Stroke
Healthy lifestyle cuts stroke risk: study
A person’s odds of suffering a stroke might be significantly reduced by maintaining an overall healthy lifestyle, which includes not smoking, exercising daily, consuming a healthy diet, drinking alcohol in moderation and maintaining a healthy weight, according to a study released today.
In the study, people with these five healthy lifestyle habits had about an 80 percent lower risk of ischemic stroke compared to people with none of the healthy habits. An ischemic stroke occurs when a blood vessel supplying blood to the brain becomes blocked; it is the most common type of stroke.
This study shows that a “low-risk” lifestyle recommended to lower the risk of multiple chronic diseases, such as diabetes, cancer and heart disease, may also help ward off stroke, the study team notes in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.
Depression linked with first stroke in elderly
The results of a study in the current issue of the journal Stroke suggest that there is an association between depression and an increased risk of having a first stroke in elderly patients.
“It has long been noted that depression is common after stroke and that depression is associated with increased mortality in patients with stroke,” Dr. Ingmar Skoog, of Sahlgrenska University Hospital/Molndal, Sweden, and colleagues write. During the last decade, they add, published reports have suggested that depression may actually contribute to stroke risk.
The current study involved 401 stroke-free 85-year-olds who were participants in the Longitudinal Gerontological and Geriatric Population Studies in Goteborg. At study entry 72 were demented and 329 were dementia-free. The subjects were followed for 3 years and information was obtained from the Swedish Hospital Discharge Register, death certificates, self-reports, and key informants.
Beijing pollution may trigger heart attacks, strokes
Olympic athletes aren’t the only ones who need to be concerned about the heavily polluted air in Beijing. The dirty air may trigger serious cardiovascular problems for some spectators.
Two researchers in pulmonary medicine and critical care at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine warn that for people in certain risk groups, breathing high levels of pollution can cause heart attacks and strokes within 24 hours of exposure and increase the possibility of having blood clots in their legs on the plane home.
The people who are vulnerable include those who already have known cardiovascular disease or risk factors for cardiovascular disease such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, obesity, lung disease, a current smoking habit or a family member diagnosed with heart disease before age 55.
Thousands of Children Die of Strokes Each Year
Sideria Hendricks is only 10 years old, but she already has suffered two strokes.
The first occurred on Christmas Eve a few years ago. Sideria suddenly couldn’t speak, and her left arm and left leg went limp. She eventually recovered, but later suffered a second minor stroke.
Sideria has sickle cell disease, which is among the more than 100 risk factors for strokes in babies, children and young adults, said Dr. Jose Biller, chairman of the department of neurology at Loyola University Health System, who is treating Sideria. Although strokes are among the top ten causes of death in childhood, family members and doctors often are slow to recognize the symptoms.
Falls a risk after stroke survivors leave hospital
During the 6-month period following a stroke, falls are common and often result in injury requiring medical treatment, according to surveys of more than 1000 stroke survivors in New Zealand.
Once stroke patients leave the hospital, their risk of falling is double that of people who haven’t had a stroke, Dr. Ngaire Kerse of the University of Auckland told Reuters Health.
“Fall prevention should be part of stroke rehabilitation,” she stressed.
“Silent” heart attack boosts dementia risk
Men who are found to have had an unrecognized or “silent” heart attack are at increased risk of developing dementia or small lesions in the brain that can affect cognition, Dutch researchers report.
Dr. Monique M. B. Breteler told Reuters Health that her group had previously found that men, but not women, with a silent heart attack are more likely to have a stroke than men who had a recognized heart attack or those who had not had any heart attack.
To examine whether this might also be the case for dementia and so-called cerebral small vessel disease, Breteler of Erasmus University, Rotterdam, and her colleagues examined data for more than 6300 participants in a population-based study.
Human touch helps stroke survivors regain mobility
Six months after a stroke, survivors who are able to walk but still have moderate-to-severe difficulty in doing so, make better progress in their walking ability through physical therapist-assisted training than training provided by a robotic device, according to report published in the medical journal Stroke.
“We wanted to know whether using a robotic device that guides the limb in a symmetrical walking pattern would facilitate greater improvements in walking speed and symmetry than more traditional walking interventions with a physical therapist,” lead author Dr. T. George Hornby said in an American Heart Association news release.
Hornby and colleagues at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago evaluated 48 stroke patients who had been partially paralyzed on one side of the body for more than 6 months. All of the patients participated in 12 sessions of 30-minute therapy on a treadmill while wearing a harness to support their body weight.
Alzheimer Disease Risks Are Gender Specific
The risks of developing Alzheimer’s disease differ between the sexes, with stroke in men, and depression in women, critical factors, suggests research published ahead of print in the Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery and Psychiatry.
The French researchers base their findings on almost 7000 people over the age of 65, drawn from the general population in three French cities.
None had dementia, but around four out of 10 were deemed to have mildly impaired mental agility (mild cognitive impairment) at the start of the study.
Higher wealth linked to lower stroke risk from age 50 to 64
Higher wealth is linked with a lower risk of stroke in Americans between the ages of 50 and 64, but does not predict strokes in those over age 65, researchers reported in Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association.
“We confirmed that lower wealth, education and income are associated with increased stroke up to age 65, and wealth is the strongest predictor of stroke among the factors we looked at,” said Mauricio Avendano, Ph.D., co-author of the study. “After age 65, the association of education, income and wealth with stroke are very weak, and wealth did not clearly predict stroke.”
This is the first study assessing the age patterns of wealth, income and education disparities in stroke incidence in a national sample of older Americans. It’s also the first study reporting that wealth status predicts stroke incidence independently of income and education, said Avendano, a research fellow in public health at the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Women More Likely to Comply with Stroke Prevention Despite Being More Depressed
After a stroke, women are more likely to become depressed than men, but despite being depressed, women are more likely than men to take stroke medications, according to research that will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology 60th Anniversary Annual Meeting in Chicago, April 12–19, 2008.
The study involved 491 stroke survivors who were all prescribed drugs prior to hospital discharge aimed at preventing a second stroke by lowering cholesterol, reducing high blood pressure and preventing blood clots. Three months later, researchers evaluated the participants’ level of depression, quality of life, and whether they were still taking the stroke prevention drugs. A total of 385 people, or 78 percent, were still taking their medications after three months.
Nineteen percent of women reported feelings of depression, compared to 10 percent of men. Thirty percent of women reported sleep problems, compared to 22 percent of men. But the men who kept taking their drugs reported a better overall quality of life than women who stuck with their medications.
“Give Me 5” stroke awareness campaign launched
Actress Morgan Fairchild has teamed up with the American Academy of Neurology, the American College of Emergency Physicians and the American Stroke Association to launch a new campaign designed to raise awareness about the early warning signs of stroke and the critical importance of early treatment.
“With stroke, every minute counts,” said Fairchild, who cared for her mother who suffered a series of debilitating strokes until her death in 1999.
Recognizing that you or someone you are with is having a stroke as soon as symptoms appear can “make the difference between life and death,” added Dr. Ralph Sacco, member of the American Academy of Neurology.
Few options for stroke victims; research continues
More than a decade after the launch of clot-buster Activase, the Genentech Inc drug remains the only option for stroke victims despite high-profile research aimed at improving the odds of recovery from the No. 3 cause of death in the United States.
Since most stroke patients are unable to quickly recognize their symptoms, just a small percentage end up being treated with Activase, an intravenous drug approved for use only within three hours of the onset of a stroke.
Drug companies have sought to widen that treatment window and develop medicines that would protect the brain from damage caused by a stroke, but the field is littered with failures.
Vegan diet may help ease rheumatoid arthritis
A gluten-free vegan diet full of nuts, sunflower seeds, fruit and vegetables appears to offer protection against heart attacks and strokes for people with rheumatoid arthritis, Swedish researchers said on Tuesday.
The diet appeared to lower cholesterol and also affect the immune system, easing some symptoms associated with the painful joint condition, they said.
The study suggested diet could play an important role for people with rheumatoid arthritis who are often more prone to heart attacks, strokes and clogged arteries, said the team from Sweden’s Karolinska Institute.
The obese may fare better after stroke: study
Obese and overweight individuals are less likely to die in the 5 years after suffering a stroke than are their normal-weight peers, a new study shows.
In the study, researchers analyzed data from 21,884 stroke patients in Denmark who had their body mass index (BMI) determined. BMI is an accepted means of determining how fat or thin a person is.
The patients were placed into one of five BMI groups: underweight (BMI < 18.5), normal weight (18.5 to 24.9), overweight (25.0 to 29.9), obese (30.0 to 34.9), and severely obese (35 and greater) and were followed for up to 5 years after their stroke.
Magnesium associated with lower risk for some strokes in male smokers
Male smokers who consume more magnesium appear to have a lower risk for cerebral infarction, a type of stroke that occurs when blood flow to the brain is blocked, according to a report in the March 10 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
Recent studies indicate that changes in diet may help prevent stroke, according to background information in the article. Hypertension, or high blood pressure, is a risk factor for stroke; therefore, dietary measures that reduce blood pressure may in turn affect stroke risk. Consuming more magnesium, calcium and potassium has been associated with lower blood pressure in previous studies, while sodium has been positively associated with hypertension.
Susanna C. Larsson, Ph.D., of the Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden, and colleagues analyzed the diets of 26,556 Finnish male smokers age 50 to 69 years who had not previously had strokes. In addition to the types of food they ate, the men reported other characteristics including medical, smoking and physical activity histories. Their height, weight and blood pressure were recorded, and a blood sample was taken.
