Many Risk Factors contribute singly or in combination to a stroke. A stroke occurs when blood flow is blocked to a part of the brain. Brain cells become deprived of oxygen and begin to die. As brain cells die, people experience weakness or paralysis, and some lose the ability to speak or walk.
In India, the stroke incidence has been steadily increasing, and has increased by more than 100 % over the last few decades. In the ‘advanced’ countries however, it has decreased by about 42 % over the same period. This has been reported in this news article here in December 2019.
In fact, stroke is one of the leading factors for death and disability in India. However, stroke awareness in India is very low. Hence it is very important to know the risk factors that lead to stroke. There are both controllable and uncontrollable risk factors for stroke.
The uncontrollable risk factors include:
- Age(more the age, more is the risk)
- Gender – a male has a higher risk than a female.
- Family history / genes- Someone in the family had a stroke.
- Ethnicity factors – for example a black African has a greater risk than a white American.
The controllable factors which can lead to an increase in risk of getting stroke are:
- Blood Pressure- It is seen that about 64% stroke patients have high BP. To know more about this, read the article here.
- Atrial fibrillation- Atrial fibrillation accounts for 15–20% of strokes in the U.S. (105,000–140,000 per year). Click here to know more.
- Smoking- Smoking makes you twice as likely to die if you have a stroke, and the more you smoke, the greater your risk of stroke. If you smoke 20 cigarettes a day, you are six times more likely to have a stroke compared to a non-smoker. To know more about this, read this article from Stroke Association.
- Alcohol- According to an article by Medical News Today, heavy drinkers are about 1.6 times more likely to suffer from intracerebral hemorrhage and 1.8 times more likely to suffer from subarachnoid hemorrhage. The association between heavy alcohol consumption and these two types of stroke is stronger than that for ischemic stroke.
- Cholesterol- High levels of total cholesterol (TC) and LDL (low-density lipoprotein) cholesterol (LDL-C) are both associated with an increased risk of ischemic stroke, whereas low levels are associated with an increased risk of intracerebral hemorrhage. To know more about this, click here.
- Diabetes- If you have diabetes, your chances of having a stroke are 1.5 times higher than in people who don’t have diabetes. But you can lower your risk by taking care of your health. You can click here to know more about this.
- No/ Less Exercises- a sedentary lifestyle.( sitting most of the day ). Read this article by Cardiovascular Business to know more about how a sedentary lifestyle can increase the risk of getting a stroke.
- Obesity- One out of every five individuals who are affected by excess weight or obesity is affected by a metabolic condition known as “Syndrome X.” The factors that characterize this condition ,such as high blood pressure or insulin resistance, can increase the individual’s risk for developing more serious health problems including heart disease, diabetes, and stroke. Click here to know more about this.
As can be readily understood from above, all should focus on controlling the modifiable factors as much as possible to reduce their stroke risk.
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