stroke

[roxy90]

So im determined to beat this anxiety. Ive managed to rationalize most of my fears except this one, so im hoping you can all help me put it into perspective :).

Im 22, I dont smoke or drink. I had.high cholesterol through childhood so therefore I think my arteries are blocked full of fat and im a stroke/Heart.attack/aneurysm waiting to happen. I read that blocked arteries.in the brain can cause hand pain and I hace.awful hand/arm pain. I also get neck pains near the cartoid artery pulse :(



My cholesterols now 4.8 but.i think ive already done damage. Please help me.put.my chances.into perspective because.this is the.onlu thing holding me back I feel x

[Fishmanpa]

At 22 and the fact you don't smoke or drink, your FINE! There's no way you've built enough plaque in your arteries to cause any issues. The key is to keep it that way. Eat right and exercise. I know for a fact that you can reverse any issues as I did with proper diet and exercise.

I looked up how levels are read in the UK and your numbers are spot on! So what are you waiting for? Get out and go for a nice walk!

Good Luck!

[cpe1978]

I am no medical expert, but I would imagine that your chances are so close to zero that were the odds in the opposite direction you wouldn't put a £1 on the outcome.

Of course never events happen, people drop dead for no apparent reason, but that is phenomenally rare. However those rare events are the things that grace the women's weeklies and the Daily Mail and make people like us believe that it is just around the corner. Unfortunately if there were websites called www.iaminthehealthymajority.com (http://www.iaminthehealthymajority.com) they would just get no hits and no content :)

The other thing to realise is to what extent predisposing factors play in disease. I work for the NHS and should know this, but there is some ridiculous statistic about the % of health interventions that are linked to either smoking, drinking, lack of physical activity and diet. This is why we spend so much (not enough in my view) on preventative public health.

If you exercise regularly, eat reasonably well, don't spend your life paralytically drunk and keep away from smoking then you give yourself a very high probability of a long and healthy life.

[roxy90]

Thankyou both, feeling loads better. Except some head pains, what are my chances of a brain aneurysm lol?

[cpe1978]

infintessimally small!

Again - happens, virtually never though, and hey, let's be honest if it did you would not know very much about it at all so it really isn't worth worrying about. It is funny though how different things scare different people. Strangely enough I have absolutely no apprehension about death, it is just something I accept as an inevitable consequence of life. All my fears relate to drawn out dying and the impact on other people.

Imagine my joy when I had to facilitate a workshop recently on end of life care :)

---------- Post added at 17:58 ---------- Previous post was at 17:58 ----------

Now as punishment.... go onto the other thread and tell us what you have done that is positive today :)