Yvette Walker
With KVCR News, I'm Yvette Walker. This is IE Latino Voices, where we invite representatives from Latino led and Latino serving organizations to share their stories and their impact in our region. Joining me today is Dr Sophia Janjua, Neurologist with Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center. Thank you so much for being with us today, Dr Janjua.
Dr. Sophia Janjua
Thank you so much for having me. It's my pleasure to be here.
Yvette Walker
Dr Janjua, please share what it is you do as a neurologist and your area of specialty.
Dr. Sophia Janjua
I am an interventional neurologist. That specialty has to do with catheter-based procedures to treat various conditions that are involving the blood vessels of the brain. So for instance, a person who suffers a stroke because one of the major blood vessels is blocked, may require a procedure, which is an angiographic or an x ray of the blood vessels based procedure where we will go through that blood vessel from the leg, typically, sometimes from the arm all the way up to where the blockage in the brain is, and we have special devices to remove the blockage. Other procedures that we do involve aneurysms, so somebody might have a blister on a blood vessel which may rupture or has ruptured, and we have to occlude that. And again, we can do that through this minimally invasive type of technology to prevent it from bursting again.
Yvette Walker
Are there factors that impact the Latino community to suffer stroke, such as genetics or environmental factors?
Dr. Sophia Janjua
What I have seen in my career as a stroke neurologist in the Latino community is a very alarming trend of the effect of diabetes on stroke. Now, of course, that is a rampant disease in the United States and worldwide, and many people suffer from it, but peculiarly among the Latino community is a very aggressive form of diabetes that really makes the blood vessels in the brain shut down. Now, as a corollary, there is a disease that's actually more common among East Asians and Japanese people called Moyamoya, and that is a term that means puff of smoke, and that typically the definition of that condition, in its essential or idiopathic sense, is just that it's idiopathic. There's no known cause for it. What we're seeing alarmingly among the Latino community is what we call secondary Moya. So they are developing those Moyamoya like changes of the brain blood vessels, where the blood vessels gradually thin down until they completely disappear. And 99.9% of the time it's because they have underlying very brittle diabetes, and I'm talking about diabetes with a very young onset in somebody's early adult life.
Yvette Walker
Dr Janjua, what is FAST and why is it so important?
Dr. Sophia Janjua
So FAST is an acronym that we try to spread to the community to increase community awareness about the warning signs of stroke. Stroke is something like all neurological diseases that's occurring in your brain. It's not a rash that you can see on the outside of your body. When it comes on, it's sudden and there's no warning. So it's really important for the bystanders to be aware. And the acronym FAST that you mentioned stands for face, arm, speech, and time. So the essence of it is that if somebody has drooping of the face, if their arm is weak, it could be also the leg, but arm lends itself to the acronym. If their speech is affected, these might be signs of a stroke. And the T is for time, because you have to act quickly. And what we want to impress upon people is, if you're suspecting that your loved one or you are witnessing a stroke, don't call your family doctor. Don't call your next, most dearest relative for their advice. The only number you need to know after that is 911.
Yvette Walker
What can we do to minimize our risk of stroke?
Dr. Sophia Janjua
Diabetes is something that we really need to get a better handle on, and it starts certainly with diet. I think that we are a society that has a lot of processed foods, and we need to emphasize more raw, fresh foods and vegetables, what we call a Mediterranean diet, so increased servings of those types of foods. We have to consider that we are what we eat, so everything we're putting in our body is going to have some effect on us. And so that's the number one thing that we can do to control other risk factors. Might be things like smoking. So of course, any amount of smoking is a risk for both what we call ischemic stroke and hemorrhagic stroke, and there's not any amount of cigarette that's ever going to be good for somebody. Getting exercise is also good. Because not only does it help to improve your cardiac function, in the long run, lower your blood pressure, your resting heart rate, it will also among diabetic patients, it will increase their endogenous or their internally producing insulin, which will help to combat the diabetes. So these are some of the important things.
Yvette Walker
How can the community reach out to you?
Dr. Sophia Janjua
Pomona Valley has a stroke support group that would be one way to reach out, and you can just go to the hospital medical website online and look for the stroke support group. And I am a member of our stroke team, and my information is there. My practice is in the city of Pomona, and I work with the neurology group that also services other hospitals in our Inland Empire community, and I'm happy to answer anybody's questions.
Yvette Walker
Thank you so much for being with us today, Dr Janjua.
Dr. Sophia Janjua
Thank you so much for having me.
Yvette Walker
Join us again next week for IE Latino Voices. You can find this story and others on our website at kvcrnews.org/IELatinoVoices. IE Latino Voices is produced by KVCR Public Media and is funded by generous support from San Antonio Regional Hospital, here for life. For KVCR News, I'm Yvette Walker.
