How to reduce your risk of stroke

Dery Miller, MD

Neurology

Despite the significant advances in stroke care over the past 25 years, stroke remains the fifth leading cause of death and the leading cause of serious long-term disability in the United States. Neurologist Dery Miller, MD, said there are two ways we can change these statistics – through stroke prevention and recognition of stroke symptoms.

Stroke prevention

Dr. Miller said it’s important to identify your modifiable risk factors, meaning the risk factors you can change. Modifiable stroke risk factors include:

• Hypertension (high blood pressure)
• Diabetes (high blood sugar)
• Atrial fibrillation (a type of abnormal heart rhythm)
• High blood cholesterol
• Smoking tobacco
• Sedentary lifestyle
• Kidney disease
• Sleep apnea
• Heavy alcohol consumption
• Diet

“Identifying and addressing these risk factors by lifestyle changes and being screened regularly by your primary care provider can go a long way in primary stroke prevention,” said Dr. Miller. “Unfortunately, some risk factors are out of our hands such as age, genetics, and gender – men have a higher risk for cerebrovascular and cardiovascular disease.”

Stroke symptoms

Recognizing the symptoms of a stroke is also very important because treatment options are time sensitive. Strokes can present in a multitude of ways and are difficult to recognize, so tools such as BE FAST have been developed to make it easier. BE FAST stands for:

• B – Balance off/dizzy 
• E – Eyes blurred
• F – Face drooping
• A – Arm weakness 
• S – Speech difficulty
• T – Time to call 911 

Every second counts when it comes to stroke. If you notice any of these symptoms in yourself or someone else, call 911 immediately.