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June 13, 2005
The Single Biggest Risk Factor for Strokes
Traditional doctors didn't know what to do with Edward N. His story baffled the experts. He first came to the Center for Health and Wellness about 10 years ago walking with a cane and slurring his speech after suffering two strokes. That’s not unusual; 50 percent of stroke sufferers have a repeat stroke within a couple of years. What was unusual was that Ed had a stroke at all. He had none of the traditional risk factors.
Ed didn’t smoke or drink alcohol, and his cholesterol was quite low at 150. At 155 pounds, he was not overweight. In fact, he appeared quite lean, trim, and muscular. He had big “Popeye-like” forearms from his work as a lifetime roofer, and he was only 48 years old.
Ed’s first stroke came without warning. He was driving home from work when he suddenly felt dizzy and had trouble remembering how to drive his truck. He made it home, but found he couldn’t speak. His wife drove him to the emergency room where an MRI on his brain detected a blood clot blocking an artery that supplied an area in the side of his brain used for language.
Strokes are lessons in the anatomy of the brain. During a stroke, an area of the brain dies from lack of oxygen. You can tell what area of the brain was affected by the difficulties the stroke survivor develops. Ed had expressive aphasia. He could understand language when he heard it, but he couldn’t speak. A year after his first stroke, Ed still suffered episodes when he couldn’t think of the proper word for simple things, but he had regained much of his ability to communicate.
Ed’s second stroke was more devastating, as is usually the case. This time the blood clot affected an area in the back of his brain that controls coordination and balance. After months of physical therapy, he could walk again, but he was noticeably shaky. His doctor told him he would never be able to climb a ladder again. Each expert Ed went to said they could find no reason for his two strokes, and Ed accepted that.
The reason Ed went outside of his HMO to come to the Center for Health and Wellness was something else his doctors told him. They told him that statistically he had an 80 percent likelihood of having a third stroke and those are always worse.
Ed was pleased to learn that the approach of the Wellness Center was different. He was asked questions that might expose risk factors his doctors had missed. Center staff told him they would check new markers in his blood for the answer to why he was having strokes.
When his lab results came back, an answer was immediately obvious. One number jumped out; Ed’s homocysteine level was 26, the highest ever seen at the Center for Health and Wellness.
Homocysteine is the best single risk factor for stroke. In one study of people who had had a stroke but had no other risk factors, 90 percent had elevated homocysteine. Yet, incredibly, no one ever checked Ed’s homocysteine level. This is not an exception. Of all the Center’s cardiac patients, only a handful had homocysteine levels checked before they arrive.
To read more about this topic order Al Sears MD’s The Doctor’s Heart Cure today.
Posted by james at June 13, 2005 6:10 AM