Get Healthy and See Your Stroke Risk Fall
Eating well, exercising and kicking tobacco are key, study finds
 (HealthDay News) -- If you want to keep your brain healthy, there are three important lifestyle habits that experts say you must adopt: healthy eating, no smoking and regular exercise.
Maintain these habits and your risk of developing a stroke falls by 80 percent, according to research published in the journal Circulation.
"We've previously found that a low-risk lifestyle was very important in preventing coronary heart disease and diabetes, and now we've also found that these healthy habits can lower your risk of stroke," Stephanie Chiuve, a research associate in the nutrition department at the Harvard School of Public Health and an author of the study, told HealthDay.
"A healthy lifestyle is associated with an 80 percent lower risk for ischemic stroke compared to people who have none of these lifestyle factors," Chiuve said. "More than half of ischemic strokes might have been prevented if everyone adhered to these healthy lifestyle factors."
The major culprits in the development of cardiovascular disease and stroke are high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes, according to the American College of Physicians. Each of these factors can be improved with healthy lifestyle changes.
Yet, stroke is still the third-leading cause of death and a major cause of permanent disability in the United States, according to the study.
Data from the study came from about 71,000 women and 44,000 men who participated in the Nurses' Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study. It included information gathered every two years about smoking status, weight, blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes, the use of medications such as aspirin and vitamin E supplements, and exercise.
A healthy lifestyle, according to the researchers, included not smoking; exercising moderately at least 30 minutes on most days; drinking no more than a glass of alcohol daily for women and up to two for men (one drink is 4 ounces of wine, 12 ounces of beer, or 1.5 ounces of hard liquor); having a body mass index under 25 in middle age; and eating a healthy diet, which means a higher intake of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, soy, nuts and more lean meat, along with taking a multivitamin for at least five years.
Each factor individually can lower the risk for stroke. Quitting smoking, for instance, can drop the risk of stroke by about 50 percent, and having a glass of alcohol each day cuts the odds by 10 percent.
But when combined, the factors made a dramatic difference, dropping stroke risk by 80 percent, the study found.
"These things you can do yourself without your doctor's intervention are very important in making you healthier," Dr. Paul Cullis, chief of neurology at St. John Hospital in Detroit, told HealthDay. "This study tells us that we're in the driver's seat, and hopefully gets people more engaged in the process of trying to make themselves healthier."
On the Web
To learn more about stroke prevention, visit the U.S. National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.
SOURCES:
HealthDay News ; Stephanie Chiuve, Sc.D., research associate, Department of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston; Paul Cullis, M.D., chief of neurology, St. John Hospital, Detroit; Aug. 26, 2008, Circulation; American College of Physicians (www.acponline.org)
Author:
Serena Gordon
Publication date:
Sept. 30, 2009
Copyright © 2009 ScoutNews, LLC. All rights reserved.
|
