Did you know that one in five US women will have at least one stroke in their lifetime. In fact, stroke kills twice as many women as breast cancer does. Due in part to the fact that managing blood pressure plays a major role in stroke prevention, and that women have unique risks for high blood pressure (pregnancy, birth control and menopause among them). While women have unique risk factors, stroke impacts people of all ages, races, and genders.
In fact, every forty seconds someone in the US has a stroke. The good news, according to many experts, is that up to 80% of these strokes may be preventable. The Center for Disease Control estimates that of the nearly 800K strokes (in the US) each year, that and 25% are from patients who had a prior stroke. The first stroke puts a patient at has a much higher risk of having another stroke. In fact The American Stroke Association says the likelihood is almost 10 times higher that a person who's had one or more transient ischemic attacks (TIAs) will have another stroke.
Know your risk factors! There are some risk factors that you can't control like your age, race, gender or family history. Your medical history also plays a role, including prior stroke, TIAs or heart attack.
There are many stroke risk factors, that you can improve upon and even control by paying attention to your blood pressure and cholesterol and by exercising and eating a nutrient-rich diet. And of course STOP SMOKING!
May is Stroke Awareness Month, a time with healthcare professionals and advocates come together to reinforce stroke awareness the causes, the warning signs, prevention tools and insightful statistics.
