AVOID STROKE

How to Prevent Your Stroke by David Spence, MD

This is the most technical of the heart health books I've read so far. There are diagrams and images of the circulatory system, guides to blood pressure and cholesterol lowering drugs, explanations of how strokes are caused, descriptions of symptoms of stroke and of medical tests and surgery options. And that's just in the first section: "What Your Doctor Can Do". The second section: "What You Can Do", is full of important information for people who may be susceptible to stroke and/or heart attack. Here is a summary of just some of the information in the second section:

Stroke risk factors: age, smoking, high blood pressure, thickening of heart muscle, high blood cholesterol, glucose intolerance (diabetes, pre-diabetes).

What can lead to high blood pressure? High salt intake, obesity, alcohol, decongestants, arthritis pills, stress.

Diabetes can lead to blindness, kidney failure, heart attacks and stroke. Treatment of type 2 diabetes (insulin resistance) includes weight loss and exercise (the exercise helps retrain muscles to respond to lower insulin levels.

Dr. Spence recommends moderate exercise such as half an hour of brisk walking per day (distance: 3 km in 30 minutes). To lose weight, remember that you burn 10 cal/lb just sitting. Since 3500 calories = one pound of fat, to lose one lb per week, you need to reduce your caloric consumption by 500 calories per day.

Blocked arteries (atherosclerosis) cause heart attacks and 75% of strokes. Narrowing of the carotid arteries (carotid stenosis) causes heart attacks. Symptoms of bad arteries: angina, small warning strokes, pain in calf due to walking (pain that is relieved by rest).

If you have bad arteries, you need to reduce your cholesterol intake to 125 mg/day. An egg yolk contains 275 mg.

Reduce: animal fats, butter, cheese, egg yolks, high-fat dairy, trans-fats. Increase: whole grains, fresh fruits, vegetables, soluble fiber, olive oil, canola oil. Margerines should be non-hydrogenated with zero trans-fats. Use the low glycemic index to choose foods -- www.glycemicindex.com

Drug treatments to lower cholesterol include bile acid sequestrants, niacin, fibrate drugs, statin drugs. Psyllium (e.g., Metamucil) is a concentrated form of soluble fiber that binds bile salts and helps eliminate it from the body. When that happens, the liver has to use cholesterol from the blood, thus lowering blood cholesterol levels.

The book describes interactions that are important to understand about the effects of salt and medications on your body. It is essential to reduce your salt intake to 2 or 3 grams per day - avoid canned soups & vegetables, cured meats, pickles.

Homocysteine is thought to increase blood clotting, cause artery constriction and atherosclerosis. A combination of folic acid, B6 and B12 will normalize homocysteine levels.

Grapefruit juice affects certain medicines. It increases blood levels of felodipine*, nifedipine*, nisoldipine, cyclosporine, sleeping pills (midazolan, triazolam), cisapride, warfarin, propafenone, lovastatin, simvastatin. Do not drink any grapefruit juice if you take any of these drugs!

* these drugs also happen to have headache, ankle swelling and fast heartbeat as side effects

The information above is just a sampling from How to Prevent Your Stroke. I highly recommend this book to anyone who could suffer from a stroke or heart attack.