As the world’s population increases, the number of people dying from stroke is also increasing dramatically, a large international study reveals. Yet strokes are largely preventable, the researchers remind.
2 million deaths from stroke in 1990, 3 million in 2019… 5 million in 2030? This is the grim projection recently published in Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. It is taken from a study based on the analysis of data from the Global Health Data Exchangea global health database, collected between 1990 and 2019.
The Chinese researchers behind the study were particularly interested in ischemic stroke, the most common stroke. It results in the obstruction of a cerebral artery, which blocks blood circulation in the brain and can have serious consequences, including death. His symptoms, which should lead to call for help without delay: difficulty in speaking, facial paralysis with crooked mouth, loss of strength in an arm or a leg, sudden abnormality of vision.
This type of stroke has therefore been increasing steadily and continuously for three decades. This is due to the increase and aging of the world population, but also to “the combination of lifestyle factors”say the authors.
Avoidable risk factors
In total, the researchers identified seven major risk factors, which contribute to the increase in ischemic strokes: smoking, a diet high in sodium, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, kidney dysfunction, hyperglycemia and a High BMI.
To reduce the risk of suffering a stroke (in France, 28% of those affected die in the year following the stroke), it is therefore better to act upstream. Quitting smoking, changing your diet, practicing physical activity… are part of the habits to adopt, if this is not already the case.
It is also advisable to have your cholesterol level and blood pressure monitored regularly (6 million French people are hypertensive without knowing it). And to take seriously the symptoms of TIA, transient ischemic attack, which resemble those of stroke but do not cause harm. After a TIA, almost one in five sufferers develop a real stroke within three months