Stroke

Sections

Lifestyle & Management

Preventing Strokes

The best way to prevent another stroke is to live a healthy lifestyle. This means:

  • Eating a low-salt, low-fat diet
  • Getting 30 minutes of moderate exercise each day
  • Taking prescribed medications and watching for interactions and side effects. This may include blood thinners.
  • Quitting smoking. After five years without smoking, your stroke risk drops to the same level as a non-smoker.
  • Controlling high blood pressure, and lowering cholesterol and triglyceride levels
  • Managing diabetes
  • Avoiding misuse of alcohol or drugs
  • Maintaining a healthy weight

Caregiver and Family Assistance

A stroke changes a person's life. This may lead to feelings of helplessness, frustration, or depression. Staying involved in family and social life can help prevent or ease these feelings.

  • Focus on the skills you have regained rather than on what you have lost.
  • Try to be patient and give yourself time to rest and relax.
  • Keep up your social and family life, even if speech or movement is hard. Invite people over. Let others know what you need.
  • Use sign language or word cards until your speech gets better. Keep practicing.
  • Join a support group.

Stroke and Other Health Conditions

Delirium

Up to 40 percent of people who have a stroke experience delirium (a sudden change in mental abilities) during the first week. Older adults are at higher risk. Delirium can raise the risk of:

  • Mental decline
  • Longer stays in the hospital
  • Higher risk of death
  • Harder recovery from stroke

Depression

About half of stroke survivors have depression. Twenty percent have major depression and need intensive treatment. Medicines and talk therapy can help.

  • Depression makes it harder for people to recover from a stroke. Untreated depression raises the risk of death.

Vascular Dementia

Vascular dementia (problems with memory and thinking), also called post-stroke dementia, is the second most common type of dementia. It may happen right after a stroke or develop over several years. There is no cure and it gets worse over time.

Having a stroke doubles the risk of getting dementia. This risk goes up with age.

Mobility

A stroke can affect how a person moves. It can affect vision or balance, or weaken a person's legs. This raises the risk of falling and makes walking harder. Memory and thinking problems after a stroke can also affect the ability to walk.

People who have strokes need rehab and may need aids like walkers to improve mobility and stay independent.

Speech

Aphasia is when a person cannot speak or understand others. About one-third of people who have had a stroke develop aphasia. Older adults are at higher risk. Speech therapy can help.

When talking with someone who has aphasia, remember that their intelligence has not changed. Some tips to improve communication include:

  • Allow plenty of time for the person to finish speaking
  • Do not finish their sentences
  • Turn off the radio, TV, or other background noise
  • Use other ways to communicate, like gestures, drawings, or facial expressions

Swallowing

Up to 70 percent of people who have a stroke will have trouble swallowing. This is called dysphagia. It is a serious problem that needs to be carefully evaluated by a specially trained healthcare professional called a speech-language pathologist.

Common treatments include:

  • Switching to foods that are easier to swallow
  • Swallowing therapy exercises
  • Breathing exercises
  • Using nutrition supplements (usually drinks with extra protein and vitamins)

If a person cannot regain the ability to swallow, tube-feeding may be needed.

Dehydration

Older adults who have had a stroke are often less aware when they are thirsty. This is an especially serious problem for people with memory or thinking problems. Dehydration can lead to constipation, kidney problems, mental confusion, and death.

Incontinence

After a stroke, up to 60 percent of older adults who are in the hospital may have trouble controlling their bladder (urinary incontinence).

Pressure Sores

Pressure sores happen when a person does not move for a long time. Skin or soft tissue trapped between a bone and a surface (like a mattress) begins to break down. Older adults are at high risk because their blood flow and skin are weaker.

Preventing and treating pressure sores involves:

  • Changing the person's position often
  • Eating a balanced diet
  • Treating infection, pain, and depression.

Vision Loss

A stroke may cause a sudden loss of vision in one or both eyes.

 

Last Reviewed and Updated: October 2026 
By: AGS/HiAF Public Education Committee, HealthinAging.org Content Reviewers

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