Stroke prevention tips: 3 things to avoid after meals and 4 before bedtime

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Walking regularly also supports healthy weight, cholesterol, and blood pressure — all key to lowering your stroke risk.

A new study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine found that people who walked steadily for 10 to 15 minutes each day had only about a 4% chance of experiencing a heart attack or stroke — compared to a 13% risk for those who walked for just five minutes at a time.

3. Avoid bathing immediately after meals

Right after you eat, blood flow increases to your stomach to help with digestion.

Taking a warm bath too soon pulls that blood toward your skin instead, which can slow digestion and strain your heart. In rare cases, this can even lead to dizziness or cardiovascular stress.

4. Skip the nightcap

That glass of wine before bed may seem relaxing, but it can actually raise your nighttime blood pressure and disrupt your sleep cycle. Heavy drinking is linked to hypertension, irregular heartbeat, and an increased risk of stroke.

According to a study published on November 5 in the journal Neurology, drinking heavily — defined as having three or more alcoholic drinks a day — is associated with a higher risk of severe bleeding strokes and faster progression of long-term brain damage.

5. Don’t eat dinner too late

Eating late forces your digestive system to stay active while your body is trying to rest. This can raise blood sugar, cause acid reflux, and make it harder to fall asleep.

Researchers at the University of Sorbonne in Paris, France, discovered that eating dinner after 9 p.m. may raise the risk of having a stroke or mini-stroke.

In a massive seven-year study of 100,000 people, published in Nature Communications, researchers tracked not just what participants ate, but when they ate — weekdays, weekends, everything.

Turns out timing mattered. About a third of the group had dinner before 8 p.m., while another third regularly ate after 9 p.m. Over those years, roughly 2,000 people ended up facing serious heart troubles, including heart attacks and strokes. The takeaway? People who regularly ate dinner after 9 p.m. had a 28% higher risk of experiencing a stroke.

6. Reduce salt intake

Salt makes food taste amazing and is basically a kitchen must-have — but too much can be deadly. High salt intake drives up blood pressure, a leading cause of stroke.

Every year, 1.9 million deaths are linked to too much sodium, but there’s hopeContinue reading…

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