Coffee, Sex, Blowing Nose May Increase Risk of a Stroke, Dutch Study Finds
Drinking coffee may raise the risk of deadly strokes by 11 percent in millions of people with brain aneurysms, according to a study linking spikes in blood pressure to the rupture of the weakened blood vessels in the brain.
Researchers from University Medical Center in Utrecht, the Netherlands, analyzed 250 patients who survived such a stroke and identified eight risk factors tied to the event. They included drinking a cup of coffee, which carried the highest risk, having sex, physical exercise, nose blowing, straining to defecate, drinking cola and being startled or angry.
About 2 percent to 3 percent of the general population has aneurysms, and most don’t know it, said Monique H.M. Vlak, lead author of the study published today in the journal Stroke. Those who are diagnosed get surgery or other treatment to reduce the risk of rupture. The findings apply to people who can’t get treatment, such as those who are too old or are awaiting care, she said in a telephone interview.
“The study generates a hypothesis of how these aneurysms rupture,” Vlak, a neurologist at the medical center, said. “These events cause a temporary increase in blood pressure. The duration of the increased risk is about an hour.”
Drinking alcohol also put people at increased risk for the rupture, which can cause bleeding at the base of the brain known as a subarachnoid hemorrhage, though the danger decreased quickly, the study found.
The study may have some bias because it included only people who had survived a rupture and took surveys three weeks after the event, the researchers said. Still, it makes sense for people who know they have aneurysms to take protective steps, they said. Drinking less coffee and treating constipation may reduce the risk of a hemorrhage, Vlak said.
Additional studies are needed to see if taking drugs to lower blood pressure will reduce the risk of rupture, she said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Michelle Fay Cortez in Minneapolis at mcortez@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Reg Gale at rgale5@bloomberg.net
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