Understanding Stroke Prevention

To understand stroke prevention, you must realize that the main cause of strokes is atherosclerosis, which is the hardening of the arteries due to a build up in the arteries, which contains fats, calcium and plaque. The immobility of the artery walls due to the plaque build up creates a prime place for a stroke to happen because of the blockage or rupture that may happen when a blood clot or weakened artery wall complicates the situation.

Thinning The Blood

The risk of a stroke is reduced with an anti-platelet agent or an anticoagulant medication. Aspirin therapy is used for the prevention of a stroke because of its action as an anti-platelet agent. Warfarin is used because it acts as an anticoagulant for the blood. Both of these can reduce blood clots.

Hypertension And Hyperlipidemia

Medication for the correction of hypertension and hyperlipidemia can reduce the risk of a stroke for a patient. Hypertension is the medical term for high blood pressure and hyperlipidemia is the medical term for having high levels of cholesterol in the blood.

Carotid Endarterectomy

Carotid endarterectomy can be used as a method of stroke prevention for patients with severe or symptomatic internal carotid stenosis. This procedure is not done unless the risk of stroke is extreme because a carotid endarterectomy can cause a stroke. In this procedure, the excess plaque is removed from a problem artery in the brain and there are both invasive and non-invasive methods of this procedure.

Quit Smoking

You can lessen your risk of having a stroke by reducing or eliminating cigarettes from your life. According to medical studies, a strong link exists between smoking and strokes. Smoking contributes to cardiovascular diseases including high blood pressure.

Lose Weight

Losing weight can help to reduce the risk of a stroke when a person suffers from obesity. The extra weight puts a strain on the body's cardiovascular system and raises the risk of a stroke because of the effects to the blood pressure and other factors.

Regular Exercise

Regular exercise is an excellent method of stroke prevention because exercise can cut the risk of having a stroke by fifty percent and you should not overlook it as a powerful method for the prevention of a stroke. An hour of daily exercise such as simple walking can provide the body with the exercise it needs to develop a strong cardiovascular system. The exercise can be broken down into ten or fifteen minute segments if that is more convenient as long as enough exercise for cardiovascular health is done.

Healthy And Low Fat Diet

Eat a healthy diet with less saturated fat, more foods filled with fiber and nutrition such as the darker colored vegetables and fruits and more grains because a healthier diet will contribute to a healthier cardiovascular system. Overeating fatty foods will cause the excess saturated fats to settle in the arteries, which is a problem in atherosclerosis. Fibrous foods act as a scrub for the body s systems because of their ability to clean the body from the inside.

New treatment is continually being sought for stroke prevention and these new treatments include improvement of the current drugs being used and the development of new medications and the development of treatment programs for different risk groups.