Coffee, Sex, Can Be 'Triggers' For Stroke

Put down the coffee cup and step away from the bed. Medical researchers warn that drinking coffee and having sex can be “triggers,” increasing the risk of a stroke.

Blowing your nose can also bring on a stroke, according to the report in the American Heart Association rapid access journal. The report says the elevated stroke risk is only temporary.

In the report, Dutch researchers identified eight main triggers that appear to increase the risk of a brain aneurysm, a ballooning and then break in a blood vessel in the brain. When that happens, it causes a stroke by interrupting the supply of blood to the brain.

Eight factors

Calculating population attributable risk — the fraction of hemorrhages that can be attributed to a particular trigger factor — the researchers identified the eight factors and their contribution to the risk as:

• Coffee consumption (10.6 percent)
• Vigorous physical exercise (7.9 percent)
• Nose blowing (5.4 percent)
• Sexual intercourse (4.3 percent)
• Straining to defecate (3.6 percent)
• Cola consumption (3.5 percent)
• Being startled (2.7 percent)
• Being angry (1.3 percent)

"All of the triggers induce a sudden and short increase in blood pressure, which seems a possible common cause for aneurysmal rupture," said Monique H.M. Vlak, M.D., lead author of the study and a neurologist at the University Medical Center in Utrecht, the Netherlands.

Risk was also higher shortly after drinking alcohol, but decreased quickly, researchers said.

And it's not just middle aged and older people who have to worry about a stroke. The researchers say they can also occur in young adults. 

Knowing the risk factors is helpful. So is knowing the symptoms. Unfortunately, few people with a brain aneurysm have symptoms before such a rupture.

Those who do may experience vomiting, vision problems, loss of consciousness, and especially severe headaches. However, many have no symptoms. With the increasing use of neuroimaging techniques, more incidental aneurysms are being detected, researchers said.