February 12, 2019 (Houston, TX.) Houston based neurologist and founder of the Houston Healthcare Initiative (www.houstohealthcareinitiative.org) Dr. Steven Goldstein talked about the risk of strokes and their relationship to weight and obesity on his weekly podcast. To hear his weekly podcast go to: iTunes,Soundcloud or the Houston Healthcare Initiative web site.
While the outcomes from strokes are always bad, Dr. Goldstein allowed that from a pure psychological point of view, losing weight was more difficult than recovering from a stroke. “Assuming the patient survives and has the ability to rehabilitate him or herself, there is a lot of motivation for them to do the things that will lead to recovery,” Dr. Goldstein told his audience. Losing weight means changes in lifestyle, adding exercise, eliminating things that we all like to eat and drink in a process that takes a lot of sacrifice. It is very hard to maintain this type of change over any amount of time. Motivation for losing weight is psychologically challenging, but it is better to lose weight than endure a stroke.
What Is A Stroke
There are two types of strokes but a basic way to understand them is to know that a stroke happens when blood flow to an area of the brain is cut off. Brain cells are deprived of oxygen and begin to die. There are different outcomes from a stroke, and they are always bad. A stroke can cause the victim to permanently lose speech, movement, memory or even lead to death. In fact, there are approximately 185,000 people who die from stroke here in the U.S. every year. Stroke is the fifth leading cause of death in America and a leading cause of adult disability.
Different Types of Strokes
There are two types of stroke, hemorrhagic and ischemic. Hemorrhagic strokes are less common, in fact only 15 percent of all strokes are hemorrhagic, but they are responsible for about 40 percent of all stroke deaths. A hemorrhagic stroke is either a brain aneurysm burst or a weakened blood vessel leak. Blood spills into or around the brain and creates swelling and pressure, damaging cells and tissue in the brain. The hemorrhagic stroke is less common but deadlier where the ischemic stroke is more common and less deadly. But any type of stroke is to be avoided if possible.
Ischemic strokes occur when the arteries to the brain become narrowed or blocked, causing severely reduced blood flow, known as ischemia. Specific symptoms of an ischemic stroke depend on what region of the brain is affected. Certain symptoms are common across most ischemic stroke, including: vision problems, such as blindness in one eye or double vision, weakness or paralysis in the limbs, which may be on one or both sides, depending on the affected artery. Victims can also experience dizziness and vertigo, confusion, loss of coordination or even a drooping of face on one side.
Obesity and Strokes
New research shows that being overweight more than doubles the chances of having a stroke. In addition to increasing the risk of stroke, being overweight makes it more likely that you will have a stroke at a younger age. Medical scientists have found that being overweight leads to hypertension (high blood pressure), and diabetes both of which are the leading causes of stroke. Another effect of being overweight is that the body’s metabolism changes in ways that lead to an excess of circulating lipids, high cholesterol and elevated blood glucose, all of which, over time, harm the blood vessels of the brain and the heart and lead to the formation of stroke-causing blood clots in the heart and brain. There are some other links between obesity and stroke that are independent of hypertension, diabetes, and a high cholesterol level that are commonly associated with being overweight. So, to reduce your risk of stroke, try to lose weight.
To Learn More
The Houston Healthcare Initiative is set up to help people pay less for health care and become healthier. The more the costs of health maintenance arise, the more often the issue of weight comes up. There is help available in the form of co-operative relationships and the tools to lose weight and avoid a stroke. Those who want to know more can visit the web site at www.houstonhealthcareinitiative.orgor call with question at 346 400 2789.