| Risk Factors for
Stroke / Brain Attack Evaluating an individual's risk for
stroke should be based on heredity, natural processes, and lifestyle. Many risk factors
for stroke can be changed or managed, while others that relate to hereditary or natural
processes cannot be changed.
| Risk factors for stroke that can be
changed, treated, or medically managed: |
- high blood pressure - the most important controllable
risk factor for brain attack
- heart disease - the second most important risk factor
for stroke and the major cause of death among survivors of stroke
- cigarette smoking - especially the use of oral
contraceptives combined with cigarette smoking greatly increases stroke risk
- history of transient ischemic attacks (TIAs) - a person
who’s had one or more TIAs is almost 10 times more likely to have a brain attack than
someone of the same age and sex who has not
- high red blood cell count - a moderate increase in the
number of red blood cells thickens the blood and makes clots more likely
- high blood cholesterol and lipids
- lack of exercise, physical inactivity
- excessive alcohol use - more than two drinks per day
raises blood pressure, and binge drinking can lead to brain attack
- drug abuse (certain kinds) - intravenous drug abuse
carries a high risk of stroke from cerebral embolisms. Cocaine use has been closely
related to brain attacks, heart attacks and a variety of other cardiovascular
complications. Some of them, even among first-time cocaine users, have been fatal.
|
| Risk factors for stroke that cannot be
changed: |
- age - for each decade of life after age 55, the chance
of having a brain attack more than doubles.
- gender - men have about a 19 percent greater chance of
stroke than women.
- race - African-Americans have a much higher risk of
death and disability from a brain attack than whites, in part because the black population
has a greater incidence of high blood pressure.
- a diabetes diagnosis - an independent risk factor for
stroke and strongly correlated with high blood pressure, diabetes is treatable, but still
increases a person’s risk of stroke.
- history of prior stroke - risk of brain attack for
someone who has already had one is many times that of a person who has not.
- heredity/genetics - chance of stroke is greater in
people who have a family history of stroke.
|
| Other risk factors of stroke to consider: |
- where a person lives - brain attacks are more common
among people living in the southeastern United States than in other areas.
- temperature, season, and climate - stroke deaths occur
more often during periods of extreme temperatures.
- socioeconomic factors - there is some evidence that
strokes are more common among low-income people than among more affluent people.
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