When I go on to friends about living a healthier lifestyle - and I can certainly go on; after all, I once wanted to be a rabbi mostly because rabbis work only one day a week, and they spend that day talking - I'm invariably hooted down with some remark such as, "Hey! If I gotta go, Art, then a heart attack's fine by me. Pass the nachos, man!"
"But you can't guarantee you'll get a heart attack!" I always shoot back. "What if you get a stroke instead?" And that's invariably followed by silence because all my friends dread a stroke, as do we all. So, in part for my friends, in part for you others, here's some information that might help lower your risk of stroke.
First, the American Heart Association recently published advice about preventing strokes with special attention on 2 factors: getting your blood pressure checked at least every 2 years, and stopping smoking, because, according to the association, there is excellent proof that doing these 2 things lowers stroke risk. Of other risks - being sedentary, poor diet, obesity, drug abuse, and high blood levels of homocysteine - the AHA claims that it's not established yet that we can alter our stroke risk by modifying these factors, although I really don't know why you'd wait for such proof. I mean, none of those could possibly be doing you good, so why not act to change them now?
One other modifiable risk factor the AHA stressed is high cholesterol levels, and so let me tell you about a study from Scotland that found that haggis is good for lowering cholesterol. Just kidding! Haggis isn't actually good for anything. What this study did find is that the cholesterol-lowering medication, pravastatin, lowered the incidence of stroke in people at high risk - young and old, men and women, even those with "normal" cholesterol levels.
The key thing here is that this is yet another study showing that "statins" (of which there are several) can have lifesaving effects in a lot more people than we previously thought they could benefit. So, if you have any risks for suffering a heart attack or stroke - even if you have only mildly elevated cholesterol levels in the presence of other risk factors -you should ask your doctor about whether to go on a "statin." Many of you will find you should.
Still, with stroke risks, another study found that being a chronic snorer and having trouble staying awake during the daytime are also linked to higher risks of stroke. Why? Because, these researchers theorize, people with these symptoms may have unrecognized sleep apnea (a condition in which a person stops breathing for short periods during sleep, and which has previously been linked to higher risks of strokes).
A word of warning, though: having trouble staying awake is not always a sign of bad health. For example, if while watching one of those "reality" TV programs or anything with Regis in it, you find that you just can't stay awake, don't automatically assume this means you are sick. It may just be your brain trying to protect itself.