United States: Rates of stroke, as well as levels of stroke deaths, are rising due to climate change and worse diets, a new study suggests.
The increase has persisted and in 2021 about 11.9 million people globally had a stroke and this has been a 70% increase from 1990 according to a team led by Valery Feigin of Auckland University of Technology.
As reported by HealthDay, It has become the third killer disease which has claimed the lives of more than 7 people in the world today. It is estimated that 3 million people get infected with the disease each year.
It shouldn’t be like this because through prevention, epidemiologists pointed out that approximately 81% of the cases of stroke are avoidable.
“This study reveals that exactly 84 percent of stroke burden are associated with 23 modifiable risk factors and therefore, the findings clearly indicate that a lot can be done to prevent the next generation of stroke,” noted Dr Catherine Johnson. She is a lead research scientist at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at University of Washington in Seattle.
The factors which typical increase your risk of having a stroke include air pollution, brought about by climate change, overweight, high blood pressure, smoking, and lack of exercise. These are all the hazards that the, researchers mentioned could be eliminated or managed.
The study was published in The Lancet Neurology journal on September, 18.
Apart from the millions of causalities associated with stroke, these attacks result in severe disability of the victims. RH: years lived with disability, it increased by nearly one-third, from 1990 to 2021 by 32% The number of healthy years of life lost due to stroke also increased over the same period by 32%.
Why such increase in stroke occurrence has been noted? As per the new findings, people are increasingly exposed to several stroke risks factors.
An indictment of the world’s growing stroke risks released in a journal in between 1990 and 2021 displays that stroke risks due to high BMI were 88% higher, followed by high temperatures’ 72% higher, high blood sugar 32% higher, SS beverage consumption 23% higher, low physical activity 11% higher, high systolic pressure 7% higher, and low omega-6 PUFAs 5%
Higher temperature mean worsening air pollution another known risk factor for the stroke and the impact of hot smoggy days on the stroke risk is perhaps most devastating in the less better nations said the researchers and may only worsen with the climate change.