Heart strokes are caused by many reasons like high cholesterol, high blood pressure, blocking of blood vessels and so on. But, now a new study has found that abusing illicit street drugs may increase the risk of heart attacks.
A recent study on the stroke patients from the University of Cincinnati found that illegal drug usage among the heart stroke patients rose more than nine fold, over a period of 13 years. And this research showed that the increased use of street drugs such as marijuana, cocaine and methamphetamine increased the risk of number of youngsters getting a stroke.
The researcher saw a increased number of young people getting admitted with a stroke and this led them to make a research in that angle and they successfully found that the abuse of illegal drugs is the reason behind the strokes at early ages.
During their study period of 13 years, the researchers also found while smoking and alcohol use remained stable over the period, the use of street drugs such as crack cocaine and marijuana rose about 4%. This number shows the potential size of the problem.
Street drug use information is collected from the blood and urine samples of the young stroke patients.
The researchers also reported that the strokes subjected to illicit drug abuse are not of a little proportion and added saying that the heaviest usage among the stroke patients was under the 35 age group.
These studies show the relation between drug use and stroke risk. These drugs can cause a stroke by affecting blood vessels in the brain or by affecting any other part of the body such as heart and the liver. These findings are being presented in Los Angeles at the International Stroke Conference (ISC) 2011, the annual meeting of American Stroke Association.