Live Healthy Live Well

May is National Stroke Awareness Month, High Blood Pressure Education Month, and National Physical Fitness and Sports Month. Wow! The symmetry amongst those three events all occurring in the same month (in my mind, anyways) is incredible, as high blood pressure is a major risk factor for stroke. And not being physically active is a significant risk factor for stroke and hypertension (high blood pressure).

A stroke is a disruption in the blood supply to your brain that happens when you experience a blockage in a blood vessel or a blood vessel bursts. Every year, almost 800,000 strokes occur in the United States. The two diseases I try hardest to prevent by walking every day are diabetes and stroke. You can lessen your risk for having a stroke by following a regular exercise program as well. The best exercise for a stroke or hypertension prevention program is any exercise that involves moderate-intensity aerobic activity.

What is moderate-intensity aerobic activity?

Exercise and/or “chore” activities that fall into the moderate-intensity category include brisk walking, bicycling on level ground, mowing the lawn, and raking leaves. Typically, activities of this sort elevate your heart rate and cause you to sweat while allowing you to carry on a more or less normal conversation. If you can talk with someone while exercising, but need to stop speaking here or there because you are slightly winded, then you are exercising moderately.

Aerobic exercise is good for you because it “ups” your heart rate and forces your lungs to take in more oxygen while expelling more carbon dioxide. This gives your heart a good workout and pumps a quick jolt of oxygen through your cells. Not exercising regularly? The consequence may be startling; high levels of carbon dioxide in your blood, even when all other tests of the blood are fine. While not life threatening, it does say you are not inhaling enough oxygen or exhaling enough carbon dioxide. Your cells must have oxygen to survive moment to moment.

Exercise also makes the walls of your arteries more elastic. This helps explain why it’s so great at reversing high blood pressure. Picture your garden hose. If the water is turned on full blast but there is a kink in the hose, the pressure builds up. Likewise, the higher the volume of blood and the stiffer the artery, the harder the heart has to work to pump the blood around your system. This, in turn, can raise your risk for a stroke.

If you know someone who has had a stroke and you’ve personally seen the consequences of that devastating brain injury, wouldn’t you want to do everything in your power to avoid it happening to YOU?? Physical activity isn’t a “whenever” health choice, it is one of the most important lifestyle choices you can make. Our greatest asset isn’t our home or vehicle, it’s our body. Protect it!

Sources:
http://www.cdc.gov/features/stroke/
http://www.cdc.gov/Features/HighBloodPressure/
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/stroke/DS00150/DSECTION=prevention
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7919065

Written by:
Donna Green, BS, MA
Extension Educator, Family and Consumer Sciences
Ohio State University Extension

Reviewed by:
Liz Smith, M.S., RDN, L.D.
Extension Educator, Family and Consumer Sciences
Ohio State University Extension