London research is showing that lifestyle choices and not surgery often may be the best way to prevent a stroke in people who have a narrowing of the arteries in the neck.
Western researcher Dr. David Spence looked at narrowing of the carotid arteries that wasn't accompanied by symptoms.
It's research that challenges the idea that surgery or inserting a stent is the best way to prevent problems in these patients.
"Blockage of an artery is not a ticking time bomb. It's not a valid reason to go operating on people or stenting them for the purpose of preventing that artery from occluding because the risks of surgery or stenting are higher than the risk of intensive medical therapy," says Dr. Spence.
As for an alternative to surgery, the research points to so-called medical interventions including prescription drugs and lifestyle choices.
"No smoking, Mediterranean diet, blood pressure well controlled. LDL cholesterol as low as we can get it with things like statins," adds Dr. Spence.
Things like eating a proper diet, getting exercise and not smoking can go a long way to preventing a stroke. That's common knowledge.
So the question is? How to better ensure patient compliance.
The numbers tell a compelling story.
"What we found was after we implemented this more intensive medical therapy, the percentage of our patients who developed a new blockage of the carotid artery went down dramatically it almost disappeared," says Dr. Spence.
The research appears in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
