Inflammatory bowel disease could increase your risk of stroke, study warns

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Underlying cardiovascular issues, ranging from high cholesterol to high blood pressure, are the main precursors to strokes.

However, a new study found that a condition that targets your stomach could also spell bad news.

The research warned that people with inflammatory bowel diseases are 13 percent more likely to experience a stroke.

People who suffer from the debilitating condition, also known as IBD, experience chronic inflammation of the intestines.

In case you aren’t aware, IBD includes the likes of Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.

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The research team found that people with IBD had a higher risk of stroke up to 25 years after their diagnosis.

However, they also emphasised that the study doesn’t prove that IBD causes strokes, it merely highlights a link between the two.

Study author Dr Jiangwei Sun, of the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, said: “These results show that people with inflammatory bowel disease and their doctors should be aware of this long-term increased risk.

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“Screening and management of stroke risk factors may be more urgent in people with IBD.”

Including 85,006 people with IBD confirmed with a biopsy in the study, the researchers matched up these participants with up to five people of the same birth year, sex and county of residence who did not have IBD, providing a total sample of 406,987 people.

During an average follow-up of 12 years, 3,720 of the people with IBD suffered a stroke, compared with 15,599 of the people who did not have it.

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When the team considered other factors that could affect stroke risk, such as heart disease, high blood pressure and obesity, they found that IBD sufferers were 13 percent more likely to suffer the medical emergency.

Furthermore, the increased risk was mainly for ischaemic stroke, which is triggered by a blockage of blood flow to the brain, rather than haemorrhagic stroke, caused by bleeding in the brain.

The research was published in the journal Neurology.

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