{"id":16334,"date":"2014-02-12T15:33:16","date_gmt":"2014-02-12T20:33:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/?p=16334"},"modified":"2014-02-12T02:20:48","modified_gmt":"2014-02-12T07:20:48","slug":"new-guidelines-for-reducing-stroke-risks-unique-to-women","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/2014\/02\/new-guidelines-for-reducing-stroke-risks-unique-to-women\/","title":{"rendered":"New guidelines for reducing stroke risks unique to women"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>From the American Heart Association media release:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><a href=\"http:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/black_woman_eating_salad.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-14026\" alt=\"black_woman_eating_salad\" src=\"http:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/black_woman_eating_salad.jpg\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a>For the first time, <strong>guidelines have been developed for preventing stroke in women<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If you are a woman, you share many of the same risk factors for stroke with men, but <strong>your risk is also influenced by hormones, reproductive health, pregnancy, childbirth and other sex-related factors<\/strong>,&#8221; said Cheryl Bushnell, M.D., M.H.S., author of the new scientific statement published in the American Heart Association journal <em>Stroke<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>The guidelines outline stroke risks unique to women and provide scientifically-based recommendations on how best to treat them, including:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Women with a history of high blood pressure before pregnancy<\/strong> should be considered for low-dose aspirin and\/or calcium supplement therapy to lower preeclampsia risks.<\/li>\n<li>Women who have <strong>preeclampsia have twice the risk of stroke and a four-fold risk of high blood pressure<\/strong> later in life. Therefore, preeclampsia should be recognized as a risk factor well after pregnancy, and other risk factors such as smoking, high cholesterol, and obesity in these women should be treated early.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Pregnant women with moderately high blood pressure<\/strong> (150-159 mmHg\/100-109 mmHg) may be considered for blood pressure medication, whereas expectant mothers with severe high blood pressure (160\/110 mmHg or above) should be treated.<\/li>\n<li>Women should be <strong>screened for high blood pressure before taking birth control pills<\/strong> because the combination raises stroke risks.<\/li>\n<li>Women who have <strong>migraine headaches with aura should stop smoking<\/strong> to avoid higher stroke risks.<\/li>\n<li>Women <strong>over age 75 should be screened for atrial fibrillation risks<\/strong> due to its link to higher stroke risk.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Preeclampsia and eclampsia are blood pressure disorders during pregnancy that cause major complications, including stroke during or after delivery<\/strong>, premature birth, and risk for stroke well after child-bearing. Preeclampsia is characterized by high blood pressure and high protein levels in the urine, and when seizure also occurs, this is called eclampsia.<\/p>\n<p><strong>High blood pressure, migraine with aura, atrial fibrillation, diabetes, depression and emotional stress are stroke risk factors that tend to be stronger or more common in women<\/strong> than in men. More studies need to be done to develop a female-specific score to identify women at risk for stroke, said Bushnell, associate professor of neurology and director of the Stroke Center at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, N.C.<\/p>\n<p>The guidelines are geared to primary care providers, including OBGYNs.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Co-authors are Louise McCullough, M.D., Ph.D.; Issam Awad, M.D., M.Sc.; Monique Chireau, M.D., M.P.H.; Wende Fedder, D.N.P., R.N.; Karen Furie, M.D., M.P.H.; Virginia Howard, Ph.D., M.S.P.H.; Judith Lichtman, Ph.D., M.P.H.; Lynda D. Lisabeth, Ph.D., M.P.H.; Ileana Pi\u00f1a, M.D., M.P.H.; Mathew Reeves, Ph.D., D.V.M.; Kathryn M. Rexrode, M.D., M.P.H.; Gustavo Saposnik, M.D., M.Sc.; Vineeta Singh, M.D.; Amytis Towfighi, M.D.; Viola Vaccarino, M.D., Ph.D.; and Matthew Walters, M.D., M.B.Ch.B., M.Sc.<\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From the American Heart Association media release: For the first time, guidelines have been developed for preventing stroke in women. &#8220;If you are a woman, you share many of the&#8230; <a class=\"read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/2014\/02\/new-guidelines-for-reducing-stroke-risks-unique-to-women\/\">Read more &raquo;<\/a><!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[321,10,339,351,336,338],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16334"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16334"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16334\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16336,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16334\/revisions\/16336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}