If the human body is compared to a fuel engine, the blood vessels are like oil pipelines. The oil pipe is blocked and the fuel engine cannot operate normally. If blood vessels are blocked, human organs cannot work.
As the [headquarters] of the body, the brain weighs only 2% of its body weight, but needs 20% of its blood to supply energy. Among them, the [carotid artery] plays a very important role in supplying blood to the brain. If it is narrowed and blocked, it may lead to stroke.
Next, Dr. Clove will talk about how to prevent carotid stenosis and avoid stroke.
Touch your carotid artery
People may wonder, where are such important blood vessels?
Put our fingers on both sides of the neck trachea, and the place where we beat is the carotid artery. The common action of “cutting neck” in movies and TV plays also cuts the carotid artery.
Middle-aged and Elderly People Watch out for Carotid Artery
Water pipes will form scale after being used for a long time, and so will blood vessels. With the growth of age, scaling and aging will occur in different degrees, and this scaling and aging is called [atherosclerosis] by doctors.
When carotid artery atherosclerosis occurs, the vascular lumen will narrow, showing [carotid artery stenosis]. After carotid artery narrows, the brain will be ischemic, and then dizziness, fatigue, hypomnesis and other symptoms will occur. More serious times, when carotid artery like scale hardened plaque falls off, it will directly block thinner cerebrovascular vessels, thus leading to cerebral infarction.
Statistics show that about 15 ~ 20% of ischemic stroke (stroke) is related to carotid artery stenosis, so don’t forget the possibility of carotid artery stenosis when the middle-aged and elderly people have symptoms such as hypomnesis, long-term dizziness and fatigue.
This prevents carotid artery stenosis in life
A European study found that the incidence rate of carotid artery stenosis is about 1-2% for ordinary people over 60 years old. However, when there are four conditions of coronary heart disease, hypertension, smoking and family genetic history of carotid artery stenosis at the same time, the incidence rate soars to 67%!
Therefore, the following points can reduce risks and prevent carotid stenosis to the greatest extent possible:
1. Actively Control [Three Highs]
Hyperlipidemia, hypertension and diabetes will all cause damage to carotid artery, so for friends with [three highs], blood pressure, blood sugar and blood lipid must be well controlled.
Step 2 Quit smoking
Active and passive smoking will increase the risk of carotid atherosclerosis and stenosis by damaging vascular endothelium, hypercoagulable blood, increasing oxidation of low density lipoprotein, etc.
3. Low-salt, low-fat diet
Ensure a low-salt and low-fat diet: eat less saturated fatty acids and animal fats, such as animal oil and animal viscera; Eat less salt and ensure that salt does not exceed 6 g per day, i.e. A bottle cap.
4. Don’t take medicine indiscriminately,
All preventive and therapeutic drugs must be carried out under the guidance of doctors and regular monitoring. Taking drugs indiscriminately will bring harm to the body.
Regular physical examination is also a prevention.
Even [completely] healthy people may develop carotid artery stenosis with age, but the degree of stenosis may be mild. While doing a good job in lifestyle prevention, we should not neglect regular physical examination to understand the health of carotid artery.
At present, the commonly used examinations include carotid artery ultrasound, CT and angiography. Among them, carotid artery is relatively cheap and has no trauma, which can be used as a general physical examination item.
Of course, not all people need routine carotid artery color Doppler ultrasound. It is generally recommended that people over 40 years old who meet any of the following conditions should regularly check carotid artery color Doppler ultrasound:
- Meet any 3 points: hypertension, dyslipidemia, diabetes, atrial fibrillation, smoking history, obvious obesity, lack of exercise, and family members suffering from stroke; Have had a stroke before; Transient cerebral ischemia occurred.
Carotid artery stenosis needs treatment?
Not all carotid stenosis requires treatment.
For example, people who only find [carotid intima thickening] should first improve their lifestyle, quit smoking, exercise moderately and drink low salt, low fat, low sugar and low calorie. At the same time, the carotid artery color Doppler ultrasound should be reviewed once a year.
However, carotid artery stenosis in other cases requires doctors to make a comprehensive judgment before deciding whether to treat it with drugs or surgery.