Individuals in the study with the biggest bellies had a risk factor two times that of the leanest people. And belly fat was deemed a more significant risk factor than family history, even if both parents suffered from Alzheimer's.
"If (baby boomers) are not frightened enough about heart disease, maybe they will worry about losing their mental function," said Dr. Sam Gandy, a spokesman for the Alzheimer's Association, in a wire service story.
Well, there's more than heart disease and Alzheimer's/dementia for the belly-fat worry list. In one of those findings covered by media outlets but not getting large headlines or much air time, a University of Southern California study presented at a medical conference in February connected excess abdominal fat among women 35 to 54 to a fast-rising rate of stroke among females in that age group. The rate has tripled in recent years, said USC neurologist Dr. Amytis Towfighi at the International Stroke Conference in New Orleans.
Female waistlines, on average, are two inches bigger than they were a decade ago. Plus, the USC study showed the percentage of women with "abdominal obesity" rose from 47 to 59 percent. Towfighi and other researchers commenting on the study generally agree that this abdominal fat and a continuing rise in obesity are at the root cause of causing more strokes.
A couple of points that got the attention of scientists and public health officials if not the media:
The stroke rate among middle-age men stayed about the same during the time period of federal data examined, which was 1999 to 2004.
While stroke generally is considered to be a disease among the elderly, the sudden spike in middle-age female stroke and belly-fat numbers (men's statistics stayed the same in both categories) alarms health care professionals.
There's more. Doctors have long considered men to be more susceptible to strokes in middle age, with women having strokes at more equal rates once they are five to 10 years into menopause.
It's clearly time to rethink the probabilities -- and maybe even consider that women with excess abdominal fat are even more at risk for stroke than men with expanded waistlines.
Women and stroke incidence were a topic at medical student rounds last week at Swedish Medical Center. Third-year University of Washington med student Corinne Taraska updated the group about the strong link between stroke and women with migraines who also take birth control medication and smoke cigarettes.
"Women who have regular migraine headaches with an aura, plus use birth control and smoke, are seven times more at risk for stroke than women who have regular migraines with an aura but don't smoke or use birth control," said Taraska, who will earn her medical degree this spring and spend a postgraduate year researching melanoma. "It's 10 times the risk if compared to women who don't have migraines."
About a third of all women suffer migraine headaches. The ratio is one in 10 among men.
"We have known for a long time that migraines are associated with higher risk for stroke," said Dr. Bill Likosky, director of the stroke program at Swedish. "What's new is the heightened adverse effect if you choose to use birth control medication or use tobacco."
Likosky acknowledged birth control is a personal decision, but emphasized not smoking "is within everyone's grasp" as a positive step to protect against stroke.
A stroke affects the brain and not the heart. It occurs when there is a loss of sufficient blood flow to the brain, typically caused by a blocked or ruptured artery in the neck region. Likosky said migraines, birth control medicine and smoking even one cigarette can have a clotting or clogging effect on the arteries. Putting two or all three together exacerbates the risk.
In the past decade there have been successful campaigns to raise awareness about the dangers of heart attacks and cardiovascular disease among women. Likosky said stroke awareness "cuts across gender lines" in that women just as much as men are reluctant to go to an emergency room with stroke symptoms -- either because those symptoms are not as jarring as crushing chest pain (which women typically don't feel during heart attack as well) or because people don't know the symptoms, period.
"We talk to people about the acronym FAST," said Likosky. "F is for face (numbness or weakness), A is for arms, S is for speech (or slurring) and T is for 'time is brain.' When in doubt, don't hesitate to call 911. There is a lot that can be done in the early hours of stroke treatment."
KNOW THE FIVE MAJOR SIGNS SIGNS OF STROKE
Here are the five major signs of stroke, as outlined by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke:
- Sudden numbness or weakness in the face, arm or leg, especially on one side.
- Sudden confusion or trouble speaking or understanding.
- Sudden trouble seeing in one or both eyes.
- Sudden trouble walking, dizziness or loss of balance.
- Sudden, severe headache with no known cause.
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