Some stroke risk factors can be changed, treated, or medically managed. Others are beyond your control; you just need to be aware that they exist.

Stroke Risk Factors You Can Control

• High blood pressure: the most important controllable risk factor for brain attack.
  
  
• Heart disease: the second most important risk factor for stroke and the major cause of death among survivors of stroke.
  
  
• Cigarette smoking: especially the use of oral contraceptives combined with cigarette smoking greatly increases stroke risk.
  
  
• History of transient ischemic attacks (TIAs): a person who's had one or more TIAs is almost 10 times more likely to have a brain attack than someone of the same age and sex who has not.
  
  
• High red blood cell count: a moderate increase in the number of red blood cells thickens the blood and makes clots more likely.
  
  
• High blood cholesterol and lipids
  
  
• Lack of exercise, physical inactivity
  
  
• Obesity
  
  
• Excessive alcohol use: more than two drinks per day raises blood pressure. Binge drinking can lead to brain attack.
  
  
• Drug abuse (certain kinds): intravenous drug abuse carries a high risk of stroke from cerebral embolisms. Cocaine use has been closely related to brain attacks, heart attacks and a variety of other cardiovascular complications. Some of them, even among first-time cocaine users, have been fatal.

• Age: for each decade of life after age 55, the chance of having a brain attack more than doubles.
  
  
• Gender: men have about a 19 percent greater chance of stroke than women.
  
  
• Race: African-Americans have a much higher risk of death and disability from a brain attack than whites, in part because the black population has a greater incidence of high blood pressure.
  
  
• Diabetes diagnosis: an independent risk factor for stroke and strongly correlated with high blood pressure, diabetes is treatable, but still increases a person's risk of stroke.
  
  
• History of prior stroke: risk of brain attack for someone who has already had one is many times that of a person who has not.
  
  
• Heredity/genetics: chance of stroke is greater in people who have a family history of stroke.

• Where you live: brain attacks are more common among people living in the southeastern United States than in other areas.
  
  
• Temperature, season and climate: stroke deaths occur more often during periods of extreme temperatures.
  
  
• Socioeconomic factors: there is some evidence that strokes are more common among low-income people than among more affluent people.