A Stroke is an attack on your brain that prevents the proper oxygen from getting to your brain. Because of that lack of oxygen, your brain cells start to die, at a rate of about a million per minute, during a stroke. If you do survive a major stroke, there is a possibility that because so many brain cells died, you will have permanent brain damage. It is vital that if you or someone you are with is experiencing symptoms of a stroke, you need to get them to the hospital as soon as possible to decrease chance of serious injury or death. Strokes will kill somebody in the United States alone once every four minutes. Scientists have been able to determine some risk factors for strokes by using large research samples and analyzing patterns. There are two types of risk factors for strokes, those that you can control, such as smoking, and those that you can’t control, such as your age.
Controllable Stroke Risk Factors
High blood pressure, obesity, and smoking have been labeled as the three major controllable risks. Your stroke risk depends on your daily life, from what you eat, to how much exercise you get, and so on. Furthermore, high cholesterol has also been found in many patients who have reported receiving a stroke. This all leads back into our diets. If we do not maintain a healthy eating diet from a young age, medical problems that sometimes double the risk of a stroke, such as obesity, will most likely occur.
Uncontrollable Stroke Risk Factors
In contrast to those Stroke Risk Factors you can control, there are many proven patterns in strokes where you might have no control at all. First of all, it’s been proven that the older you get the higher chance you have to get a stroke. In fact, those over 50 years old and completely healthy have a 20% larger possibility to get a stroke than those that are 30 years old and with similar health. Furthermore, African Americans are at risk for a stroke nearly twice as much as the worldwide. The reason for that racial breakdown is not yet known to researchers, but it’s been speculated that because African Americans in general have a much larger rate of high blood pressure and obesity, two of the major risk factors for strokes, they in effect have a larger possibility to receive a stroke, and will usually receive it earlier than a similar age Caucasian.
Stroke Prevention
If you fear that you have many stroke risk factors, there are some precautionary procedures you can take. First of all, monitor your blood pressure and cholesterol. If any of these two are extremely high or ever show a sudden spike, they need to be treated as soon as possible. In addition, you should constantly monitor your heart rate. If it gets noticeably slower or faster at any time, this could be an abnormal heart disease that when untreated, will almost always result in a serious stroke. By taking these precautionary steps, and monitoring your own diet and exercise habits, you’ll be able to dramatically decrease the chance from a stroke from occurring.
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