How to Prevent Brain Aneurysm: 4 Helpful Tips

Diseases have been following us from time immemorial. But, in today’s twenty-first century, it is possible to treat most of the diseases that we can name.

Brain aneurysms fall in the category of these diseases. So, already wondering how to prevent brain aneurysms? Get going to know more about it!

How to Prevent Brain Aneurysm?

Brain aneurysms can be categorized as a sort of cerebrovascular ¹disease. But before we get to know about the ways to prevent it, let us get acquainted with the issue first. So, how to prevent brain aneurysm? Read on to know.

Simply, brain aneurysms develop as a ballooned structure in your blood vessel. It looks like a berry hanging from a stem. Brain aneurysm ²rupture causes internal bleeding in the brain. This often leads to a life-threatening hemorrhagic stroke.

One may experience extreme pain in the head if the brain aneurysm ruptures. This is the worst headache one could ever experience. Some of the symptoms that accompany this headache are a stiffened neck, double vision, seizure, loss of consciousness, and vomiting.

An unruptured aneurysm can be as bad as a ruptured aneurysm. Due to such painful effects, the problem needs immediate medical treatment. So, to get proper medical attention if not successful to prevent brain aneurysm, one needs to get diagnosed without any delay.

Angiography is a sort of X-ray that detects blood vessel issues. So, if you get a sudden, piercing headache, do not delay and see a doctor.

Brain aneurysms are painful but they can be healed with proper precautions and treatments. So, if you are suffering from it or know someone struggling with it, stop worrying and stay tuned for some amazing tips till the end!

What are the Two Types of Brain Aneurysms?

Before delving into how to prevent brain aneurysm, let’s discuss it’s types.

So, now that we know what a brain aneurysm is, it is mandatory to know the two specific shapes of brain aneurysms. This will help you to get a proper idea of what type you are suffering from and get treated accordingly.

But do not skip medical diagnosis, it is the first step to getting yourself healed.

• Saccular Aneurysm: This is the most common type of brain aneurysm. It develops on the “y” portion of your artery and looks like a berry. This is the sort of aneurysm that poses a higher risk of getting ruptured. This brain bleed causes great damage to brain cells. Hence, diagnosing aneurysms and treating them immediately is a must!
• Fusiform Aneurysm: This is an uncommon one. This is the type of brain aneurysm that does not rupture. Even though it’s an unruptured brain aneurysm, it causes intense pain just like a ruptured brain aneurysm. So, immediate medical attention is recommended if you experience a severe headache or a sudden piercing pain above or behind an eye.

Who is Likely to Suffer From Brain Aneurysms?

Well, brain aneurysms are unbiased, they get hold of anyone at any age hence it is important to prevent brain aneurysm for people of every age. But here are some specifications that you ought to know:

1. Conditions That Elevate the Risk of Brain Aneurysms:

One may suffer from certain conditions beforehand. These may be conditions prevalent since birth. A cerebral aneurysm develops further due to these factors.

Inherited connective tissue disorders, narrow aorta, and brain arteriovenous malformation(AVM) are three such factors that increase the problem of cerebral aneurysms.

• Inherited Connective Tissue Disorders– Blood vessels weaken if you suffer from this. If you suffer from this issue, the collagen and elastin that connect different body structures are likely to get inflamed. Now, if the collagen present in blood vessels gets inflamed, your blood vessels are likely to collapse. This further deepens the brain aneurysm issue.
• Narrow Aorta– As we all know, the aorta is the largest artery in our body. If it narrows, your heart is bound to pump blood with greater pressure through it. Normally, This issue is present at birth. You are likely to face this issue near blood vessel walls called ductus arteriosus. So, if you are suffering from high blood pressure, headaches, and muscle weakness, a diagnosis is needed. This may be an initial phase for a cerebral aneurysm to develop.
• Brain Arteriovenous Malformation (AVM)- The arteries carry oxygen-rich blood from the heart to your brain. But in AVM, there’s the problem of tangled blood vessels. This disrupts the vital process of transport of oxygen through blood vessels.

2. Other Risk Factors to Accelerate Cerebral Aneurysms:

Lifestyle-based issues can also level up your chances of getting a brain aneurysm. Cigarette smoking, usage of drugs especially cocaine, and high levels of alcohol consumption add up to this unwanted problem.

The risk of aneurysm rupture is pretty high in the first few hours after smoking. This is because of the release of catecholamines which are fired up by nicotine.

As per a study, risk is higher in women by about 60 % than in men. Similarly, research states that alcohol and drug consumption triggers the issue. Consumption of alcohol leads to high blood pressure which consequently may lead to brain aneurysm formation.

Ways to Prevent Brain Aneurysms:

Now that we know the factors that may trigger brain aneurysms and lead to brain aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage, we need to know some tips and tricks to prevent it. After all, we crave a healthy life!

Well, it’s not possible to get away with all the risk factors that brain aneurysms come with. But we can try and control it to an extent by giving a chance to certain lifestyle changes.

1. How to Prevent Brain Aneurysms?

Maintain Healthy Diet Choices

A high-calorie diet is one of the reasons you may suffer from high blood pressure, atherosclerosis, and a high risk of cholesterol. High blood pressure leads to thinning of blood vessels which leads to the development of brain aneurysms.

But the plus point is that such risk factors are connected to your diet. So, you can modify your diet to prevent aneurysms!

Choosing fresh foods over packaged snacks like candies and cakes helps you enter a healthy weight plan. Limiting fatty cuts of brisket, steaks, and meat and limiting fast food consumption help you go a long way to preventing brain aneurysms.

Have complex carbohydrates such as whole-grain bread and brown rice instead of white bread or refined carbohydrates. It’s a great tip to make use of!

Make changes in your oil choice. Using heart-healthy oils such as palm kernel, olive oil, and coconut oil is the key to healthy living. A balanced diet is a mantra for a good living that eventually cuts down aneurysm issues!

The dash diet is a great way to help you out with the risk factors of hypertension and LDL (bad) cholesterol.

2. Check Your Blood Pressure!

A Healing Step for Blood Vessels

Cerebral aneurysms may be prevented by keeping a close check on your blood pressure levels. Hypertension is one of the greatest risk factors that trigger intracranial aneurysms.

The American heart association (AHA) along with 9 other health institutions lowered the guidelines for blood pressure diagnosis. It came down from 130 millimetres of mercury to 120 millimetres.

So, with this new guideline, there’s about 45 percent of Americans that suffer from hypertension.

You can decrease the high risk of high blood pressure by making lifestyle changes. First of all, quit smoking and alcohol. All that alcohol does is increase blood pressure and smoking leads to plage buildup in the blood vessels.

This issue limits blood flow to your brain and other parts and consequently leads to an intracranial aneurysm. Eating healthy and low-sodium foods and managing stress through exercise will help you gain good weight.

The American heart association advises men to limit alcohol consumption to one to two drinks per day while women reduce it to one drink per day. Kloner says, “Alcohol in excess is really bad for the heart” for it accelerates unhealthy blood pressure and arrhythmias.

Above all, do prefer medications for the above-mentioned issue by consulting a doctor.

3. Get a Treatment Plan for Obstructive Sleep Apnea

Obstructive sleep apnea is a disorder that affects your sleep, it may cause shallow breathing or obstruct it completely while you are sleeping. Getting an immediate medical treatment plan for this would help.

If you are suffering from this condition, it may lead to an acceleration of intracranial aneurysms as well as abdominal aortic aneurysms.

Neurological Surgeons in the Journal of Neurosurgery stated that intracranial aneurysms rupture or lead to vasospasm due to untreated Obstructive Sleep Apnea.

Doctors may advise you to wear a continuous positive airway pressure machine (CPAP) or get surgical assistance if you suffer from this issue.

4. Get Screening Tests Without Delay: A Must Requirement to Prevent Brain Aneurysm

If you have a family history of aneurysms, have an appointment with your trusted doctor without any hesitation. Even before you experience a severe headache, it is advisable to have a talk regarding aneurysms and neurological disorders associated with it.

Your primary care physician will recommend the best treatment to you. So, be assured of that. He may recommend using CTA ³which is a unique sort of CT scan.

This focuses on the blood vessels primarily. If you have previously been diagnosis with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD⁴) the doctor may advise you to get a normal computerized tomography or CT scan.

An angiogram is known as the gold standard for intracranial aneurysm diagnosis. It provides a 3-dimensional view of aneurysms and helps effectively treat them.

If you suffer from severe headaches or a regular stiff neck, you need to get a diagnosis without a thought. At times, the intracranial aneurysm ruptures and leads to bleeding in the area between the brain and the surrounding tissue. It blocks the flow of the fluid surrounding the brain and your spinal cord.

This issue may damage brain tissues and lead to hyponatremia⁵. To avoid such consequences, see a doctor and get a scan without delay!

Closing Thoughts

I hope by now you know how to prevent brain aneurysm. Now that we know about the causes and tips for preventing cerebral aneurysms it becomes pretty easy for us to not suffer from its symptoms in the long run!

One of the biggest perks is that cerebral aneurysms can be treated. Switching to a healthy lifestyle and diagnosing the aneurysms accordingly, helps in getting rid of them.

To prevent brain aneurysm and treat it, one may choose from the two well-known options for treating a cerebral aneurysm. Endovascular treatment and surgical clipping are two such options. However, the endovascular treatment is considered a less invasive one.

Here, the surgeon inputs a catheter into your artery. After this, flow diverters are used along with a combination of other devices to damage the aneurysm.

One may maintain their overall health and prevent brain aneurysm by maintaining a healthy diet. If it is not sufficient, there’s always medical assistance one can turn to!

If you are interested to know more about such articles to enhance your health do click here.

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Last Updated on July 24, 2024 by Sathi Chakraborty, MSc Biology