A new study reveals that a traditional Mediterranean-style diet reduces stroke risk among white adults who are at high risk of cardiovascular disease. Led by Norwich Medical School’s Professor Ailsa Welch, the study shows that the diet may be especially protective in women over 40 regardless of menopausal status or hormone replacement therapy.
Following a Mediterranean diet may reduce stroke risk in women over 40 but not in men. Image credit: Dana Tentis.
Professor Welch and co-authors collaborated to study the intake of key components of a Mediterranean-style diet including high intakes of fish, fruits and nuts, vegetables, cereal foods and potatoes, lower meat and dairy consumption.
Over a 17-year period, they examined the diets of 23,232 men and women (54.5% women) aged between 40 to 77 and compared stroke risk among four groups ranked highest to lowest by how closely they adhered to a Mediterranean diet.
In participants who most closely followed a Mediterranean-style diet, the reduced onset of stroke was: 17% in all adults, 22% in women and 6% in men.
“This research shows us that following a Mediterranean-style diet rich in fish, fruits and nuts, vegetables and beans, and lower in meat and dairy, may reduce stroke risk for women over 40. But a healthy, balanced diet is important for everyone both young and old,” Professor Welch said.
“It is unclear why we found differences between women and men, but it could be that components of the diet may influence men differently than women.”
“We are also aware that different sub-types of stroke may differ between genders. Our study was too small to test for this, but both possibilities deserve further study in the future.”
There was also a 13% overall reduced risk of stroke in participants already at high risk of cardiovascular disease across all four groups of the Mediterranean-diet scores.
However, this was driven mainly by the associations in women who showed a 20% reduced stroke risk.
This benefit appeared to be extended to people in low risk group although the possibility of chance finding cannot be ruled out completely.
“Our findings provide clinicians and the public with information regarding the potential benefit of eating a Mediterranean-style diet for stroke prevention, regardless of cardiovascular risk,” said co-author Professor Phyo Myint, a researcher at the University of Aberdeen.
The findings were published in the journal Stroke.
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Katherine E. Paterson et al. Mediterranean Diet Reduces Risk of Incident Stroke in a Population with Varying Cardiovascular Disease Risk Profiles. Stroke, published online September 20, 2018; doi: 10.1161/STROKEAHA.117.020258
