A stroke is a medical emergency, it occurs when the blood flow to your brain is stopped due to some reason. When the cells in your brain stop receiving blood, they start to die, and this causes serious damage to the brain. There are serious symptoms associated with a stroke, they can lead to lasting disabilities and even death in some cases. There are a variety of causes and types of strokes, read along to know about the three most common types of strokes:

• Transient ischemic attack: This type of stroke qualifies as a mini stroke or a warning to the actual stroke. TIA is due when a tiny clot temporarily blocks the blood flow to the brain, the symptoms of a TIA usually last only for a short period.
• Ischemic stroke: An ischemic stroke is similar to the transient ischemic stroke, but it lasts longer and can be more fatal than the latter. The blood clot in this case is usually due to atherosclerosis, which is a large quantity of fatty deposits located on the inner lining of a blood vessel. If the portion gets too much, it then breaks off and results in blocking the blood flow to the brain. A stroke is similar to a heart attack, where the blood clot blocks the flow of blood to your heart.
  An ischemic stroke is usually embolic, which means that the blood clot travels to your brain from other parts of your body. About 15 percent of the ischemic strokes are caused by a condition called atrial fibrillation, your heart beats irregularly in this condition. If there is a clot formed in the blood vessel of your brain it results in a thrombotic stroke. A TIA might subside without the need of any treatment, but this type of stroke needs treatment.
• Hemorrhagic stroke: A hemorrhagic stroke is when a blood vessel in the brain bursts or breaks, and spills blood in the surrounding tissues. There are two clear types of hemorrhagic strokes: one of them is an aneurysm; in this case the weakened blood vessel balloons outwards and ruptures in some cases. The second one is an arteriovenous malformation; in this case there are abnormally formed blood vessels and if one of them bursts, it causes a hemorrhagic stroke.

Causes

A stroke is ideally caused when the flow of blood to the brain is stopped due to the occurrence of a clot. This clot can occur due to various reasons and lead to the types of strokes mentioned above. The causes and types of strokes depends on the type of the clot that is formed, a certain type of clot can cause a certain type of stroke.

The human brain receives blood from two main arteries in the neck, known as the carotid arteries and two arteries near your spine known as the vertebral arteries. These two arteries branch the blood into the other blood vessels and then supply the blood to your brain. If this flow is stopped, it leads to death of some cells in the brain, leading to the symptoms of a stroke.