Stroke risk factors that need a solution

If you've read much of this blog, you've seen items about smoking, diet and other stroke risk factors. Click here to read a compilation.

But are you always in complete control of those risk factors? Or does just living in a poor neighborhood up stroke risk?:

Women and men of all races in the poorest neighborhoods were more likely to suffer a stroke than those in the richer neighborhoods. This held true even after the researchers adjusted for other factors such as age, race, sex and region of the country.

Stroke prevention: Not glamorous, but more effective than all the high-tech tools we have

This week's postings are devoted to stroke prevention. It's not glamorous or exciting. Very little cutting-edge research using whiz-bang technology.

Instead, it's about high blood pressure, diet, smoking, diabetes and the like.

But controlling those factors could prevent more strokes, keep fewer people disabled and prevent more strokes than any high-tech solution - at least during my lifetime.

So, pass along a recent CDC write-up about American Stroke Month and National High Blood Pressure Education Month:

Stroke is largely preventable. You may be able to prevent stroke or reduce your risk through healthy lifestyle changes. High blood pressure is one of the major risk factors for stroke. Others include high cholesterol, smoking, diabetes, heart disease, obesity, physical inactivity, and unhealthy diet.

Good news but still work in progress

Better results - but miles to go.

Recent released numbers show some good news about the rate of strokes overall and avoiding deaths as a result of a stroke. Still, strokes are the greatest cause of adult disability in the United States, and we still have a problem in this country with smoking, high blood pressure and diabetes.

Still, a new report shows that in the U.S., strokes and stroke deaths have decreased over past decades:

The chance of dying after having a stroke also fell during the study. Over a 10-year period, the number of deaths per 100 strokes dropped by eight. That decrease was particularly prevalent among the youngest study participants and was similar for both sexes and races.

Coresh said the decline in strokes and improvement in survival may be attributable to better control of risk factors - particularly high blood pressure, also known as hypertension - as well as increased smoking cessation and diabetes control.

“I think we’ve been working on hypertension awareness, treatment and control for 40 years now,” he said. “Largely it’s a story of success but as (with) many things in health it’s never done. We need to keep doing better and better.”

Photo from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke

Walkable neighborhoods: Better health

It's well-established that walking is good for you. If you seen this blog before, chances are you've seen several blog postings about walking and other exercises as stroke prevention tools.

Sadly, not everyone have good access to places for walking. And that is not good for public health. More people walking means more people in better health. Here's a recent article about how walkable neighborhoods mean less obesity and diabetes:

Photo from U.S. Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention

Results from the research, which also sought to determine the best measures of "walkability" for public policy purposes, were published online January 14 in PLOS One by Richard H. Glazier, MD, from St. Michael's Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, and colleagues.

"While interventions to prevent obesity and promote healthy body weight are most often aimed at individuals, there is a growing recognition of upstream environmental factors, including the urban built environment, as potential targets for intervention," the authors write."

Diabetes and obesity are two stroke risk factors. Do you live in a walkable neighborhood? Then use it!

Diabetes and stroke risk

As if we didn't have enough evidence that watching our personal health no matter our age is important, a recent article brings in more.

Diabetes increases stroke risk, particularly in under-65s:

"Our results suggest that diabetics aged under 65 have up to a 12-fold increased risk of stroke compared with people of a similar age who do not have diabetes," lead investigator Dr Jane Khoury (Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, OH) commented in an interview. "In the over-65s, there was still an increase in stroke of about two- to threefold in diabetic patients."

Ten risk factors: You can impact all of them

Recent research identified the 10 risk factors for stroke:

The new study compared risk factors among 3,000 people who had a stroke to those of 3,000 age- and sex-matched individuals who did not have a stroke. Study participants came from 22 countries.

The 10 risk factors that account for 90% of stroke risk are:

• History of high blood pressure
• Current smoking
• Abdominal obesity
• Diabetes
• Lack of physical activity
• Poor diet
• More than 30 drinks per month or binge drinking
• Ratio of blood fats known as apolipoprotein B (apo B) to apolipoprotein AI (apo AI)
• Heart disease
• Psychosocial stress/depression

Now, for some of these, genetics might play a part. But for all of these, people with these risk factors can at least attempt to at least semi-control them. And it's worth the effort - a brain is at stake.

(Image from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

Myth: You can't prevent strokes

Some of the key stroke risk factors:

• High blood pressure
• Smoking
• Diabetes
• High cholesterol
• Poor diet
• Physical inactivity
• Obesity

All of these risk factors are under your control - at least to a degree, often a large degree.

Smoking? Stop. Now. If you have a history of high blood pressure - the highest stroke risk factor - perhaps the factors of poor diet, physical activity and obesity would be involved. Diabetes, too, can play into these other factors.

And yes, you can prevent a stroke. Like all in the human condition, there are no guarantees. However, you can definitely improve your odds. 

See a doctor. Address the risk factors that fit your profile. You are too important to ignore these risks. Yes, there are other risk factors that are out of your control. But control what you can - it can save your life.

Sad news: Tennessee expects more, younger stroke victims

A study - reported on by The Tennessean in Nashville - predicts an increasing number of strokes and younger victims.

From the article:

Tennessee is in a swath of states referred to as the stroke belt. Factors such as the state's high rate of obesity, diabetes and hypertension, along with the aging baby boomer population, are to blame for the increasing risk of stroke, health experts say. And now, the flagging economy may also play a role, doctors say.

..."As a therapist I have seen more people in the last five years 30 years old and older with stroke," said Trent Nessler, managing director of Saint Thomas Health Services Outpatient Rehabilitation Services. "Typically, it was 50 and above, and seeing a 40-year-old patient with a stroke was unusual. And now you're seeing individuals in their 30s on a regular basis."

As an under-40 stroke survivor, it is not something people expect. While mine was caused by a common heart defect, Tennessee researchers suggest that many of the 1,700 additional strokes predicted are potentially preventable - through better eating, exercise, taking care of high blood pressure and getting a handle on diabetes.

And Tennessee is not the only state or region following this pattern. We must stop this madness - people are eating themselves to death.

Stroke sign and prevention tips

Another Web site with some stroke prevention tips: Signs and tips for prevention from familydoctor.org. A snippet:

Risk factors for a stroke

* Atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries)
* Uncontrolled diabetes
* High blood pressure
* High cholesterol level
* Smoking
* Previous transient ischemic attack (TIA)
* Heart disease
* Carotid artery disease (the artery that carries blood to your brain)

Many of these risk factors are treatable - so if this list sounds like you or one of your loved ones, get to a doctor if you haven't already!