Your risk of brain attack increases as you get older. But leading a healthy lifestyle can help you minimize that risk. Diabetes and heart disease put you at greater risk of brain attack. If you've already had a stroke, you're more likely to have another than someone who has never had a stroke. Also, if you have a family history of stroke, your risks are higher.
Men are at a greater risk of stroke than premenopausal women.
The stroke belt Several decades ago, scientists noticed that people in the southeastern United States had the highest mortality rate in the country. Special government programs have been instituted in these states to promote stroke awareness and early treatment. However, researchers are still studying why people living in this region have a higher risk of stroke. Recent studies have also shown that there is a stroke buckle in the stroke belt. North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia have an extremely high stroke mortality rate, higher than the rate in other stroke belt states and up to two times the stroke mortality rate of the United States overall.