Schedule your health screening today for blocked carotid arteries, the leading cause of strokes. Our painless, ultrasound screening with same-day results can help with early detection and prevention.

What are the Carotid Arteries?

Your carotid arteries are located on each side of your neck (right below your jaw line). These arteries are responsible for supplying oxygenated blood to the front part of your brain. This part of your brain is responsible for thinking, speech, your personality, and sensory and motor functions. This is why stroke victims often have to work to rehabiliate those funtions.

What is a Stroke? How Does it Happen?

Over time, fatty substances and cholesterol build up on the insides of your arteries. Your arteries become more narrow, decreasing the blood flow to your brain. Interuption in blood supply to the brain, causes temporary or permament loss of movement, thought, memory, speech, or sensation. There are 4 ways to suffer a stroke from this buildup:

1. artery is too narrow to supply blood to the brain

2. the artery ruptures and leaks blood into surrounding area

3. a piece of plaque breaks off and travels to the brain

4. a blood clot forms and blocks other blood vessels in the brain

• Diabetes

• Over 40

• Family history of strokes

• TIAs- Minor stroke

• High blood pressure

• Tobacco, alcohol, and drug abuse

• High cholesterol

• Obesity/overweight

• Inactive lifestyle

• Atrial Fibrillation (irregular heartbeat)

• Unhealthy diet

• Cardiac disease

• Age

• Gender

• Race

• Oral contraceptives (with co-existing conditions)

• Sudden weakness or numbness of the face, arms or legs, particularly on one side of the body

• Loss of speech or trouble understanding speech

• Sudden unexplained memory loss

• Sudden loss of vision in one or both eyes

• Double vision

• Sudden severe headache or pain, with no known cause

• Dizziness or loss of balance