About 250,000 people in the U.S. have a transient ischemic attack (TIA) every year, and around 20% of them go on to experience a full-blown stroke in the next 90 days.
That's why calling these "mini-strokes" isn't really accurate, though the TIA's temporary blockage of blood flow in the brain goes away by itself and doesn't cause permanent brain damage.
But even if a TIA doesn't lead to a stroke (right away), we now know it can cause other life-altering problems.
A study in the journal Neurology followed 364 people (average age 70) who had suffered a mini-stroke for one year. More than half of them complained of persistent fatigue that included physical tiredness, and reduced activity, motivation, and mental weariness.
Those symptoms were twice as prevalent in people who had anxiety or depression before they experienced a TIA.
The cause of the post-TIA fatigue isn't lingering blood clots; brain scans showed they were equally likely in patients with and without fatigue. So there may be neurological changes after a TIA that impact brain biochemistry related to depression and anxiety and that leads to a lack of energy and disengagement from the world-at-large.
If you or a loved one are contending with post-TIA fatigue, cutting-edge longevity treatments such as therapeutic plasma exchange may cool lingering inflammation, calm the body and brain, and restore energy.
So can meditation and an anti-inflammatory diet.