How to stop this scary stroke risk

A stroke … just saying the phrase is scary.

It’s basically “brain attack,” like a heart attack in your brain, where blood flow is interrupted to your head.

Even scarier is that there are three ways in which you could cause your own stroke. Researchers at the University of Minnesota have found that if you let three emotions get out of control it sends your risk of stroke through the roof.

The study looked at more than 6,700 people and found that:

• Feeling depressed increases your stroke risk by 86 percent.
• If you are continually stressed out, your stroke risk climbs by 59 percent.
• Experiencing prolonged hostility doubles your chance of stroke … a 100 percent increase.

Studies show losing your cool and getting extremely angry also raises your chance of a heart attack by 500 percent.

“There’s such a focus on traditional risk factors — cholesterol levels, blood pressure, smoking and so forth — and those are all very important, but studies like this one show that psychological characteristics are equally important,” says researcher Susan Everson-Rose.

So if you can find ways to defuse your hostility, depression and stress, you may be able to lower your chances of a stroke.

Mainstream medicine has a tough time with this because drugs often don’t work, and that’s all they really offer. “One thing we didn’t assess is coping strategies,” Everson-Rose says. “If someone is experiencing depressive symptoms or feeling a lot of stress or hostility, we don’t know how they manage those, so it’s possible that positive coping strategies could ameliorate some of these associations or effects. We did not inquire about coping.”

What can you do to change your thought patters, avoid anger and depression, and stop a skyrocketing risk for stroke?

Dr. Michael Cutler says that trick is to recognize that anger and anxiety are about fear.

Your fear consists of merely false expectations appearing real. Yet here are infinite possibilities and plenty of good ones.

So if you simply take a deep breath and consciously focus on the possibility (probability) that things will work out just fine, the focus on good possibilities can bring you peaceful feelings.

Each fearful thought must be replaced with “good news” thoughts. These good news thoughts bring good feelings into your body. Good feelings cause you to heal inside your body.

There are neurochemicals of healing that are produced in your body, as well as endorphins that reduce physical pain. If you let yourself laugh at your circumstances, you may notice that fear and even depression disappears.