By: Diana Barnes Brown for Heart1
For diet-conscious adults who worry about how the food they eat now will affect them later, new findings suggest that it may be time to say, “hold the fries.” This is because, in addition to more familiar statistics about cardiac and circulatory health, fat and sodium also seem to play a key role in stroke, researchers say.
| Take Action |
Reduce Your Stroke Risk
- Monitor you blood pressure. If it’s high, discuss treatment with your doctor.
- Stop smoking
- Control your diabetes. If you are not diabetic, try to stay that way.
- Visit your doctor regularly if you have had a heart problem. People with other heart conditions have a higher risk of stroke.
- Lower your cholesterol level.
- Exercise and stay fit. Inactivity and obesity increase your stroke risk.
- Just say no to alcohol and illegal drugs.
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The findings were reported earlier this year at the American Stroke Association’s International Stroke Conference 2005. The findings are a result of a large-scale, multiethnic study known as the Northern Manhattan Study (NOMAS), an ongoing epidemiological investigation being conducted by Columbia University Medical School in New York.
To gather their data, the NOMAS team distributed questionnaires to 3,183 residents of Northern Manhattan. The questionnaires asked respondents to provide information about their dietary habits. The average age of the participants was 70 years. Twenty-one percent of the participants were white, 24 percent were black, and 52 percent were Hispanic.
The study divided the participants into four distinct groups based on the amount of fat in their diets; the amounts were then compared to the recommendations of the American Heart Association (AHA), which advises that people limit their fat intake to 65 grams per day. This estimate is based on the guideline for a 2000-calorie diet in which 30 percent of calories come from fat.
During the 5.5-year follow-up period after the questionnaires were filled out, 142 strokes took place in the population, and researchers found that the participants with the highest daily fat intake (roughly 115 grams per day) were 64 percent more likely to have a stroke than those with the lowest daily fat intake (about 24 grams per day).
The figure was determined after consideration of other risk factors, including smoking, physical activity, body mass index, heart disease, diabetes, alcohol intake, age and gender.
The findings were reported by presenter Halina White, a postgraduate research fellow working on the project. She noted that the results held true for saturated fat alone, while polyunsaturated fats had a reverse effect.
Another presenter, Armistead D. Williams III, presented data showing results of sodium in the diet.
To study the effects of sodium intake, he noted, the NOMAS research team divided the same group of 3,183 participants into four different subgroups, based on daily sodium intake levels. The first group consumed more than 4 grams, the second consumed 3 to 4 grams, the third consumed 2.4 to 3 grams, and the final group consumed less than 2.4 grams, the AHA’s recommendation for sodium intake.
Compared with the less-than-2.4 group, those who consumed more than 4 grams of sodium a day were 90 percent more likely to have a stroke. This figure was the same in participants with and without high blood pressure, which suggests that sodium intake is equally detrimental across the board.
| At a Glance |
Stroke Factors You Cannot Control:
- Increasing age
- Gender – stoke is more common in men.
- Heredity and race – You have a greater risk of stroke if a family member has had a stroke or if you are African American.
- Prior stroke or heart attack.
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Williams noted that sodium could be instrumental in increasing the rigidity of artery walls, a factor that can lead to stroke. The team plans to investigate this assumption further in the coming months.
Regardless of exactly what the mechanism is that makes fat and sodium intake dangerous, the new evidence supports old arguments: Health-conscious eaters should cut down on fat and sodium and stock up on healthier alternatives, such as low-fat protein sources, as well as vitamin rich fruits, vegetables and grains.
While this may be bad news for those of us who hate to eat our vegetables and skip dessert, the experts hope that this new information will give people the power to prevent negative consequences down the line.
