Know Your Stroke Risk: Understanding Factors for Stroke Prevention

Preventing a stroke begins with understanding your personal stroke risk.

Numerous factors contribute to the likelihood of experiencing a stroke, and these can be divided into two main categories: those you can change (modifiable) and those you cannot (non-modifiable).

Alarmingly, about one in three U.S. adults has at least one major modifiable stroke risk factor, such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or smoking. Recognizing these factors is a critical step towards effective stroke prevention.  

Modifiable Stroke Risk Factors: Taking Control

These are factors you can influence through lifestyle changes, medication, or both:

• High Blood Pressure (Hypertension): The single most significant controllable stroke risk factor. It damages arteries, making them prone to blockage or rupture.  
• Smoking: Damages blood vessels, raises blood pressure, and increases clot formation. Even secondhand smoke elevates stroke risk.  
• Diabetes Mellitus: High blood sugar damages blood vessels over time.  
• High Cholesterol: High LDL (“bad”) cholesterol contributes to artery-clogging plaque (atherosclerosis).  
• Obesity: Linked to other major stroke risk factors like high blood pressure and diabetes.  
• Atrial Fibrillation (AFib): An irregular heartbeat that can cause clots to form in the heart and travel to the brain.  
• Physical Inactivity: Contributes to obesity, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol.  
• Poor Diet: Diets high in sodium, unhealthy fats, and low in fruits/vegetables increase stroke risk.  
• Excessive Alcohol Consumption: Can raise blood pressure.

Managing these factors through lifestyle and medical care is central to stroke prevention.

Non-Modifiable Stroke Risk Factors: Awareness is Key

These factors cannot be changed, but awareness motivates stronger control over modifiable risks:

• Age: Stroke risk doubles each decade after 55, though strokes occur at all ages.
• Family History: Having a close relative who had a stroke increases your risk.
• Race/Ethnicity: Non-Hispanic Black adults have a significantly higher stroke risk and mortality.  
• Gender: Women have a higher lifetime stroke risk and account for more stroke deaths.  
• Previous Stroke or TIA: Having a prior event dramatically increases the risk of another stroke.  

The Interplay of Stroke Risk Factors

Many modifiable risks are linked (e.g., diet, obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes). Positive changes in one area, like improving diet, can benefit multiple stroke risk factors.

Knowing your non-modifiable risks should encourage stricter management of the factors you can control.  

Table 1: Stroke Risk Factors: What You Can and Cannot Control

Proactive Insights with Bionicc Body Screening

Understanding your unique stroke risk profile is essential for effective stroke prevention. Stroke risk screenings are part of a full body MRI screening at Bionicc Body Screening in Southfield, Michigan.

Bionicc Body Screening offers full body MRI scan services that provide a detailed look inside your body, potentially identifying underlying conditions or early signs of disease relevant to stroke risk.

Stroke Prevention Screening

This whole body MRI approach screens major organs and tissues, including the brain and carotid arteries, which are critical areas for assessing stroke risk factors like aneurysms, evidence of prior stroke, or vascular abnormalities.

While not a replacement for managing modifiable risk factors like blood pressure or cholesterol, a full body MRI scan can offer valuable, personalized insights as part of a proactive health strategy.

Bionicc Body Screening uses radiation-free whole body MRI technology and allows you to schedule a scan without a doctor’s referral, putting you in control of your health monitoring.

Learn more about how this screening can contribute to your stroke prevention plan by visiting https://www.bioniccbodyscreening.com or calling 1-833-BIONICC.