Smoking cessation, blood pressure control,
diabetes control, a low-fat diet, weight loss,
and regular exercise
should be encouraged as strongly as the medications described above.
Written prescriptions for exercise and medications for smoking cessation (nicotine patch,
bupropion, varenicline) increase the likelihood of success with these interventions.
In addition to these well-documented factors,
the 2011 AHA/ASA guidelines for primary stroke prevention indicate that it is reasonable to avoid exposure to environmental tobacco smoke despite a lack of stroke-specific data.
The use of aspirin for primary stroke prevention is not recommended for persons at low risk.
Aspirin is recommended for this purpose only in persons with at least a 6-10% risk of cardiovascular events over