All About Strokes

Causes of a Stroke
Negative emotions, anger and sudden changes in body position in response to a startling event can trigger a stroke. Smoking and high blood pressure are well-known risk factors that are likely to cause stroke. But there hasn't been any information about what causes a stroke to occur at a particular time.

Researchers from the Tel Aviv University in Israel studied 200 stroke patients and interviewed them about potential triggers for four days after the event. The study focused on a variety of possible triggers, including negative and positive emotions, anger, posture changes, heavy physical exertion, heavy eating, and sudden temperature changes.

At least one trigger was identified in 38 per cent of the subjects in the two hours prior to stroke onset. The presence of at least one of the seven triggers raised the risk of stroke by more than eight-fold.

The risks seen with the individual triggers, however, varied greatly, ranging from a four-fold increased risk for positive emotions and heavy eating, to a 24-fold increased risk for sudden posture change in response to a startling event. In addition to sudden posture change, anger and negative emotions were the strongest stroke triggers, each raising the risk by 14-fold.

The main modifiable risk factors for stroke still are high blood pressure, smoking, diabetes, high cholesterol and obesity.

What is a stroke?
A stroke or "brain attack" occurs when the vessels supplying blood to the brain are blocked, interrupting the blood flow. This results in the death of the brain cells. Depending on the area of the brain involved and the extent of brain cell death, the specific body functions such as speech, movement or memory may be affected. It's important to note that if you are involved in more outdoor activities as well as indoors, then this transfer of attention may also help a great deal!

The symptoms of a stroke may be:
Loss of consciousness.
Sudden numbness or weakness of the face, arm or leg.
Sudden confusion and difficulty in speaking or understanding.
Sudden problem in vision.
Dizziness, loss of balance and coordination.
Sudden severe headache and vomiting.

So if you think all you really need to do is sit back and keep making sacks of money, well, think again, as there are innumerable mentally draining situations we could put ourselves into, only to understand that none of these actually count as in the final reckoning, it's how well we've lived our lives is what matters. Some food for thought!