People who follow a Mediterranean diet might lower their risk of stroke, a new study reports.
Overall, women who stuck most closely to an eating pattern resembling the Mediterranean diet had an 18% lower risk of any sort of stroke, researchers reported Feb. 4 in the journal Neurology Open Access.
They specifically had a 16% lower risk of strokes caused by blood clots (ischemic), and 25% lower risk of strokes due to bleeding in the brain (hemorrhagic), the study found.
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“Our findings support the mounting evidence that a healthy diet is critical to stroke prevention,” said senior researcher Sophia Wang, a professor of epidemiology at the City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center in Duarte, California.
“We were especially interested to see that this finding applies to hemorrhagic stroke, as few large studies have looked at this type of stroke,” Wang added in a news release.
For the study, researchers analyzed data from a long-term study of California teachers that included more than 133,000 female instructors and administrators.
The women’s health has been tracked since 1995, and they all filled out an extensive diet questionnaire when they entered the study.
The Mediterranean diet centers on plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables, whole grains, seeds, nuts, legumes and olive oil, researchers said.
Fish and seafood should be eaten at least twice a week, and dairy and lean proteins eaten daily in smaller portions. The diet encourages minimal consumption of red meats and processed foods and cutting out sugary beverages.
Each woman was scored between 0 to 9 based on how closely their eating pattern followed that recommended by the Mediterranean diet.
About 30% of the women received a score of 6 to 9 and were placed in the group with the highest adherence to the diet. On the other hand, 13% had scores of 0 to 2.
During an average follow-up of 21 years, nearly 4,100 strokes occurred among all the women
For ischemic strokes caused by a clot blocking blood flow to the brain, there were 1,058 among the 31,638 people in the highest group compared to 395 cases among the 13,204 people in the lowest group.
For hemorrhagic strokes caused by bleeding in the brain, there were 211 strokes among those in the highest group, compared to 91 among the lowest group.
Even after adjusting for other risk factors, researchers found that the Mediterranean diet made a significant difference in women’s risk for stroke.
“Stroke is a leading cause of death and disability, so it’s exciting to think that improving our diets could lessen our risk for this devastating disease,” Wang said. “Further studies are needed to confirm these findings and to help us understand the mechanisms behind them so we could identify new ways to prevent stroke.”