Vim & Vigor - Fall 2021 - 54

PHOTOS BY UVA HEALTH AND JACKSON SMITH PHOTOGRAPHY
54
STROKE:
One and
From meditation to
medication, Nancy Shaver
is doing everything to
reduce her chances of a
second brain attack
BY KELLY CASEY
N
ancy Shaver has always embraced
change, and at 74, she has a long list of
accomplishments. She began her career
as a teacher only to become an entrepreneur
who helped launch three data-driven startup
companies. Aſt er retiring to St. Augustine,
Florida, she tried her hand at politics. She
read Running for Local Offi ce for Dummies
and " knocked on every door twice. " Her hard
work paid off when she unseated a longtime
incumbent to become the coastal city's mayor.
She was serving her third term when in
February 2019 a stroke derailed her political
career. She calls herself lucky. Impairing her
vision and thinking ability, the stroke forced
her to slow down. It's a change she embraces.
" I would have come very close to killing
myself with the way that I was working. I was
on 24/7, " Shaver says, adding that she never
took a break from checking her mobile phone.
" Now I'm learning how to make cocktails,
take photographs and write haikus. "
Her stroke came as a complete surprise, she
says. " I had been getting regular tests and regular
healthcare, " she recalls. " My last doctor
visit was three weeks before I had a stroke. I
had my vitals taken and was put on a low dose
of a blood pressure-lowering medication. "
While no smoking gun was found to be the
cause of a blood clot lodging in her brain, a
FALL 2021 VIM & VIGOR
few factors probably contributed, says Andrew
Southerland, MD, a UVA Health stroke expert
who has been overseeing Shaver's neurology
care since she moved to Charlottesville in 2019.
" Nancy had high blood pressure and high
cholesterol, " Dr. Southerland says. " Another
thing worth noting is she had been treated
previously for breast cancer, which can sometimes
cause your blood to form clots. " Stress
can also be a contributing factor, he adds,
although the association is unclear.
" Th e relationship between stress and cardiovascular
events like stroke and heart attack
is not as strong as risk factors such as diabetes,
high blood pressure and smoking, " he says.
" It's diffi cult to defi ne and measure stress, but
our best understanding is that stress likely has
a negative eff ect on those risk factors like high
blood pressure and puts additional strain on
your heart. "
Each year, an estimated 800,000 people in the
U.S. have a stroke. About 20 percent of those
people will go on to have another stroke. Shaver
is doing everything possible to reduce her risk
factors: She has a personal trainer who comes to
her home. She walks regularly. She fi nds time
to meditate, which studies show can help reduce
high blood pressure, a major cause of stroke.
" She's an amazing person, and she is certainly
the model patient in regard to reducing
her modifi able risk factors, " Dr. Southerland
says. " Ms. Shaver's risk of recurrent stroke is
as low as possibly can be. "
Andrew
CAREER-ENDING MEETING
Shaver recalls the night of her stroke: " I was
halfway through a really intense meeting. I
wound up not feeling right. I said to the vice
mayor, 'I'm not sure I can make it through
Southerland,
MD, UVA Health
stroke expert

Vim & Vigor - Fall 2021

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