• High blood pressure (hypertension), especially if not controlled
• Heart disease
• Increasing age
• Diabetes, especially if not controlled
• Being male
• Being African-American
• A prior stroke
• Family history of stroke
• Asymptomatic carotid bruit. This is an abnormal sound that can be heard with a stethoscope. It sometimes means plaque is starting to clog one of the carotid arteries to the brain.
• Smoking
• High blood cholesterol and fats (lipids)
• Alcohol abuse
• Overweight
• Lack of exercise
• Use of street drugs

Lowering Risk

While you can't change some of these risk factors, such as race or gender, you can make healthy lifestyle changes that will reduce your risk of other factors.

Changes you can make include:

• Giving up smoking and street drugs
• Losing weight
• Lowering alcohol use
• Getting reguilar exercise (at least three times a week). See your doctor before starting a new exercise program.

Your physician also can help you with risk factors that can be changed by medical or dietary treatment. These especially include lowering blood pressure with medications, controlling diabetes and controlling blood cholesterol. Your physician can also determine if you should take medicines to reduce blood clot formations (aspirin and other related drugs, or warfarin).