Stroke, also known as Cardiovascular Accident (CVA), occurs when blood flow to the brain is blocked, thereby damaging or killing brain cells. There are two types of stroke based on the kind of blockage—ischemic and hemorrhagic. Ischemic stroke, which is the more common type, happens when a major blood vessel in the brain is blocked by a blood clot, or by a plaque—a buildup of fatty deposits and cholesterol in the blood vessel. On the other hand, hemorrhagic stroke occurs when a blood vessel in the brain bursts, spilling blood into nearby tissues. With a hemorrhagic stroke, pressure builds up in the nearby brain tissue, causing even more damage.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), around 15 million people worldwide suffer a stroke annually. Of these, five million die and another five million are left permanently disabled, placing a burden on family and community.The WHO notes that for every 10 people who die of stroke, four could have been saved if their blood pressure had been regulated.
Some of the risk factors for stroke are high blood pressure, high cholesterol levels; use of tobacco; heavy alcohol use, diabetes; obesity, and some types of heart conditions such as atrial fibrillation, heart failure, and heart attack. Some of the risk factors are non-modifiable, including age, race, gender, and family history of stroke.
Symptoms of stroke can appear suddenly and include: weakness or paralysis on one side of the body, difficulty speaking or using words, swallowing problems; pain or numbness; problems with thinking, awareness, attention, learning, judgment, and memory.
American Stroke Association, which is part of the American Heart Association, recently announced its first new guidelines in 10 years on preventing stroke. The guidelines include recommendations for people and doctors that reflect a better understanding of who gets strokes and why, along with new drugs that can help reduce this risk.
The good news is that the best way to reduce your risk for stroke is also the best way to reduce your risk for a whole host of health problems—eat a healthy diet, engage in regular exercise, and quit smoking. The bad news is that it is not always so easy to sustain.
Eating a healthy diet, such as a Mediterranean diet, can help control several factors that increase your risk for stroke, including high cholesterol, high blood sugar, and obesity. The Mediterranean diet includes foods such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains and olive oil, as well as limiting consumption of red meat and other sources of saturated fat. Protein from beans, nuts, poultry, fish and seafood could help replace red meat protein. It is also desirable to limit the intake of highly processed foods, and foods and drinks that contain a lot of added sugar. This can also reduce your calorie intake, which helps keep weight in check.
Exercise: Getting up and walking around for at least 10 minutes a day has been found to ‘drastically’ reduce your risk of stroke. Among the many benefits: Regular exercise can help reduce blood pressure, a major risk factor for stroke. The heart association recommends at least 150 minutes of moderate aerobic or 75 minutes of vigorous activity, or some combination of the two, per week. It does not matter how you engage in physical activity; you could go to the gym, take a walk or run in your neighborhood or use treadmills or stepper machines at home.
Diet and exercise can help control weight, another important risk factor for strokes. But a new class of drugs that can drastically reduce weight have been approved by regulators, providing new tools to reduce stroke risk since guidelines were last updated.
The guidelines now point out that doctors consider prescribing these drugs to people with obesity or diabetes. But it is worth noting that while these drugs can help, people still need to eat well and get exercise.
The new guidelines also recommend for the first time that doctors screen patients for other factors that could increase stroke risk, including sex and gender and non-medical factors such as economic stability, access to health care, racism and other forms of discrimination that could increase the risk of stroke.
The guidelines also now suggest that doctors should screen for conditions that could increase a woman’s risk for stroke, such as high blood pressure during pregnancy or early menopause.
