Surviving a Stroke: May is American Stroke Month

5/19/2026

Every 40 seconds, someone in the United States has a stroke, or “brain attack,” in which blood flow to the brain is disrupted when a blood clot blocks one of the vital blood vessels in the brain (ischemic stroke), or a blood vessel in the brain bursts, spilling blood into surrounding tissues (hemorrhagic stroke).

While stroke happens in an instant, the impact on the brain is a complex puzzle that begins long before the event and continues long after. According to the National Institutes of Health, when a stroke hits, the clock starts ticking at a rate of 1.9 million brain cells lost every minute.

May is American Stroke Month – a great time to remember that, as serious as a stroke can be, 80 percent of strokes are preventable.

“Controlling high blood pressure, or hypertension, is the most important thing you can do to lower your risk of stroke," says Dr. Glareh Imani, medical director of the emergency department at Northwest Medical Center Houghton. "This is because high blood pressure weakens blood vessels over time, leading to potential ruptures (hemorrhagic) or clot formation (ischemic) strokes. In fact, having hypertension for over 20 years can increase your likelihood of a stroke by about three-quarters - so it's very important to work with your healthcare provider to keep your blood pressure in a healthy range."

Some risk factors for stroke include:

• Diabetes. According to the American Stroke Association, having diabetes (and/or high blood pressure) dramatically increases your risk of experiencing a silent stroke – this kind of stroke causes no noticeable symptoms, but can still damage the brain, and increase your risk of having a regular stroke.
• Smoking. An 18-year study of more than 20,000 men found that those who smoked more than a pack of cigarettes a day doubled their stroke risk compared with those who have never smoked, or those who've quit.
• Not enough fruits and vegetables. Eating fruits and green or yellow vegetables daily may help protect against stroke. According to one American Heart Association study, people who ate fruit almost daily reduced their risk (by 35 percent in men and 25 percent in women).
• Lack of potassium. Eating foods rich in potassium – including baked potatoes with skin; plain yogurt; cantaloupes and honeydew melons; halibut and tuna steaks; grapefruit; orange or prune juice; bananas; and molasses – may reduce your risk of stroke.
• Stress. People who report high levels of stress have double the risk for fatal stroke as people who don’t, according to the American Stroke Association. This may be because people suffering from stress tend to have other cardiovascular risk factors, including smoking, a sedentary lifestyle, higher alcohol consumption and high blood pressure.

When a patient comes to a Northwest Healthcare hospital with stroke symptoms, our stroke care teams are trained to make a proper diagnosis and begin life- and brain-saving treatment quickly in order to minimize the stroke's effects. Northwest Medical Center, Oro Valley Hospital and Northwest Medical Center - Houghton are Joint Commission certified Primary Stroke Centers, which means they have demonstrated expertise in the early assessment, rapid diagnosis and treatment of stroke emergencies.

Whether or not you have risk factors for stroke, it's important to work with your healthcare provider to make good lifestyle choices that can help minimize those risks.

For more information about stroke – including prevention and warning signs – visit https://www.healthiertucson.com/stroke-warning-signs.

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