Stroke Risk and The Black Knight

Stroke Risk and The Black Knight

John Cleese’s Black Knight is the defining metaphor for how the male of our species deals with pain and disease. He continues to insist he’s fine and is winning the fight, even when he is limb-less and on the ground.

But there’s an unfortunate confluence of Black Knight Syndrome and stroke risk. Stroke is rightly called “the silent killer.” Very often, the first sign there is a problem is the stroke itself.

Stroke Risk as an Equation:
This is a very bad equation. When you take a Black Knight, who is always fine despite desperate conditions and add that to a symptom-less condition, the resulting sum is bad news for any women interested in protecting her husband from risk of stroke.

Of course, there are factors that affect stroke risk: high blood pressure, high cholesterol, smoking, diabetes. The classic Black Knight will say Ha! Ha! at these stroke risk factors and continue in risky behaviors such as smoking, drinking too much, not exercising, and feeding all vegetables to the dog under the table.

Stroke Risk, Black Knight and The Wife
As The Wife, it’s our job to prevent – to prevent the risky behaviors, to insist on preventative screenings, to prevent The Husband’s stroke risk from giving us nightmares – maybe watch that old movie with The Husband to kickstart the conversation….