After steadily improving over the past few decades, the numbers of Americans dying due to a stroke is now going in the other direction.
And it’s not just seniors who are in danger. Those so-called “millennials” (who run in age from 18 to 34), could probably be renamed “illennials,” as that age group is seeing a huge increase in strokes.
That’s right… kids born in the 1990s are not only having strokes… but they’re dying from them!
The CDC is calling its new report on stroke deaths a “wake-up call” for all of us to lower our chances of having a stroke — no matter what our age.
So, what in the world could be going on here? After all, those “magic” statin pills are supposed to armor-plate us against strokes and heart disease. And we both know that people in the U.S. are being prescribed those drugs like never before.
But there’s also another big group of meds that might just be the smoking gun behind these shocking new findings — a classic case of drug treatments causing the very conditions they’re touted to prevent.
Here’s what you need to know to dodge this deadly bullet.
The drug connection
When the CDC talks about stroke prevention, among the top risk factors the agency lists are diabetes and high blood pressure.
And while that’s true, what those officials don’t bother to mention is that many of the drugs used to treat those conditions can, all on their own, tip the scale toward having a deadly stroke!
As one researcher put it, “relying solely” on Big Pharma’s solutions comes “at a dear price” — and that’s people’s lives.
For instance, the type 2 diabetes med Avandia should have been headed directly to the banned bin after being found to significantly up the risk of having a stroke. Instead, nearly four years ago, the FDA actually removed all its warnings and safety restrictions — and while diabetics might think they’re actually lowering their risk by “managing” their condition, that prescription they’re filling may very well be a ticket to a stroke.
Plus that, if your blood pressure truly is high, you may have been told that you need to take multiple blood-pressure drugs. But a study that came out of the University of Alabama at Birmingham a couple of years ago found that each time you add another blood pressure med to your routine, your risk of having a stroke goes up a whopping 33 percent!
Then there are the commonly used OTC and Rx painkillers called NSAIDs, which include ibuprofen (such as Advil and Motrin) and naproxen (Aleve and other brands).
According to research done by the National Institutes of Health, no less, routinely taking these drugs will give you a free membership to the stroke club.
And it looks like those millennials are more likely to pop something at the slightest wince of pain tha n their grandparents would be! One researcher calls them the “painkiller generation.”
A survey of young adults ranging in age from 18 to 24 found that these kids don’t want to have any discomfort, with a third admitting to taking an OTC pain med every single day if they have even the smallest twinge of pain.
Then there’s Celebrex, which is in a class by itself.
This NSAID, COX-2 inhibitor is the only one left on the market after its kissing cousins Vioxx and Bextra were taken out of circulation after being found to be the cause of tens of thousands of people in the U.S. suffering a heart attack or stroke.
And even if you’re the most thorough drug-label reader there is, such warnings aren’t always included in OTC meds or even those book-length inserts that come with prescription drugs.
On top of the stroke risk these drugs come along with (which some studies have found is one of the end results of drug-related fluid retention), many meds can also significantly raise your blood pressure — a stroke risk all on its own.
Those include meds you would take for a cold, which can narrow your blood vessels, antidepressants, and those NSAID painkillers.
The bottom line here is that you need to avoid these kinds of frequently taken drugs whenever possible. And that might be a lot easier to do than you think.
For example:
- Some proven, drug-free ways to lower your blood pressure include brisk walking, relaxation techniques (which have a positive domino effect of decreasing stress hormones that in turn lower a kidney enzyme that raises blood pressure!) and certain key supplements, including CoQ10 and garlic extract.
- A number of alternative ways to alleviate chronic pain include acupuncture, yoga, tai chi, and topical creams that contain arnica and capsaicin.
And while we’re talking about strokes, it’s also important to be able to recognize the symptoms of one. The sooner a stroke victim gets medical attention, the more likely it is that they’ll survive and recover.
The American Heart Association has boiled it down to this acronym: FAST, which stands for Face drooping, Arm weakness, and Speech difficulty — Time to call 911.
Knowing those signs is especially important to younger people, as they probably think a stroke could never, ever happen to them.
But as we now know, that’s no longer the case.
“Uptick in U.S. stroke deaths sets off alarms: CDC” Steven Reinberg, HealthDay, September 6, 2017, consumer.healthday.com
