How to Prevent a Stroke by Reducing Your Risk

Every year, Stroke Prevention Day reminds us to pay more attention to protecting ourselves against stroke. This year’s focus is on high blood pressure because it is the leading factor behind a stroke. But the good news is that there are practical steps you can take to reduce your risk. This blog investigates how to prevent a stroke and protect your health and well-being.

What is a Stroke?

What Causes a Stroke?

Stroke can happen to anyone at any time, regardless of age. When your brain is deprived of oxygen from a lack of blood supply, either due to trauma or a medical condition, such as high blood pressure, your brain cells start to die. This can affect your body and your mind. This is called a stroke because it ‘strikes’ people down. Where the brain is damaged and how big an area of damage there is will dictate how life-changing the stroke will become.

High blood pressure (hypertension) and smoking are the biggest risk factors for stroke that are within your power to change. According to the World Health Organization, out of every 10 people who die from a stroke, four lives could have been saved if they kept their blood pressure under control.

Can You Prevent a Stroke?

Yes, your potential for having a stroke is considered preventable. The Stroke Association encourages people to check their pulse for atrial fibrillation which is a cause of 1 in 5 strokes. Here are some other things that you can do to lower your stroke risk:

1. Monitor your blood pressure: High blood pressure weakens blood vessels, resulting in more chance of rupture or blockage. Check your blood pressure regularly with a home BP monitor and see your doctor if it is consistently high.
2. Train your breathing: Inspiratory Muscle Strength Training (IMST) is a form of breathing training performed using a POWERbreathe Inspiratory Muscle Training (IMT) device. Recent research shows that IMST can lower blood pressure as much as exercise and more than some medications.
3. Eat a healthy diet: The British Heart Foundation recommends eating more fruit, vegetables, and whole grains and reducing sugar and salt intake. This will help to keep your blood pressure in check.
4. Keep active: Aim for at least 30 minutes of moderate exercise most days. The World Stroke Organization suggests this can reduce by 25% your risk of having a stroke.
5. Stop smoking and reduce alcohol intake: Smoking and too much alcohol can increase your risk of stroke.

Addressing a few key risk factors, particularly high blood pressure, can go a long way towards reducing your risk of stroke.

High Blood Pressure and Stroke

Because people are not often familiar with the signs or symptoms of high blood pressure, many aren’t aware that they have it. Yet it can seriously affect health over time, leading to poor quality of life and the potential for a stroke. Lowering your blood pressure through diet and exercise can therefore be hugely beneficial. But there is also now another way to lower your blood pressure: breathing training.

Breathing Training to Lower High Blood Pressure

A team of researchers, led by Daniel H. Craighead of the University of Colorado, Boulder, found the key to an effective blood pressure-reducing exercise that everyone can do: breathing training, specifically in the form of Inspiratory Muscle Strength Training (IMST) using POWERbreathe IMT. What’s more, IMST is drug-free.

This original research, published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, shows that IMST with POWERbreathe IMT lowers blood pressure and improves endothelial function. Endothelial function is how well the thin layer of cells lining your blood vessels (called the endothelium) works to keep your blood flowing smoothly, regulate blood pressure, and maintain overall blood vessel health. It’s the body’s way of keeping your blood vessels in good shape.

The study used the electronic POWERbreathe K3 IMT device, which helps you to perform IMST effectively. If you’re on a budget, however, IMST can still be performed using the manually adjustable IMT device Daniel Craighead suggests as an alternative: the POWERbreathe Plus Medium Resistance IMT device.

POWERbreathe K3 for IMST

K3 IMT

£550.00

Shop now

POWERbreathe Plus MR for IMST

POWERbreathe Plus IMT – Medium Resistance

£59.99

Shop now

Stroke Warning Signs

Being aware of the signs of stroke means early medical intervention can be sought. Warning signs can help prevent disability or death from a stroke.

So, what are stroke warning signs? Here are the three main stroke warning signs:

1. Sudden numbness or weakness in the face, such as facial drooping and the inability to smile.
2. Being unable to lift both arms and keep one arm up, because of weakness.
3. Difficulty speaking, such as slurring words.

The acronym FAST helps us to remember these main signs to look out for.

There are also other stroke warning signs, and if you or someone you’re with shows signs of these symptoms, you must call the emergency services immediately.

What Helps to Prevent a Stroke

For more tips and information about how to prevent a stroke and how to improve stroke recovery with breathing training, please visit our dedicated pages on Blood Pressure and Stroke. Read also how to ‘Lower Blood Pressure Naturally‘ with POWERbreathe IMST, in our blog.

Also, to understand the role of breathing training in stroke recovery, check out our blog, ‘Post-Stroke Symptoms Improve After Breathing Training with POWERbreathe‘.

Take Control of Your Health Today

You can begin your path to stroke prevention by addressing high blood pressure with POWERbreathe IMT devices. Find out more about the POWERbreathe K3 and the POWERbreathe Plus MR devices for IMST and your first step towards a healthier future.

Make every breath count in your journey to better health.