How to avoid a stroke

Stroke is currently high on the news agenda and so The Stroke Association has put together some top tips to try and help people reduce their risk of stroke.
Stroke can happen to anyone at any age. An estimated 150,000 people have a stroke in the UK each year and a quarter of these are under the age of 65.
Stroke is not inevitable and people can take steps to try and reduce their risk.

Top Tips
• Untreated high blood pressure (hypertension) is the biggest single risk factor for stroke. Lifestyle measures and the right medication can help reduce high blood pressure. You may not know if you have high blood pressure, so you should have it checked regularly.

Lifestyle measures to change/take note of:
• Stop smoking - Smoking doubles your risk of a stroke because it causes the arteries to fur up and makes the blood more likely to clot. These increase the risk of a stroke.
• Drink sensibly - Drinking too much alcohol raises blood pressure. Binge drinking (drinking more than six units in six hours) is particularly dangerous as it can cause blood pressure to soar. If you limit your alcohol to within the current guidelines, there’s nothing wrong with the occasional drink. Women should drink no more than two to three units of alcohol a day. Men should drink no more than three to four units a day.
• Reduce your salt intake – salt raises blood pressure. Don’t add salt to your food and avoid processed foods which contain a lot of salt.
• Watch your weight - Being overweight is a risk factor for high blood pressure, heart disease and diabetes, all of which increase your risk of a stroke. A healthy diet and regular exercise will help control your weight.
• Take more exercise - Regular physical activity helps to lower blood pressure, creates a healthy balance of blood fats and improves your body’s ability to handle insulin.

To help people recognise the symptoms of stroke quickly, The Stroke Association has funded research into FAST - the Face Arm Speech Test - which is used by paramedics to diagnose stroke prior to a person being admitted to hospital.
FAST requires an assessment of three specific symptoms of stroke.
Facial weakness - can the person smile? Has their mouth or eye drooped?
Arm weakness - can the person raise both arms?
Speech problems - can the person speak clearly and understand what you say?

Test all three symptoms

Body & Soul Fair returns

The Body & Soul Fair returns once more to Edinburgh with a wide range of stalls and a comprehensive free talk programme throughout the weekend.

Stalls include complementary therapists, healers, psychics, crystals, health products, aura photography, gifts, tarot and much more.
The Body & Soul Fairs are ideal for those interested in sampling the worlds of natural health and spirituality. There is so much on offer for the first time visitor as well as the seasoned regular! There is a wide range of complementary therapies on offer. Enjoy a relaxing massage or healing session, have a reading done, find out about courses and centres in your area or participate in one of the many free talks. Talks are informative and enjoyable and cover a wide range of topics in the mind, body spirit field. Stroll around over 50 unique stalls, ideal for finding gifts, including crystals, silver and crystal jewellery, candles, incense, aromatherapy products, candles, books, cds and much more. There is also a selection of clairvoyants, tarot readers and astrologers.

Special Guest
Psychic : Lara Wells
Lara will be doing a Free Talk on Sat 26th April at 1pm and 3pm(spaces limited and will be allocated by free ticket at front of house)
Lara will be speaking about her work and development as a psychic, clairvoyant and medium with over 15 years experience Sun 27th April she will be doing a Psychic Demonstration at 1pm. Tkts £5.
Agnes McCluskey Event Manager with Body & Soul says “We are delighted to have Lara as our guest speaker. She appeared at our Dundee Fair in January and her talk and demo went down a storm. We are always pleased to help promote home grown talent and provide a platform for our customers and clients to meet and be able to listen to experts in the Mind, Body, Spirit field. Lara is destined to become a household name through various media and work developments that are going on just now. So remember where you saw her first.”

Lara has achieved much acclaim for her work over recent years. She has over 15 years experience. She has appeared on various TV shows including Colin Fry’s 6th Sense. She has also been on various radio shows giving Live Readings. She has had articles in many publications including Paranormal Magazine, Boost Magazine, Positive Magazine and she has written various newspaper columns. She also runs the Psychic Voice Newspaper which covers Spiritual, Paranormal and Esoteric matters. She is also currently setting up a registered charity which will be a governing body for spiritualists, healers and mediums from all walks of life and is also writing a book See www.lara-wells.com

Body & Soul Fair
Edinburgh Assembly Rooms
Sat 26th and Sun 27th April
11am – 5.30pm
Entry £3.50 (£2.50conc) Wkend £5 (£4conc)
Tel 01368 862717
www.bodyandsoulevents.com