Public health officials find 80 percent of strokes connected to 5 risk factors

Public health officials know that when it comes to some health care conditions, it seems to be the luck of the draw. Non-smokers who get lung cancer, for example. Or marathon runners who develop pancreatic cancer. But public health officials also know that if ever there were a health care condition solidly connected to lifestyle and choices, it's stroke.

A new study, recently published in the journal The Lancet, found that 80 percent of all strokes can be connected to five risk factors: high blood pressure, abdominal fat, smoking, diet and physical activity. When you add in five more factors, some 90 percent of all strokes are accounted for. Those other five factors are blood lipid (fat) levels, diabetes, alcohol intake, stress and depression, and heart disorders.

Of the top ten - and even the top five - risk factors for stroke, without question public health officials say high blood pressure is king, accounting for a third of all strokes. Public health officials say the takeaway from the study is that there is much individuals can do to decrease their risk of stroke.  "It's important that most of the risk factors associated with stroke are modifiable," Dr. Martin J. O'Donnell, an associate professor of medicine at McMaster University in Canada, who helped lead the study told HealthDay News. "If they are controlled, it could have a considerable impact on the incidence of stroke."

O'Donnell said high blood pressure is connected to both forms of stroke: ischemic, the most common form (caused by blockage of a brain blood vessel), and hemorrhagic or bleeding stroke, in which a blood vessel in the brain bursts. Other risk factors generally were associated with one form of stroke but not the other. Public health officials generally advise limiting salt intake, increasing exercise and increasing consumption of fruits and fish to lower blood pressure.

The findings were the results of the INTERSTROKE study, a study of 3,000 people who had had strokes and the same number of people with no history of stroke from 22 countries. A second phase is underway, with public health officials  looking at risk factors in different regions, ethnic groups and types of stroke. They'll also study the association between genetics and stroke risk. The researchers plan to enroll 20,000 participants, according to HealthDay.

Photo Credit: jasleen kaur