Your Age, Race, or Family History Isn’t the End of the Story. Here’s How Women Are Taking Back Control. 

Sandy Newby tried to speak, but she couldn’t get the words out. One minute she was standing in front of her kitchen counter doing art with her kids, and the next, she was trapped inside her own head trying to get her body to work. Newby, only 40 at the time, knew something was terribly wrong. Seconds later her left arm was tingling and the left side of her face had gone numb.

“In my brain, I heard the sentences very clearly, and I immediately thought to myself, I’m having a stroke, and I need help,” she said.

What a Stroke Really Looks Like

 A stroke happens when blood flow to the brain is blocked, either by a blood clot or bleeding in or around the brain, causing brain cells to die. “When brain cells die, parts of the brain that control specific body functions no longer work,” explained Sara Rostanski, MD, a vascular neurologist at NYU Langone in New York.

Newby had no previous symptoms or warning signs, and her life changed in an instant. “Sudden onset neurological symptoms should immediately make one think of a stroke,” said Rostanski. Dizziness, an inability to communicate, extreme nausea, numbness, and having the worst headache of your life are common stroke symptoms.

The New Life-Saving Guidelines You Might Have Missed

 In October 2024, the American Stroke Association updated their guidelines on how to reduce the risk of stroke for the first time in 10 years. This is a huge deal because the guidelines provide new, potentially life-saving strategies to protect brain health. More than 600,000 people in the US have a first stroke each year, and now we know that 80 percent of them are preventable.

Why Stroke Hits Women—and Especially Black Women—Hardest

 Unfortunately, while we all prefer to get older, as opposed to the alternative, “Age is one of the strongest stroke risk factors,” said Rostanski. And since women live longer than men, more women die of stroke. As a matter of fact, one in five women die of a stroke.

Black women are twice as likely to have a stroke compared to white women, and they’re more likely to have a second stroke within a year and die from that stroke. Racial discrimination, stress, and depression are only some of the reasons for these shocking statistics.

Early menopause (before age 40) also increases our risk of stroke later in life, possibly because of a decline in estrogen.

The good news—yes, there is good news—is that only a small amount of strokes are hereditary. “Some proportion of strokes can be hereditary but it’s a very small fraction that are truly due to a single gene condition. Family history, especially for stroke in younger patients, can play a role, but the majority of strokes are not hereditary,” said Rostanski.

Even More Good News

Stroke care has vastly improved in the last 20 years. “Mechanical thrombectomy, which is the endovascular treatment of a specific type of ischemic stroke called a large vessel occlusion, is a treatment that has revolutionized stroke care for the most severe types of ischemic strokes. With this procedure, specially trained physicians insert a catheter into a patient’s brain and remove a blood clot in a main artery that is causing a blockage of blood flow,” explained Rostanski.

Restoring blood flow can reduce the amount of damage to the brain, and some patients return to their normal lives. “It’s a true miracle compared to the state of stroke care 20 years ago,” Rostanski continued. However, mechanical thrombectomy isn’t available everywhere, which means you have to be lucky enough to be treated at a specialized center where doctors are trained for this type of procedure.

There are other innovative treatments in the works as well, including stem cell therapy and noninvasive neurostimulation.

8 Steps You Can Take To Prevent Strokes Right Now

 The American Heart Association’s new guidelines now suggest making these eight changes to substantially reduce your risk of stroke.

Check Your Blood Pressure

“Blood pressure control is probably the single most important thing to do to prevent stroke,” said Rostanski. High blood pressure can damage your arteries, causing them to lose elasticity, which can lead to clots. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, you should aim for levels below 120/80 mm Hg. If you have high blood pressure, talk to your doctor about ways to control it.

Eat Healthy

Fill your plate with fresh fruits and vegetables, and choose lean sources of meat and wild fish. Newby now follows a Mediterranean diet, though she admits it’s not always easy. But small changes can make a big difference. A 2018 study in the New England Journal of Medicine found that adding olive oil and nuts to your diet can reduce your risk of a cardiovascular event. Ditch the butter and replace it with heart-healthy olive oil, then swap your midday chip snack with pecans or almonds.

Move Your Body

Get out and dance, start gardening, or hit the trail for a long walk. “We are learning more and more how damaging it is to be sedentary, so building in physical activity whenever possible is key,” Rostanski said. The American Heart Association suggests aiming for two-and-a half-hours of moderate exercise a week, or 75 minutes of vigorous aerobic activity.

Stop Smoking

We all know smoking is bad; it says it right there on the package. But people who smoke 20 cigarettes a day are six times more likely to have a stroke than a non-smoker. And second-hand smoke counts too. Non-smoking partners of smokers are twice as likely to have a stroke compared to partners of non-smokers. Smoking damages your blood vessels and can lead to plaque buildup in your arteries. Plain and simple, it’s time to quit.

Go To Sleep—Seriously

Stop scrolling and go to bed. You should be getting seven to eight hours sleep a night to help your body reset, heal, and improve your brain function.

Maintain a Healthy Weight

Being overweight increases your risk of stroke by 22 percent. If you’re struggling to maintain a healthy weight, speak to a nutritionist who can give you tips and ideas for modifying your diet and adding exercise. Keep track of how you eat, why you are eating, and the time of day. Go for a walk after eating. It’s one of the best things you can do for your health.

Control Your Cholesterol

Your body makes its own cholesterol, but it also comes from some of the foods we eat. Too much LDL (that’s the bad cholesterol) can stick to your arteries and cause plaque buildup, leading to a clot. Replacing saturated fats with unsaturated fats in your diet is one big way to reduce your cholesterol. Stay away from highly processed, deodorized oils like canola and corn oils, and talk to your doctor about statins if you have high cholesterol.

Check Your Blood Sugar

High blood glucose can increase clots and fatty deposits in your arteries, cutting off blood supply and making it difficult for oxygen to reach your brain. People with diabetes are more likely to have a stroke at an earlier age than those who don’t have diabetes. Make sure to get your A1c levels checked during your annual blood work.

The Best Stroke Prevention: Know the Signs. Have a Plan. Rewrite Your Story.

 If you think you or a loved one are having a stroke, “the most important thing to do is call 911 and specifically state, ‘I’m having a stroke.’ By doing this EMS is primed for a stroke diagnosis and will bring you to the right type of hospital,” said Rostanksi.

Newby, who made a full recovery, couldn’t agree more. She and her family now know the signs and symptoms to look for, and they have a plan in place in case it happens again.

The bottom line is, there are so many things in life we can’t control, but stroke prevention doesn’t have to be one of them. Are you ready to rewrite your story?

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