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Lifestyle and home remedies
By Mayo Clinic staffMaking healthy choices in your daily life can help prevent or slow the progression of carotid artery disease, and help prevent the occurrence of a TIA or a stroke. Here are some suggestions:
- Don't smoke. Stopping smoking reduces stress on your arteries and cuts your risk of a TIA or a stroke. Within a few years of quitting, a former smoker's risk of stroke is similar to a nonsmoker's. It's never too late to quit. It's also never too early.
- Limit cholesterol and fat. Cutting back on cholesterol and fat, especially saturated fat, in your diet may reduce buildup of plaques in your arteries.
- Eat a variety of fruits and vegetables. These foods contain such nutrients as potassium, folate and antioxidants, which may protect against a TIA or a stroke.
- Limit sodium. Avoiding salt may not prevent hypertension, but excess sodium may increase blood pressure in people who are sensitive to sodium. For healthy adults, most experts recommend between 1,500 and 2,300 milligrams a day of sodium. If you have high blood pressure, keeping to the lower end of the range may help reduce your blood pressure.
- Exercise regularly. Exercise can lower your blood pressure, increase your level of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol — the "good" cholesterol — and improve the overall health of your blood vessels and heart. It also helps you lose weight, control diabetes and reduce stress. If you have high blood pressure, engaging in 30 minutes of moderately vigorous activity (walking or swimming are two examples) on most days of the week is one of the few ways you can lower your pressure without drugs.
- Limit alcohol. Drink alcohol in moderation, if at all. The recommended limit is no more than one drink daily for women and two a day for men.
- Maintain a healthy weight. Being overweight contributes to other risk factors, such as high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Losing weight with diet and exercise may lower your blood pressure and improve your cholesterol levels.
- Control chronic conditions. You can manage both diabetes and high blood pressure with diet, exercise, weight control and, when necessary, medication.
References
- Lee JT, et al. Peripheral arterial disease. In: Rakel RE, et al. Conn's Current Therapy 2008. 60th ed. Philadelphia, Pa.: Saunders Elsevier; 2007. http://www.mdconsult.com/das/book/body/151488178-7/866918859/1621/197.html#4-u1.0-B978-1-4160-4435-2..50101-1_1467. Accessed July 23, 2009.
- Riles TS, et al. Cerebrovascular disease. In: Townsend CM, et al. Sabiston Textbook of Surgery. 18th ed. Philadelphia, Pa.: Saunders Elsevier; 2007. http://www.mdconsult.com/das/book/body/151488178-3/866914256/1565/622.html#4-u1.0-B978-1-4160-3675-3..50068-X--cesec4_3762. Accessed July 23, 2009.
- Schwartz JB, et al. Vascular disease. In: Libby P, et al., eds. Braunwald's Heart Disease: A Textbook of Cardiovascular Medicine. 8th ed. Philadelphia, Pa.: Saunders Elsevier; 2007.http://www.mdconsult.com/book/player/book.do?method=display&type=bookPage&decorator=header&eid=4-u1.0-B978-1-4160-4106-1..50078-9--cesec28&uniq=151488178&isbn=978-1-4160-4106-1&sid=866915121#lpState=open&lpTab=contentsTab&content=4-u1.0-B978-1-4160-4106-1..50078-9--cesec95%3Bfrom%3Dtoc%3Btype%3DbookPage%3Bisbn%3D978-1-4160-4106-1. Accessed July 23, 2009.
- Carotid artery disease. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/dci/Diseases/catd/catd_whatis.html. Accessed July 23, 2009.
- Carotid artery disease, stroke, transient ischemic attacks (TIAs). Society for Vascular Surgery. http://www.vascularweb.org/patients/NorthPoint/Carotid_Artery_Disease.html. Accessed July 23, 2009.
- Furie KL, et al. Secondary prevention of stroke: Risk factor reduction. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed July 23, 2009.
- Angioplasty and vascular stenting. Radiological Society of North America. http://www.radiologyinfo.org/en/info.cfm?pg=angioplasty. Accessed Aug. 28, 2009.
- Questions and answers about carotid endarterectomy. National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/stroke/carotid_endarterectomy_backgrounder.htm. Accessed Aug. 12, 2009.
- Greelish JP, et al. Carotid angioplasty and stenting. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed July 23, 2009.
- Greelish JP, et al. Carotid endarterectomy: Preoperative evaluation; surgical technique; and complications. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed July 23, 2009.
- Sodium. American Heart Association. http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=4708. Accessed July 23, 2009.
- Stop smoking: Resources and tools for quitting. American Heart Association. http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=3038010. Accessed July 23, 2009.
- Rundek T, et al. Risk factor management to prevent first stroke. Neurologic Clinics.2008;26:1007.
