Women who exercise and consume a healthy diet are at a 50 percent lower risk of stroke, a new study finds.
The study was conducted by researchers from the Karolinska Instituet in Stockholm, Sweden. They examined five factors that make up a healthy lifestyle. These included healthy diet; moderate alcohol consumption; never smoking; physical activity; and healthy body mass index (BMI). The researchers found that women who adopted all five healthy lifestyles were 54 percent less likely to suffer a stroke compared to those who didn't adopt any of the healthy lifestyles.
"Because the consequences of stroke are usually devastating and irreversible, prevention is of great importance," said study author Susanna C. Larsson, PhD, of the Karolinska Instituet in Stockholm, Sweden, in a press statement. "These results are exciting because they indicate that a healthy diet and lifestyle can substantially reduce the risk of stroke, and these are lifestyle choices that people can make or improve."
For the study, researchers asked 31,696 Swedish women with an average age of about 60 to complete a 350-item questionnaire about their diet and lifestyle. Researchers followed the participants for 10 years. They found that most of the women had two or three of the healthy factors. Only 589 women had all five healthy factors, and 1,535 had none. During the study period, 1,554 stroke cases among study participants were reported. The risk of stroke steadily decreased with each additional healthy lifestyle factor.
Women who had a healthier diet were 13 percent less likely to have a type of stroke called a cerebral infarction than those whose diet was not as healthy. Women with healthier diets had a rate of 28 strokes per 10,000 women per year compared to 43 strokes per 10,000 women per year among those with a less healthy diet.
Researchers found no relationship between the healthy factors and the risk of hemorrhagic stroke. Hemorrhagic stroke, which is caused by bleeding in and around the brain, accounts for about 15 to 20 percent of all strokes.
Findings of the study were published online in the journal Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
