The risk of a stroke for people with high blood pressure, high blood sugar and high blood lipids are 1.72, 1.43 and 1.36 times higher respectively than for people without the conditions, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said on Tuesday, adding that a healthy diet is a key to stroke prevention.
A 39-year-old man who did not exercise and ate whatever he pleased was diagnosed with hypertension two years ago, the HPA said.
In August, following chronic headaches, dizziness and weakness in his right arm, the man had an ischemic stroke — one of the leading causes of death and disability globally, the HPA said.
In 2016, 31 percent of global deaths, or about 17.9 million people, were due to cardiovascular disease, with 85 percent of the deaths caused by heart disease and strokes, WHO data showed.
In Taiwan, cardiovascular disease was the fourth-largest cause of death last year, claiming 11,520 lives, among whom 86 percent, or 9,903 people, were aged 60 or above, the HPA said.
The World Stroke Organization says that while some stroke risk factors cannot be changed, such as age, sex, race and genetics, 90 percent of them can be managed, including hypertension, lack of exercise, abnormal blood lipid level, diabetes and smoking.
Hypertension is the biggest risk factor, as nearly half of people who have a stroke have a history of hypertension, the HPA said.
Stroke prevention should start with controlling the “three highs” — blood pressure, sugar and lipids — by sticking to a diet that is low in fats, sugars and salt, while eating more fiber, it said, adding that regular exercise, not drinking alcohol and quitting tobacco help.
FAST is an acronym to remember the warning signs and symptoms of a stroke, with the letters standing for “face drooping” on one side, “arm weakness,” “speech difficulty” and “time to dial 119” for an ambulance, the HPA said.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching