A dietician at the stroke unit of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Andrew Kpabi, has advised Ghanaians to reduce the intake of alcohol to prevent stroke.
He also attributed the intake of caffeinated drinks, and lack of exercise to the rise in stroke among Ghanaians.
According to Mr. Kpabi, bad lifestyle choices cause disruption in heart pumping which leads to stroke.
He said regular consumers of meat and people who eat little or no vegetables are liable to have stroke.
“Stroke is the number one preventable cause of death as well as disability,” Mr. Kpabi told host Francis Abban on the Morning Starr Monday morning.
He added that “research has shown that lifestyle in terms of diet has a very strong link to people establishing these conditions. Hypertension, high salt intake, not exercising, not taking enough vegetable, these have a strong link to hypertension and then to stroke.”
He added, however, that non modifiable risk factors like, age and race cannot be curbed, but the modifiable ones can be managed.
Mr Kpabi admonished people to consult dieticians regularly, adding that stroke is common in sub Saharan Africa and blacks and Asians have stroke more than Caucasians.
A Physician at the Korle Bu Teaching hospital Dr Fiifi Duodu explained that stroke is a sudden loss of blood supply to the brain.
“This could be as a result of a clot blocking the blood vessel that supplies that part of the brain or a rapture of that blood vessel and that again leads to the prevention of blood supply to that part of the brain. It would manifest in many ways depending on the part of the brain that is affected,” he said.
Source: Ghana/Starrfmonline.com/103.5FM/Senanu Damilola Wemakor