'Modifiable'

When trying to stave off disease, genetics can be a stubborn thorn. However, as those in the natural products industry know, many of the other major risk factors of devastating diseases are modifiable.

At the recent World Congress of Cardiology, researchers from Canada and Ireland presented findings from their INTERSTROKE study, highlighted by a list of 10 modifiable risk factors that account for 90 percent of stroke risk. The results were also published online ahead of print in the Lancet.

“Targeted interventions that reduce blood pressure and smoking, and promote physical activity and a healthy diet, could substantially reduce the burden of stroke,” they wrote.

Number one was hypertension, which researchers tagged the strongest risk factor for stroke—history of hypertension was associated with a more than 2.5-fold increased risk of stroke. The risk for intracerebral hemorrhage was even greater with high blood pressure. (Heart.org)

There is no shortage of natural products shown by research to help manage and/or lower blood pressure.

While hypertension accounted for a big chunk of attributable stroke risk, waist-to-hip ratio, physical and dietary risk score were among the other significant risk factors. So, weight, diet and exercise….no surprise. The rest of the list includes smoking, diabetes, alcohol use, ApoB-to-ApoA1 ratio and cardiac causes.

The take home message is almost all of stroke risk factors are modifiable, with most on the top ten risk factors list being manageable via natural products.