As with heart attacks, many people believe strokes affect primarily men.  But national statistics belie this, and tell a different story.

Strokes affect women in significant numbers.  According to the American Stroke Association, stroke is the country’s third leading killer.  About 700,000 Americans will have one this year, but 55 percent of all strokes and 60 percent of stroke deaths occur in women.  About 100,000 women die annually of stroke, 40,000 more than the number of men who die from it.  The fact that risk of stroke increases with age and that women live longer than men accounts for a large portion of that difference.

But, while it’s true that men are at greater risk than women in earlier years, as people get older, the difference becomes less and less apparent.

Strokes can affect younger women as well, including after childbirth when the blood is more likely to clot.  For women who have migraine headaches, and those who smoke and take oral contraceptives, there is more risk of stroke.

Neurologists also see a younger stroke population due to the high incidence of diabetes and hypertension, both of which affect the small vessels of the brain.  Other risk factors include high cholesterol, family history, untreated heart disease, carotid artery disease, sickle cell anemia and tiny, sometimes imperceptible, undiagnosed strokes called TIAs, or Transient Ischemic Attacks (see below for definition).

There are about 4 million stroke survivors, many disabled.  Those who have had a stroke are at high risk for having another one.

And yet even if—or especially if—stroke runs in your family, you can change the odds.  It helps to know what a stroke is and what its symptoms are, and what you should do in case you think you’re having a stroke.  But most of all you need to know that a few very practical measures can help you avoid a stroke.

What is a stroke?

There’s more than one kind of stroke.  A stroke, generally speaking, is an injury to the brain resulting from some problem in blood flow to a specific area.

More than four out of five strokes are ischemic, in which a blood vessel supplying the brain is blocked.  Deprived of blood, which brings oxygen and nutrients, brain cells begin to die.

The other kind of stroke, called hemorrhagic or bleeding stroke, is less common but more likely to be fatal.  It occurs when a blood vessel in the brain bursts.

A third kind is the Transient Ischemic Attack (TIA), also known as the "mini-stroke.”  This temporary interruption of blood flow usually lasts only minutes, and the effects are gone in 24 hours and don’t cause permanent damage.  But TIAs are dangerous, since they signal an increased risk of an actual stroke.

How do you spot a stroke?

Stroke symptoms come on suddenly and are often confined to one side of the body—notably loss of vision in one eye or sudden weakness or paralysis on one side.  Other symptoms include difficulty speaking, disorientation, confusion, memory loss, dizziness, and loss of coordination and balance.  A sudden splitting headache may be a symptom of a hemorrhagic stroke.

If you have symptoms of stroke, call 911 immediately. If you can, note the time when the symptoms began.  Brain cells can die very quickly, but if you can get to an emergency room soon, prompt treatment can help prevent severe brain damage.  For instance, anti-clotting treatments should be given within three hours of the onset of symptoms.  Don’t try to drive yourself to the hospital.  Get someone else to do it, or wait for the ambulance.

Dodging the bullet.

If you read my newsletter of 1/20/2005, www.oleda.com (click Oleda’s Newsletters), you already know more than you might imagine about preventing stroke.  That’s because the same measures that may protect you from a heart attack may also prevent a stroke.  You get two kinds of prevention for the price of one and nothing about the regimen is difficult.

Know your blood pressure.  Chronic high blood pressure is a direct cause of stoke.  If your blood pressure is “normal,” do all you can to keep it that way.  Under guidelines concerning blood pressure, a reading between 120/80 and 139/89—once called “normal” or “high-normal”—is now called prehypertension and considered a signal to take preventive action.

If you smoke, quit.  Five years after quitting, your risk of stroke returns to the level of those who never smoked.

Maintain a healthy weight.  Some or all of my daily regimen of supplements may help:  OLEDA VEGGIES & FRUIT Concentrate “Food," Age Enhancer Vitamin, Aloe Vera Health Drink Concentrate and Vitamin B-Complex.

Regular aerobic exercise.  Three times a week, do enough to work up at least a light sweat.  Exercise is a proven way to treat and prevent hypertension.

Control your blood cholesterol levels.  High LDL (“bad”) and low HDL (“good”) cholesterol are both risks for arteriosclerosis, which can lead to clots and thus a stroke.  The advice above about diet, smoking, exercise, and weight control can help keep your cholesterol at healthy levels.

If you drink alcohol, keep your intake moderate.  A daily drink or two (wine, beer, or spirits) has been shown to reduce the risk of ischemic stroke.  This does not mean you should start drinking to reduce stroke risk.  Alcohol can quickly turn from friend to foe.

Aspirin?  Before taking low-dose aspirin, talk with your doctor.  Low-dose aspirin helps prevent heart attacks, but if you are at risk for stroke, aspirin has some drawbacks.  It can indeed reduce the risk of ischemic stroke, particularly a second stroke, but aspirin can promote bleeding and thus may increase the risk of hemorrhagic stroke, especially if you have high blood pressure.

If you think you are having a heart attack, the considered advice is to chew and swallow a whole adult aspirin while you get medical help.  But you should not do this if you think you are having a stroke.

Doctors, science and research are all helping us to live longer, but it is still up to us to help ourselves…to look for the warning signs as well as to help prevent them. This is one of the ways to insure a longer, healthier life.