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Lifestyle Choices Double Risk Of Stroke

Posted on: Friday, 20 February 2009, 13:55 CST

A new British study finds that certain lifestyle choices can more than double the risk of stroke.

Lack of exercise, alcohol consumption, smoking and not getting enough fruits and vegetables all contribute to an increased risk of stroke, the study found.

According to the University of East Anglia researchers, just a tiny percentage of the 20,000 adults ages 40-79 involved in the study had healthy enough lifestyles to protect against the condition.

"A stroke is a brain attack, it happens when the blood supply is cut to the brain, it causes brain cells to die and results in brain damage," Joanne Murphy, a spokeswoman for The Stroke Association, told BBC News.

"It's the third biggest killer and if it doesn't kill it can leave you severely disabled.

"However, even small changes to our lifestyle factors, such as an improved diet, drinking alcohol in moderation, not smoking and being active, can reduce your risk of stroke,” she said, adding that the findings were worrying given the increasing levels of obesity.  

While previous research has shown that lifestyle choices, such as smoking and diet, are associated with the risk of heart attacks and stroke, the impact of a combination of risk factors in healthy people has not been clear.

In the current study, researchers assigned one point for each "healthy behavior" reported by the participants.  One point was given for each of the following behaviors: being a non-smoker, being physically active, drinking less than 14 units of alcohol a week and consuming five daily servings of fruit and vegetables.

The results showed that those who scored zero points during the study were 2.3 times more likely to suffer a stroke in the 11-year follow-up than those with four points.

For each point decrease in the scores, there was an increased risk of stroke, the researchers said.

The most common score was three, achieved by 7,822 participants, of whom 186, or 2.4%, suffered a stroke.

Of the 259 people who did not score any points, 15, or 5.8 percent, had a stroke during the follow up period.

About 5,000 participants achieved the healthiest score of four, which was associated with a 1.7 % absolute stroke risk.

A substantially higher percentage of women participants scored the maximum of four points than did the male participants.

The results provide further evidence that small changes in lifestyle affect stroke risk, the researchers said.

"Over the study period we observed six people for every 100 participants who had no health behaviors suffered a stroke compared to about one to two people for every 100 participants who had four positive health behaviors,” Dr . Phyo Myint, who led the study, told BBC News.

"Together with the substantial existing body of evidence about modifiable behaviors and stroke risk, this may provide further encouragement to make entirely feasible changes which have the potential to have a major impact on stroke."

In an editorial accompanying a report about the study, Dr Matthew Giles, from the Stroke Prevention Research Unit at John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, emphasized that the small proportion of participants with a lifestyle that protected against stroke implied that a large shift in behavior would be required to achieve any benefit.

The study was published in the British Medical Journal. 


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On The Net:

British Medical Journal

The Stroke Association

Source: redOrbit Staff

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