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Functional rehabilitation in an office of a physical therapist after a cerebrovascular accident (CVA) also known as a stroke.
After four decades of progress preventing strokes that affect 800,000 Americans and kill up to 140,000 annually, progress has stalled, and in some states strokes are again increasing, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The study, released Wednesday, shows that stroke death rates failed to continue to decline in 38 states during the 2013–2015 period, resulting in an estimated 32,593 excess stroke deaths that may not have occurred based on previous rates of decline. The data was compiled by the U.S. National Vital Statistics System from the National Center for Health Statistics at the CDC. The increase came after successive declines in stroke deaths for every three-year period studied by the CDC between 2000 and 2013.
Today strokes are the fifth-leading cause of death in the country, but 80 percent of strokes are preventable, according to the World Health Organization.
A stroke occurs when blood flow to an area of brain is cut off and brain cells are deprived of oxygen and begin to die, resulting in the loss of abilities, such as memory and muscle function, controlled by that area of the brain.
Strokes can often be prevented by two methods. Dr. Quanhe Yang, senior scientist, Division for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention at the CDC, said one is by adopting a healthy lifestyle, such as not smoking, eating a healthy diet that is low in salt and sugar and high in fruits and vegetables, being physically active and maintaining healthy weight. The second is by better managing the risk factors. “If you have high blood pressure, high cholesterol or diabetes, you need to keep them under control by maintaining a healthy lifestyle and taking the proper medications,” Yang said.
