The American Heart Association just released guidelines for preventing strokes in women. The guidelines look at things distinctly female in nature that increase the chance of a stroke and then provide recommendations for treating the problem. It’s not that women don’t share many of the same risk factors that men because we do. But women are often overachievers and this is just another one of those cases where that is true. So, if you are a woman and you’ve ever had any of the following, you have an increased risk of having a stroke.