Get Stroke Smart!

Get stroke prevention tips from OhioHealth stroke experts, learn how to recognize a stroke, and find out what you should do if you or a loved one has a stroke. OhioHealth is a not-for-profit organization of hospitals and healthcare services including Riverside Methodist Hospital, Grant Medical Center, Doctors Hospital and Grady Memorial Hospital located in Columbus, Ohio.

Knowing the risk factors for stroke and making positive changes to your lifestyle habits can greatly reduce your risk. At OhioHealth and the Get Stroke Smart website, people with different lifestyles learn a variety of ways to take care of their health. Eating well, living well and adding fitness and exercise to your day, all greatly reduce your stroke risk factors including high blood pressure and high cholesterol. With OhioHealth, it's easy to make sense of all the healthy living information out there.

Take good nutrition for example - do you know how to incorporate healthy eating into your life? OhioHealth provides healthy and delicious snack ideas, menus, recipes, dining out tips and eating strategies to reduce fat and cholesterol - and still have meals your family will eat and enjoy. If weight loss and reducing your Body Mass Index is your goal, take our nutrition quiz, then select from a wide variety of easy traditional and ethnic recipes that are add whole grain to your diet or are high in fiber and low in fat that you can easily make at home. Nutrition experts at the McConnell Heart Health Center and clinical dieticians at Grant Medical Center and Doctors Hospital share their personal eating tips, menu and ingredient substitutions and ways to eat healthy at restaurants.

OhioHealth helps you get moving! Even 30 minutes of exercise activity each day can do wonders for your body's fitness. All forms of movement can increase your fitness level. And, regular exercise can reduce stress and high blood pressure - two risk factors for heart disease. Have you been a couch potato and are now ready to start a fitness routine? Visit us for some new exercise ideas. Exercise doesn't have to take a lot of time or involve expensive exercise equipment. OhioHealth's GetStrokeSmart website is your source for practical exercise tips and classes for people of any age. Personal trainers and exercise physiologists from Grant Health and Fitness Center and McConnell Heart Health Center in Columbus, Ohio are ready to design a personal fitness program for you.

More than 700,000 people may be affected by stroke each year, but that doesn't mean you have to be a victim. You can't change some of your risk factors, such as age, race and family history, but you can adopt lifestyle changes and manage your lifestyle habits to reduce stress and tension, reduce blood pressure and begin living a healthier life. Some important ways you can improve your overall health are to eat well, incorporate exercise into your daily routine, reduce stress, maintain a healthy weight and get regular health screenings. No amount of smoking or tobacco use is safe, and exposure to secondhand smoke is more dangerous than you think. Chronic or frequent intervals of high stress are also harmful to your health.

Early recognition of stroke is critical to avoid severe damage to your brain and potential long-term disability. The earlier you identify a stroke, the sooner you can receive treatment to reverse it or minimize damage. Every minute counts! Stroke is a brain attack. It happens when blood flow to the brain is either cut off (ischemic stroke) or when there is too much blood on the brain (hemorrhagic stroke). When blood flow to the brain is reduced by a blood clot or blocked artery, your brain cells do not get the oxygen and nutrients needed, and can begin to die within minutes. Both the type and success of stroke treatment depends on quick recognition of stroke symptoms and getting to the hospital as soon as possible. At the hospital, a dedicated stroke team of doctors and nurses will work quickly to diagnose whether you are having a stroke and what type.

An annual check-up with your doctor is one of the best first steps you can take to identify your risk factors for stroke. If you don't have one, OhioHealth can help you find a physician. When you know your numbers for stroke risk and monitor them over time, you have the information you need to track your progress in improving your health. Your BMI, lipid profile and cholesterol, blood pressure and weight are all indicators of your risk for stroke, heart attack and other heart-related diseases and conditions.

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