Stroke is a disease that occurs when a blood vessel in the brain becomes “blocked” or “ruptured”, causing ischemia in some tissues of the brain. More than 80% of strokes are caused by thrombosis or embolism in the arteries, resulting in blockage of the distal blood vessels, and the lack of oxygen and blood supply to the brain tissue, resulting in edema and necrosis. As long as you are good at catching the early signals, it is not difficult to prevent the problem before it happens. Medical research proves that the use of thrombolytic drugs to unblock blood flow and restore blood supply to the ischemic brain tissue within 3-6 hours after the onset of stroke is the key to saving the lives of acute stroke patients and ensuring the recovery of neurological functions after the disease. However, in practice, less than 4% of patients receive thrombolytic therapy; the vast majority of patients are admitted to hospital n hours after the onset of stroke. If you do not know the early symptoms of stroke, once the onset of stroke awaits you, you may be disabled or even lose your precious life. Therefore, it is very important to know the early symptoms of stroke early. The common early symptoms of stroke are as follows: (1) Sudden numbness and weakness of the limbs or face, especially when these symptoms are limited to one side of the body. (2) Sudden impairment of consciousness, aphasia, or disorientation. (3) Sudden difficulty in movement, dizziness, or loss of overall balance. (4) Sudden visual impairment of one or both eyes. (5) Sudden headache with no apparent cause. Whenever one or a group of these symptoms occurs, one should be alert to the fact that the problem may be in the brain. The human brain cells themselves have no energy reserves and need to consume glucose and oxygen from the circulating blood at every moment. Once the blood vessels supplying the brain become blocked, the local brain area receiving blood from the corresponding vessels stops functioning like a machine with a power failure, which means that the neurological function of this part of the brain will be impaired. At this point, if the patient is awake, he or she will feel as if part of the body no longer belongs to him or her and is no longer at his or her disposal. The goal of knowing the early symptoms of stroke is also to seek early medical attention. Patients who have one of these symptoms should see a doctor as soon as possible. The symptoms of stroke are determined by many factors, such as the location of the ischemia, the degree of ischemia, the duration of ischemia, the nature of the ischemia, and whether it is combined with edema and involves distal non-ischemic areas. These factors vary, and the patient’s symptoms vary. The site of localized ischemia in the brain is determined by the blocked or ruptured vessel, and the early symptoms vary depending on the blocked or ruptured vessel. (1) If the middle cerebral artery is blocked, the patient will feel difficulty in pronunciation and speech, reduced ability to read and write, loss of visual area, and numbness on one side (often on the same side as the ischemic brain area), and numbness in the face and arm is more pronounced than in the legs. (2) In the case of internal carotid artery obstruction, patients often have headache, along with numbness, paralysis, weakness, blurred vision, impaired consciousness or aphasia on one side of the limb. (3) In case of anterior cerebral artery blockage, patients may experience blurred consciousness, ipsilateral upper limb weakness and numbness, contralateral lower limb paralysis, urinary and fecal incontinence, inability to maintain body balance, motor and sensory function deficits, and indifferent and apathetic expression. (4) In the case of basilar artery blockage, the patient will have peripheral lip numbness with headache, weakness of one limb, visual impairment, color blindness, aphasia, and memory loss. (5) In case of posterior cerebral artery blockage, patients usually do not develop paralysis, but visual disturbance, sensory numbness, coma, and also blindness.