in my practice which was a family practice
made up of mostly young healthy folks with some
older folks
i didnt have many patients who had strokes
if had a patient with a stroke it was usually a young person
sitting here trying to think of the men i had that had strokes
i remember only one and he was 19 when he had his
before he became my patient
his was caused by smoking uncontrolled blood pressure obesity
and severe high cholesterol
but the rest of my stroke patients were young females of
child bearing age
luckily for them there strokes were not life threatening and they
all seemed to have recovered well
there was usually some explanation like the pill hormone replacement
smoking migraines high blood pressure eg
new guidelines came out recently for women for stroke prevention
in addition to the usual recommendations
quit smoking
control blood pressure
control cholesterol
control diabetes
maintain a normal weight
exercise
uh thats the same as ways to slow down or prevent alzheimers also
the new guidelines focused on stroke risks more common in women
stroke is the third leading cause of death in women
they live longer than men so this may be one explanation of the increased
risk of stroke in women
here are the risks
migraine with aura
the women who suffers with these have a prodrome or warning before
that awful headache occurs
things like dizziness ringing zigzag lines in your vision light sensitivity eg
i had the zigzag lines once when i was in practice
my first thought was oh shoot im having a dang stroke
women have migraines more common than men and they seem to
be hormone related
if you add smoking birth control to this mix then the risk for stroke
is increased
women with migraine with aura should not smoke
nor should those who dont have migraine with aura
atrial fibrillation increases the risk for stroke
women over 75 should be screened for it
the left atrium fibrillates or doesnt beat right and a clot
can form there which can be dislodged and sent to the brain
causing a stroke
most of these i picked up was simply from listening to the heart
beat during an office visit
the treatment is converting this to a normal rhythm with medicine
or mild shock treatment
some women who have this have to take coumadin long term
to prevent clot formation
menopause
women use to be given hormones to prevent strokes and heart attacks
thanks you drug companies for lying to us for years
birth control pills
women should be screened for high blood pressure before starting
the pill
they probably shouldnt take the pill if they have high blood pressure
or smoke
both increases the risk for stoke
most of the clotting events i had in female patients on birth control
were deep vein thrombosis a clot in the legs and
pulmonary embolism a clot in the lung
which can be fatal
it seems most of those clots were in women who were on the pill
and smoked
pregnancy
if a women has preeclampsia which causes elevated blood pressure
in pregnancy they are at increased risk for strokes later in life
and quadruple the risk for high blood pressure
the greatest risk for stroke during pregnancy with preclampsia is
the last 3 months and during the early postpartum time
elevated blood pressure before pregnancy needs to controlled
some women with this condition may need low dose aspirin treatment
during pregnancy
aspirin therapy
is recommended for women who have had a stroke not caused by a
ruptured blood vessel but by a clot
is recommended for women over 65
is recommended for women with type 2 diabetes
no one though should take aspirin unless they discuss it with
their doctor
so we men are well acquainted with the fact that women are different
than men
live with one and you know that for a fact
women do have risk factors for stroke that are also different
hopefully women will
take note of these new guidelines on stroke prevention in women
the organicgreen doctor
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