May is Stroke Awareness month 

Many people don’t know that drinking too much alcohol can cause a stroke.

According to the Stroke Association, a stroke is a brain attack. A stroke occurs when the blood supply to part of your brain is cut off. Blood carries essential nutrients and oxygen to your brain and without blood your brain cells can be damaged or die.

Having a stroke can affect the way your body works as well as how you think, feel and communicate. Drinking too much alcohol can increase the risk of a stroke because alcohol is linked to a number of medical conditions that are risk factors for stroke. Drinking too much increases the risk of:

• High blood pressure - contributing to over 50% of all strokes in the UK     
• Diabetes - almost doubles your risk of stroke 
• Being overweight - increases your risk of having a stroke
• Atrial fibrillation - increases your risk of stroke by five times
• Liver damage - can increase your risk of having a stroke caused by bleeding in your brain

The safest way to drink alcohol is to stick to the government recommended low-risk guidelines. This equals no more than 14 units a week for both men and women.  However, don't drink all the 14 units in one or two goes, spread them out so you have roughly 2-3 drinks on 3-4 days of the week and 2-3 days off alcohol altogether.

 

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