This website, hosted by the Stroke Alliance for Europe, contains information about stroke prevention, stroke risk and how they impact our brain. It includes the steps needed to ensure brain health and reduce the number of people who have a stroke or a second stroke.

About stroke

Stroke is a leading cause of adult disability and the second most common cause of death in Europe¹. The burden of stroke, how it can shatter people’s lives and the costs associated with stroke, are set to rise as the average age of Europeans increases².

There are different kinds of stroke^3:

• Ischemic stroke can occur when a blood clot partially or completely blocks blood flow to the brain and accounts for about 80% of all strokes
• Haemorrhagic strokes occur when brain blood vessels rupture, leading to bleeding in the brain
• Transient ischemic attack (TIA) (or ‘mini stroke’) is a temporary period when a person experiences symptoms like a stroke. Although they don’t cause permanent damage, TIAs are a serious warning that a stroke could occur in the future.

Stroke is largely preventable

Stroke is a serious medical condition, but the good news is that much can be done to protect our brain health and more than 80% of strokes may be prevented⁴.

People with certain risk factors may have a higher chance of experiencing a stroke. Some of these stroke risk factors include aging, ethnicity and biological sex and cannot be changed. These are known as non-modifiable risk factors.

But modifiable risk factors, such as inactivity, smoking and poor diet, can make a big difference to someone’s risk of having a stroke. Medical conditions like high blood pressure, diabetes, chronic kidney disease and cardiovascular conditions such as atherosclerosis and atrial fibrillation (an uneven heartbeat) are also modifiable risk factors for which treatment can greatly reduce stroke risk⁵.

The World Stroke Organization defines three areas of stroke prevention⁶:

• Improving the general health of the population before they have acquired identifiable risk factors for stroke
• Identifying and treating people who are at risk of stroke due to conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes and obesity
• Preventing people who have already had a stroke or TIA from having another one (secondary prevention)

Medical review

The content was medically reviewed by Professor Anita Arsovska and Dr Maja Bozinovska.

Sponsors

This website was developed with the financial support from: