November 26, 2024

How to reduce your risk of stroke

A Kaiser Permanente doctor and researcher shares the simple changes you can make to stay healthy.

To prevent a stroke, talk to your doctor about adopting a healthy lifestyle.

Every year, more than 600,000 people in the U.S. have a first stroke. Many of these strokes could have been prevented.

“Strokes are common in the U.S., but it doesn’t have to be this way,” said Mai Nguyen-Huynh, MD, a neurologist and research scientist who leads Kaiser Permanente’s stroke care program in Northern California. “To prevent a stroke, it’s important to adopt a healthy lifestyle.”

Dr. Nguyen-Huynh recently worked with the American Stroke Association to develop new guidelines to help prevent strokes.

She answered some questions about strokes and ways to prevent them.

What is a stroke?

A stroke occurs when a blood vessel in the brain is blocked or bursts. Blood carries oxygen. If the brain can’t get enough oxygen, it stops working properly.

Strokes cause about 160,000 deaths in the U.S. each year, making them a leading cause of death. They’re also a leading cause of disability.

How can people prevent a stroke?

To prevent a stroke, it’s important to practice healthy habits. This means you should:

Eat healthy foods
Exercise
Not smoke
Get good sleep

It’s also important that you get regular health screenings and work with your doctor to:

Manage your weight
Keep your cholesterol at a healthy level
Keep your blood pressure within a healthy range
Manage your blood sugar levels

You can learn more about steps you can take for lifelong health in the American Heart Association’s Life’s Essential 8.

What are the signs and symptoms of a stroke?

BE FAST is a simple way to remember the main warning signs of a stroke:

Balance

Loss of balance or trouble walking

Eyes

Trouble seeing out of one or both eyes

Face

Sudden uneven appearance of the face or facial droop

Arms

Weakness, numbness, or sudden trouble moving or feeling arms or legs

Speech

Trouble speaking

Time to call 911

If you or a loved one experiences the symptoms above, call 911

Other symptoms are possible, including confusion and severe headache.

Speed saves lives

When a stroke happens, minutes matter. At Kaiser Permanente, our patients get fast stroke care thanks to our award-winning telestroke program.

Here’s how it works:

When a patient with stroke symptoms arrives at the hospital, that person’s care team notifies a remote stroke specialist.
The specialist assesses the patient via video.
If the patient has a blood clot causing the stroke, the stroke specialist can order a medication that dissolves the clot. The clot-busting drug is called a thrombolytic. It’s given through an IV.

The faster a person gets the drug, the better their chance of surviving with fewer long-term disabilities.

Patients should get the thrombolytic within 60 minutes of arriving at the emergency room, according to the American Heart Association and American Stroke Association. At Kaiser Permanente, patients regularly get it much faster.

“I’m proud to say that because of our telestroke program, we get the drug to patients in fewer than 26 minutes, on average,” said Dr. Nguyen-Huynh, who helped create the telestroke program.

Learn more about our telestroke program and how it helped save the life of a man who thought he just had tennis elbow.