For years, doctors have been warning us that high cholesterol, cigarette smoking, illegal drug use and diabetes increase our chances of having a potentially fatal stroke.
And yet, most of the stroke patients showing up at hospitals from 2004 to 2014 had one or more of these risk factors. And the numbers of people at risk in this way tended to grow among all age groups and ethnicities in that time period.
That's according to an analysis of the charts of more than 900,000 people admitted to U.S. hospitals for stroke within that decade. The study was published Wednesday in the journal Neurology.
"An estimated 80 percent of all first strokes are due to risk factors that can be changed — such as high blood pressure — and many efforts have been made to prevent, screen for and treat these risk factors," says neurologist and study author Dr. Fadar Oliver Otite of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. "Yet we saw a widespread increase in the number of stroke patients with one or more risk factors."
Most surprising, researchers say, was the high rate of Hispanic stroke patients who also had diabetes — about 50 percent — and African-American stroke patients, 44 percent of whom also had diabetes.
Most - not all, but most - strokes are preventable. Experts have been know for years that risk factors include high blood pressure, smoking and high cholesterol. All addressable issues. Yet, as NPR reported not long ago, modifiable stroke risks are still rising across all ages and races:
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