There’s yet one more reason why you should try not to get hit hard in the head: It may increase your risk of a stroke.
The stroke at issue here is the ischemic type, in which a blood clot in the brain blocks blood from reaching the area that the vessel supplies.
People with traumatic brain injury (TBI), or, to put it more simplistically, a severe hit in the head, are more likely to suffer an ischemic stroke, says a paper in the June 26, 2013 online Neurology.
But there’s a reason you should not let this study scare you into thinking that the clobber in the head by a baseball you suffered in high school will give you a stroke later on.
“While this paper makes some interesting associations between TBI and ischemic stroke, the level of evidence for this study is level 4 out of 5,” says D’Wan Carpenter, DO, a board certified physical medicine and rehabilitation physician with SIMEDHealth in FLA.
The report goes as far as stating that the association between TBI and stroke is just as significant as is the link between high blood pressure and stroke.
Though stroke has some very identifiable risk factors, including smoking, diabetes and obesity, its risk factors remain perplexing to doctors, especially when the victim is under age 65.
How was this study done?
Two groups of patients were investigated: 1) adults who went to the ER or were admitted to a hospital for traumatic brain injury, and 2) those with other trauma but no TBI. Over 1.1 million patients were followed.
Results
1.1 percent of patients with TBI had a stroke over an average of 28 months after their TBIs, and 0.9 percent of patients with trauma but no TBI had a stroke.
Patients who had a TBI were 30 percent more likely to suffer from an ischemic stroke than subjects who had some kind of trauma but NO injury to the brain.
But this study, as interesting as it is, had limitations.
“It raises questions about this connection, given that individuals with TBI tend to be younger and take more risks, which may place them at risk for stroke due to lifestyle factors,” says Dr. Carpenter.
“I believe this study is one that should spark future studies to obtain higher levels of evidence in an effort to decrease another stroke risk factor if it indeed exists.”
