The last couple of posts we talked about what is a stroke and what to do if you have one. Those are very important things to know, but most importantly, what can we do to reduce our risk of having a stroke in the first place? While no plan is full proof, you can lower your risk of having a cva and start down the road to healthy living.
Are you a caffeine addict?
Most American adults are prone to starting their day off with a hot cup of coffee. Add to that an occasional soft drink later on in the day, and you are well on your way to setting up your body to possibly having a dreaded cerebral vascular accident, otherwise known as a stroke.
How is this? Caffeine in small quantities isn’t bad, but when you repeatedly bombard your body with high doses of caffeine, the caffeine can eventually interfere with your heart’s rhythm.
Your heart runs on a timer of sorts. Every heart muscle cell is able to generate electricity, the power supply to your heart. Too much caffeine in the long haul overloads your system upsetting this timing chain. Your heart can start to beat irregularly. The term for this is Atrial Fibrillation or “A-fib”.
Irregular beats are where the trouble beings. Excess blood can pool in your right atrium, the right upper chamber of your heart. This blood then runs the risk of clotting. The clotted blood can then be pushed out of your heart and can move up to your brain causing a blockage and thus a stroke.
Heredity plays a big part in contracting A-fib. If you are susceptible to this heart rhythm, my advise would be to severely curtail your intake of caffeine. Feel free to slowly reduce your caffeine intake. No need to come down with a severe headache from withdrawals. Reduce your caffeine load in a week or two. You’ll be more likely to stay off the caffeine and your body will react more favorably.
Just by doing this one step you can reduce your risk of stroke significantly. Eliminating caffeine will also help you take the right step towards living a healthy lifestyle lessening your risk even further.
Stay healthy,
Andie
[...] to pick up where I left off. My last post was centered on how getting rid of caffeine can help lower your risk of stroke . Another way of lowering your risk of stroke is to keep an eye on your blood pressure. [...]