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ROSE GONZAGA-CAMFIELD, RN: Stroke is like a bolt of lightning, they say. In a split second, your whole life changes. You could be a chief executive of some big corporation and then, in a split second, you cannot talk, you cannot think. You don't even recognize your relative, your wife. So it could change your lifestyle in split second.
THOMAS KWIATKOWSKI, MD: Stroke is a very common medical problem in our country. There are about 750,000 new cases a year. There are about three million people living who have had a stroke and who have survived their stroke. It is the third-leading cause of death in this country from any major illness. And it's also the leading cause of disability among adults in this country.
ANNOUNCER: No one wants to have a stroke, but there are certain people that, no matter what they do, are at higher risk for this problem.
ROSE GONZAGA-CAMFIELD, RN: Anyone who is over 65 years old have to be very careful about the risk factors. And also black especially and Spanish people have the tendency of having a higher risk for stroke than white. And of course, more males are more prone to stroke than females.
ANNOUNCER: There are health behaviors that need to be changed as well as existing physical problems that can contribute to the likelihood of stroke.
THOMAS KWIATKOWSKI, MD: There are risk factors that we call modifiable and these are medical conditions that you may have. And these include high blood pressure or hypertension, heart disease, cigarette smoking, diabetes. Patients who have high cholesterol. Patients who have a sedentary lifestyle and patients who are overweight all have an increased risk of stroke.
ANNOUNCER: Luckily there are ways to deal with many of these problems, like hypertension.
THOMAS KWIATKOWSKI, MD: The first step is usually modifying your diet and reducing the amount of salt in your diet. And for many patients, that will help reduce their blood pressure.
But when that isn't enough, we have to use medications and we have a large number of medications available to us today to treat hypertension. So that someone who is seeing a doctor on a regular basis and under treatment can have their blood pressure controlled very well.
ANNOUNCER: Preventing blood clots from forming, a major cause of stroke, is also important. To that end there are medications available.
THOMAS KWIATKOWSKI, MD: The more simple or the more common type that we would use are called antiplatelet agents. And these are drugs like aspirin or newer drugs that are similar in their activity, and these are used for patients that have mild types of heart conditions that don't require more serious types of drugs that thin the blood.
ANNOUNCER: Sometimes a serious heart problem can be present without the patient being aware of it. Such is the case with atrial fibrillation.
ROSE GONZAGA-CAMFIELD, RN: We usually ask the patient if they have any observation as far as palpitations. If they feel that their heart is like galloping very rapidly and the rhythm is very, very fast, that needs to be controlled by medication.
THOMAS KWIATKOWSKI, MD: When someone has a more serious condition like atrial fibrillation, usually aspirin is not strong enough, and we have to use what we call, really, is a class of drugs an anticoagulant. And the most common one that we use is Coumadin and that is a drug that requires very close monitoring of your Coumadin level on a regular basis and requires much more patient effort and physician monitoring than a drug like aspirin.
ANNOUNCER: Controlling cholesterol levels can also lower your risk for stroke.
THOMAS KWIATKOWSKI, MD: If you cannot reduce your lipids or your cholesterol with just diet, frequently your doctor will have to prescribe medications and there are many medications available today to lower both lipids and cholesterol, again reducing your risk for stroke.
ANNOUNCER: While stroke can happen to any of us, it's important to remember there are ways to lessen the odds.
ROSE GONZAGA-CAMFIELD, RN: We try to tell the community that exercise is very, very important. Seeing your doctor for a yearly checkup is very important to see if there's any early onset of high cholesterol, early onset of diabetes, early onset of high blood pressure. Just so they know that this is something that is very serious.
THOMAS KWIATKOWSKI, MD: Most of the risk factors that are modifiable do have treatments available. So, for instance, if you take medications for your blood pressure and your blood pressure is normal, that will reduce your risk of stroke. If you have diabetes, which also is a significant risk factor for stroke and you monitor your blood sugars at home closely and take medications as your doctor prescribes, you also will reduce the likelihood of having complications such as stroke.
Living a healthy lifestyle, staying active, avoiding heavy alcohol use, avoiding smoking and seeing your doctor on a regular basis, so that if you develop other risk factors like high blood pressure or diabetes, your doctor will be able to provide you with the right instructions and medications to minimize those having an impact on your future risk for stroke.
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