48-year-old Mr. Zhang suddenly had a crooked corner of his mouth, thinking that he was suffering from facial paralysis caused by blowing an air conditioner, but when he went to the hospital for examination, he learned that it was not a so-called facial paralysis at all, but a cerebral infarction.
Doctor, I'm only 48 years old and I had a stroke, what's going on? Mr. Zhang was particularly incomprehensible.
Through careful questioning, the doctor told Mr. Zhang that the main reason why he suffered from cerebral infarction was related to his long-term unhealthy lifestyle habits, and it was these bad habits that caused Mr. Zhang to suffer from hypertension five years ago.
When he was diagnosed with cerebral infarction, Mr. Zhang's blood pressure was as high as 180/110mmHg.
According to data from The Lancet, there are 13.7 million new cerebral infarction patients in the world every year, of which 40% are in the mainland, about 5.51 million people, and the number of deaths is as high as 2 million every year.
According to the Report on the Prevention and Treatment of Stroke in China (2023), the number of stroke patients in mainland China4 aged 40 and above has reached 12.42 million, and the incidence of stroke is younger. Among them, cerebral infarction is the first disease that threatens the health of Chinese people.
It is no exaggeration to say that in the past decade, the incidence of cerebral infarction in mainland China has been increasing, but you may not think that the incidence of cerebral infarction in the United States is decreasing?
There are so many fat people in the United States, they all like high-calorie food, it is said that their incidence of cerebral infarction is higher, but this is not the case, a study in the New England Journal of Medicine pointed out that the obesity rate in the United States is increasing year by year, but the incidence of cerebral infarction continues to decline, the reason may be related to the mandatory public folic acid supplementation in the United States in the past 10 years.
Speaking of which, many people will have such questions, what? Can folic acid supplementation prevent cerebral infarction?
Studies have found that for hypertensive patients with high homocysteine, folic acid supplementation can promote homocysteine metabolism, thereby reducing the incidence of cerebral infarction.
But as a doctor, I want to tell you that the national conditions of the United States are not the same as China, and it cannot be generalized, not that as long as folic acid is supplemented, there will be no more cerebral infarction, in fact, the following 5 points are more important than folic acid supplementation.
1. It is more important to control high blood pressure
Hypertension is the main culprit of cerebral infarction, in the mainland, there is 1 hypertensive patient in every 4 adults, so the incidence of cerebral infarction in the mainland is also high, how can we better prevent cerebral infarction? The best way is to control high blood pressure and not ignore it.
2. It is more important to maintain a healthy diet
In fact, most people do not need to supplement folic acid, just need to maintain a good diet, vegetables and fruits are rich in folic acid, as long as you love to eat vegetables and fruits, generally will not lack folic acid, unfortunately, many people are big fish and meat, long-term unhealthy eating habits, resulting in the occurrence of three highs, so cerebral infarction is naturally easy to appear.
3. It is more important to keep exercising
The higher a person's weight is, the farther away from cerebral infarction, and conversely, the more obese a person is, the higher the risk of developing cerebral infarction.
How can I maintain a standard weight?
Needless to say, we must insist on exercising, through fat burning, so that our weight and figure are more up to standard, in order to reduce a series of metabolic diseases caused by obesity.
4. It is important to stay away from tobacco and alcohol
If a person does not quit smoking and drinking, no matter how much folic acid you eat, it is impossible to completely prevent cerebral infarction.
In addition to causing cancer, long-term smoking and alcohol abuse can also easily induce cerebral infarction.
5. It's more important not to stay up late
Now that electronic products are popular, the pace of life is accelerating, more and more people have developed the bad habit of staying up late for a long time, and I want to tell you that staying up late for a long time and lacking enough sleep can easily lead to endocrine dysfunction, which will make people more prone to hypertension, diabetes, and the risk of cerebral infarction will also increase.