Stroke Archive

Getting immediate attention for symptoms of a transient ischemic attack can minimize the risk of a subsequent stroke.

A painful, blistering rash known as shingles may temporarily increase a person's risk of a stroke or heart attack, according to a study in the Dec. 15, 2015 PLOS Medicine. Also known as herpes zoster, shingles results from a reactivation of the virus that causes chickenpox, which most adults had during childhood.

For the study, researchers analyzed the records of more than 67,000 people ages 65 and older diagnosed with shingles and either a heart attack or stroke from 2006 through 2011. They then compared the rates of cardiovascular events before and after a shingles attack. In the first week after a shingles diagnosis, the risk of a stroke rose 2.4 times and the risk of a heart attack increased 1.7 times compared with baseline risk.

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You get the most bang for your buck from keeping blood pressure in the normal range, but don't skip the other things.

Many tasks are required to run a household. There are groceries to shop for, broken things to fix, and windows to wash. But you need to prioritize: it makes no sense to worry about the weeds in the garden if the mortgage payment is overdue.

To use the online heart age calculator, the only numbers you need are your height, weight, and blood pressure reading.

Most Americans are not as young at heart as they might like to believe. More than three in four adults have a "heart age" that's greater than their chronological age, according to federal health officials.

If you're "leaning in" by putting in extra hours on the job, you may be gaining gender equality that you don't want—the same stroke risk as your male colleagues. A recent analysis indicates that women who work 55 hours or more per week have a 30% higher risk of having a stroke than those working standard hours, making them just as likely to have a stroke as their male counterparts.

The analysis, published online Aug. 20, 2015, by The Lancet, was conducted by European public health re-searchers. It involved data from over 600,000 women and men enrolled in long-term observational studies in Europe and the United States. It was the first such analysis of the relationship between working long hours and stroke. The researchers noted several factors that might have contributed to the elevated stroke risk, including the additional stress of balancing the extra work hours, inactivity, long periods of sitting, and ignoring stroke warning signs.

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Research we're watching

People who work long hours may face a higher risk of stroke, according to a study published online Aug. 20, 2015, by Lancet.

Researchers pooled data from 17 studies from the United States, Europe, and Australia that followed more than 528,000 workers for an average of just over seven years. None of the participants had cardiovascular disease when they signed up for the studies.

Being near a smoker forces you to breathe what that person exhales as well as what wafts from the burning end of the cigarette. This so-called secondhand smoke has been linked to a host of health problems, including lung cancer, heart attack, and stroke. Now, a large study further validates earlier research about the risk of stroke caused by secondhand smoke.

The study, published online June 16 by the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, included nearly 22,000 people ages 45 and older. Almost a quarter of the participants reported secondhand smoke exposure, which was defined as more than one hour per week in close contact with a smoker. After adjustment for other stroke risk factors, there was a 30 percent increase in the overall risk of stroke among people exposed to secondhand smoke.

If you have heart disease, national guidelines recommend that you take a low-dose (81-mg) aspirin every day. It's an inexpensive and effective way to lower your risk of a heart attack or stroke. According to a report in the July 17 Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, about seven in 10 adults with heart disease follow this advice.

The study relied on telephone surveys done by the CDC about health behaviors. It included data from more than 17,900 adults from 20 states and the District of Columbia.

A constant drone of low-level traffic noise may slightly raise your risk of cardiovascular disease, according to British researchers.

The study included data from the nearly 450,000 people admitted to London hospitals with cardiovascular disease over an eight-year period. Researchers estimated how much traffic noise these people were exposed to, day and night.

Strokes hit women hard. Self-care is key to preventing a stroke and minimizing the damage if you have one.

This year an estimated 425,000 women will have a stroke, and 55,000 will die from one. Women are more likely than men to have strokes, and they are also more likely to be disabled or to die from them.