Stroke is the fifth-leading cause of death and a leading cause of disability in the United States. Here, learn about the different kinds of strokes, what symptoms to recognize, and how to lower your risk. Stroke is a serious medical emergency. If you believe that you may be experiencing a stroke, call 911 immediately.

What Is a Stroke?

A stroke results when an artery supplying blood to the brain becomes blocked or ruptured. Without blood to provide oxygen and nutrients, brain cells begin to die. A stroke on the left side of the brain affects the right side of the body, and a stroke on the right side affects the left side of the body. According to the American Stroke Association, this damage to brain cells may lead to death or debilitating after-effects, such as:

• Neuropathic pain
• Problems with movement, speech, and language
• Trouble reading, writing, doing math, organizing, reasoning, and learning new information 
• A change in depth perception, the ability to recognize emotion in someone’s voice, the propensity for creativity
• Difficulties seeing or sleeping
• Trouble controlling bladder or bowels
• Fatigue and depression

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How Is a Stroke Different from a Heart Attack?

Both stroke and heart attack are caused by an interrupted blood supply. A heart attack occurs when there is a blockage in the artery leading to the heart; a stroke happens when there is a blockage or rupture of an artery, which interferes with blood flow to the brain. A stroke, sometimes called a brain attack, can even result from a blood clot that first forms in the chest, but, instead of blocking blood flow to the heart, breaks loose and travels through the bloodstream until it reaches an artery that supplies the brain but is too narrow to allow the clot to pass. Stroke and heart attack have many of the same risk factors and prevention strategies. (See “Causes and Risk Factors,” below.)

Types of Stroke

There are three main types of stroke: ischemic, hemorrhagic, and transient ischemic attack.

Symptoms of Stroke

The sooner you recognize signs that you may be having a stroke and seek medical care, the better the chance of survival and recovery. According to the Centers for Disease Control, stroke symptoms include:

• Sudden numbness or weakness in the face, arm, or leg, especially on one side of the body
• Sudden confusion, trouble speaking, or difficulty understanding speech
• Sudden trouble seeing in one or both eyes
• Sudden trouble walking, dizziness, loss of balance, or lack of coordination
• Sudden severe headache with no known cause

If you have any doubt, err on the side of caution and call an ambulance. The most effective treatments are available if the stroke is diagnosed within three hours of the first symptoms. The American Stroke Association recommends using the acronym F.A.S.T. to gauge whether a stroke might be occurring: 

F: Face drooping. Does one side of the face droop or feel numb? Ask the person to smile. Is the person’s smile uneven?

A: Arm weakness. Is one arm weak or numb? Ask the person to raise both arms. Does one arm drift downward?

S: Speech difficulty. Is speech slurred?

T: Time to call 911. If any of the above symptoms are present, call 911.

Causes and Risk Factors

Many of the mechanisms that lead to heart disease also can lead to a stroke. The following factors increase the risk of a stroke.

• Cardiovascular disease, including heart failure, heart defects, heart infection, or irregular heart rhythm, such as atrial fibrillation
• High blood pressure. Hypertension causes a two- to four-fold increase in the risk of stroke before age 80, according to the National Institutes of Health. 
• High cholesterol
• Diabetes
• Smoking. Smoking has been linked to fatty buildup in the carotid artery, which is the main neck artery supplying blood to the brain; blockage in this artery is the main cause of stroke in Americans. Smoking also thickens blood and makes it more likely to clot.
• Being overweight or obese
• Being physically inactive
• Heavy or binge drinking or use of illegal drugs such as cocaine and methamphetamine
• Obstructive sleep apnea
• Personal or family history of stroke, heart attack, or TIA
• COVID-19. A large study of nearly 20,000 people age 65 and older found that the risk for ischemic stroke in patients with COVID-19 was significantly higher the first three days after the infection (compared with the control period of seven days before a COVID-19 diagnosis or 28 days afterward).

Preventing a Stroke

The most critical step you can take in preventing stroke is controlling blood pressure. Other important steps you can take to lower your risk of stroke:

• Maintain a healthy weight.
• Control cholesterol.
• Treat atrial fibrillation (an irregular heartbeat that can lead to blood clots).
• Keep blood sugar in a healthy range, as diabetes compromises blood vessels.
• Quit smoking.
• If you drink, drink in moderation. Heavy alcohol consumption increases the risk of high blood pressure, ischemic strokes, and hemorrhagic strokes.
• Exercise: The American Stroke Association recommends at least 40 minutes of moderate to vigorous aerobic exercise three or four days a week.
• Eat a healthy diet. Limit animal products and highly processed foods containing saturated fat, trans fat, and cholesterol, since they promote a buildup of cholesterol and plaque in the arteries, which increases the risk of strokes. Cut back on foods containing high levels of sodium to help keep blood pressure in check.

Can a Plant-Based Diet Help Prevent Stroke?

A 2021 study out of Harvard found that healthy plant-based diets—rich in foods such as leafy greens, whole grains, and beans, and low in foods such as refined grains and added sugars—may lower overall stroke risk by up to 10 percent compared with lower-quality diets. The researchers analyzed health data from more than 200,000 people who were followed for more than 25 years and completed diet questionnaires every two to four years.

Additionally, scientific studies have linked diets rich in whole plant foods to reduced rates of hypertension, obesity, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes, all of which are contributing factors for stroke.

To learn more about a whole-food, plant-based diet, visit our Plant-Based Primer. For meal-planning support, check out Forks Meal Planner, FOK’s easy weekly meal-planning tool to keep you on a healthy plant-based path.

The post Understanding Types of Strokes and How to Prevent Them appeared first on Forks Over Knives.

Let’s take a closer look at the research.

Eating Plant-Based as a Young Adult Decreases Risk of Heart Disease in Middle Age

In the first study, researchers followed nearly 5,000 people for several decades. All participants were young adults (between 18 and 30 years old) when the study began. Over the next 32 years, doctors evaluated the participants’ health, asked about the foods they ate, and gave them a dietary quality score—but they did not tell participants what to eat. Foods such as fruits, vegetables, beans, nuts, and whole grains were considered beneficial, while those such as fried potatoes, high-fat red meat, salty snacks, pastries, and soft drinks were considered adverse. Neutral foods included refined grains, lean meats, and shellfish. 

None of the participants had cardiovascular disease (CVD) at the outset of the study, but by the end of the study, almost 300 people had developed CVD. Researchers discovered that participants who ate a plant-centered diet were 52 percent less likely to have a heart attack or other CVD-related incident during middle age. 

And the participants whose diets improved the most as they got older—meaning they ate more plant-based as the years went by—were 61 percent less likely to develop CVD compared with those whose diets worsened the most over time. 

“People can choose among plant foods that are as close to natural as possible, not highly processed,” said the study’s lead author, Yuni Choi, a postdoctoral researcher in the division of epidemiology and community health at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health in Minneapolis. She also noted that while the goal is to eat more plants than animal products, strict veganism isn’t necessary to reap some of the heart-health benefits of eating more whole plant foods.

Plant-Based Eating Reduces Risk of Heart Disease In Postmenopausal Women

A 15-year study that followed 123,330 women between the ages of 50 and 79 discovered several significant links between plant-based diets and heart health. Researchers scored the study participants on their adherence to the plant-based “Portfolio Diet,” which focuses on consuming foods that are known to lower “bad” LDL cholesterol, including legumes, starchy vegetables, soy foods, and berries. Participants who closely followed the Portfolio Diet were:

• 11 percent less likely to develop cardiovascular disease of any kind
• 14 percent less likely to develop coronary heart disease, in which plaque builds up in the walls of the arteries leading to the heart
• 17 percent less likely to develop heart failure, which occurs when the heart can’t pump blood as well as it should

“We also found a dose response in our study, meaning that you can start small, adding one component of the Portfolio Diet at a time, and gain more heart-health benefits as you add more components,” said lead author Andrea J. Glenn, a registered dietitian and doctoral student in nutritional sciences at the University of Toronto.

The study’s senior author, John Sievenpiper, MD, PhD, postulated that greater adherence to the Portfolio Diet could be as effective as cholesterol-lowering medication. 

It’s Never Too Late to Go Plant-Based

These two latest studies add to the growing body of evidence that a plant-based diet can drastically decrease the risk of developing cardiovascular disease at any age or stage of life. 

Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the world, killing more people than all forms of cancer combined. These latest scientific findings are particularly impactful for people living in the United States, where CVD takes one life every 37 seconds. 

To learn more about a whole-food, plant-based diet, visit our Plant-Based Primer. For meal-planning support, check out Forks Meal Planner, FOK’s easy weekly meal-planning tool to keep you on a healthy plant-based path.

The post New Studies Show Eating Plant-Based at Any Age Can Protect Against Heart Disease Later In Life appeared first on Forks Over Knives.

In one of the first studies to examine this association in the general population, researchers analyzed data from more than 12,000 middle-aged U.S. adults who participated in the ARIC (Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities) study. Participants were free of cardiovascular disease when they joined the ARIC study in 1987. 

The new analysis categorized ARIC participants’ eating patterns by the proportion of plant-based foods versus animal-based foods they ate between 1987 and 2016. 

Researchers found that the participants with the highest intake of plant-based foods were 16 percent less likely to experience cardiovascular health issues such as heart attacks, strokes, or heart failure. They were also 32 percent less likely to die from cardiovascular conditions than those who ate more animal products. Furthermore, high consumption of plant-based foods was associated with a 25 percent lower risk of death from any cause. 

Meanwhile, researchers noted that not all plant-based foods are equal in terms of health benefits. They singled out whole-food, plant-based eating patterns as more beneficial than plant‐based diets high in refined carbohydrates and other processed ingredients. These findings reflect the American Heart Association’s own recommendation to eat less processed plant-based foods. Researchers recommended a follow-up study to determine the extent to which the quality of plant-based foods affects cardiovascular disease risk and mortality.

“This is a powerful message on cardiovascular health, aligning with a vast amount of prospective observational evidence,” says Kim Allan Williams, MD, chief of cardiology at Rush University School of Medicine and past president of the American College of Cardiology. “More plants and less animals consumed results in a longer life with less [cardiovascular] risk and lower disease frequency.”

The post New Study: Eating More Plants Cuts Cardiovascular Disease Risk by a Third appeared first on Forks Over Knives.