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In Poland, someone has a stroke every 8 minutes. One in six people will experience it in their lifetime. Stroke is also the leading cause of disability in people over 40. It threatens us not only directly – with the fact that we will experience it on our own skin, but also with the disease of a close family member, which is associated with the need to take care of a patient after a stroke. Find out what you can do to minimize the risk!
Source: Brain Stroke Foundation
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1/ 8 Control your blood pressure and keep it normal
The pressure should not exceed the value of 139/89 mmHg. As blood pressure increases, the risk of having a stroke increases linearly. Treatment of hypertension, regardless of the drug used, significantly reduces the risk, the reduction of which depends on the degree of blood pressure reduction. Lowering the systolic blood pressure by 20 mmHg and diastolic blood pressure by 10 mmHg reduces the risk of stroke by more than 40%.
2/ 8 Eat properly
The basic condition for maintaining health is proper nutrition. A good way is, for example, the so-called Mediterranean diet. It has nothing to do with mortifying, on the contrary – it is tasty and plentiful, but it involves the elimination of animal fats in favor of vegetable ones, reducing animal protein and, at the same time, increasing the amount of fish, vegetables and fruits. Eat 4 servings of vegetables (40 grams) a day, 5 servings of cereal products, e.g. dark bread or oatmeal for breakfast, buckwheat or barley groats with dinner. Instead of sweets for lunch or afternoon tea, eat 30 grams of fruit every day (e.g. 3 large apples). Two large glasses of milk and a slice of cheese will provide the right amount of calcium and protein. One serving of fish, poultry, peas, beans or meat each day provides the rest of the protein you need.
3/ 8 Keep your body weight normal
Being overweight leads to disorders of the lipid metabolism – increased levels of triglycerides and lowering the level of good HDL cholesterol, which increases the risk of cardiovascular diseases, including stroke. It has been proven that women with a waist circumference of more than 81 cm have 60 percent. greater chances of developing high blood pressure and thus the risk of stroke increases. The same applies to men with a waist over 101 cm.
4/ 8 Get moving!
Doctors have no doubts that moderate exercise is an effective method of fighting many diseases. For example, with a slight increase in blood pressure, you can even lower it to a normal level that is safe for your health thanks to daily physical activity. And this is without the use of drugs. On the other hand, in persistent arterial hypertension, appropriately selected effort should be an integral part of comprehensive therapy, apart from medications and diet.
5/ 8 Control your sugar and cholesterol levels
Diabetes mellitus is an established risk factor for ischemic stroke. Treatment of diabetes does not completely eliminate the risk, but it can effectively reduce the occurrence of complications. It should be remembered that properly treated diabetes (the so-called compensated diabetes) is not only the correct level of glucose (sugar) in the blood, but also the correct blood pressure and cholesterol level.
6/ 8 Don’t abuse alcohol
There is a lot of clinical evidence showing an increase – even several times – in the risk of ischemic and haemorrhagic stroke with alcohol abuse. Chronic consumption of large amounts of alcohol is associated with an increased incidence of ischemic strokes, especially in young people.
7/ 8 Don’t smoke!
As numerous scientific studies have shown, stroke (especially ischemic) is much more common in tobacco smokers. The risk depends on the number of cigarettes smoked and, for example, in heavy smokers who smoke more than 40 cigarettes a day, it is twice as high as in those who smoke less than 10. The reduction in risk of stroke occurs 2 years after quitting smoking and 5 years after quitting it is equal to that of non-smokers.
8/ 8 Reduce your stress!
Stress promotes a stroke in many ways. If it lasts longer or is too strong, it causes arteries to contract and raises the level of fats and sugar in the blood. Then the vessels are gradually damaged more and more, arteriosclerosis, narrowing and hardening of the vessels progress, which is one of the main causes of stroke. In addition, stress raises your blood pressure, which increases your risk of having a stroke. A stroke is also possible due to the pressure lowered by stress. This happens, for example, after extremely high stress, in the relaxation phase. Stress-spasmodic arteries dilate, cerebral ischemia develops, followed by a stroke. Stress affects us almost everywhere, but it can be controlled. There are many ways to do this – including a walk, a social event, a movie or theater. It is important to be able to separate working time from rest time.