Prevention of Stroke

Health encyclopaedia - Alphabetical Topic List

| A |

| B |

| C |

| D |

| E |

| F |

| G |

| H |

| I |

| J |

| K |

| L |

| M |

| N |

| O |

| P |

| Q |

| R |

| S |

| T |

| U |

| V |

| W |

| X |

| Y |

The best way to reduce the risk of a stroke is to have a healthy lifestyle, with good diet, weight control, regular exercise, regular checks of blood pressure. It is very important not to smoke.

Smokers have much more atherosclerosis than non-smokers do. This has been shown by many post-mortem examinations. Smoking increases the heart rate and raises the blood pressure, both factors associated with atherosclerosis. High blood pressure is one of the main risk factors for stroke.

Smoking causes increased stickiness between certain cell fragments in the blood, called platelets. These are necessary for clotting, and increased stickiness definitely increases the tendency to Thrombosis. The carbon monoxide you inhale with the smoke cuts down the ability of your blood to carry oxygen to a significant degree.

People that have a high risk of blood clots forming may be advised to take drugs like aspirin or warfarin that reduce the likelihood of this happening and so reduce the risk of stroke.

People who suffer from migraine have an increased risk of stroke. Migraine is often worse in women, and is linked to fluctuating levels of the hormone, oestrogen. If you have severe migraine with neurological symptoms (â€˜classicalâ€™ migraine), taking the combined contraceptive pill can make migraine more severe and increase your risk of stroke. Neurological symptoms include speech and vision difficulties, and numbness or tingling affecting a limb or one side of the body. If you have these symptoms, you should consider changing to the progesterone only pill.