4 Causes Of Stroke Every Person Should Know

Considering that it is Stroke Awareness Month, it is important to talk a little bit about this condition. A stroke occurs when blood flow to a certain part of your brain is cut off. The interruption in the blood supply prevents blood and oxygen from reaching the brain's tissue. Without oxygen, brain cells and tissue become damaged and may start to die within minutes. To help prevent stroke, it is important to know what its major causes are. Let's take a look at them!

High blood pressure

Medical practitioners may call it hypertension. High blood pressure is one of the biggest causes of strokes. If your blood pressure is typically 140/90 or higher your doctor will advise and discuss treatments with you.

Tip: To effectively calculate heart rate and blood pressure, most clinics and hospitals use a PC Based Resting ECG (Electrocardiogram) device.

Tobacco

Smoking or chewing tobacco increases your chances of getting a stroke. Nicotine can make your blood pressure go up. Cigarette smoke creates a fatty buildup in your main neck artery and also thickens your blood, making it more likely to clot. 

Heart disease

Under this condition, patients tend to have defective heart valves as well as atrial fibrillation, or irregular heartbeat, which contributes to a quarter of all strokes among the elderly. You might also have clogged arteries from fatty deposits.

Diabetes

People with diabetes often have high blood pressure and are more likely to be overweight. Both increase the chances of a stroke. Diabetes can damage your blood vessels, which makes a stroke more likely to occur. If you have a stroke when your blood sugar levels are high, the injury to your brain is larger.

To calculate your heart rate and measure blood pressure, if you are a physician, you should purchase a PC Based Resting ECG system. If you are a patient, you should continue to have annual physicals and if needed, take a Resting ECG test.

If Handled Correctly, Stress Will Not Be Able To Affect Cardiovascular Health

We do not realize but our everyday response to situations such as being stuck in traffic, multiple assignments at work, arguments with the better half, all can have a bearing on our health. When you become irritated, to be more precise, stressed with daily occurrence of these events, you will find that your quality of sleep goes down, your disposition becomes negative, issues with your appetite develops, and the gravest of things, your heart begins to suffer.

Doctors have not been able to pinpoint how stress affects our heart health. It is believed by medical professionals that stress leads to inflammation, which ultimately causes heart problems. This hasn’t been proven but the medical community is sure that stress is detrimental for our heart health.

Under stress, we tend to act in ways that can definitely increase our risks of developing cardiovascular problems. For instance, we all have seen people or heard about people who were under stress and due to that stress, completely stopped exercising or their morning walks. They suddenly start gorging on unhealthy foods, which slowly increases their cholesterol levels. We know that both drinking and smoking too much is not good for our heart health yet people experiencing stress tend to indulge in these two activities.

These unhealthy habits can cause heart arrhythmias, which are fluttering or racing of the heart, shortness of breath, or chest pain. If you experience any of these systems and have been under stress for some time, a visit to the doctor becomes extremely vital. Doctors will do a Stress Test and depending on the results, might make you use a HolterMonitoring System to check irregularities in the heart rhythm.

People can avoid indulging in unhealthy habits by dealing with stress in a healthy manner. The following are some smarter ways of dealing with stress.

§  You should strive to stay positive by surrounding yourself with uplifting, positive people. The more you laugh, the lower your stress hormones get. Not just that, laughing more will bring down inflammation in the arteries and better your good cholesterol levels

§  Hypertension is a known factor that causes heart problems. You can lower it by engaging in daily meditation which can involve focusing on deep, long breaths. Along with meditation, yoga and prayer can also be practiced

§  Exercise is another incredible way of dealing with stress. When you stay physically active, your body discharges endorphins, which are known as mood-boosting chemicals. By exercising, you will effectively deal with stress, bring down your high blood pressure, toughen your heart muscles, and keep your weight in check

These are some of the most common ways that doctors prescribe to patients to effectively deal with stress and take the pressure off of their heart.