Prevent A Stroke By Doing These 4 Things

Prevent A Stroke By Doing These 4 Things : When the blood is cut off to a part of the brain, a person undergoes a stroke, which can have terrible consequences. Most of the strokes are caused by a clot or some other kind of obstruction in the blood vessels, and as we age, the odds of a stroke happening increases. According to experts, up to 80% of strokes can be prevented, and here are a couple of things you can do to make that happen.

Lower your blood pressure

The number one cause of strokes is high blood pressure. Normal blood pressure is usually around the 120/80 numbers, and if yours is in the 130/80 area, that might be considered a high blood pressure in some cases. When the blood pressure is not managed correctly, it increases the chances of having a stroke up to six times.

It is because the artery walls can thicken and cholesterol, as well as other fats, build upon the artery walls in the form of plaques. As one of those plaques breaks, it can flow into the brain’s part of the circulation and cause a blockage, which then leads to a stroke.

A specific kind of stroke that high blood pressure can cause is hemorrhagic stroke, which happens when a blood vessel bursts because the pressure weakens the arteries over time. In order to lower the blood pressure and with that the odds of getting a stroke because of one, there are various lifestyle changes that you undergo as well as medication if necessary.

If you have high blood pressure, the best thing to do is to consult with a doctor, as they will often give you the most optimal way to keep your blood pressure low. Sometimes this will only require you to change your diet to start exercising, but like mentioned before, in certain situations, medication is the only option.

Quit smoking

While not as dangerous as high blood pressure, smoking is known to double the risk of having a stroke, especially when it comes to tobacco smoking. That is because nicotine cigarettes raise the blood pressure and carbon monoxide reduces the amount of oxygen that your blood can carry, as carbon monoxide has more priority to attach to hemoglobin than oxygen does.

Even if you are not a smoker, secondhand smoke is quite dangerous, and in some situations, it can be just as bad as if you were smoking tobacco yourself. By removing smoking from your life, first and secondhand, you will also achieve other improvements in your health, according to Cura Medical Specialists and other expert facilities.

Tobacco has an impact on increasing the level of triglycerides in your blood, which is the bad fat while lowering the good levels of a fat called HDL cholesterol. It is also proven that consuming tobacco increases the stickiness of the blood and makes it more likely to clot, which results in more frequent plaque buildup. Smoking has quite a lot of negatives, and almost no positives, so quitting is always a good call.

Quitting smoking will have many positive effects on your health

Lower the alcohol intake

Just like smoking, alcohol tends to be one of the most common reasons for a person to have a stroke and due to similar reasons. Just like tobacco, alcohol tends to raise the blood pressure as well as the level of triglycerides in your body.

There are other risk factors that alcohol enhances, and that is that it causes your heartbeat to become irregular, especially during binge drinking, which is when a person downs 4-5 drinks within 2 hours. When a person has an irregular heartbeat, they have an increased chance of strokes caused by blood clots.

Some patients tend to have an irregular heartbeat even without the influence of alcohol, and that is called atrial fibrillation, or AFib. In such cases, there are a couple of solutions to the problem in forms of medication, medical procedures, and surgery.

Exercise

While being a couch potato is certainly something a lot of people dream of, it is a very unhealthy lifestyle, and it leads to other risk factors being boosted. Obesity, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and diabetes are just some of the things a person can develop from not exercising enough.

Of course, when we say exercise, we do not mean that you should become the number one athlete in the world. It is enough to work out for about 30 minutes every day, every second day of the week. Exercises should be wary in intensity, and getting to the point where you have a harder time breathing after an exercise is more than enough.

Exercising is a good way to prevent a stroke

Conclusion

While these are the most common causes of a stroke, along with some things that you can change when it comes to your lifestyle, there are other things that you could consider as well. Taking the medication on time, having a healthy diet, watching your cholesterol, and making sure you are sleeping correctly are just some of the things you might want to consider in order to reduce the risks of a stroke.