It's still a commonly-held view that stroke mainly affects men. But nothing could be further from the truth because more women than men suffer and die from stroke.

Currently, 55% of the 700,000 stroke victims in the U.S. every year are female. So are 60% of stroke fatalities, which means more than 100,000 women die of this disease annually.

Pregnancy increases the risk of stroke slightly because blood pressure rises a little when a woman is carrying a baby and blood has a tendency to clot more easily during gestation. But post-menopausal females are most at risk because of their greatly-reduced production of the ovary-linked hormone called estrogen, which appears to offer some stroke protection.

However, stroke can attack non-pregnant women at any age during their reproductive years, with 11% more female victims than men under the age of 45.

Basic Instinct actress Sharon Stone had a brain aneurysm at the age of 43 in 2001, from which she made a full recovery. Former Miss Arizona Leean Hendrix suffered a stroke in 2002 at the age of 26. She now lives with headaches and memory loss and uses her experience to educate people about stroke dangers.

Black women are at greater risk of dying from stroke than Caucasians, regardless of age.

Stroke refers to brain damage resulting from the interruption of blood to the brain. In nearly 90% of cases, stroke is ischemic, meaning that a blood clot suddenly obstructs an artery in the brain. Clots occur when plaque, made of cholesterol and other fatty material, builds up in the artery for months or years before causing it to rupture.

A clot may originate either in a brain artery or travel there from elsewhere in the body, like the carotid arteries in the neck or from the heart during a rhythm disorder called atrial fibrillation.

Bleeding within the brain is the second and much less common form of stroke, which most often occurs after a serious injury to the head. Although rare, hemorrhagic strokes are more common in women than men.

High blood pressure (hypertension), which is closely associated with the blood glucose and insulin imbalance called Insulin Resistance, is the single most important contributor to stroke in both sexes. It is often caused by excess weight and obesity.

Other Insulin Resistance-linked risk factors for stroke include Pre- and Type 2 Diabetes, as well as high blood levels of harmful triglycerides and LDL "bad" cholesterol and low levels of HDL "good" cholesterol.

Fortunately, Insulin Resistance can be reversed via a balanced, nutritious diet and regular exercise, with the resulting weight loss playing a crucial role in reducing the risk of stroke for both sexes.

Lowering blood pressure can also decrease the chances of accelerated brain aging and mental decline such as Alzheimer's disease, which often impairs memory, thinking and judgment.

Click here to read about a system that can reverse Insulin Resistance.

Researchers can now predict a person's likelihood of developing Diabetes based on how obese he or she is as teenager.

A meeting in July of the American Diabetes Association was presented with a study which suggested that the heavier a person is at 18, the far greater the risk of developing Diabetes later in life. Researchers based their findings on data from calculations of body mass index (BMI), a number related to the ratio between an individual's weight and height.

A BMI reading of between 18 and 25 is regarded as normal, while that of between 25-29 qualifies as overweight. A BMI of 30-34 is obese and 35 or higher is very obese.

Study leader Venkat Narayan, head of epidemiology and statistics at the Diabetes branch of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said efforts to prevent obesity should target younger people as well as adults.

The study's findings were based on data from 1997 to 2004 in the National Health Interview Survey of more than 800,000 healthy adults. The findings showed that the odds of a person of normal weight at age 18 developing Diabetes later in life is 1-in-5 or 1-in-6.

But the risk increases greatly with obesity at that age.

"If you're very obese at age 18, you have a 3-in-4 chance of developing Diabetes," said Dr. Narayan, who added that damage to an obese youngster's body can start as early as the age of 10.

Type 2 is the most common form of Diabetes and accounts for up to 95% of the 20.8 Diabetics in the U.S. Once the preserve of adults, it is now being seen in increasingly younger victims.

The condition is irreversible and can only be managed once it develops in part from the body's inability to properly use it own insulin - a condition made worse by obesity. Type 2, which is also closely associated with Erectile Dysfunction (ED) in adults, often requires daily injections of insulin and is a severely increased risk factor for amputation, blindness and kidney disease, as well a heart attack or stroke.

Before developing this disease, however, most people experience Pre-Diabetes, an Insulin Resistance-linked disorder which can be reversed before it leads to the Type 2 variety. A balanced, nutritious diet and regular exercise are crucial to reversing Pre-Diabetes - a condition in which blood levels tested after an overnight fast are between 100-125 milligrams per deciLiter (mg/dL), compared to the diagnosis of Type 2 Diabetes at 126 mg/dL or over.

Roughly 41 million Americans have Pre-Diabetes and so are at risk of developing Type 2 for the rest of their lives.

An imbalance of blood glucose and insulin levels, Insulin Resistance often underlies excess weight and obesity.

It can also be factor in such disorders as the cluster of increased risk factors for cardiovascular disease called Metabolic Syndrome (Syndrome X), as well as Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS), a leading cause of female infertility plus excess facial and body hair, skin conditions like acne and brown skin patches, male pattern baldness in women and reduced sex drive.


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