Strokes in your 40's

[Greenman]

Different strokes for different blokes!

3 of my mates have had strokes now. Just been speaking to mates on a whattsapp group and one of my long term mates has just had a stroke, he is one of the least mental of us and has never smoked and doesn't drink much anymore and he is a proper keep fit freak, he had the stroke on his bike as it happens on one of his many 50m bike rides.

He's ok but it just pushes me even more to enjoy life while i can. I have always been the most mental out of our group and suspected to be the one that will 'go first' but who knows.

I really am a believer that you have to love the life you live as you never know when it will be taken from you. No matter what makes you happy just be happy and die happy, don't try and be something other people want you to be.

That's 3 of my mates, both male and female who have had strokes in their early 40's now!

[Yorick]

We'd always thought about retiring at 50 & 55 respectively.
But when I was 49 I went to 4 funerals and they were all younger than me.
That decided it. We had to retire early.

Enjoy life while we can. Not wait until 66.

[Taipan]

Diets probably! Everyone I know and work with under 40 seems to live on McCrap and other salt and sugar laden takeaways. It's going to catch up with you at some point...

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

It's probably drugs, my dad was addicted to cocodamol, he started having strokes in his early 50s, another mate was a speed freak, died of a heart attack and stroke when he was 49, all the serious druggies about my age I knew are either dead or seriously ill, I'm 56

[Greenman]

It's probably drugs, my dad was addicted to cocodamol, he started having strokes in his early 50s, another mate was a speed freak, died of a heart attack and stroke when he was 49, all the serious druggies about my age I knew are either dead or seriously ill, I'm 56

My mate in question has never done drugs, not even tried weed!

He's never really had any serious illness either just came straight out of the blue. The only thing that he was a bit crap at was exercise, and has over the past 4 or 5 years got into some sort of super bike ride club where they do endurance rides out and about, i swear this is what brought it on, doing no exercise for 40 years then suddenly going full on into it.

I have anther mate who is the same. He was unhealthy and about 18st most of his life but as soon as he hit 40 he has gone full mental on the keep fit and has lost 4 stone in the last few years, he is doing half marathon runs 2 or 3 times a week, i'm just waiting for him to keel over from a heart attack!

Best just to stick to the pub imo...

[KungFooBob]

Fat people are harder to kidnap.

[DefTrap]

The docs will tell you it's shitty diet and totally unmanaged blood pressure. Virtually nobody keeps a check on their own BP and even the GPs are a little bit blasé about what is considered high. Once you have a high BP it's quite difficult to manage against stress, diet, booze, exercise - and drugs can only do so much.

Potentially a lot of us have had mini strokes and are functioning just fine - a map of your brain is potentially like craters of the moon of dead spots.

I've started running in my 50s btw so maybe I'm a dead ringer for a coronary. On the flip side it does make you think more about your bad habits once you start 'training'.

[Mr. Dazzle]

I have the other problem...low blood pressure, blackout when I stand up, been turned away from giving blood. They do FA about that too

Maybe I should eat more bacon.

[Yambo]

The docs will tell you it's shitty diet and totally unmanaged blood pressure.

My cardiologist told me that the condition of my blood, coupled with some arrhythmia put me at a higher risk of a stroke. Nothing to do with diet and I've had high blood pressure since the heart attack and subsequent by-pass op in 2006/7. I take pills to regulate the heartbeat and warfarin with the regular INR checks to keep the blood healthier.

I'm not in my 40s though.

[Count Steer]

I have the other problem...low blood pressure, blackout when I stand up, been turned away from giving blood. They do FA about that too

Maybe I should eat more bacon.

BP is a very odd thing. In this country the medics get v agitated about high blood pressure and will stick you on statins and beta-blockers at the drop of a hat* but 'sur le continent' I understand they get more agitated about low BP. (Dunno what they do about it though).

*They've tried to do that twice with the missus when high BP wasn't the actual problem. Dropped it to dangerous levels and made her quite ill(er). Then one of them wanted to try a digitalis derivative...which should only be used in carefully monitored and carefully adjusted dosages...on sedentary people...which she isn't. Fortunately the senior GP intervened.

[MyLittleStudPony]

A man is born, he's a man of means. Then along come two, they got nothing but their jeans. But they got, Diff'rent Strokes. It takes Diff'rent Strokes. It takes Diff'rent Strokes to move the world.

[DefTrap]

My cardiologist told me that the condition of my blood, coupled with some arrhythmia put me at a higher risk of a stroke. Nothing to do with diet and I've had high blood pressure since the heart attack and subsequent by-pass op in 2006/7. I take pills to regulate the heartbeat and warfarin with the regular INR checks to keep the blood healthier.

The difficulty seems to be that -before- you have a problem that doctors are ok with spiky, even high, blood pressure. But as soon as you have an issue then it becomes hugely important to keep it within the acceptable ranges. Once you start monitoring your BP it often seems to be that it can be all over the place, so folk often only find that there is a problem by chance, or after an event.

[Greenman]

I have the other problem...low blood pressure, blackout when I stand up, been turned away from giving blood. They do FA about that too

Maybe I should eat more bacon.

Get a job working in schools, that should boost your BP up a bit...

[Noggin]

I have the other problem...low blood pressure, blackout when I stand up, been turned away from giving blood. They do FA about that too

Maybe I should eat more bacon.

BP is a very odd thing. In this country the medics get v agitated about high blood pressure and will stick you on statins and beta-blockers at the drop of a hat* but 'sur le continent' I understand they get more agitated about low BP. (Dunno what they do about it though).

*They've tried to do that twice with the missus when high BP wasn't the actual problem. Dropped it to dangerous levels and made her quite ill(er). Then one of them wanted to try a digitalis derivative...which should only be used in carefully monitored and carefully adjusted dosages...on sedentary people...which she isn't. Fortunately the senior GP intervened.

I’ve always had low (sometimes very low) BP. No major issues but always commented on at the GP (giving blood never an issue as I was always so stressed about the needle that my BP was always normal for that !!! )

The last few years it’s tested normal and everyone is happy. Obviously, no records here of the previously low BP

I often wonder if I should be worried or not!!! But I figure I’m stressed enough about other things, so I’ll leave the BP issue for another time

[DefTrap]

Balls - I have pizza tonight.

[gremlin]

Balls - I have pizza tonight.

When you die can you donate your prostate to me? Ta.

[Greenman]

Balls - I have pizza tonight.

We're here for a good time not a long time, get extra cheese...

[Taff]

I've known two blokes who had a heart attack and dead at forty, but both were crackers on the goon juice and marching powder.
I also know two bloke that had strokes, one in his mid-thirties (due to obesity) and one in his fifties, fit as a fiddle but apparently due to bad diet.

In a very brief conversation my heart chap reckoned diet is being pointed at less now, he said they reckon cases that used to be put down as purely bad diet is perhaps genetic and you can eat all the avocados you want but it might not do you much good.

In the absence of concrete evidence then I'm trying to stay as slim as I can and as fit as I can. I rarely eat fast food and even if I do it's just the odd Chinese or fish/chips once a month or so. Stress is probably as bad as anything, but what to do, I don't know anyone that never stresses.

My wife’s family has got a genetic bug in the system that causes very high cholesterol, her cousin had a heart attack at about 24 which led to them finding this genetic thing.
Recent testing is showing up lots of problems that were not known about until recently

[Taipan]

I have the other problem...low blood pressure, blackout when I stand up, been turned away from giving blood. They do FA about that too

Maybe I should eat more bacon.

They should do so as it can lead to organ failure, strokes, heart attacks and injury from falls. My mum suffered from it and was medicated to counter it. Please don't think it's a lesser condition than high blood pressure.

[Mr. Dazzle]

Well I'm allowed to give blood and they check it now and then.

Ironically, getting off the sofa gives me tunnel vision but spaffing away 10% of my blood is fine and never causes a problem