does this include appalachia?
///from southern ohio, live 10 minutes from Drew

40below: How in the hell do you tell if a southerner has had a stroke? Do they start talking slowly, or speaking in a completely incomprehensible manner? I mean, how do you even begin to diagnose this?

We start talking like ignorant Yankees after we've had a stroke, that's how.

+1

WOHOO no La listed!

Who Dat?!

deep fried food?

Stroker Ace was born to race
and had a mean streak ten feet wide

Being from Tennessee, I can tell you that the headline is not true! Nope.
It's usually their cousins.

Fark you, subby!

Tentacle: deep fried food?


That, and a whole lot of pork!

I've lived in the South all my life and have never heard it called the "stroke belt". I guess it's true that you learn something new every day. I'm sure it has something to do with the fact that there are a lot of people here that live below the poverty line and the cheaper food is usually pretty much crap. That and we're a bunch of cigarette smokers and boozers. Everyone's gotta die of something. I'm gonna go out with a smoke in my mouth, a bottle of Johnny Walker (blue) in one hand while farking the missus.

Probably has nothing to do with the diet, right?

Now the world don't move to the beat of just one drum.

Well, fried food and a high percentage of black people will inflate the stroke rate.

We also have high obesity, go figure....

/skinny

I think its all the mayonaise

Xetal: Probably has nothing to do with the diet, right?

Eat your tasteless salad yankee-boy! I'm going to live and enjoy my life with pork!

Farkwaddle: I've lived in the South all my life

Well don't complain to me

STROKE!
STROKE!
STROKE!
STROKE!
STROKE!
...

was hoping for some Clarence Carter references.

Gee the most backward conservative nutball part of the country has a higher risk of stroke.

Ain't that a shame.

I_Can't_Believe_it's_not_Boutros: Now the world don't move to the beat of just one drum.

Arnold sees what you did there.

Tentacle: deep fried food?

THIS!

Perfectly good vegetables (and everything else) batter dipped and fried.

Pretty good analogy that....

It probably has something to do with gravy for breakfast.

I'm going back to the South this weekend to bury my grandmother. She had a stroke a year and a half ago.

/not getting a kick

Ha ha I get it, because southerns have sex with relatives. What an original joke.

40below: How in the hell do you tell if a southerner has had a stroke? Do they start talking slowly, or speaking in a completely incomprehensible manner? I mean, how do you even begin to diagnose this?

We start watching hockey, telling everyone in earshot how we used to do things better in Mobile, driving like we've only learned how today, and complaining that everything where we currently live sucks but refusing to leave.

Bob16: Farkwaddle: I've lived in the South all my life

Well don't complain to me

Who the hell is complaining? I love it down here. I've had all the opportunity in the world to move away and I've declined everytime. Cheap property tax, slower pace, friendly people, good food....the only thing to really hate is the heat and humidity in the summer, but if you grow gills like us natives you won't have much of an issue. The rednecks aren't any more abundant here than they are anywhere else. I've been all over North America and I'm still convinced that Ohio or Nebraska has more rednecks per sq mile than any other state.

schattenteufel: Well, seeing as how a stroke effects the brain & causes memory loss & brain damage, often rendering victims back to the mental state of a helpless child, I doubt the average Southerner's day-to-day life is terrible effected.

Seriously. If I had a stroke, I might not know the difference between "affect" and "effect."

Farkwaddle
Eat your tasteless salad yankee-boy!

I live in west Michigan. People around here pretty much shoot anything that moves, slap it on the grill, and then eat it.

Salad doesn't move.

"Our results cannot pinpoint a specific explanation, but they are consistent with other research suggesting that the roots of stroke risk begin in childhood or even infancy,"

/insert bacon pancake pic from 1965

Farkwaddle: I've lived in the South all my life and have never heard it called the "stroke belt". I guess it's true that you learn something new every day. I'm sure it has something to do with the fact that there are a lot of people here that live below the poverty line and the cheaper food is usually pretty much crap. That and we're a bunch of cigarette smokers and boozers. Everyone's gotta die of something. I'm gonna go out with a smoke in my mouth, a bottle of Johnny Walker (blue) in one hand while farking the missus.

You better be with the missus, or you might die of somethin' else.

wont someone think of the bacon!

my grandmother was the epitome of health until she retired to florida. she's had two strokes since. i think it has to do with the fact that people down south dont walk as much.

if i ever get to retire it wont be to the south...not that they'd want me there anyway.

As someone who works in healthcare in the deep south I can personally tell you most of the people in our hospital facilities are there for obesity related/induced issues. Heart problems, circulation problems, respiratory issues, orthopedic complications and the list goes on and on where its directly obesity related. The obesity I am talking about is not the average beer gut or 280 pound guy/woman here but rather the 380-650 pound range. Its sad because their care is triple the expensive from equipment to staff than that of a relatively average weight person. I had a patient with poor ejection fraction problems with their heart as well as hypertension resulting in heart attack like symptoms. His weight was 370, 5'7, and 30 years old with no other preexisting problems. When the doctor and dietitian spoke with him about his diet he was all for change. Not even an hour later a friend brought him two double cheeseburgers, fries and super sized soda for lunch. He ate all of it. The kicker was it is his fourth time in hospital for the same thing.

Your Medicaid at work.

I think the south is the largest market for those rascal/scooter things.

schattenteufel: Well, seeing as how a stroke effects the brain & causes memory loss & brain damage, often rendering victims back to the mental state of a helpless child, I doubt the average Southerner's day-to-day life is terrible effected.

You should know.

Xetal: Farkwaddle
Eat your tasteless salad yankee-boy!

I live in west Michigan. People around here pretty much shoot anything that moves, slap it on the grill, and then eat it.

Salad doesn't move.

Send me some venison. My friend (who was the only hunter I knew) moved away a year ago and I've lost my connection to that lean, yummy meat. I really miss my grilled venison tenderloin and venison chili.

southern78: As someone who works in healthcare in the deep south I can personally tell you most of the people in our hospital facilities are there for obesity related/induced issues. Heart problems, circulation problems, respiratory issues, orthopedic complications and the list goes on and on where its directly obesity related. The obesity I am talking about is not the average beer gut or 280 pound guy/woman here but rather the 380-650 pound range. Its sad because their care is triple the expensive from equipment to staff than that of a relatively average weight person. I had a patient with poor ejection fraction problems with their heart as well as hypertension resulting in heart attack like symptoms. His weight was 370, 5'7, and 30 years old with no other preexisting problems. When the doctor and dietitian spoke with him about his diet he was all for change. Not even an hour later a friend brought him two double cheeseburgers, fries and super sized soda for lunch. He ate all of it. The kicker was it is his fourth time in hospital for the same thing.

Your Medicaid at work.

I think the south is the largest market for those rascal/scooter things.

Having evaluated disability claims in the south for a few years, I agree with this assessment. At any time, 40% of my cases had an obesity/diabetes component to them.

And to prove the scooter thing, just run down to WalMart an any southern town and check it out.

If eating deep-fried fatback (with gravy) is wrong, I don't want to be right.

/Northerners are more likely to die when the stick up their ass gets infected.

the_rev: Heh. You nailed that one. I can't tell you how many times I've offered to buy some Michigan asshole a one-way bus ticket back to his beloved homeland. They complain and complain, but they never leave.

To be fair, I was being a little bit harsh. I've met many a transplanted yankee who freely admits it's much better down here and they'd only move back to Snowland at gunpoint. Just not the ones from Jersey and Noo Yawk for some reason. Buffalo? Seriously?

Because we have livermush down here.