Stroke Risk

[olqp]

I find the charts they calculate your risk of a stroke

Worrying.I am on Blood pressure tablets and it is well controlled diabetes type 2 just above the pre diabetes level and AF well controlled beta blockers a blood thinners .

Excerwise regular dies this mean it’s inevitable I’ll have a stroke?

I lost an Uncle last year 93 he had been on injectable insulin 39 years and also had a pacemaker years ago.

He did not have a stroke or dementia

[CDreamer]

Do you have AF?

The CHADSVASC2 chart is meant to calculate stroke risk for people with AF but it is a statistical risk so even if you have a high risk stroke not inevitable but means it is more likely than average in the population. There are many things you can do to help yourself - cut sugar out of your diet, exercise get good sleep & keep BMI of around 25 ( have to admit mine is currently 27 but it is after Christmas).

If you do have AF then I assume you will score 2 or above for Diabetes + BP in which case the advice in the UK is that you would be prescribed an anticoagulant as a prophylactic which would then reduce your risk of AF induced stroke.

Nothing is inevitable other than taxes and death - eventually!

Best wishes.

[olqp in reply to CDreamer]

Thanks yes I have Af permanent no symptoms just found 4 years go when changed doctors

I think the main thing is take meds try and keep everything on

An even keel.They keep going on about statins but my Cholesterol is only 4.5 then they say it can effect kidney function and as you know once you get older they are not as efficient

[CDreamer in reply to olqp]

My cholesterol is 6.5-7 but I chose not to take statins for various reasons but didn’t hesitate at anticoagulants.

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Try not to worry olqp, whilst no one can guarantee the future, the fact that you are taking an anticoagulant means that you are doing everything possibly to minimise your risk of having a stroke. Therefore, it is by no means inevitable that you will have a stroke so relax and be encouraged by the fact that your uncle made it to 93, also without having a stroke.....

As far as statins are concerned, at 4.5 I wouldn’t go on statins either. They keep moving the goal posts but for donkeys years the bar was set at 5 and there are few who say the change to 4 was not based on medical grounds, but of course, I couldn’t possibly comment on that one!

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My cardiologist told me to stop worrying about those charts because they were developed by the pharmaceutical companies. The more people they scare into taking their drugs for life, the more $$$$$ they make. They do it to get people on statins and BP meds too by constantly decreasing the threshold without any evidence. He showed me how they manipulate statistics showing a huge number of people helped, when in reality the NNT (number needed to treat) to save one person was astronomical. They are only helping their bottom line and if you think they care about health, I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you.

There was an interesting article about the treatment that cures HEP C being bad for business for pharmaceutical companies in Bloomberg. They really have no incentive to cure anything. Better to create a customer for life. bloomberg.com/opinion/artic...

[KMRobbo]

I am also 6.5 to 7.. My GP does not want to put me on statins either as my good cholesterol is higher than my bad! I eat a lot of oily fish that may help that. However there is a lot of evidence that just looking at the cholesterol numbers in isolation is irrelevant anyway. I have seen programs where figures have shown that more heart attacks are in people with lower cholesterol rather than high to further confuse the issue.

I also believe stains were invented by pharma to make money.

However having said that I have a friend who has some inherited genetic disposition for cholesterol and his father died very young as did other family members . He has been on statins a long time as a necessity, and is much older than his father was, so there can be good reasons to take them.