Why Some Women Face 78% Higher Stroke Risk—and What to Do About It

 

With your massive stress from your incompetent doctor not having 100% recovery protocols, this is what you get! Total incompetency of your doctor but still getting paid!

Why Some Women Face 78% Higher Stroke Risk—and What to Do About It

Famed scientist Hans Selye once said, "It's not stress that kills us, it's our reaction to it." Well, modern-day scientists have seemingly proven him wrong.

Stress is deadly, especially for women, who are more likely than men to hold on to chronic stress, according to new research published March 5, 2025 in Neurology.

How Did the Stress-Stroke Study Work? The research team tracked the health of 426 people between 18 to 49, including those who had ischemic stroke with no known cause. These types of strokes happen when blood flow to the brain is blocked. Ischemic strokes make up 87% of all strokes.

Each person filled out a questionnaire about their stress levels over one month. Those who previously had a stroke were also asked to recall how stressed they felt the month before their stroke. An example of a question was, “In the last month, how often have you felt that you were unable to control the important things in your life? 

Having a score of 0 to 13 meant people had low stress, 14 to 26 indicated moderate stress and 27 to 40 meant high stress. People with stroke had an average score of 13, whereas those without had an average score of 10.

Considering other factors such as education level, alcohol use and blood pressure, the researchers found some interesting observations for women but not men.

What the Study Found About Stress and Stroke

People who chronically felt moderately stressed have a 78% higher risk of having a stroke, putting women at a much higher risk, since women report feeling significantly more stressed than men on average. While the study found that chronically high stress levels only elevated a person’s stroke risk by 6%, the researchers said that this likely because their subject pool lacked people with high stress who didn’t have the time to participate.

The research study only observed a connection between stress and a history of stroke. However, this isn’t just an issue with young adults. A 2022 study found older people dealing with stressful life events also showed an elevated risk for all stroke types.

Related: 'I Almost Died of a Stroke At Age 43—Here's the First Symptom I Wish I'd Paid Attention To'According to that study, chronic stress may be over-activating the sympathetic nervous system. When confronted with a stressful situation, the sympathetic nervous system activates a fight-or-flight response that releases adrenaline and cortisol, supplying the body with temporary energy and alertness. The body also slows down non-essential functions like digestion and prioritizes increasing heart rate and blood pressure. editorial accompanying the study suggests the amygdala—a brain region that processes negative emotions—is involved in stress triggering the fight-or-flight response strains the heart, forcing it to keep pumping at an abnormally high pace. High blood pressure can also damage arteries, allowing plaque to accumulate and possibly obstruct a blood vessel. Chronic stress can also foster unhealthy behaviors that are known risk factors for stroke, such as sitting for long periods, eating junk food, and heavy drinking to take the edge off. “More research is needed to understand why women who feel stressed, but not men, may have a higher risk of stroke,” Dr. Nicolas Martinez-Majander, MD, Ph.D, a researcher at Helsinki University Hospital in Finland, said in a press release. “In addition, we need to further explore why the risk of stroke in women was higher for moderate stress than high stress. Knowing more about how stress plays a role could help us to create better ways to prevent these strokes.”