How to Prevent a Stroke

Information from Your Family Doctor

How to Prevent a Stroke

What is a stroke?

A stroke happens when there is a problem with the blood supply to a part of the brain. The area of the brain that does not get enough blood becomes damaged.
A stroke can happen when a blood clot blocks an artery in the brain. A stroke also can happen when the wall of an artery bursts.


Depending on which part of the brain has poor blood supply, a stroke can be mild to severe. Here are some problems strokes can cause:

• Problems with moving (including paralysis)
• Problems with feeling
• Loss of vision
• Problems with thinking, understanding, or communicating (that is, problems with speaking, reading, or writing)
• Changes in emotion or behavior


What increases my risk of having a stroke?

Strokes can happen in anyone, but they tend to be more common in older men, black people, and Asian people. Although we cannot change our age, gender, or race, we can control the following risk factors for stroke:

• Tobacco use
• High cholesterol levels
• Inactive lifestyle
• High blood pressure
• Diabetes
• Heavy alcohol use
• Atrial fibrillation, which is an unsteady heart rhythm (say: ay-tree-all fib-rill-ay-shun)

What can I do to lower my risk of having a stroke?

Here are some things everyone can do to lower their chances of having a stroke—these things will also lower your risk of having a heart attack:
• Get your blood pressure checked regularly and get treatment if it is high. High blood pressure is a “silent” illness with no warning signs.
• If you smoke—stop! Ask your family doctor for ways to help you quit.
• Eat low-fat foods, and have your cholesterol levels checked by your family doctor.
• Exercise regularly—for at least 30 minutes on most days of the week.
• Keep your weight under control. If you are overweight, lose weight.
• If you have diabetes, control your blood sugar levels. Controlling your diabetes will help your heart, kidneys, eyes, and brain.

Can medicine help lower my risk of stroke?

Medicines can help prevent strokes in some people. If you need one of these medicines, your family doctor will prescribe it for you.

If you have high blood pressure, and diet, exercise, and weight loss do not control it, you may need to take medicine to lower your blood pressure. Lowering blood pressure in people who have hypertension is the most important way to prevent stroke.
If your cholesterol level is high and exercise and diet do not lower it, you may need to take a cholesterol-lowering medicine.

If you have atrial fibrillation, you may need to take a blood thinner such as warfarin (brand name: Coumadin).

Aspirin can lower the risk of stroke in some people. However, aspirin is not for everyone. There are risks associated with taking aspirin every day.

Please visit: http://www.aafp.org/afp/2003/1215/p2389.html for more information about how to prevent stroke and health information.

PS: Please consult with your doctor for more information.

How to prevent Heart Disease?

Everyone wants to improve their health. You should always keep in mind that whatever actions you do today can either help to prevent, delay or minimize the effect of heart disease or worsen it. The key is to control the risk factors. You cannot control every risk factor for heart disease such as family history, but you can definitely do something about your behavior. Age and gender also influence your risk of heart disease. Whatever your education, jobs and profession you should understand your lifestyle.

It’s important to know your daily habit. Are you a social drinker or a social smoker? Smoking and drinking too much alcohol is very bad and disturbs your heart. Smoking can cause you lung cancer and respiratory abnormalities. Also, excessive alcohol consumption can cause cirrhosis, an irreversible (it cannot be healed) liver disease that can disturb or even damage your liver and its functions. 

Where are you going for lunch? Your daily food and beverages is important key and gives good and bad effect to your body especially your blood pressure and your heartbeat rate. Most medical consultants and doctors will advise you to control your cholesterol level. Natural food such as vegetable, fruit, and other food contain with calcium, magnesium and potassium is very important to maintain your heart.

Another way to prevent heart disease is to be active in your daily life. An exercise or light sport such as jogging or a moderate physical activity at least 30 minutes every day is really good to control your body weight. Try to perform 30 minutes of moderate physical activity every day. Power walking is one of the best ways to prevent heart disease, because it increases your heart rate (how many times your heart beats every minute). This can help increase heart strength and endurance, and it’s very useful at times when you’re exposed to sudden, heavy physical activities.

 If you can lose even a small amount of weight, five pounds for example, it may have a positive effect on lipid levels and blood pressure preventing heart disease.

Good sexual intercourse also prevents heart disease because sex reduces heart disease risks. When you have sex, your heartbeat goes fast, and after that, you become calm and content. This is a sign of a good heart health. Take the case of women. Till they are 40, heart diseases are rare amongst them. But once they cross the menopause hurdle, the heart walls thicken, arteries stiffen and women become more prone to heart diseases. Here, an active sex life can make matters easier for you. 

Researchers at the Queen’s University say that making love three or more times a week helps women as well as men stay away from many diseases relating to the heart. Good news about sex is that a vigorous sexual encounter equals to running 15 minutes on a treadmill or playing a spirited game of squash. Sex boosts the production of testosterone (on men) which leads to stronger bones and muscles.

Please take this advice: Before you take any action about how to prevent heart disease, please consult with your doctor or go to your local hospital or clinic to do a medical checkup. If you can maintain your health and control your lifestyle you may live longer and happier. See you in Bali in another holiday.