For anyone who does suffer a stroke, it’s good to know that
while
Miller and Grabowske are lucky, they’re not alone. About three-quarters
of
strokes are not fatal. Among survivors, 50 percent to 70 percent
have
only mild
disability and will improve over time. That
might take
physical and occupational
therapy; along the way,
about half of stroke
survivors will suffer from
depression.
After
their initial treatment, Miller and Grabowske required little
more than
temporary use of blood-thinning drugs. Neither man
mentions
being depressed,
although Miller says he can’t
completely shake the
fear that it could happen
again. Both
have made changes: Grabowske has
quit smoking. Miller is running
again, has cut out fast food, and is
considering a career
change: “I’m
reprioritizing what’s ultimately
important.”
|
Other Factors Trump Youth Advanced age does increase the risk of stroke, but that doesn’t mean younger people aren’t at risk. ››› Newly diagnosed type 2 diabetics under the age of 55 have five to nine times the risk of stroke that nondiabetics do—bad news considering that just last year, 1.5 million new cases of type 2 diabetes were diagnosed in the United States in people under 20. ››› Recent studies show that black men and women under age 45 are three to five times more likely to have a stroke than whites in the same age range. A contributing factor can be sickle cell anemia, a disease of the red blood cells that disproportionately affects people of color. ››› About 27,000 people, usually between the ages of 30 and 60, suffer ruptured brain aneurysms each year.
The doctor’s office is not the most accurate place to measure your blood pressure, says Dr. Bruce Idelkope, co-director of the stroke program at Fairview Southdale Hospital and a physician at the Minneapolis Clinic of Neurology in Golden Valley. Even if you don’t feel nervous, your blood pressure is still likely to be higher than it is at home. “I’m a big fan of people going out and buying their own blood pressure machine and taking their own [readings] on a regular basis,” he says. “Take it twice a day for the next three weeks, bring me all the numbers, and I can [better] decide what you need.” Good blood pressure monitors will cost about $70, Idelkope says. They’ll have cuffs that wrap around the upper arm, not the forearm, wrist, or finger. A good reading is less than 120/80 mm Hg, or millimeters of mercury; the top number, systolic pressure, indicates the peak pressure in the arteries during the cardiac cycle. The bottom number, diastolic pressure, is a measure of pressure in the resting phase of the cycle. |
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