Women who follow the Mediterranean diet have up to a 25 per cent lower risk of getting a stroke, according to a long-term study done in the US.
The Greek-style diet pattern is rich in olive oil, plant foods, and moderate in fish and alcohol.
Over 100,000 women were tracked by researchers from the California Teachers Study over a twenty year period, rating their adherence to the diet with a score from 1-9.
The study, published in Neurology Open Access, a journal of the American Academy of Neurology, found that women who closely followed the diet had a significantly lower risk of all major types of stroke, including the haemorrhagic stroke.
Cardiologist, Associate Professor Arthur Nasis, who is part of the Hellenic Medical Society of Australia, told Neos Kosmos the findings are “encouraging because [this type of data about the hemorrhagic stroke] hasn’t been shown definitively before.”
“I think this adds to the growing body of information about the diet’s benefits … it has been shown to reduce things like metabolic syndrome, diabetes, and more,” Professor Nasis said.
Associate Professor Arthur Nasis. Photo: Supplied
“We don’t know exactly why the diet is so good for the heart yet”, he adds, but “there are definitely antioxidant effects that the good fats [like olive oil] provide.”
Interestingly, the study included a “moderate amount of alcohol consumption as a characteristic component of the Mediterranean diet,” in agreement with other reports.
“People shouldn’t start drinking to improve their health if they don’t drink already,” Nasis said, “but if anything, a splash of red wine with a meal is probably the choice that has been traditionally included with the diet … minimal amounts, certainly no more than a glass of wine five times a week.”
Despite the study only looking at women, Nasis said “men shouldn’t look at this and think it doesn’t apply to them … I’m quite confident that if it was done in men, we’d have similar results.”
Women have a higher lifetime risk of a stroke than men, with the study cohort collecting robust data on lifestyle risk factors including sex-specific ones like menopausal status and hormone therapy. The risk in strokes for women rises sharply after menopause.