9. Eat Your Stroke Preventing Vitamins
Eating healthy foods is a great way to reduce your risk of stroke. But what exactly does ‘eating healthy’ mean?
Read this article to find out: Natural Ways to Prevent Stroke Using the Potent, Powerful Force of Food
As you focus on improving your diet and applying the concepts from that article, pay close attention to the following 3 nutrients as they play a crucial role in stroke prevention:
We always recommend getting your vitamins and minerals through a healthy diet rich in whole foods like fruits and vegetables. But if you need to supplement, that’s fine as long as your doctor says it’s okay!
8. Drink Up for Good Health
If you identify yourself as a coffee drinker, then this is good news for you.
That morning cup of coffee is reducing your risk of stroke! And if you’re not a coffee drinker, green tea can provide you with the same benefits.
Just be sure to steer clear if you’re hypertensive since caffeine can raise blood pressure.
7. Avoid this Trigger of the Leading Cause of Stroke
The leading cause of stroke is hypertension, and hypertension is exacerbated by an excessive intake of salt. If you need to reduce the sodium in your diet, we wrote a series on how to reduce your sodium intake.
The average American consumes 50% more sodium a day than the FDA recommended amount. So unless you actually pay attention to your sodium intake, you’re probably consuming too much.
6. The Obvious but Not-so-Obvious Tip
Cigarette smoking has been a long-time offender of stroke risk – and it’s actually one of the top 5 causes of stroke.
Smoking thickens your blood, increases clot formation, and increases the amount of plaque buildup in your arteries; which are all big no-no’s when it comes to preventing a stroke.
5. The Choice Is Yours: Take a Seat or Take a Stand Against Stroke
Sitting for excessively long periods of time can increase your risk of stroke as well as contribute to all sorts of health ailments, like stiff joints and a cranky mood.
So the choice is yours: Continue to sit, or get up and take short 5 minute breaks throughout the day.
It’s the perfect excuse to take a breather. You’ll be protecting your health while reducing stress and anxiety.
4. Get a Grip of the Stress that’s Taking Years Off Your Life
Chronic, long-term stress should be taken very seriously as it can aggravate these stroke-inducing symptoms:
- High blood pressure
- High cholesterol
- Obesity
- Diabetes
- Atherosclerosis
- Heart disease
Yes. Chronic stress really can contribute to all of those illnesses. That’s why putting an end to chronic, long-term stress should be your top priority.
Learn what your 5 major stress factors are in our article on stress and stroke.
3. The Goldilocks Principle: How to Hit the Sleepy Sweet Spot
The childhood story of Goldilocks gave birth to the ‘Goldilocks principle’ which states that you must strive for balance as opposed to reaching extremes.
This principle applies directly to sleep and it’s quite simple:
There’s a sleepy sweet spot that exists between getting 6-8 hours of sleep a night.
Habitually getting any more or less than that can increase your risk of stroke.
So start optimizing your sleep to help reduce your risk of stroke.
2. Manage the Root of Most Ailments
Alright, this one is a slightly controversial topic in stroke prevention. Let’s discuss the role of chronic inflammation in stroke prevention.
Essentially, chronic inflammation contributes to a long, long list of health ailments including acid reflux, arthritis, chronic pain, high blood pressure, and heart disease – all precursors to stroke. Chronic inflammation also contributes to stroke itself.
As they say, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
To protect your health on multiple fronts, treat any chronic inflammation that could exist in your body.
1. Nurture Your Microbiome
This step is #1 because it’s so overlooked! Not many people are talking about it, so pay close attention!
Your microbiome consists of the 100 trillion little microbes (i.e. bacteria and other good stuff) living inside your body, and probiotics are essential for maintaining a healthy microbiome.
Your microbiome is closely connected to a healthy brain, so whether you’re getting your probiotics from supplements or from dietary sources – they’re absolutely essential for a healthy brain and your stroke prevention efforts.
You might want to read up on the importance of the gut-brain axis: the pathway through which your gut communicates through your brain.
It will probably contradict everything you once knew about the inner workings of your body.
Seriously.
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