A study of 20,000 middle-aged and elderly UK residents has shown that an unhealthy lifestyle can double someone’s risk of a stroke by half. The findings were published in the BMJ and represent some of the first findings based on the impact of several risk factors combined, as opposed to the individual impact of smoking or obesity.
The research, led by scientists from the University of East Anglia, showed that consuming too much alcohol and food, smoking, eating too few greens and not exercising all make a person more vulnerable to having a stroke. The researchers gave one ‘point’ each time some one had a health behaviour, when someone did not smoke, drank moderately, exercised and ate five portions of fruit or vegetables per day getting the maximum 4 points. They found that those who got no points were 2.3 more times likely to experience a stroke than someone with 4 points. The fewer points someone had, the greater their chances of getting sick. The data also showed that the most common ‘score’ was 3, and that significantly more women than men had a score of 4.
At the moment, strokes cost the NHS £7bln each year. In the editorial that accompanied the BMJ article, Dr Matthew Giles from the Stroke Prevention Research Unit based in Oxford’s John Radcliffe Hospital said that the low numbers of participants who had a lifestyle that protected them against a stroke (5,000 got the maximum score) indicated that a massive behavioural change was needed to make a difference. Strokes are the nation‘s third biggest killer.