The blood group you belong to is more than just a marker to match your donation; it may have something telling you about your probability of acquiring certain diseases. A new study published in the Journal of Neurology notes that it can be made an assumption from your blood group by which you are most likely to have an early-onset ischemic stroke at the age under 60.

Although the factors like genetics, age, and lifestyle are the factors that best contribute to the risk of a stroke, this new research has really shed new light on how blood group can be considered as playing a pivotal role than ever thought.

How Your Blood Type links to Stroke Risk?

A study suggests that an independent relationship exists between blood type A and an elevated risk for an early-onset ischemic stroke. Ischemic strokes are the presence of a blood clot in one artery, which causes blockage of blood flow to the brain, and about 90% of all stroke cases. The CDC suggests that in the United States, someone has a stroke every 40 seconds while one person dies from a stroke every 3.5 minutes.

This new research, hence, opens the possibilities that an earlier incidence of ischemic stroke in youth could be attributed to blood type A.

But it's worth remembering that blood type is just one of hundreds of risk factors, according to co-author Braxton Mitchell, PhD, MPH, a genetic epidemiologist at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. "In the grand scheme of things, it's a much smaller risk factor than others," he said. Other genetic, environmental, and lifestyle factors still determine stroke risk.

Blood Type A: Strong Link to Early-Onset Stroke

Study authors conducted a genome-wide association analysis, recruiting nearly 17,000 patients with stroke aged 18 to 59 years from 48 studies and more than 599,000 controls who never had a stroke history. The analysis was aimed at exploring genetic variants throughout the human genome in greater detail.

The ABO blood group possessed genetic differences, and the blood type A was the strongest risk factor for a stroke that occurred early in life. The possibility of having an early onset ischemic stroke was 18% higher among people with blood type A compared to the rest of the blood groups. Such a high risk could be associated with a higher susceptibility to blood coagulation, which is one of the most common causes of ischemic strokes.

Blood Type O: Lower Stroke Risk

On the other hand, individuals with type O blood have a 12% reduced risk of an early-onset stroke compared to other blood types. This is in-line with earlier research that has found people with type O blood are more likely to be at low risk for blood clotting inside their arteries, which could be the reason why their overall risk of having a stroke decreased.

Blood Type B and AB: Mixed Bag

Another blood group-the research looked at blood group B-for which a weak association is found with the onset of early and late stroke. However, the authors indicate that when sex and other risk factors are adjusted, no association between blood group B and increased stroke risk exists. In persons with blood group AB, there is no significant association discovered for having an elevated stroke risk.

Other Risk Factors

While this study points to the effect of blood type, it is important to understand that blood type alone is not a strong predictor of stroke risk. Many other factors are comprised in this, including lifestyle, and most importantly, underlying health conditions. Age is one critical factor. According to the CDC, your risk for stroke doubles with each decade after age 55.

While strokes are more likely to affect people who are 65 years of age and older, one in seven strokes strikes people aged 15 to 49.

Thirdly, gender another factor that has been related to increased risks of stroke conditions. The female population is more prone to stroke compared to the male population and tends to have a worse outcome in terms of disability and death due to stroke.

It was recently indicated in the 2022 study that young women aged between 35-45 years had a 44% increased risk of ischemic stroke as compared to men aged between 35-45 years. Perhaps pregnancy or the use of birth control could be some of the factors behind the usual increased risk in women.

Ways You Can Manage Stroke Risk

While the study does show a genetic element linked to blood type and stroke, other controllable factors are more important risks for stroke. Here are some steps you can take to reduce your total risk:

1. Control Blood Pressure: High blood pressure forms one of the most dominant risks for strokes. Control through regular monitoring, medication if required, and lifestyle modifications can prove to reduce this significantly.

2. Maintain a Healthy Weight: Being overweight increases the risk of stroke. Anyone can benefit from staying at a healthy weight and living a healthy lifestyle. A balanced diet and regular exercise can help you achieve and maintain a healthy weight and thus minimize your risk for stroke.

3. Reduce Alcohol Intake and Quit Smoking: Too much alcohol drinking and smoking are also significant risk factors for stroke. Cutting down on alcohol consumption and quitting smoking would be two very important lifestyle changes for anyone interested in being healthy.

4. Stay Physically Fit: Exercise is known to keep the heart healthy, reduce blood pressure, and promote a healthy weight all of which contribute to a decrease chance for stroke.

5. Monitor Your Cholesterol: It's a fact that high cholesterol builds up plaques in arteries, thereby increasing the chances of stroke occurrence. Fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and lean proteins are part of a heart-healthy diet that helps keep cholesterol at bay.

This research thus brings forward a new and enlightened perspective of the correlation between blood type and stroke risk, especially in younger ages. Although type A blood might have a propensity for developing early ischemic stroke, it is worth noting that this is just one of many factors responsible for developing a stroke.

Focusing on controllable lifestyle factors such as remaining within a healthy weight range, staying active, and managing blood pressure will help significantly reduce the chances of having a stroke regardless of the blood type.

Atrial fibrillation (AFib) is an irregular and often very rapid heart rhythm, also called an arrhythmia and can create blood clots in the heart, which can increase your risk of having a stroke by five times.

When a person has AFib, the normal beating in the upper chambers of the heart (the two atria) is irregular and blood doesn't flow as well as it should from the atria to the lower chambers of the heart (the two ventricles).

In this case, the risk of developing blood clots in your heart increases, which can not only cause a heart attack but also damage vital organs such as your brain. An AFib may happen in brief episodes, or it may be a permanent condition.

Common symptoms include palpitations (the feeling that your heart is racing, pounding, fluttering or like you have missed heartbeats), chest pain, finding it harder to exercise, tiredness, shortness of breath, dizziness or feeling faint.

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The death rate from AFib as the primary or a contributing cause of death has been rising for more than two decades.

Over 454,000 people with AFib are hospitalized in the US each year, out of which 158,000 die of the cause. It is estimated that 12.1 million people in the US will have AFib in the US will have AFib by 2050.

Who Is At Risk Of Having AFib?

• Advancing age.
• High blood pressure.
• Obesity.
• European ancestry.
• Diabetes.
• Heart failure.
• Ischemic heart disease.
• Hyperthyroidism.
• Chronic kidney disease.
• Moderate to heavy alcohol use.
• Smoking.
• Enlargement of the chambers on the left side of the heart.

Treatment for AFib includes medications to control the heart's rhythm and rate, therapy to shock the heart back to a regular rhythm and procedures to block faulty heart signals.

A person with atrial fibrillation also may have a related heart rhythm disorder called atrial flutter. The treatments for AFib and atrial flutter are similar.

How To Improve Your Heart Health

Experts recommend following the below to reduce yor risk of stroke or developing AFib and maintaining heart health:

• Don't smoke or use tobacco.
• Aim for at least 150 minutes of moderate physical activity or 75 minutes of vigorous physical activity (or an equal combination of both) each week. Eat a heart-healthy diet.
• Stay at a healthy weight.
• Get quality sleep.
• Manage stress levels
• Get regular health screening tests.
• Eat a fiber, nuts and fish-rich diet
• Limit salt intake
• Reduce saturated fat intake

Changes in your voice, whether in tone, volume, speed or overall quality, can act as early warning signs for a wide range of medical conditions, experts say.

Your voice is produced by the coordinated effort of your respiratory system, vocal cords (also called vocal folds), and the resonating chambers of your throat, mouth, and nose. Even subtle shifts in hormone levels, hydration status or tissue health can noticeably affect how you sound.

Recent research shows that subtle changes in speech, for example, slurring or vocal cord tremors, may be signs of disease or illness like Parkinson’s disease, depression, cardiac and mental health problems, as speech requires coordination with the brain, muscles and respiratory system.

Which Conditions Can You Identify By A Change In Voice?

• Diabetes: High-pitched, raspy voices or vocal strain can be linked to diabetes, with AI studies showing up to 75% accuracy in prediction.
• Cardiovascular Disease: Voice analysis can detect high, fluttering voices associated with coronary artery disease, caused by stress or fluid changes in the vocal cords.
• Hypothyroidism: A deeper, softer, or huskier voice can indicate thyroid dysfunction.
• Respiratory Illnesses: Conditions like COVID-19 or COPD are often associated with a breathy voice, coughing, and short, interrupted sentences.
• Throat Cancer: Persistent hoarseness and raspy voice, especially lasting more than 2-3 weeks, can indicate laryngeal cancer.
• Parkinson’s Disease: Identified by a monotone voice, reduced volume, increased breathiness, and vocal cord tremors.
• Alzheimer’s Disease/Dementia: Characterized by slower speech rates, hesitation, frequent pauses, and simplified vocabulary/sentence structure.
• Stroke or Brain Injury: Indicated by slurred speech or difficulty finding words (global aphasia).
• Cerebellar Disorders (caused by damage to the nerves in the brain's cerebellum): Manifest as loud, staccato speech (bursts of broken sounds).
• Depression: Linked to a flatter, softer, and more monotone voice with a reduced pitch range.
• Anxiety/Stress: Often presents as a higher-pitched, faster, and more tremulous voice.
• Schizophrenia: Indicated by monotone, disorganized speech.

What Else Can Affect Your Voice?

Apart from serious medical conditions, voice changes may also be linked to aging and lifestyle factors. Fluctuations in testosterone, estrogen, progesterone, and thyroid hormone levels may also influence the structure and function of the vocal cords.

Dehydration is one of the most common causes of voice problems, as cords need adequate moisture to vibrate efficiently. Aim for at least 64 ounces of water daily, and more if you use your voice professionally or live in a dry climate.

Smoking irritates and inflames the vocal cords, causing chronic hoarseness and increasing the risk of vocal cord cancer. Even secondhand smoke and vaping can affect voice quality.

Diet also plays a role in vocal health. Caffeine and alcohol are diuretics that can dehydrate your vocal cords. Spicy foods and acidic beverages may trigger reflux, irritating the throat.

Dairy products can increase mucus production in some people, affecting voice clarity. Voice overuse or misuse, common in teachers, singers, and public speakers, can lead to vocal fatigue and damage. The following table compares how different lifestyle factors impact your voice.

How Can You Take Care Of Your Voice?

Whether the cause is hormonal changes, medical conditions, aging, or lifestyle factors, most voice problems can be improved with proper diagnosis and treatment. Here are some things you can do to take care:

• Stay hydrated by drinking water throughout the day and using a humidifier in dry environments
• Warm up your voice before extended speaking or singing with gentle humming or lip trills
• Avoid shouting or whispering, both of which strain the vocal cords
• Take voice breaks during prolonged speaking to prevent fatigue
• Manage stress through relaxation techniques, as tension affects voice quality
• Treat allergies and sinus problems promptly to reduce postnasal drip
• Maintain good posture to support optimal breathing and voice production

Living under constant psychosocial stress can significantly raise the risk of developing dementia and a stroke, a JAMA Network study suggests.

Psychosocial stress is a type of stress related to our relationships with others, usually arising from feeling judged, excluded, or not enough in others' eyes. It can also put a person in fight-or-flight mode, causing both mental and physical symptoms.

According to Chinese researchers, people who experience this form of stress in childhood as well as adulthood face more than a threefold higher risk of developing dementia compared with those in other groups.

Similarly, young people experiencing stressful situations in their adulthood had a significantly higher risk of stroke incidence that their counterparts.

Based on these results, the study highlights that early identification of psychosocial stressors, combined with effective mental health support and depression prevention, may reduce the long-term burden of neurodegenerative and cerebrovascular disease.

What Did The Study Find?

The scientists defined adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) as traumatic exposures occurring during childhood, typically grouped into 3 categories: household dysfunction, social dysfunction and family death or disability.

On the other hand, traumatic exposures occurring during adulthood were defined as adverse adult experiences (AAEs), which include events such as the death of a child, lifetime discrimination, ever being confined to bed, ever being hospitalized for a month or longer and ever leaving a job due to health conditions.

While analyzing the data they collected from the participants, the researchers also found that depression partly explained the links in all major relationships as it accounted for more than one-third of the connection between childhood adversity and dementia, and about one-fifth of the link between adulthood adversity and both dementia and stroke.

READ MORE: Avoid Doing These 3 Things Prevent Dementia, According To Neurologist

These findings suggest that long-term psychological stress may lead to brain and blood vessel diseases by causing ongoing emotional distress, unhealthy behaviours, and biological changes like inflammation and abnormal stress responses.

Psychosocial Stress: An Unseen Form Of Stress

Psychosocial stress can trigger physiological responses like increased heart rate, cortisol secretion, and inflammation, significantly increasing risks for hypertension, cardiovascular disease and mental health disorders.

This kind of stress can affect men, women, and people of all genders differently, but many of the symptoms are still the same. Common symptoms include:

• Sweating
• An increase in blood pressure
• Rapid heartbeat
• Dizziness
• Nausea and digestive problems
• Strong emotional reactions such as sadness or irritability
• Drug or alcohol abuse

These symptoms can be acute or chronic, meaning for some people they go away, and for others, they persist over a long period of time. Meeting with a therapist is often recommended for those living with chronic stress.

Experts typically suggest developing coping mechanisms include building support networks, utilizing relaxation techniques, and, in cases of severe mental impact, seeking professional support to help deal with psychosocial stress.