True or false: COVID increases your chances of having a stroke?
It is true. Over the last two years of the pandemic, COVID has been studied extensively, and there is clear evidence that COVID-19 increases your chances of getting a stroke. Numbers do not lie, and through the first year of the pandemic, people who have been hospitalized due to COVID saw their chances of getting an ischemic stroke rise by 4.9%. It may not seem like a huge increase, but when you couple it with the fact that the coronavirus puts you at an increased risk of developing blood clots, high blood pressure, and diabetes, it becomes significant.
You may be asking yourself, “What are ischemic strokes?” This is the medical term for the strokes that are caused by a blood clot blocking the access of blood and oxygen to the brain.
The sad truth is that lifestyle also plays a huge role in whether or not your risks are higher if you have a coronavirus. If the person also has high cholesterol levels, smokes, or does not have an appropriate diet, then the risk of stroke increases. This is in addition to the fact that a lot of patients will end up having some health issues after getting rid of COVID, so the risk doesn’t completely go away with the coronovirus infection.
