More and more medical studies are coming up with the same conclusions:  many of the risk factors that can reduce the chance of a heart attack or stroke are within your control.  All you have to do is recognize them, and then of course, act on them.

Every year, around 800,000 Americans have a stroke with about 145,000 of them not surviving.  Even when a person does survive, their lives are forever changed, sometimes radically.  Those changes can range from little to no physical damage to significant and debilitating impairments including speech and mobility loss.

There are two main categories of risk factors:  those that are genetic and those that are a result of your lifestyle.  The first you’re born with and can’t do much about.  The second category on the other hand, is totally within your control…

Many of the lifestyle risk factors you already know.  They include the standard “watch what you eat and exercise more” that has become the main health prescription that all of us need to do more of.  But there’s more, much more.

First of all, don’t dismiss the “exercise and diet” as just more of the same pop-culture advice that’s on every health ad and exercise commercial.  If you’re going to focus on anything at all, this should be the thing you work on the most.  Nothing else provides the same level of health benefits – nothing.

Second, take a look at your lifestyle habits.  Do you regularly skimp on your sleep by staying up late or having to get up early?  Whether you’re missing sleep because of essential reasons (taking care of a sick child, for example) or for trivial ones (watching a late-night movie on AMC), the end result is the same – you don’t get the rest your body needs to rebuild and maintain its health.

If you drink more than one glass of wine, beer, or drink per day, you’re putting your body at risk of a stroke.  Smoking doubles the risk of stroke.  Now’s the time to cut back on these habits that are reducing your life and work on building new ones that will add to the time you have on this Earth.

Another lifestyle habit is your diet, the types of food you eat.  Reduce salty and fatty foods in your diet and you’ll lower your risk of stroke.  I don’t even have to mention reducing portion sizes, do I?

Lastly, you can manage your risk of stroke by taking control of your medical check-ups.  Get checked out on a regular basis, especially if you fall into a high risk group (being over 55, being male, being African-American, Hispanic, or Asian/Pacific Islander, or having a family history of stroke).  Many of the medical factors that can lead to stroke, such as diabetes, high cholesterol and blood pressure, can be successfully treated IF they’re identified in time – and the only way to do that is to get yourself checked out on a regular basis.

Having a stroke can radically change your life.  All those plans you had for dream vacations, travel, retirement, and so on can quickly go out the window.  The good news is that you have control over many of the risk factors that can lead to stroke, as well as to many other health problems.

The question is, what will you do with that control?

Hiram
The Balanced Health Guy
Certified Fitness Nutrition Coach and
Personal Fitness Trainer

Technorati Tags: heart, stroke, exercise, balanced health, risk factors, heart attack, brain damage, blood pressure, diabetes, fitness

Popularity: 1%

Rate this Article by Clicking on a Star:

Related posts:

1. What you Can Do to Prevent a Stroke It’s a fact of life – as you get older, the possibility of having a stroke increases as well. Men over the age of 55,...
2. Is it a Stroke? Find out FAST. As I’ve written before, my Dad died of a stroke earlier this year. Believe me, there’s nothing worse than being woken up in the middle...
3. Knowing the Symptoms of a Stroke Can Help Save a Life I recently buried my Dad. Although he went quickly, he’s still gone. He suffered a massive stroke and died several days later. I was fortunate...
4. Coping with High Blood Pressure I got a shock the last time I went to the dentist to get my teeth cleaned. It’s part of their practice to take a...
5. Preventing Cancer Did you know that up to 75% of cancer deaths in the US can be prevented?  According to a recent issue of Harvard Men’s Health...