Somewhere in your bloodstream, a clot loosens. It travels to your brain and blocks one of the blood vessels there, depriving the surrounding neurons of oxygen and glucose. Your face suddenly drops on one side, one of your arms weakens and your speech becomes slurred. You are having a stroke. The hourglass turns - your time is running out. Neurologists have a saying: 'time is brain'. The brain guzzles so much energy, and is so dependent on oxygen and glucose, that it is extremely vulnerable to any shortfall in these substances. For every minute a stroke goes untreated, a patient loses 1.9 million neurons and 14 billion nerve-cell junctions, known as synapses. For every hour without treatment, the brain effectively ages by 3.6 years.
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