6 Tips to Help You Prevent a Stroke

4 minutes

Adopting these healthy habits as well as controlling and watching your current condition are the best ways to prevent having a stroke. Similarly, if you have any of the significant risk factors, it's essential that you have regular checkups with your doctor.

Written by Daniela Echeverri Castro

Last update: 09 October, 2022

There are many healthy habits that can help prevent a stroke. Although this can appear from factors that are out of your control, a healthy lifestyle is a determining factor in reducing your risk.

A stroke occurs when something interrupts or reduces the blood flow to your brain. By cutting off the oxygen and nutrients, your brain tissues suffer severe damage that can often cause fatal outcomes.

The most concerning is that the number of people that suffer from stroke is rising, and there are millions of people that are at risk. Despite this, many people have ignored what they have to do to prevent it.

What are some causes of strokes?

A cerebrovascular accident (CVA) or a stroke happens when there’s a block in the blood flow in some part of the brain. In other words, this causes brain cells to die and has very serious consequences.

The majority of these cases are caused by the obstruction of one of the arteries (ischemic stroke). Additionally, ruptured blood vessels could also cause a stroke or a temporary interruption of circulation to your brain.

Risk factors

Suffering from certain conditions and having a sedentary lifestyle considerably increases your probability of suffering from a stroke.

Some of the main risk factors are:

Being overweight or obese
Not doing any physical activity
Excessively drinking alcoholic beverages
Using illegal drugs like cocaine or methamphetamine
Having high cholesterol
Suffering from high blood pressure
Tobacco addiction,
Sleep apnea
Being a diabetic patient
Suffering from other cardiovascular problems: heart failure, heart defects, heart infection, etc

The symptoms of strokes

Knowing some of the signs of stroke is key to tend to the emergency as soon as you notice it. Although they can manifest in many ways, getting immediate help is important for the outlook.

Here are some of the most common symptoms:

Problems speaking or understanding
Paralysis or numbness in the face, arms, or legs
Difficulty seeing in one or both eyes
Severe head pains
Nausea, dizziness, and vomiting
Problems walking and loss of balance

Tips to prevent a stroke

You don’t have to be a part of the high-risk group to start to prevent a stroke. In fact, any person, even one that’s considered healthy, should follow some guidelines to take care of your brain and heart health.

1. Work out

Physical exercise is one of the most effective habits to prevent having a stroke. Setting aside 150 minutes a week is enough to obtain benefits from working out. This could be done in five 30-minute sessions, for example.

Some recommended activities are:

Riding a bike
Jumping rope
Speed walking
Swimming
Going to Zumba class
Weight lifting

2. Watch your cholesterol

Hypercholesterolemia, or high cholesterol, is one of the main causes of strokes. Since it’s a substance that accumulates in your arteries, it can cause a blockage that triggers the attack.

Some of the ways you can keep your cholesterol under control are:

Limiting your consumption of fat and sources of cholesterol
Working out regularly
Increasing fiber consumption
Maintaining a healthy weight

3. Follow a healthy diet

Above all, it’s essential to put an emphasis on your diet since a proper diet is key to protect your cerebral health. Following a balanced diet and controlling your calories significantly reduces your risk. Therefore, be sure to:

Eat lots of fresh fruits and vegetables.
Eat smaller meals five or six times per day.
Limit your consumption of processed foods and salt.
Drink lots of water.
Take in a moderate amount of protein and carbohydrates.

Discover: The Japanese Diet: Healthy Oriental Food for Weight Loss

4. Avoid cigarettes

The toxins in cigarettes directly affect your arterial health. Since they deteriorate and harden your arteries, cigarettes increase your risk of blood clots, coronary disease, and aneurysm.

Therefore, quitting smoking isn’t just an option, but rather a necessity.

5. Control your blood pressure

woman checking her blood pressure to help prevent a stroke

Having high blood pressure or sporadic episodes of high blood pressure is the main risk factor of having a stroke.

So with the end goal being to reduce the risk of this sickness, it’s essential that you follow medical instructions to keep your blood pressure at a healthy level.

See also: 5 Natural Remedies That May Help Treat High Blood Pressure

6. Maintain a healthy weight

Overweight patients and obesity are one of the main risk groups for this serious condition. Fat buildup affects blood circulation and raises your risk of blood clots damaged arteries.

If your body mass index (BMI) is above or equal to 30, you’re at higher risk for heart and cerebral conditions. So, it’s best to maintain your BMI below 25.

As you can see, adopting these healthy habits as well as controlling and watching your current condition are the best ways to prevent having a stroke. Similarly, if you have any of the significant risk factors, it’s essential that you have regular checkups with your doctor.