Improving diet may reduce stroke risk

Strokes are often associated with poor health outcomes. Even stroke survivors typically see their cognitive and physical abilities diminish. And so, much time and effort has been spent trying to identify ways to help prevent strokes from happening in the first place.

One way may be improving people's diets. A recent study in Denmark, for instance, suggests adults trying to reduce their risk of stroke may benefit from adhering to a healthy Nordic diet.

The researchers, who published their results online in Stroke on Dec. 27, examined 55,338 men and women from Denmark who were between 50 and 64 years old from 1993 to 1997.

At baseline, all of the participants underwent a physical examination and completed a food-frequency questionnaire that included questions about lifestyle, sociodemographic factors and health.

The researchers based their assessment of a Nordic diet on six food groups: fish, apples and pears, cabbages, root vegetables, rye bread and oatmeal. They defined root vegetables as carrots and celeriac and cabbages as cauliflower, brussels sprouts, broccoli, kale, white cabbage and red cabbage.

During a median follow-up period of 13.5 years, 2,283 participants had a first-time stroke. Adults who suffered a stroke had a slightly lower intake of the six food groups, except for fish and rye bread. They also tended to have a less healthy lifestyle.

After the researchers adjusted for potential confounders, high adherers to the healthy diet had a 14 percent lower risk of total stroke compared with low adherers. High adherers had a lower risk of ischemic stroke and intracerebral hemorrhage, but the differences were not statistically significant. The groups had similar risks of hemorrhagic stroke.

The study was not without its potential limitations, according to the researchers. They mentioned a small number of strokes were due to cardioembolism and subarachnoid hemorrhage. They also noted that participants assessed their diet based on a self-administered questionnaire, and they did not evaluate their diets during the follow-up period.  In addition, it was possible that the associations between a healthy Nordic diet and the risk of stroke could be due to residual confounding from dietary and lifestyle factors.

Still, the study adds to a growing body of literature that suggests a healthy diet can reduce the risk of stroke. The American Heart Association and American Stroke Association recommend people adhere to a healthy diet to reduce their blood cholesterol, blood pressure and body weight, which are all risk factors for heart disease and stroke.

“A healthy diet based on well-known regional foods could be more easily attainable for people than to make dietary changes including unfamiliar food items,” the researchers wrote. “Future cohort studies are warranted to confirm our results and to investigate whether regional diets from other part of the world may also be promoted in stroke prevention.”