Knowing whether or not you are at risk for stroke is important. Knowing the major risk factors, and what they mean to you, could save your life. Stroke is preventable if you know the major causes and work to improve them. Some risk factors are not preventable, others are. The major risk factors for heart attack and stroke are:
1. Your Sex. Obviously this is not something you can change, but it can raise your awareness. Men are at greater risk of heart attacks and stroke than women are, until women reach the age of 65, after which the risk is similar. The reasons why are unclear.
2. Family history of heart disease or stroke. This should be an obvious thing to look for, but if you have a history of early heart disease in a parent or sibling, chances are you might get it to. So, family history of heart disease and stroke places you at higher risk. Whether this is because of nature or nurture is unclear.
3. Age. This is another factor you can not control, and unfortunately the older you get, the greater your risk. But there are things you can do as you age to not be as great a risk.
4. Smoking status. This is a risk factor for stroke that is almost entirely in your control. Smoking is one of the top risk factors for cardiovascular disease. Something you must consider even if you do not smoke yourself is if you get second hand smoke. Second-hand smoke in high degrees will put you in just as much, if not greater danger of heart disease and stroke than being the one that is smoking.
5. High blood pressure. This is another risk factor for stroke that you can control. Uncontrolled high blood pressure will put you in a position that will increase your risk of heart attack and stroke. It also reduces the effectiveness of aspirin therapy. So, having high blood pressure can counter act some of the medications and antiplatelets that you may be taking to prevent stroke.
6. High cholesterol. High cholesterol can also be controlled. Having high cholesterol, particularly a high low-density lipoprotein (LDL) level and a low high-density lipoprotein (HDL) level, contributes to the risk. If you are worried about potential stroke, change your diet and lifestyle to lower your cholesterol.
7. Diabetes. Another factor that you can’t control per say is whether or not you have diabetes, but those who have diabetes are at higher risk of heart disease and stroke than those that don’t.
If you have any of these risk factors, you may want to talk to your doctor about what you can do to prevent stroke. You may be advised to do daily aspirin therapy, which basically thins your blood some to help prevent it from clotting so much that it causes you to have a stroke. The more of these risk factors you have, the more likely you are to have heart disease or stroke. However, just because you have some of these risk factors does not guarantee heart disease or stroke, and despite the past you can change your habits and lifestyle and greatly improve your chances of avoiding heart disease and stroke all together.
Evaluate your habits, eat a healthy diet that keeps your cholesterol low, do not smoke, get out there and exercise as often as possible, and get your blood pressure down. Control what you can control, and don’t let yourself stress about the things you can’t. Get regular check-ups and know the signs of heart attack and stroke so that should you ever experience one, you can get treatment right away and reduce the harmful effects.