A Little More About Different Strokes
Avoiding a Stroke Isn't Just Luck
According to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, every month more than 50,000 Americans experience a stroke. That�s every month. A third of those people die as a direct result of the stroke, and another third are permanently disabled. Want to get out of the line of fire? Good idea. The factors that lead to stroke tend to be silent and sneaky, so you could be at risk and not even know it. Fortunately, that�s not a problem, because those risk factors are easy to neutralize through natural means that are great for your total health�whether you�re a stroke candidate or not. You�ve got everything to gain and nothing to lose!
Different Strokes for Different Folks
About 88 percent of all strokes are ischemic strokes. This means that the blood supply to a section of your brain has been suddenly slammed shut. The process starts years earlier, with peripheral artery disease (PAD), a condition in which arteries elsewhere in your body start getting gradually gunked up with inflammation byproducts, oxidized cholesterol patches, and clots. The actual stroke happens when a piece of that gunk comes loose, gets swept along in your bloodstream, and clogs an artery in your head. The bigger the clogged artery, the worse the potential damage from the stroke.
Risk factors for ischemic stroke include high blood pressure, a history of atrial fibrillation, birth control pills, postmenopausal hormone treatments, and anything that causes inflammation anywhere in your body (see the box on the next page). Inflammation increases your blood levels of caustic chemicals such as homocysteine, interleukin, and C-reactive protein (CRP), and, because those inflammatory chemicals are in your blood, your arteries are the first to get burned. The gunky plaque that puts you in line for an ischemic stroke gets deposited over the burns.
The other major kind of stroke is hemorrhagic. This means that instead of a blockage, there�s a rupture in one of the brain�s vessels. It�s the result of the thinning and brittleness in the gunked-up areas of your arteries, which are supposed to be elastic. Every time your heart beats, the pressure wave stresses those brittle areas. It�s like riding on bald tires�eventually they�re going to blow. How bad it is depends on where the bleed is, how big it is, and how long it takes for the bleeding to stop.
The risk factors for hemorrhagic stroke include many of the same ones that cause ischemic stroke, plus an intake of more than two alcoholic drinks or more than five caffeinated drinks per day.
Do You Feel Lucky?
Conventional prevention and treatment for stroke is a real gamble. How bad your stroke is depends on whether you get to the hospital fast enough, get diagnosed accurately, and get treated within three hours with a powerful clot-busting injection of tPA (tissue plasminogen activator). If all those ducks are lined up for you, tPA will break up your clot before your brain tissue is damaged past the point of recovery. Your subsequent progress depends on how big the damaged area is, where it is, how much healing it can do, and whether other parts of your brain can take over. Now here�s the big gamble: What if it was a hemorrhagic stroke instead of an ischemic one? The clot-buster won�t save you then; it�ll kill you.
Let�s take this scenario out of the emergency room and bring it home. Say your physician thinks you�re at risk for a stroke. He or she puts you on some kind of �blood thinner,� which impairs your blood�s ability to clot. You�ll definitely notice a significant increase in bruising, even without any significant bumps or bangs. That�s bad enough, but what if you take that preventive stuff and you have a stroke anyway�a hemorrhagic one? Trust me, it�s not good.
The No-Brainer You Need to Know
Preventing strokes is easier and more effective than dealing with the aftermath, and your future prospects are a lot more attractive. To do this, your body needs two things: smooth, supple arteries and cool, clean, free-flowing blood. Here�s how to have both, naturally.
The first two suggestions here are things that will promote your overall health, actions that�ll give you benefits no matter what your risk of stroke. The final three suggestions are specifically for those people who do have a higher risk for stroke.
� Eat a diet of fresh fruits and vegetables, legumes, whole grains, and fish. Oily cold-water fish such as mackerel, salmon, and sardines contain natural anti-inflammatories and healthy blood thinners. Plus, eating these fish makes any plaque you may already have less likely to break off in dangerous clumps. Taking a quality fish oil supplement is fine, but I still recommend you eat oily fish two or three times per week, to make sure you get all the healthy benefits that might not be in questionable supplements. You�ll get the most benefit out of baked or broiled fish.
� Get your blood pressure and cholesterol levels down naturally.
� Ladies, avoid conventional hormone treatments. Birth control pills are stroke promoters, even for women who don�t smoke. There�s still squabbling about hormone replacement therapy (HRT), but a load of evidence indicates that it increases your risk of fatal or disabling stroke by 50 percent.
� If you need a blood thinner until natural treatments can restore open pipework, talk with your physician about natural blood thinners, such as fish oil as mentioned above and ginkgo extract�they�re safer than drugs and keep your blood flowing without turning you into a �bleeder.� However, if you�ve ever had a hemorrhagic stroke, don�t take blood thinners�natural or otherwise�without first consulting your physician. And be advised, while a daily baby aspirin is cheaper and milder than Plavix or Aggrenox, it�s still a powerful drug. Warning: Some studies suggest that if you�re over 70, aspirin may significantly increase your risk of bleeding.
� Take vinpocetine. It opens up blood vessels, for better flow. Well regarded as a �neuroprotective� compound, its effects on the arteries make it a rational treatment for stroke prevention. Vinpocetine was developed from a compound found in the periwinkle plant (Vinca minor). You can find it in health food stores. I generally start patients with documented arterial disease on 2 mg twice a week, working them up to as much as 5 mg every other day if necessary. It can cause mild nausea, so take it slow.
If you�re aware and proactive, stroke can be a non-issue for you. Living your life in balance is powerful protection against stroke, and it makes everything work better�your body, your mind, your life!
About the Author
Dr. Marcus Laux is a licensed naturopathic physician who earned his doctorate at the National College of Naturopathic Medicine in Portland, Oregon. He has been clinically trained in acupuncture, homeopathy, physical medicine, among other healing modalities. He has spent the past 20 years searching through South American jungles, Siberian steppes, and Mediterranean laboratories for the most effective therapies available in nature.
