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The 4 Behaviors That Double Your Risk of Stroke
A New Study of 20,000 People Over 11 Years Confirms Evidence

Researchers in Norfolk, UK have completed an 11 year study of over 20,000 men and women who had no prior episode of stroke or heart attack. One of the few studies of its kind in which a population was followed over an extended period and data was collected which may help in predicitng an increased risk in the cardiovascular events.

researchers found a combination of moderate exercise, limited alcohol consumption (1 to 14 units per week where one unit is the equivalent of a glass of wine, half pint of beer, or a shotglass measure of alcohol), non-smoking, and high levels of vitamin C in their blood plasma (indicating five or more servings per day of fruits and vegetables) where the main factors to have predicted a more than twofold reduction in risk for stroke.

Subjects between the ages of a 40 and 79 in the study were controlled for age, gender, body mass index, systolic blood pressure, cholesterol concentration, history of diabetes and aspirin use, and social class. They were initially interviewed between 1993-1997 and followed up with in 2007.

Subjects were assigned a point in each health behavior category if they were:

1. not inactive: they had at least 30 minutes a day of physical activity or worked a non-sedentary job,
2. were non-smokers,
3. were moderate users of alcohol, and
4. had high plasma blood levels of Vitamin C.

Of the 20,000 people followed 599 had strokes with 168 (28%) having been fatal. when the behavioral factors were analyzed it was found that those who had had stroke scored low on the scale above. When statistical regression was used it was found that participants who had 0 of 4 of the behaviors above, their risk was over two times that of people who did not suffer stroke.

However when looking at the data between men and women, women's risk was nearly 3.5 times higher overall when they had none of the four health behaviors above.

There is little doubt from randomised trials that targeting and controlling risk factors such as hypertension and atrial fibrillation are effective in preventing stroke. A large proportion of strokes, however, occur in people who do not have these risk factors and this study concludes that there are behaviors which influence the risk of stroke which are controllable live individual.

So how do you use this information?

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