Once again, the echo-chamber nature of press releases serves to promote misleading science and internet "health news" clickbait. This time, it's with headlines claiming that tobacco – not marijuana – boosts early stroke risk. So is this fact or fiction? Let's take a look.
ischemic stroke
A large study has shown that patients who develop a common arrhythmia post-operatively have a four-fold increased risk of ischemic stroke, the type caused by an arterial blockage. In these cases, the likely cause is a blood clot known as an embolus, which forms in the heart and moves to a cerebral artery.
High blood pressure, or hypertension (HTN), is one of the leading risk factors for stroke, and there are many drugs available to help control this problem. However, researchers continue to investigate further means to lower the chances of hypertensive patients having a stroke, which is often a devastating (or fatal) event.
Two new studies show that sudden-onset strokes are often provoked by the relatively common heartbeat irregularity, atrial fibrillation. If short-term cardiac monitoring fails to detect it, 30-day testing is required. Anticoagulation can be lifesaving.
We ve known for a long time that people can reduce their risk of cardiovascular events (heart attacks and strokes) if they habitually consume moderate amounts of alcoholic beverages no more than one or two standard drinks per day. But the data on stroke in particular have been somewhat inconclusive. Now a huge new meta-analysis demonstrates that some alcohol consumption may significantly reduce the risk of stroke.
When dealing with ischemic stroke (the kind caused by a clot that obstructs brain blood flow), it has often been emphasized that early treatment say within a couple of hours