Why does smog cause both cerebral ischemia and cerebral hemorrhage?
There are many causes of cerebral hemorrhage, the common ones are hypertensive cerebral hemorrhage, vascular malformation, ruptured aneurysm hemorrhage and so on. Similarly, smog can also cause cerebral hemorrhage, why? Let’s say that our brain is like a crop in the field. There are many blood vessels in the brain, which are filled with blood. If the blood vessels are clogged, the crops will lack water, the brain will lack blood, and the crops will gradually wither and turn yellow (cerebral ischemia), and if we don’t solve the problem of lack of water in time, the crops will slowly die (cerebral infarction), which is the reason why smog causes cerebral ischemia and cerebral infarction. If we do not think to solve the problem of lack of water for the crops and lack of blood for the brain as soon as possible, in time, the crops will die of drought and the brain will suffer a brain infarction. But our brain is very “smart”, the large blood vessels are blocked, he will automatically generate some “smoky blood vessels” (compensatory vascular growth). But these smoky blood vessels are not original after all, the wall is very thin, easy to rupture and bleed, once the rupture and bleeding, it will cause a “flood” in the brain, as well as drowning crops, affecting neurological function. So smoke disease can cause both cerebral ischemia (drought) and cerebral hemorrhage (flooding). Patients with cerebral hemorrhage from smog are mostly young adults in their 30s and 40s. Therefore, for unexplained cerebral hemorrhage in young adults, it is important to think whether it is caused by smog. Huang Qinghai, Department of Neurosurgery, Shanghai Changhai Hospital