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Risk factors

By Mayo Clinic staff

Many factors can increase your risk of a stroke. A number of these factors can also increase your chances of having a heart attack. Stroke risk factors include:

  • Personal or family history of stroke, heart attack or TIA.
  • Being age 55 or older.
  • High blood pressure — risk of stroke begins to increase at blood pressure readings higher than 115/75 millimeters of mercury (mm Hg). Your doctor will help you decide on a target blood pressure based on your age, whether you have diabetes and other factors.
  • High cholesterol — a total cholesterol level above 200 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dL), or 5.2 millimoles per liter (mmol/L).
  • Cigarette smoking or exposure to secondhand smoke.
  • Diabetes.
  • Being overweight (body mass index of 25 to 29) or obese (body mass index of 30 or higher).
  • Physical inactivity.
  • Cardiovascular disease, including heart failure, a heart defect, heart infection, or abnormal heart rhythm.
  • Use of birth control pills or hormone therapies that include estrogen.
  • Heavy or binge drinking.
  • Use of illicit drugs such as cocaine and methamphetamines.

Because the risk of stroke increases with age, and women tend to live longer than men, more women than men have strokes and die of them each year. Blacks are more likely to have strokes than are people of other races.

Complications Causes
References
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DS00150 July 1, 2010

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