Healthy Llifestyle Key to Prevent Brain Strokes, say Doctors

Hyderabad: Ahead of World Stroke Day, which is observed on October 29, doctors and experts said that instances of brain strokes have been on the rise in the last decade and called for prevention through a healthy lifestyle, regular health check-ups and timely intervention.

The theme this year ‘Together we are# greater than stroke’, which underlines the importance of preventing the factors leading to strokes.

Explaining the types of strokes, Dr Mohan Krishna Narasimha Kumar Jonnalaguda, a consultant neurologist in a leading private hospital, said, “We observed that around 90 per cent of stroke patients have hypertension.”

Doctors observed that the stroke instances were more or less similar in both urban and rural settings, which was not the case around two decades ago.

Dr Shyam Jaiswal, a consultant neurologist at a leading multi-specialty private hospital, said the causes for stroke were modifiable factors such as diabetes, hypertension, stress, smoking, alcohol consumption, blood pressure and non-modifiable factor of ageing.

Speaking to Deccan Chronicle, Dr Jaiswal said, “People in the age group of 60-70 were more prone to strokes. What is concerning now is that younger people in the age group of 30-40 years are experiencing brain strokes.”

In these people, stress, smoking, unhealthy lifestyle, processed food, alcohol consumption are the major factors that could result in strokes. Moreover, it has been observed that the severity of strokes has increased over the last decade, with severe disabilities, almost 25 per cent cases experiencing lifelong disability, Dr Jaiswal said.

Doctors stressed the importance of ‘Golden Period’ in a stroke where ‘home to hospital’ and ‘door to needle’ time had to be minimised and the window for treatment in case of ischemic strokes was 3 to 4.5 hours and haemorrhage was 4.5 hours.

Dr Ambati Rampapa Rao, the founder chairman of a transitional care unit, said the post-acute management transitional care after the hospitalisation was an utmost important step in the recovery of stroke patients, which however held less awareness amongst people.