New information on preventing strokes....

Today's Post: Thursday, 6-16-2011

We have already posted that you can protect your heart and help prevent cancer by cutting WAY back on oils high in omega 6 such as soy, canola, safflower, and particularly corn oil. It also helps to mostly avoid the fat of animals and poultry fed grain. (Meat from 100 % grass fed cattle and lambs and pasture fed poultry does NOT have this problem. Grass fed, “grain finished” beef is basically higher cost grain fed beef.)

You can also add more health OK sources of omega 3 such as wild caught salmon, sardines, herring, and small mackerel – and omega 3 supplements from purified fish oil.

Doing both begins to give you much lower chronic inflammation and healthier and less clogged up arteries and other blood vessels.

There is also evidence that using extra virgin olive oil instead of oils high in omega 6 helps to do this and has direct health benefits too!

So, you are far less likely to get vascular dementia, heart attacks, PAD, peripheral artery disease, and ED, erectile dysfunction, by using olive oil instead of oils high in omega 6 or dairy fat from grain fed cows in the form of butter.

It certainly follows that you also likely will get less strokes, particularly the kind caused by clots blocking off the blood flow to your brain, obstructive strokes.

In fact, a study was reported today that found just using olive oil often reduced the incidence of strokes!

AP had this headline: “Olive oil could lower stroke risk: study (Older people who eat olive oil have a lower risk of stroke.) AFP Wed Jun 15, 2011 WASHINGTON”

“Older people who eat olive oil have a lower risk of stroke than those who do not, suggested a study of more than 7,000 French people that was published Wednesday in the United States.”

“The subjects were divided into groups according to their use of olive oil, ranging from people who did not use it at all to those who used it in dressing, cooking and on bread.”

“When researchers adjusted for factors such as body weight, physical activity and overall diet, they found that the so-called "intensive" olive oil users had a 41 percent lower risk of stroke compared to those who never ate olive oil.”

“The findings were published in Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.”

Other ways to prevent strokes include:

Eating blueberries several times a week. This also benefits your brain and improves mental performance directly besides making strokes less likely.

Eating the DASH II diet with olive oil added or eating the Mediterranean diet with more nonstarchy vegetables and less grains keeps your blood pressure at normal levels or lowers it if its high. (Even if your blood pressure stays over 140 over 90 eating this way will help you prevent strokes. Besides the olive oil, the increase in potassium and decrease in sodium and the lowering of excessive blood sugar from eating this way also prevents strokes.)

(Eating that way and NOT including soft drinks or commercial desserts or snacks also has many other health benefits. And you’ll be far less fat.)

If you have blood pressure of over 140 over 90, adding regular exercise and avoiding tobacco smoke AND eating this way are important to protect you from strokes and heart attacks. Doing meditation or better yet Tai Chi for stress relief also helps. So does losing at least 5% of your current weight if you are one of the 50% of Americans who are too fat now. Your blood pressure will be lower and stop getting higher as fast.

If your blood pressure is consistently well over 160 over 100, lowering it using a drug or two is important for avoiding strokes and kidney damage. As you do the other things, you may well find your blood pressure will stay well below that even without the drug or drugs. But if it’s over that, taking the drugs does cut stroke risk.