In the past, there has been a lot of evidence that there are things that we can do as individuals to help lower our chances of suffering from strokes, and a new global study confirms this. According to a new study that has just recently been released, the vast majority of stroke cases could have been prevented.
This study pointed to ten different risk factors, all of which can be adjusted by an individual with ease. The researchers behind this concluded that the ten risk factors were responsible for nine out of ten strokes. These risk factors included hypertension, diabetes, lack of exercise, smoking, poor diets, heart factors, alcohol consumption, stress, and high lipid levels. These nine factors were found to have the highest level of predictable influence over stroke. A tenth factor–irregular heart rhythm–was also found to have great influence, but it varied a bit from region to region. The bottom line was that all of these factors can be controlled, either through medication or action on the behalf of a regular person. You don’t need to be a doctor to lower your own chances or those of a family member when it comes to preventing a stroke.
On their own, some of these factors are more significant than others. Hypertension was by far the strongest influences. The study showed that if a high blood pressure was lowered to a normal one, the risk of stroke fell by 48 percent. Other things were not as significant. For example, if you eliminate smoking from your daily life, the risk of a stroke falls 12 percent. If you eliminate alcohol, your risk falls by 6 percent. If you can get your diabetes symptoms under control, your risk falls by 4 percent. Alone, many of these things are not huge influencers, but when combined and all ten issues are resolved, the chances of a having a stroke fell by about 91 percent. For family caregivers looking to help keep a parent or grandparent safe, this is huge news, and is something you should definitely be looking into.
When it comes to the care of an elderly loved one, it is encouraging news. It shows that the little things that we do to help the people we love matter. No, there’s no way to completely guarantee that you can stop your mom or dad from having a stroke in the future, but there are things that you can help them with today to ensure that they stay as healthy as possible for as long as possible. If you are unable to provide constant care during the day, then you can enlist the help of a professional in-home care specialist to make sure that your efforts are being continued even when you’re not there. For example, it is very tempting for someone to eat something unhealthy or smoke a couple cigarettes if left to their own devices, but with a loving caregiver filling in for you, the odds of this happening with your parent are far less.
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