This isn’t strictly a stroke-prevention post. It’s a dementia-prevention post. But Stroke‑Proof is ultimately about protecting the brain—and looking after your hearing and eyesight may be a more important part of that than most people realise. The 2024 Lancet Commission estimated that addressing 14 modifiable risk factors could potentially prevent or delay around 45% of dementia cases. Two of those factors involve our senses: 👂 Hearing loss in midlife was estimated to account for around 7% of dementia cases at population level. 👁️ Untreated vision loss in later life was estimated to account for around 2%. Why might our senses affect the health of our brain? Think about how much stimulation reaches your brain through your eyes and ears. Every conversation you follow, face you recognise, book you read and environment you navigate activates complex networks of brain cells. When hearing or vision deteriorates, several things may happen: • The brain receives less sensory stimulation. • It has to work harder to interpret incomplete information. • People may withdraw from conversations and social activities. • Reading, exercise, travel and other cognitively stimulating activities can become more difficult. • Reduced input may contribute to changes in the brain regions that process sensory information. It may therefore be partly a case of maintaining the connections that keep our brain circuits active—continuing to stimulate the wiring rather than gradually allowing those pathways to become less active. In the ACHIEVE randomised trial, treating hearing loss did not significantly slow cognitive decline across the entire study population. However, among participants already at higher risk of cognitive decline, a hearing intervention slowed cognitive decline by 48% over three years. For vision, one study of more than 3,000 older adults with cataracts found that cataract surgery was associated with a 29% lower risk of subsequently developing dementia. That cannot prove that the surgery caused the reduction, but it strengthens the case for taking treatable vision loss seriously.

At the group I am organising speaker's from time to time Can anyone recommend anyone who would eto come along .

Why glucose stability may matter in type 2 diabetes. This week for our Stroke Prevention tip Professor Chatterjee has written fantastic post about glucose variability and why it matters for stroke risk. There are some excellent diagrams in the post that I couldn't post into the text window, so instead I've uploaded the whole post as a PDF that you can read by clicking the link below. Enjoy!

Yes, we're back at blood pressure. After dozens of Stroke-Proof tips I think we've reached the point where any new tips we can come up with would be so minor in their importance that we'd be diluting the key messages. So, back to the start and the most important of all.... There are lots of things we can do to reduce our risk of stroke. But one stands above almost everything else: Getting blood pressure under control. It is not glamorous. It will not generate the same excitement as a full-body scan, a biological-age test or a new supplement. But the size of the prize is enormous. The INTERSTROKE study compared 13,447 people who had experienced a first stroke with a similar number who had not, across 32 countries. Having hypertension—or a measured blood pressure of at least 140/90 mmHg—was associated with almost three times the odds of stroke. At a population level, high blood pressure accounted for an estimated 47.9% of stroke risk. Its contribution was even greater for bleeding within the brain. The Global Burden of Disease study reached a remarkably similar conclusion using a very different method. It estimated that high systolic blood pressure contributed to around 55.5% of all healthy years lost to stroke worldwide in 2019—more than any other risk factor. These figures do not mean that lowering blood pressure would instantly prevent exactly half of all strokes. Population-attributable estimates are not the same as the benefit of an individual treatment. But they tell us something hugely important: Blood pressure sits at the centre of the stroke-prevention opportunity. Does lowering it genuinely prevent stroke? Yes. And this is not based only on association. It has been tested in large randomised trials. An individual-participant meta-analysis (combination of trials) combining around 350,000 people from 48 trials found that every 5 mmHg reduction in systolic blood pressure reduced the relative risk of stroke by about 13%. The greater the blood-pressure reduction, the greater the average benefit.

Hello everyone, Nik and I, together with the Stroke Prevention Team in our local stroke service have been developing a three-session Secondary Stroke Prevention Programme for stroke survivors and their families. Before we launch the pilot, we'd like to make sure we're focusing on what matters most to stroke survivors and their families. Please have a look at the programme outline. We'd love to hear any suggestions or advice that could help make the programme as useful and practical as possible for stroke survivors and their families. Secondary Stroke Prevention Programme (Pilot) Aim: To improve stroke survivors' knowledge, confidence and self-management skills to reduce the risk of recurrent stroke through education, behaviour change and ongoing peer support. Target audience - stroke survivors - Family members encouraged to attend - Format - Three weekly group sessions - 90 minutes each - Interactive, discussion-based sessions combining education with practical self-management strategies Session 1 Understanding My Stroke Objectives Participants will: - Understand what happened during their stroke - Understand why their stroke occurred - Recognise their own stroke risk factors - Begin reflecting on their personal recovery journey Topics · Welcome and programme overview · Brief introduction to what is stroke, types, How stroke affects the brain and causes symptoms, Recovery after stroke, Why another stroke can happen · Understanding personal risk factors- introduction to stroke risk factors · Personal stroke story and group discussion Session 2 Protecting My Brain Objectives Participants will: - Understand the main medical treatments that prevent another stroke - Gain confidence in monitoring important risk factors - Feel confident taking prescribed medications Topics - Antiplatelets and anticoagulants - Medication adherence, managing side effects and knowing when to seek advice - Blood pressure: understanding targets and home monitoring - Cholesterol and statin therapy - Atrial fibrillation and stroke prevention