If you don’t want to have a stroke, you should not stop taking the core preventive medicines and you should also change your bad lifestyle habits.

The prevention of cerebral infarction is the most concerned issue for the middle-aged and elderly population. The terrible thing about cerebral infarction is that in addition to threatening life, it also has a very high disability rate. Among patients with cerebral infarction, 70% will have sequelae, and 30-40% will suffer from disability, which seriously affects the quality of life.

Cerebral infarction can cause the death of brain nerve cells, and the current medical level has not yet been able to regenerate dead brain nerve cells. In other words, the damage caused by cerebral infarction is difficult to recover, and only long-term rehabilitation exercises can make other healthy nerve cells compensate and gradually restore the lost functions.

1. Two main causes of cerebral infarction Cerebral infarction refers to the blockage of cerebral arteries due to various reasons. The main reasons are two. First, atherosclerosis occurs in the cerebral arteries. Some atherosclerotic plaques are unstable. When the blood vessels contract and spasm, they are prone to rupture, exposing the contents of the plaques, activating platelet aggregation, inducing the formation of thrombi, and blocking blood vessels.

The second is atrial fibrillation caused by various heart diseases such as hypertensive heart disease, rheumatic heart disease, and coronary heart disease. During atrial fibrillation, the blood flow in the atrium slows down, and it is easy for a wall thrombus to form in the auricle. After it falls off, it becomes an embolus, which flows with the blood and blocks the smaller cerebral arteries when it reaches the brain.

2. Core preventive medications for cerebral infarction For the prevention of cerebral infarction caused by atherosclerosis, the core medications are statins and aspirin. Statins can lower cholesterol levels, prevent the progression of atherosclerosis, increase the density of plaques, reduce their volume, and increase their stability. Long-term use can reverse plaques.

In other words, the use of statins can prevent plaque rupture. Aspirin can inhibit the aggregation of platelets and prevent the formation of blood clots when plaques rupture. However, aspirin has significant side effects and needs to be evaluated before use. Only people with higher risk need to use it. If you cannot tolerate the side effects of aspirin, you can use other antiplatelet drugs such as clopidogrel and ticagrelor instead.

The core drugs for preventing cerebral infarction caused by atrial fibrillation are anticoagulants such as warfarin and rivaroxaban. For atrial fibrillation that cannot be eliminated, long-term anticoagulant treatment is required, usually requiring lifelong medication. It can inhibit the body's coagulation factors, reduce the hypercoagulable state of blood during atrial fibrillation, and prevent the formation of wall thrombi.

While taking medication, the original heart disease should be treated. If atrial fibrillation can be eliminated using antiarrhythmic drugs, electrical stimulation, ablation, etc., lifelong use of anticoagulants can be avoided.

If you have underlying diseases such as high blood pressure, diabetes, hyperlipidemia, etc., you must actively take medication to control them. This can delay or stop the progression of atherosclerosis, avoid damage to the heart, and prevent the occurrence of atrial fibrillation.

3. Pay attention to the improvement of living habits 1. Change the habit of not exercising: "Life lies in exercise", sitting for a long time will lead to a variety of diseases. Doing aerobic exercise for more than half an hour every day can enhance your cardiopulmonary function, lower blood pressure and blood lipids, reduce insulin resistance, and have a good preventive effect on the pathogenic factors that lead to cerebral infarction.

2. Change unhealthy eating habits: Many people like high-salt, high-fat, and high-sugar diets, but as the saying goes, "diseases come from the mouth." High salt can lead to high blood pressure, and high fat and high sugar are closely related to blood sugar and blood lipids, which will increase the risk of cerebral infarction. Therefore, in order to reduce the risk of disease, limit salt to no more than 6 grams per day, limit fat to no more than 25 grams, and try to avoid eating foods containing added sugar.

3. Change the habit of smoking and drinking: You must quit smoking. The damage to blood vessels caused by toxic substances in tobacco has exceeded the "three highs". Smoking is the main risk factor for young and middle-aged patients with cerebral infarction and myocardial infarction. Drinking has been medically proven to have no benefits for the human body. Alcohol can induce high blood pressure and interfere with the liver's metabolism of sugar and lipids. If you must drink, the amount of alcohol per day should not exceed 25 grams, and it is best not to drink at all.

4. Change your temper: People with a bad temper are prone to emotional fluctuations, which in turn cause sympathetic nerve excitement, faster heart rate, vasoconstriction, and spasm, which can easily lead to plaque rupture or the shedding of wall thrombi. Rage is a direct cause of cerebral infarction and myocardial infarction. People with bad tempers are at high risk of sudden death. Therefore, you must learn to control your temper and not let yourself fall into vicious emotions.

To sum up, when preventing cerebral infarction, there are different core preventive medications depending on the cause. While taking medication regularly to prevent diseases, we cannot ignore the improvement of living habits. Drug treatment is as important as a healthy lifestyle. The specific medication method must be carried out under the guidance of a doctor. If you have any questions, please consult a doctor or pharmacist in time. I am pharmacist Huazi, welcome to follow me and share more health knowledge.