With May being Stroke Awareness Month, we examined what really is a stroke and what are its effects in the article entitled “A Quick Guide to Understanding Strokes“. In this article, we will look at how to empower ourselves and decrease our chances of getting a stroke or prevent them altogether.
As you know based on our guide to strokes, they can be very debilitating if not deadly. So today, when heart disease is the number one killer of all North Americans and in that strokes are the 3rd leading cause of death, it is I think, more prudent than ever to be aware of how we can avoid falling prey to becoming part of these statistics.
Although, strokes can occur at any age, stroke risk normally increases as we age. After about the age of 55, the chance of a stroke more than doubles with each decade after that, with about ¾ of all strokes happening in people who are over the age of 65.
Hence let us examine what changes we can make in our lives today, or what habits we should enhance to not only have the best health possible, but more than anything to reduce and perhaps even eliminate altogether our chances of heart disease and having a stroke.
It is important to point out that many of us have a real hard time making changes when it comes to our eating, thinking and exercise patterns. If you are one of those people, I invite you to ask yourself the following questions:
- Why is my health, and either improving it or keeping it, not motivating enough for me to make changes?
- Why do I need to suffer, through emotional or physical pain before I start taking my health seriously?
- What is stopping me from making my health, my number one priority today?
I think that until we really face ourselves and our habits, and consciously acknowledge our own role in our health, we really can’t get very far. For many people, the way they eat, think or exercise goes through spurts of ambitious change, only to fall back to old patterns. Hence, an honest and conscious change is necessary today, if we want to reap the benefits of great health tomorrow.
So what is the biggest contributor to having a stroke? One of the biggest risk factors for strokes is high blood pressure. High blood pressure is greatly tied to a diet high in sodium, a lifestyle high is stress and one that is also sedentary. Although these factors usually work together, it is also very possible to have normal blood pressure when you do not exercise, eat poorly and lead a very stressful life. So just because one may not have high blood pressure, does not put us out of the woods yet, where the risk for having a stroke is concerned.
Hence here are a few guidelines for preventing a stroke naturally, meaning no preventative drug therapy:
1. Don’t Smoke
Smoking greatly increases your risk of atherosclerosis, a building up of fatty tissue (mostly cholesterol) in your blood vessels. This narrows the diameter of the blood vessel and leads to high blood pressure and increased risk of blockage in a vessel, cutting off the blood supply and leading to strokes.
For women, smoking and the chances of a stroke are also especially increased if the woman is on birth control. Hence, if you are on birth control and want to avoid having any blood clotting or strokes, it is imperative that you stop smoking.
The risk of ischemic stroke in current smokers is about double that of nonsmokers.
2. Decrease or Eliminate Your Intake of Saturated Fats
Saturated fats are the most stable fats that also cause the most problems for our body and heart health. This is due to the fact that they are the main source of dietary cholesterol. These fats are almost solely found in animal products, like meat, eggs and all dairy. As for plants, they are only found in coconut, coconut oil, palm oil, palm kernel oil, and cocoa butter (the base of all commercial chocolate).
Bad cholesterol (LDL) from these fats and from its own pure sources too, accumulates in our blood vessels as hard sticky plaque. This build-up called atherosclerosis, narrows the diameter of our blood vessels, which tends to increase blood pressure. It also increases the risk of an arterial blockage, because at any time, a piece of this plaque may break off and get logged in a smaller artery, blocking blood supply.
3. Eliminate Your Intake of Trans or Hydrogenated Fat
This is usually fat that was unsaturated, but was chemically altered so that it could have a longer shelf life or better stability in products. Trans fats are found naturally in small amounts in most animal products . Other than that they are only found in most processed and fast food. Hence, it is very easy to avoid them entirely, just by being mindful of your diet and eating as naturally as possible. Also, by always reading the ingredients or nutrition facts on labels of all the food products you buy.
These fats raise bad blood cholesterol (LDL) and lower good cholesterol (HDL), thereby being a major contributing factor to heart disease and strokes for reasons mentioned in #2.
4. Exercise
Exercise in moderate amounts has many beneficial effects on our heart and blood vessels. Its main effects are that it strengthens the heart muscle, increases your oxygen intake, keeps blood flowing smoothly, lowers blood pressure and helps maintain a healthy weight.
5. Adopt a Plant-Based Diet
Plant-based diets are low or can even be entirely devoid of bad fats (saturated and trans). They are also high in fiber, which helps decrease the risk of all heart disease and high in many valuable vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals, which have been proven to be very beneficial for not only cardiovascular health, but promote optimal health in general.
6. Reduce Your Intake of Salt To About 2000mg Daily
Salt contains about 40% sodium. High sodium intake throws off our sodium-potassium balance, whose main effect is increased blood pressure. And as we know increased blood pressure, increases the risk of a stroke. When it comes to eliminating sodium it goes much further than not using the salt shaker, as all processed foods today contain sodium and most of them in amounts that are double, triple of worse the intake that is healthy for us.
Hence, an easy way to make sure that your food passes the sodium test, is to make sure that the sodium amount on the nutritional label is never higher than the amount of calories per serving. The most the sodium should ever be is a 1:1 ratio of calories to sodium.
7. Maintain a Healthy Weight
Being overweight or obese usually goes hand in hand with high blood pressure as more stress is put on the heart and blood vessels. Hence, lose weight if necessary to optimize your heart health. If you are currently a healthy weight for your body type, be sure to stay diligent with this, as it is usually very easy to gain weight and very hard to lose it.
Exercise and an optimally healthy and natural diet, are the ultimate ways to maintain a healthy weight or to lose weight if necessary. And most importantly, one should not bother with pills, gimmicks and diets that usually put more stress on the heart and brain, than the benefit they provide.
8. Make Time For Yourself
In a busy, busy world, many times we feel like nothing more than a speck in the madness. Realize that you own your life and no one is making you run around like a mouse on an exercise wheel. The same pressures we put on ourselves, we have the control to remove. And one of the best ways of assessing your own life is to have some time for yourself.
Whether this be time to reflect in silence, contemplate or do some fun activities or hobbies that you enjoy, it is extremely valuable to your health and well-being as it decreases your levels of stress and makes you see the bigger picture of life.
9. Meditate
Many people still cringe at this word in our modern day society, thinking that it is something some far away monks or hippie yoga enthusiasts do. Well on the contrary, meditation is easy, normal and probably the best way to detach yourself from your stressful surroundings and get back in touch with your true self. It is easy to do, does not require any money and everybody can make time for it, as it offers benefits in as little as 10 minutes a day. Today we even have scientific studies that prove this.
Stress is toxic to our bodies in so many ways and an increased incidence of strokes is no exception. A study that followed 2,303 Finnish middle-aged white men for 11 years reported that stress was linked to increased stroke risk. Thanks to this and many other similar examinations, we know today more than ever of the strong mind-body connection. And that is why it is so important, perhaps more than ever to get back in touch with our body and mind on a conscious level.
So if you lead a stressful life, do not be shy, do not make excuses and do not rationalize your thoughts and actions. Instead get serious about incorporating at least 10 minutes of meditation into your daily routine and learn how to let go of your thoughts, reduce your stress levels and get back in touch with who you really are through the process of meditation.
10. Enjoy Your Life
It is no surprise that happier people are healthier in every aspect. When we wake up in the morning excited to take on a new day, when we feel joyful and fulfilled in our relationships, careers and the ins and outs of everyday life, our body chemistry is very different to someone who does not exhibit these characteristics.
Yes, we can also prove using science that negative thoughts are toxic to our system. This does not mean to fake your happiness. But people who hold anger, guilt, frustration, fears and who are typically found complaining regularly are actually in a constant state of stress where their body is concerned.
Hence, to reduce your risk of strokes, heart disease and so many other things in fact, start looking at each day, each person and each situation brand new. And most importantly look at your life and start focusing on all the things that are going right in it, instead of wrong. Start infusing more appreciation and gratitude into every moment and watch your life and health transform right before your eyes!
*Photograph courtesy of mikebaird
About the author:Evita Ochel, B.Sc., B.Ed., CHN - is a certified holistic nutritionist, biologist, educator, writer, researcher and speaker in the areas of health, science and holistic wellness. She is a nutritional science expert and her teaching and writing focus on natural, wholesome, plant-based and organic nutrition to achieve optimal health and longevity. Learn more about Evita Ochel or Follow Evita Ochel on Twitter.
9 Comments to “10 Guidelines to Prevent a Stroke Naturally”
You wrote this post for me, right? Those are three very powerful questions… and I think I finally have the answer for them. Great post!
@ HANLIE – LOL :) Thank you!
I am so moved Hanlie by the fact that really making health a priority is a tough thing for most people in our society. I learned this very early on in life, and at first it baffled me, as I used to think “How can you not want to do everything to be healthy?” Well today I neither judge nor question the reasons why people do what they do. We all have our reasons, but what I do do is ask people to question themselves. For I know that society makes us very unconscious and when we infuse moments of consciousness, of questioning for ourselves, we usually do get good answers back and often snap out of unconscious habits or patterns that do not serve us.
And I am so happy to hear that you got your answers too. Hence today, I just want to keep spreading awareness and let each person take from it what they need, or want. In the end we all have to be accountable to and for ourselves.
Another wonderful and well researched post, Evita. This one definitely rang some bells for me. A year ago, I was a prime candidate for stroke. I lived on cheeseburgers and French fries, was morbidly obese, and lived a very sedentary life. My mind raced a mile a minute and “stressed out” was my middle name.
Those 3 questions you posed are ones I began asking myself. The writing was on the wall, so to speak, and I knew what I was going to be looking at down the road. It was like playing Russian roulette. Crazy.
I made the decision to make my health my number one priority and that, as you know, meant some BIG changes.
@ EARTHMOTHER – That is so wonderful to hear EarthMother! I can only imagine how happy all of your trillions of cells are right now. They are healing and you have already seen the benefits first hand and I think that is the best, as it gives us a lot of motivation to continue and to know that we are indeed on the right path of health.
Thank you for this post! The last point I think is especially important – ENJOY YOUR LIFE!!! I think that the state of being that is experienced when you are “happy” is the best medicine there is in the world! Of course, all the other points listed help you to “get happy” – and I have had a lot of success in practicing meditation to achieve a positive state of mind. Keep the posts coming!
is it lack of sleep can cause stroke?
Hi there,
A lack of sleep can cause all sorts of health problems, but it is not directly related to causing strokes. Strokes are most common due to poor diet choices and stress, or blood clotting problems.
Of course the less one sleeps, the more stress can be accumulated in the body and this can accelerate all sorts of problems. But again, there is normally no direct link between lack of sleep and strokes.
Hope that helps, please let me know if you have other questions.
I’m agree with all points except 5. A plant diet based is not good at all for organism. A healthy diet include meats, we just need to know what kind of meats are good or not. In fact, some fat are good for corporal metabolism, like the one included in fishes.
Another point you didn’t mentionate is the “Increase corporal metabolism”. As you know, a quick metabolism would help you to lose all the bad fat and it will let you to keep a good level of sugar in your blood.
There are some ways to increase your body metabolism, but i guess you will touch this point in another topic ;) BTW, I am sorry for my bad english, I am still learning.
Hi Harry
Thank you for your visit and comment – and no problem about your English :)
Vegetarians and Vegans have existed on this plant for hundreds and even thousands of years, including some of the great Greek Philosophers and ancient Indian teachers, just to name a few.
Today’s research very clearly proves the benefits of plant-based diets, and as long as one is doing it in a healthy, balanced way, the health benefits are immediately obvious.
Our dependancy and obsession with meat and animal products is actually quite a new phenomenon, as never in human history have humans relied so much on animal products. We see the consequences of that in our health and weight issues today.
We can also look at our closest animal relatives, who almost all consume a completely plant based diet – and grow big and strong, still.
I can speak from personal experience too, that I have never felt better or been healthier – to the point of not getting even the common cold, for over the past 2 years when I started eating a plant-only diet.
And of course, fat is a necessary component of a healthy organism, but it all depends on healthy fat. There are amazing fat sources from plant foods like: avocado, coconut oil, nuts and seeds. Fish indeed used to be the most healthiest animal meat one could say, that is until the fact that today most of them have more heavy metal and chemical contamination, than health benefits.
So a lot more goes into this discussion indeed. If one truly wants the benefits of meat today, they need to be getting that meat from wild meat, or a local, organic, trusted farmer – and eat it as a side to the main part of the meal, not as the main part like most people do.