Unfortunately, there are nearly 800,000 reasons to believe. That’s the number of Americans who suffer strokes annually. Of that number, about 160,000 die of complications. It is the third leading cause of death in this country behind heart disease and cancer. But the good thing: there are 6.4 million stroke survivors. Stroke isn’t necessarily a death sentence but it can be life-threatening or very debilitating.
A “Brain Attack”
A stroke, say experts, is really a “brain attack.” The reasoning behind this is that a blood clot is typically the cause of a brain attack, as it is in some types of heart attacks. There are two broad categories of strokes – those caused by blocked blood flow because of a clot or those which bleed into the brain.
An ischemic stroke is a blockage of the neck or brain blood vessel. It is the most common type of stroke with about 85 percent of stroke cases. Without blood and oxygen, brain cells slowly die so a delay in treatment can result in serious brain damage. There are three types of clots: thrombosis, a neck or brain blood vessel forms a clot; embolism, or the movement of a clot from one body part to another; and stenosis which is the severe narrowing of the artery in or leading to the brain.
Hemorrhagic stroke is the second type of stroke responsible for about 15 percent of cases and as noted above, involves bleeding into the brain and surrounding tissues.
Why are we talking about this?
There are facts about strokes you should know about, especially when it comes to a discussion of immutable risk factors. A “risk factor” is simply a condition that occurs more frequently in those with a greater chance of getting an illness. The following are risk factors you can’t do anything about when it comes to stroke. This is not to say to let yourself go, but anything you can do to live a healthy life will be beneficial.
Stroke Risks You Can’t Prevent
1. Age. Strokes occur in all age groups. The risk of stroke in childhood increases for the fetus the last few months and extends into the first few weeks after birth. Also, studies have shown that the risk of stroke doubles for each decade between the ages of 55 and 85 years old.
2. Gender. Men are at an increased risk of stroke, but more women die of them. Because men don’t live as long as women, they get hit with strokes at an earlier age when their immune systems are robust, so their recovery rate tends to be better.
Women will have 55,000 more strokes this year than men. Why the rise in stroke cases when this disease typically strikes the sexes equally? Strokes have been determined to be a growing health concern for middle-aged women due to rising rates of obesity and vitamin D sulfate deficiency. Women’s waists have grown by about two inches over the last ten years. Vitamin D sulfate deficiency may be the underlying cause of plaque buildup in the arteries, a risk factor for stroke.
As a rule, women have higher levels of good cholesterol, HDL, high-density lipoproteins, because of estrogen circulation. Older women have been found to have higher triglycerides and cholesterol levels, probably due to their waning estrogen levels.
3. Race. Strokes are more common – and more deadly – for African Americans than other ethnic group in the U.S. This statistic includes young and middle-aged adults. Blacks have a 60 percent greater likelihood of having a stroke with a greater degree of disability and are two times likely to die from it than other racial groups.
4. Family history. There is some speculation that strokes can run in families, aka “familial strokes.” This may be due to a gene passed down from one generation to the next that has a predisposition for hypertension, diabetes or cholesterol imbalances. If you have high blood pressure, you have a two to four times higher chance of strokes before you are 80 years old.
Diabetes causes devastating changes in blood vessels throughout the body. Were you to have a stroke while fighting diabetes, this would be the equivalent of losing 15 years of your life.
Another family characteristic that could be handed down to the next generation is cholesterol imbalances. A grandparent, mother or father could pass on the gene that programs one’s body to produce too much low-density lipoproteins, or LDLs, naturally. So if there is someone in your family that is struggling with their cholesterol, you may be next in line. LDLs load cells down with cholesterol and HDLs transport the cholesterol out of the cells, so you can see why it is important to keep a delicate balance here.
5. History of strokes or TIAs. Transient ischemic attacks, or TIAs, share similar symptoms with strokes – sudden numbness or weakness in the face, arm or leg, especially if it occurs only on one side of the body; sudden difficulty walking or keeping one’s balance; sudden difficulty speaking or understanding speech; and sudden difficulty seeing out of one or both eyes. The only difference is that TIAs are temporary, lasting for a few minutes to 24 hours.
It is strongly recommended that you call emergency services because the symptoms are so alike that you may be having a stroke when you’d like to believe it is a TIA. Any stroke-like signs should be followed up by a rapid visit to the ER.
So there it is, five stroke risks you can’t prevent. Sometimes the gods are capricious while doling out genes, my friend. You don’t want to develop habits that may exacerbate unhealthy genetic tendencies. To paraphrase a famous prayer, “change what you can and accept what you cannot.” This kind of acceptance will lower your sense of stress – relax. There isn’t much you can do about genetics.