A new study published in Neurology Open Access, the journal of the American Academy of Neurology, suggests that women who follow a Mediterranean diet may have a lower risk of all types of stroke. The research shows an association between this diet and reduced stroke risk but does not establish a direct cause.
The Mediterranean diet is characterized by high consumption of vegetables, legumes, fruits, fish, and healthy fats such as olive oil. It also involves low intake of dairy products, meats, and saturated fatty acids.
"Our findings support the mounting evidence that a healthy diet is critical to stroke prevention," said Sophia S. Wang, PhD, from 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."
The study included 105,614 women with an average age of 53 who had no history of stroke at the start. Participants completed a dietary questionnaire and received scores based on how closely their eating habits matched the Mediterranean diet. Higher scores reflected greater adherence to the diet.
Researchers followed participants for an average of 21 years. During this period, there were 4,083 strokes recorded: 3,358 ischemic strokes (caused by blocked blood flow to the brain) and 725 hemorrhagic strokes (caused by bleeding in the brain). Those in the highest adherence group experienced fewer strokes compared to those in the lowest group.
After adjusting for factors like smoking, physical activity, and high blood pressure, results showed that women most closely following the Mediterranean diet were 18% less likely to have any type of stroke than those least following it. Specifically, they were 16% less likely to have an ischemic stroke and 25% less likely to have a hemorrhagic 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."
One limitation noted was that participants self-reported their dietary habits at the beginning of the study; therefore some information may be inaccurate due to recall errors.
The research received support from the National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Stroke.
