coagulation mechanism, as well as injuries to the blood vessels of the neck, trauma to the neck and of course the lifestyle, and here is the use of nicotine, alcohol and narcotics. Prevention is the most important, which includes and also means acting on the risk factors, so that a stroke does not occur. To treat the risk factors if a stroke occurs, such as hypertension, diabetes, overweight, physical inactivity. Secondary prevention is to find out the cause of the stroke, so that we can protect ourselves accordingly, so that it does not occur. In younger patients, we have an increase in strokes as a result of Covid-19, disruption of the coagulation system, and it is not only corona, any infection or viruses can be the causes that lead to a stroke. Any infection in the body can lead to the formation of a prothrombogenic condition in the body, whether it will go to the brain or the lungs, we cannot know, it is different for each patient," said neurologist Dr. Sanja Jambazova Zikova.

Health professionals believe that more education is needed, how to recognize strokes, as well as more comprehensive treatment of patients, so that they can return to everyday life.

"We advise a mental gymnastics, but it is a rehabilitation that must not end here. Of course, better social programs should be developed in order to have a more successful process for treating patients who have had a stroke and a number of other chronic diseases. Rehabilitation does not mean attending exercises only for 21 days to improve motor skills. This means that if we manage to return a patient who has had a stroke to some work tasks and to a normal social life, for that we need a complete rehabilitation process, says Dr. Danijela Samoilovska, University Professor.

Strokes can already be defined as a humanitarian disaster, health professionals say. Today in Tetovo, Samoilovska and Zikova participated in a health workshop on "Prevention and strokes".