DEFEATING DISEASE: FIGHTING BACK AGAINST BRAIN ATTACK

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Don’t wait for a stroke before you swing into action. In addition to quitting smoking (another huge risk factor), there are several ways you can fight back against brain attack.

Get a neck check. If any of those stroke symptoms sound vaguely familiar, visit your doctor and have him warm up his stethoscope. But after he checks your chest – heart disease, you know-ask him to listen for a bruit (BREW-ee) in your neck. When the carotid arteries on either side of your neck are narrowed by plaque, they make a rushing sound doctors call a bruit.

“It’s not foolproof, but when a general practitioner suspects stroke, he’ll perform one of these. If he doesn’t like what he hears, he’ll send you to a neurologist for a closer look,” says Dr. Penix.

Bring down your blood pressure.

Since guys who have high blood pressure before age 45 are 10 times more likely to suffer a stroke later in life, it’s vital that you bring yours down. “Regular aerobic exercise and weight loss are two of the best ways to begin to lower your blood pressure,” says Dr. Sacco. Try to get 30 minutes of moderate aerobic exercise at least three times a week. Here are the numbers to shoot for: A reading of 120/80 millimeters of mercury (pronounced 120 over 80) is considered normal. Experts say a reading above 140/90 should be of concern. And when your blood pressure is higher than 160/100, it’s definitely too high.

Play anyway. You don’t need to be diagnosed with high blood pressure to get active, but you can still cut your stroke risk. The Northern Manhattan Stroke Study at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City found that the risk of stroke is 2 1/2 times greater among people who do not exercise. “What impressed us was discovering just how little exercise it took to get these spectacular benefits,” Dr. Sacco says. People who walked 20 minutes three times a week were 57 percent less likely to suffer a stroke. Exercise such as bicycling, swimming, hiking, and tennis reduced stroke risk by nearly two-thirds.

Take a sip-occasionally. Alcohol can increase or decrease your stroke risk, depending on how much you drink. In this same study, occasional-to-moderate drinkers who consumed from one alcoholic drink a month to two drinks a day had a 50 percent lower risk than nondrinkers, according to Dr. Sacco. Alcohol-even grape juice, if you abstain from drinking-is thought to make blood less sticky, reducing the risk of clotting and increasing the “good” cholesterol. But don’t take this as a license to binge. Drinking more than two drinks per day raises your stroke risk and leads to other health problems.

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