Abdominal Girth a Factor in Stroke Risk
by Jennifer Bunn, RNA study presented at the American Stroke Association’s Annual Stroke Conference revealed that women in the age group 45 to 54 were three times as likely as men in the same age group to have suffered a stroke. Data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, conducted on 2,136 adults aged 35 to 64, found that although men were more likely to have traditional stroke risk factors, women suffered from stroke three times as often as men.
The culprit? Researchers controlled for other factors responsible for causing stroke, such as hypertension, smoking and high cholesterol and discovered that the main difference among men and women of this age group was in waist circumference: 62% of women versus 50% of men had abdominal obesity, which is defined as a waist circumference of more than 35 inches in women and more than 40 inches in men.
It was once thought that women had little chance of suffering a stroke before menopause, but this research seems to negate this theory. Although the relative risk of women suffering a stroke in this age group is still small (3%), the risk is real and women can decrease their risk of suffering a stroke by watching their weight (decreasing their abdominal girth), quitting smoking and eating a healthy diet.
