Brain Health
Here’s How to Lower the Risks of Strokes in 5 Steps.
Strokes can be prevented with healthy lifestyle choices and timely support from professionals.
Purpose of the Article
This article introduces stroke, its symptoms, root causes, and practical tips to reduce the risk factors. This story is not health advice. Instead, it is for information, inspiration, and awareness purposes.
What is a stroke, and why does it matter?
Stroke is a critical brain disorder. The root cause of stroke is the interruption of blood flow to brain parts due to blocked blood vessels.
Stroke is critical to address timely as it can cause disability (permanent damage) and even death as the brain cells cannot survive without oxygen.
There are many reasons for blood vessels to be blocked. Most of them are related to lifestyle choices. Some are related to other health conditions. For example, stroke and heart disease are similar in nature.
Stroke is widespread, affecting millions of people. It is the third leading cause of death in the United States. According to NIH:
“Each year, about 795,000 people in the United States have strokes, and of these incidents, 137,000 people die. About 610,000 of these cases are first strokes, and 185,000 people who survive a stroke will have another stroke within five years.”
NIH informs that “Ischemic strokes make up about 87% of all strokes. Hemorrhagic strokes make up the remaining 13%.”
Difference between ischemic and hemorrhagic strokes
There are two types of strokes: ischemic and hemorrhagic.
According to Mayo Clinic, “an ischemic stroke occurs when the blood supply to part of the brain is interrupted or reduced, preventing brain tissue from getting oxygen and nutrients. Brain cells begin to die in minutes.”
American Stroke Association states, “a hemorrhagic stroke occurs when a weakened blood vessel ruptures. Two types of weakened blood vessels usually cause hemorrhagic stroke: aneurysms and arteriovenous malformations.”
Common Risk Factors for Strokes
According to NIH, there are many risk factors. I summarize them under nine points below.
1 — High blood pressure and high cholesterol
2 — Diabetes, heart disease, and sickle cell disease
3 — Previous stroke or transient ischemic attack
4 — Cigarette smoking, drug abuse, and drinking too much alcohol
5 — Physical inactivity
6 — Overweight or obesity
7 — Certain medications (such as hormonal birth control pills)
8 — For women, being pregnant and menopause
9 — Family history of stroke, and genetic conditions, such as blood-clotting or vascular disorders (for example, Factor V Leiden or CADASIL)
In addition to these, race, age, gender, and geography are also risk factors, as documented by NIH. From a race perspective:
“African Americans have almost two times the risk of white people having a first stroke. Hispanic Americans and American Indian/Alaska Natives are at greater risk than whites for having a stroke but are at less risk than African Americans. African Americans and Hispanics are more likely than whites to die after having a stroke.”
As we get older, the stroke risk increases. For example, “three-quarters of strokes occur in people ages 65 and older.”
From a gender perspective, “men are more likely than women to have a stroke.”
Geography seems to be a risk factor, as mentioned by NIH. For example, “the highest U.S. death rates from stroke occur in the southeastern United States.”
Symptoms of Strokes
According to Mayo Clinic, there are six symptoms of stroke that I summarize below.
1 — Trouble speaking and understanding what others are saying.
2 — Paralysis or numbness of the face, arm, or leg.
3 — Problems seeing in one or both eyes.
4 — Headache, dizziness, vomiting
5 — Trouble walking and a loss of coordination.
Lower the Risks of Strokes in 5 Steps
As we can reduce the risks of strokes via healthy lifestyle choices, I provide five steps at a high level, only focussing on the key items addressing the risk factors listed in previous sections.
1 — Start with fundamentals.
Good health depends on consuming nutritious food, regular movement, restorative sleep, rest, timely recovery, fun, and social connections.
I call these items fundamentals as they are essential requirements of our bodies and minds. Missing one or more of these critical items might increase stroke risks.
Refraining from food with empty calories is a good principle. A minimum of 150 minutes of exercise weekly is recommended to lower the risks of many diseases. Adequate restorative sleep is essential for everyone.
Lowering our stress by recovering from exercise timely, resting the body by taking regular breaks at work, scheduling fun activities, and meaningfully connecting with others can lower disease formation.
2 — Maintain a healthy weight.
Healthy weight management is essential to prevent physical and mental health. It is also critical for brain health. Accumulated visceral fat and weakened muscles are the root causes of metabolic disorders that might lead to stroke.
We can look at weight management from two critical angles. The first one is calories consumed and spent. And the second one is hormonal effects on fat loss or gain.
The critical point is refraining from excessive calories, mainly from junk food such as refined carbs and unhealthy fats. In addition, spending excess calories by staying active and performing regular exercise can make the body insulin sensitive.
From a hormonal perspective, we need to address blood sugar to prevent insulin resistance, ensure the body remains insulin and leptin sensitive, and prevent the occurrence of elevated stress hormones such as cortisol.
Sex hormones and growth hormones also play a critical role. I documented key hormones for weight management in an article titled, Lose Visceral Fat by Understanding the Intricacies of Six Critical Hormones.
3 — Prevent diabetes and heart disease.
Lowering the risks of diabetes, heart disease, and other conditions, such as sickle cell disease, can also lower the risk of strokes. These disorders have common causes.
For all metabolic diseases, there are five critical risk factors that we need to consider. They are excessive blood sugar, high blood pressure, high LDL cholesterol, chronic inflammation, and chronic stress.
When we address these five factors timely with healthy lifestyle choices as mentioned in the fundamentals and with help from qualified healthcare professionals, we can significantly reduce the risk factors.
4 — Lower intake and generation of toxins and pathogens.
The body and brain cells cannot handle excessive toxins and pathogens. The defense system can eliminate them to a certain degree. Once harmful materials pass the threshold, they can stress the body and cause chronic inflammation, which is a critical risk factor for strokes.
Smoking is a known risk factor for stroke. Cigarettes contain multiple toxins. Drugs and excessive alcohol also cause toxicity to cells. Quitting cigarette smoking can significantly reduce stroke risks.
Neurotoxins from cigarettes, drugs, and excessive alcohol can increase the risk of stroke. Therefore, refraining from these habits can keep our blood vessels healthier.
We might also adapt lifestyle factors such as time-restricted eating and intense exercise, and thermogenesis to initiate autophagy and mitophagy to lower toxins and pathogens.
Autophagy and mitophagy processes can naturally lower harmful materials from cells and mitochondria, as I explained in the linked articles.
5 — Measure health proactively and seek help.
Medical technologies allow us to see invisible molecules and detect risky processes in the body and brain. Healthcare professionals can help us identify disease risks by measuring blood, urine, saliva, and feces.
CT and MRI scans are critical for those who have high stroke risks. Furthermore, nuclear medicine techniques such as SPECT imaging with a radiopharmaceutical (e.g., Tc-99m) can be used to detect strokes in brain regions.
Considering these opportunities, we need to seek timely help from qualified healthcare professionals. Proactive health management via regular tests is essential for our survival and well-being.
Conclusions and Takeaways
As the root cause of stroke is the interruption of blood flow to brain parts due to blocked blood vessels, we need to pay attention to any lifestyle factors playing a role in this process.
Stroke is widespread, causing disability, morbidity, and mortality to millions globally. However, healthy lifestyle choices and timely professional support can substantially reduce the risks.
Even though there is a genetic effect, most risk factors are related to lifestyle choices. As some other disorders, such as diabetes and heart disease, cause stroke, we need to lower their risks too.
Some causes are related to other health conditions, such as diabetes and heart disease. For example, stroke and heart disease are similar.
Therefore, anything harmful to the heart can also affect the brain. Untreated diabetes might lead to both stroke and heart disease.
Besides lifestyle choices, we must be proactive in regularly measuring our health. Leveraging CT scans, MRI scans, and nuclear medicine techniques such as SPECT imaging is essential.
Furthermore, those with high blood pressure, high blood glucose, and elevated LDL cholesterol on medication need to take their medicine as advised by their physicians.
Stopping medication without consulting the family doctor can be risky for stroke and other disorders.
Those who experienced a stroke in the past need to follow a plan with support from qualified healthcare professionals who can provide medicine, surgery, therapy, and lifestyle adjustments to reduce the risk of more strokes.
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