Hailey Bieber Was Hospitalized for ‘Stroke-Like Symptoms’ and Revealed Her Story on IG
Hailey Bieber is back home after being hospitalized with "stroke-like symptoms."
The 25-year-old shared in her Instagram stories on Saturday that she was taken to the hospital after developing the symptoms while having breakfast with her husband, Justin Bieber. “They found I had suffered a very small blood clot to my brain, which caused a small lack of oxygen, but my body had passed it on its own and I recovered completely within a few hours,” she wrote, per Today.
Bieber didn’t provide any more details, but her story has raised plenty of questions about health conditions that can cause stroke-like symptoms and what to do if this happens to you.
What are stroke-like symptoms, exactly?
A stroke happens when something blocks blood supply to part of the brain or when a blood vessel in the brain bursts, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). During a stroke, parts of the brain become damaged or die.
“A stroke or a transient ischemic attack is where the blood flow to the brain is not as robust as it should be,” explains Amit Sachdev, M.D., medical director in the department of neurology at Michigan State University. “When the blood flow doesn't work right, then the brain doesn't work right. Blood supports the brain by delivering to it the oxygen and nutrients that it needs. Without blood flow, the brain lacks the raw materials it needs to function.”
Stroke can cause symptoms that come on quickly. Those include, per the CDC:
Sudden numbness or weakness in the face, arm, or leg, especially on one side of the body
Sudden confusion, trouble speaking, or difficulty understanding speech
Sudden trouble seeing in one or both eyes
Sudden trouble walking, dizziness, loss of balance, or lack of coordination
Sudden severe headache with no known cause
Doctors will often use the term “stroke-like symptoms” because “diagnosing a stroke is a little bit challenging,” says Justin Singer, M.D., director of vascular neurosurgery at Spectrum Health. Not only could someone actually have a stroke, “there are lots of things that can mimic a stroke,” Dr. Singer says. And, if you have these symptoms, “you need to be evaluated.”
What conditions can cause stroke-like symptoms?
“These conditions cause focal dysfunction of the brain or nerves through infectious or metabolic or inflammatory processes that could lead to stroke-like symptoms,” says Deepak Gulati, M.D., a neurologist who specializes in treating stroke patients at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center’s Comprehensive Stroke Center.
While stroke-like symptoms can be a sign of a stroke, it’s not always the case—there are several other health conditions that can cause similar symptoms. “When these things happen, then there can be loss of function,” Dr. Sachdev says. “There can also be unwanted events or excessive function.” Here’s a breakdown of conditions that can cause stroke-like symptoms.
Seizures
A seizure is a sudden, uncontrolled electrical disturbance in the brain, according to the Mayo Clinic. It can cause changes in the way you behave, move, or feel. “When this happens, the brain first has unwanted activity and then shuts down and resets,” Dr. Sachdev says. “The reset is loss of function. This period of loss can look like a stroke.”
Symptoms of seizures usually include the following, per the Mayo Clinic:
Temporary confusion
A staring spell
Uncontrollable jerking movements of the arms and legs
Loss of consciousness or awareness
Cognitive or emotional symptoms, such as fear, anxiety, or deja vu
High or low blood sugar
High blood sugar (aka hyperglycemia) and low blood sugar (hypoglycemia) happens when the levels of glucose—sugar—are off in your body. “The brain runs on sugar,” Dr. Sachdev says. “Too much or too little leads the brain to misfire.”
Having low blood sugar can give someone symptoms of a blood flow issue, Dr. Sachdev says, including signs like an irregular heartbeat, fatigue, pale skin, shakiness, anxiety, sweating, and irritability. Too high blood sugar, which can often be a complication of uncontrolled diabetes “looks like someone who can be awake but not coherent,” Dr. Sachdev says. Other symptoms of hyperglycemia can include headaches, urinating often, and having blurred vision, according to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK).
Migraine
A migraine is a recurring headache that can cause moderate to severe pain that’s usually on one side of your head, according to Medline Plus. Migraines may have four different phases, including a prodome, aura, headache, and postdrome, and symptoms can vary with each. However, migraines can lead to symptoms like:
Seeing an aura (flashing or bright lights or zig-zag lines)
Increased sensitivity to light, noise, and smells
Nausea and vomiting
Worse pain when you cough, move, or sneeze
Feeling exhausted, weak, or confused
While headache is a “less common feature of stroke,” auras can also cause a facial droop that can be mistaken for a stroke, Dr. Sachdev says.
Bell's palsy
Bell’s palsy, aka idiopathic facial palsy, is a type of temporary facial paralysis or weakness on one side of the face, according to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). Symptoms can vary from person to person and range in severity from a mild weakness to total paralysis of the facial muscles. But they can include mouth drooping, drooling, trouble closing the eye, and excessive tearing in one eye. People might also have facial pain, an altered sense of taste, and trouble tolerating loud noises, the NINDS says.
Bell’s palsy tends to involve the forehead more than stroke, Dr. Sachdev says, any loss of function is just in the face and not the whole body like it can be with a stroke.
Brain tumor
A brain tumor is a growth of abnormal cells in the tissues of the brain, Medline Plus explains. It can be benign—meaning, not cancerous—or malignant, i.e. cancerous.
“A brain tumor can definitely cause stroke-like symptoms,” Dr. Singer says. “They may cause a seizure, which can create weakness.” Brain tumors can also create specific symptoms depending on where they’re located, including interfering with your ability to speak or move, he says.
Multiple sclerosis
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a nervous system disease that impacts your brain and spinal cord, Medline Plus says. It specifically damages the myelin sheath, which surrounds and protects your nerve cells. As a result, it blocks messages between your brain and your body. Symptoms can include:
Visual disturbances
Muscle weakness
Trouble with coordination and balance
Sensations such as numbness, prickling, or pins and needles
Thinking and memory problems
“These events looks like strokes and should be treated as such,” Dr. Sachdev says. “Often, the only way to tell the difference is to take pictures of the brain.”
Certain infections
Some infections, like sepsis, can flood your system and lead to stroke-like symptoms, Dr. Singer says. “Anything that can cause your system to be overwhelmed can cause symptoms of a stroke,” he says. But, he adds, “it can be very hard in the acute moment to know what’s going on.”
Dr. Sachdev agrees. “Infections can cause the body to be run down,” he says. “When the body runs down, so too does the brain.” He says speech, alertness, and movement speed can all be impacted.
What to do if you develop stroke-like symptoms
If you develop symptoms of a stroke, you need to seek care immediately, Dr. Singer says. “You don’t go to your general practitioner—you go directly to the emergency room or call 911,” he says. “Time is critical for addressing brain problems like stroke. If you present to us too late, the brain may be irreversibly damaged.”
“We've gotten a lot better with diagnosing strokes,” says Adi Iyer, M.D., a neurosurgeon for Pacific Neuroscience Institute at Providence Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, Calif. If patients are showing symptoms, they’ll usually be given a CT scan of the brain, he explains. “We can look to see if there's an area of the brain that's not getting oxygen and, if that's the case, we have clot-busting medications as well as going in physically with little catheters and pulling the clot out.”
Dr. Iyer stresses that “any neurological symptom mimicking a stroke is a medical emergency and should be taken seriously.”
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