Every 40 seconds, someone in the United States suffers from a stroke

One out of four victims is under the age of 65 while one out of every 14 is under the age of 45. Many of the individuals affected have no apparent symptoms and once the life-threatening blood clot has caused the stroke, it is often too late.

“Fifty years ago, people didn’t consider psychiatric illness a medical illness,” says Shyam Prabhakaran, M.D., head of cerebrovascular disease and neurocritical care at Rush University Medical Center.

“Now we’re realizing how interwoven emotions and pathology are.”

There are four emotional triggers of a stroke that ought to be avoided: stress, aggression, loneliness and marital discontent. It is the consistent occurrence of these four emotional triggers that can increase the likelihood of a stroke. Learn more…