The common triggering point is due to high blood pressure and the cause of high blood pressure is due to stress. There are various form of stress: • Work stress • Financial stress • Family-related stress • Medical-related stress Different form of stress will result in an increase in blood flow to the brain resulting in a increase pressure within. As the blood vessel in the brain are relatively small, they cannot withstand too high of a pressure. A constant high pressure within the head will cause rupturing of blood vessel, resulting in stroke

Yes! During this period, administering various treatment such as acupuncture, physiotherapy and occupational therapy will result in more significant improvement for the patient. However, it is not true that those patients post 6 months do not have any hope for recovery. There are cases where patients that are 2-3 years into stroke but still experienced an improvement of 20-30% in terms of mobility and overall status.

The recovery of a stroke patient is fairly dependent on a few factors: 1. Severity of the stroke 2. Age of the patient 3. Body condition of the patient Severity of the stroke: 1. how long does the patient took to reach the hospital for immediate treatment?? 2. Location of the blood vessel rupturing or blood clot. Duration for the patient to receive immediate treatment, the longer the timing will result in more damage done to the injured area. Which part of the brain being damaged will have an impact on the recovery. If the stroke happens at the cortex of the brain, condition is less severe as compared to a stroke happening in the core of the brain where there are more nerves. Age of the patient: With a younger age, the blood circulatory and immune system is better than one who is of an older age thus recovery is likely better for one who is younger Body condition of the patient: A patient who only have stroke condition as compared to a patient who have stroke coupled with other possible conditions like: spinal issue, hyperlipidemia, high cholesterol etc, will definitely have a better and faster recovery to one with lesser secondary conditions. This is because the body have "lesser problems" to deal with.

Acupuncture have 2 areas of focus for stroke patient. 1. Meridian targeting: In the study of TCM, the human body is being enveloped by 14 meridian lines: 12 primary lines and 2 secondary lines. During the initial diagnosis, TCM physician will determine which meridian lines is affected during the onset of stroke. Through acupuncturing, we will adjust the respective meridians by targeting certain points within the meridian. 1. Muscle stimulation: Through the understanding of human anatomy, we will use acupuncture to stimulate certain muscle/nerves to assist in the recovery of the patient, This varies with patient depending on which muscles are affected.